When you try to keep in touch

In the past, when mobile phone hadn't trickled seamlessly into our lives we used to go to friends/relatives house without prior notice and were always welcome. Even if not welcome we were treated well. No, I am not complaining here that people are treating me bad. My complain is that we are not connecting with people anymore the way we used to. It is great to be able to talk to my friend in another town and my parents residing in different state but what about neighbours? Unlike childhood days when people identified my parents as Jyoti's parents, the lane where I live now people don't even know my existence. I was not a very outgoing child, I preferred to sit back relax, sleep and if allowed keep watching television until scolded. Yet, people around were aware. As I grew up, shuttled between cities and finally came down here, I am unknown. I haven't myself made any attempt to go meet my neighbours so should not blame them. Not complaining, I am wondering what has become of me. Am I trapped in the circumstances or am I trapping myself. No body for sure has stopped me from going and talking. But I wait for a support. Language is a barrier, yes! I think more than that is the feeling why disturb or get disturbed. 

Those multi-colored pieces of paper

I have not traveled much to write something deep about the experiences. However, one occurrence runs common in all my trips out of the country - currency exchange. My first 'foreign' experience was flying to Bangladesh with 100 INR in wallet and a non-functional debit card. Either it was too dumb of me to not inquire about the currency issue or I was too naive to perceive that. I like to think that I was naive. Nevertheless, I was saved by colleagues. And I shopped on their credit card, without shame. I learned from the mistake and carried bulk amount ( INR) when I was visiting Sri Lanka, the second trip. Office gave me a few notes  of Sri Lankan rupees, balance from a colleague's previous visit. The bundle of INR which I carried had no value in Sri Lanka. In Bangladesh INR could be used in shops. With that in mind I carried INR to SL. However, my bundle of notes had no worth. I could not find a money exchange counter at the airport and the bank did not help me either. I remain grateful to the colleague who returned the SLRupees to the office, with which I could purchase a bottle of water. The taxi driver, in consultation with my host, took me to Tamilian jewellery shop where we got the exchange done informally. Since the INR is on higher side, I shopped here with least resistance. 

In Nepal I could get the money exchanged easily in the hotel itself. I guess, things become smoother in life. In my recent, yet again a sponsored trip, to Norway you could find me looking at the retail prices and pulling out the calculator to multiply by 8. Mental maths failed me ... 

Am I Back?

‘As I see it’(jyoti-nair.bogspot.in)  did not age along with me. Currently in 2017, I have crisscrossed cities to reach Bangalore in 2015 to pursue PhD. A friend of mine found about this blog and popped an excited sms about it to me today. I have wanted to come back to writing, improving my thoughts as well as this skill to communicate as I write, for long now. With job before and academic engagement recently I had quit on continuing this space. So today triggered by that lone SMS I came back to revisit these past post which were pieces of events from daily life I tried to tie up funnily. I sat down today to re-read these past posts. I remembered myself sitting in front of a white colored desktop computer in my room in Delhi with a mouse which caused dark circular mark on corner of my right wrist. The door was open and it was drizzling. I created an account in blogspot.in to start off my blog on one Republic day. Opening the website today, it doesn’t look the same. Looks like they have killed the website or perhaps the internet is slow here. Nevertheless, I am taking this opportunity to write more. It is by writing that I will learn new. 

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I left this post half way by afternoon when I thought the website was dead. Since you see this posted it is a confirmation all is well :)