Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The tour to
Kanchipuram and
Mahabalipuram started at 6:30 in the morning. I woke up at 5, actually I barely even slept because I was up all night killing cockroaches and thinking about life in India. When I was in Japan, I really envied Japanese and now in India, I have to say I am glad I was not born in India, but if I am, I will probably view India with a very different point of view. There are many people from India who had the chance to stay oversea in lush places such like the States but decided to come back to their home country even though it is chaotic and a mess, but home is where the heart is and where you are most comfortable. Unfortunately, I no longer have this kind of homey feeling about China, although I can see myself working there, but I no longer have a calling to be there. My home right now, is more or less the States. The bus was completely full and I was the only foreigner. A big group of young people was sitting next to me and this very cute boy, who I later became friend with sat next to me
. It was quiet for a while then we started talking. He spoke the best English out of all his friends, six in total, maybe they talked about this in the beginning to have him sit next to me so we can talk. :p Anyhow, I had a really great time thanks to these six wonderful boys. They are college students studying Mechanical Engineering from Andhra Pradesh. They were in Chennai for a project. I learned a great deal from them and they were very entertaining and caring the whole way. They almost waited for me and kept me company. Later, I found out I am almost 10 years older than them, but hey age really didn't matter, we had a blast together. On the same bus, I also met a family from Kolkata and another young family from
Bangalore. The mom from Kolkata took real liking of me and she treated my like a daughter. She also had just one daughter, 20 years of age, studying computer science in college. The dad worked as a software engineer and had travelled all around the world including the United States. The family had a chance to move abroad but the mom Ruma insisted on staying in India as she puts it "I love my country".
