Adapt Thyself

That is what I remind myself when I leave my home for a long stay. But not before I overcome the inherent hiccups of a travel from India to USA. First, the jeglag. In the first few days you swing around the house in unsteady, drunken steps like Motilal in Jagte Raho with only the song, Zindagi khwab hai, khwab mein… missing.

Second, you wake up at midnight as though you were in India and had an afternoon nap, and head towards kitchen for a bite or coffee. “This is US man – and past midnight. Get some more sleep if you can,” pats an inner voice as you walk back to bed somewhat cheated.  Third. Your body takes time to switch from the Indian routine to the American mode so that your bathroom visits no longer wait for the American evenings. Fourth…

Once through these, it is time to move on. While in India, we earmark certain projects for the next US visit – mostly those that gel well with the US lifestyle: weight reduction, go slow on sweets and salt, stricter exercise regimen, recapture the reading habit…. So, on arrival one of the first things I requested my d-i-l was to shift the weighing scale from their first-floor room to ground floor. She promptly complied with it. If this machine too doesn’t cooperate like the last one, I shall have it replaced with one that is user friendly.

For breakfast, it’s no more the customary Idli, dosa, upma or paratha stuffed with subzi of the previous evening. it is now carrot and its allies, or sugar-free cereals in a bowl with cut apples sprinkled sparsely. This is Aunty’s initiative fully backed by her son and d-i-l. Sometimes it is just cut fruits, as though I am on an indefinite fast for a public cause.

We will visit Library any time now. Earlier, we would collect six to eight books in one visit making the onlookers wonder if Jeffrey Archer or James Patterson is walking out with reference material for his next publication. And, after all the permitted extensions, we drop the books back consoling ourselves, “Thank God, we could finish at least one book amidst our hectic activities”. An undiluted self-cheating remark – we had all the time in the world. “It will no longer be so,” is the promise with which we plan to re-enter the Library.

Before boarding the plane from Bangalore, we also swore to ourselves that this time we would spend still more time with our grandchildren – playing Racko, Apples to Apples, Uno, Sequence. Alas, we were ready, but they have outgrown the company of grandparents. Yes, now I have to look up to see the face of the elder one with his 6 ft 2 inches figure. He is on a farewell spree as he and his friends, studying together in school, move out to different universities. There was a time when, as a child, he would narrate to me stories like the Charlotte’s Web which Initially I would pretend to be listening, only to find myself really engrossed later. The younger one is now on a week-long visit to the Emerald Bay in California with his Scouts team. (He has just returned. So nice of him, he has bought me a gift – a cap with my old time favourite, John Wayne’s photo embossed. Very thoughtful – not one with Spiderman, Batman, or Harry Potter characters, the current rage.

And to sum up? Well, our son and daughter in law are busy in their work-home desks upstairs. They join us for coffee, lunch and tea. Though it is summer vacation, children are seldom at home. They have their priorities. And we? Yes, we browse through Netflix, Prime Video, and other platforms to see if we have missed out any movies – language regardless. The only difference is that we now watch it in the four walls of US instead of Bangalore.

The silver lining?  After dinner each night, all of us sit together for board or card games, to solve a crossword puzzle, or for a chat. And it is this one hour or an hour and a half of quality time we spent together leisurely that I shall cherish and carry back home.