The Much Needed Break ! - By Mrs Afzeen Ansar
That awesome feeling when you count days to return to your home land. That’s one feeling every expat would want to relive again and again. The endless shopping list, the packing frenzy and excitement to reach the airport way ahead of time. What fun!
So here I was at Cochin International Airport, looking at the iconic large elephant, decorated beautifully and wishing that I would not have to see it anytime soon. The taxi drive home from airport is always a pleasant experience. Watching the narrow roads, zillion billboards, motorist who search for adventures on the bumpy roads and commuters who cross the roads without any fear of death in their eyes. I am finally home. Home to a land where all Bakers are Best Bakers and where the VIP in everyone’s life is the Garbage man who comes thrice a week.
Once home, the food just keeps coming our way. Alhamdullilah! Eating Mom-Made-food is a luxury that expats treasure. After a good sleep to get rid of all the jet-lag, the fun part starts: Visiting your relatives or, if you are lucky enough, being visited by your relatives. Local delicacies are the first thing we admit we missed, after the mosquito bites of course.
Rain: The best part of visiting Cochin in July and August. The first few rains are welcomed with open arms and windows. But the day you realize that the number of rain showers in a day exceeds the number of times you make tea, the rain becomes that relative we all tolerate just because we are family. But hey, tolerance is what Cochin is all about. We tolerate heat and rain in the same season, we welcome Pappadum with our main course and sweet dish and we tolerate motorist overtaking from left, right and center.
I’m absolutely impressed by how my city has changed. I remember days when minimum auto rates were 12 rupees, when only car owners had the luxury of going to Ernakulum in comfort, when people did not care much about how they dressed. Now car drive is an Uber away , people invest more on their attire and auto drivers would look at you as if you had asked them their Kidney’s if your dared to give them anything less than 30 rupees(minimum fare).
As my vacation comes to an end, I try to enjoy every morsel of love my land is showering on me in various way. These are things I would definitely miss once I return back to my life in another land : The smell of rain, the free time , the chats with my parents , the smile on my children’s face as they happily play with their cousins and the Garbage man who takes plastic only on Wednesdays.
I could write more as I munch on goodies from Best Bakers, enjoying the rain while expertly swatting away the “All-Out” immune mosquitoes. But let’s not test the Tolerance level of all readers.
I end my holidays humming: Khwaab Ho Tum Ya Koi Hakeekat, Kaun Ho Tum Batlaao !?
A Magazine for the Cutchi Memon Community of Kerala
