100 days in a foreign land!

This is the last blog post of the year also a one-year celebration of blog writing in KG. It’s an amazing journey. I cannot thank the founders enough for letting me explore this side of myself. This blog recreates my journey away from home, for Indian movie lovers, 100 days is a blockbuster hit. Yes for me as well its a hit. I remember when I decided to make a journey to Barcelona it was  25 years of memories leaving my city, Bengalooru ( practically quarter of my life was over 😀 ). Most of my classmates in the university are younger than me, the Indian gang is uniformly aged. Hence we discuss life, the relationships and what we are going through with respect to culture. I don’t think I would have survived without them though Hindi is hard as Spanish for me I still could speak. It’s also the first time I see all my classmates are musicians and engineers. A new word for all of them was ‘music nerd’. The Indian set up is slightly different, we are made to learn music from a young age due to the culture or family traditions but when you come to 12th standard every hobby of yours goes to a toss and you study only for entrance exams. Hence it is too difficult to be good at anything. Yes, there are exceptions but for ‘saadharana’ people like us it took time to get adjusted.  The first month was a disaster, the language to the formalities everything was so slow. To ease it a little to Indians, all the government offices and formalities are quite slow in Barcelona so Indians are used to it. I have always had troubles with the banks in India so it didn’t change much here. Yes, language is the biggest barrier here. For every problem, my family friend had only one answer “Please take help from someone who speaks Spanish”. The language is the biggest plus here. I don’t think that’s wrong.since history has a tale to tell that the Europeans ruled most part of the world it’s genuine that someone new has to listen to then rather like people from Bengalooru who were always ruled by others know how to surrender ( Yes, Sarcasm people get it right). The education till bachelor’s is in their mother tongue hence its also they learn little less English, everything is available in Spanish/Catalan for them. I remember my friend bought MTR ready to eat from Germany it had instructions in German. I booked tickets for a Rail in Netherlands their ticket was in Dutch. I double dare someone doing this in Karnataka, we get lessons saying we are Indians first. I think people here are very passionate about some things and they do not shy away from it. We have loads to learn. It was nice I got an internship the first month hence juggling the work – study – cooking equation was difficult. For the first time, I said to myself I can’s do it, let me go back. But had to tell myself I could do it. The poem Ninage neene geLeya (you are your companion) was my constant force of motivation. Of course, your loved one takes all the brick bat and becomes your punching bag but still, it was being alone all by yourself.
The second month was the time where you had all your strength to do things on your own. The group projects interacting with people may be trying to fit in their Spanish conversations. It’s beautiful that I made friendships with people I never knew. Also, it was the girl gang building exercise. The girls in my class (4 in total) are the most amazing people I have seen. Strong, definitely confident and never taking sympathy as I am a girl give me a seat. If you really want to see equality, you should definitely come here not rasining slogans there. As I said nobody cares about age, women, marriage womanly duties to be performed. It is very clear that you have come here to study, study fiercely. I remember walking down the streets at 12 am in the night alone without any fear. That is for me is empowerment not reserving seats on the bus and other freebies.  This is a very very indiscriminate world, nothing to bitch about its important to implement it in India. We can’t be vocalising equality with reservations.

The third month was exams and last months to finish trimester. It was racing against time. The assignments, exams and projects. The internship was also getting deeper, the different time zones, emails, work to be completed is all what I always dreamt off. ‘Git pull’ became my morning prayer. My father’s friend reminded me time and again it will be much tougher. I also had broken few friendships back home due to indifferences of opinions but I was glad few remained intact. In fact, I realised it is very simple to pick up the phone and talk to speak than remaining silent and anticipating others to do. Well, it is also important to chuck people permanently. Some are genuinely not happy for you. They just want you to suffer and suffer and they want to become gladiators in solving them. Going away to far away land realised the importance of your closed ones, a cousin told me ‘hey its ok this is the brickbat you take, don’t worry’. Genuine people stay with you whatever happens and understand you. I have realised the worth of people much more than when I was there in India. Also the art of prioritising. Not many can forgive nor can be apologetic, that’s the virtue of super human beings. I am glad that I have those people around me pumping up my spirits.

So 100 days in the foreign land was a blockbuster hit. It had a grand opening, few songs, love, pathos, fights and a great end to the new beginning. KG lessons, padayathre and amazon kindle takes all your free time. This is awesome life. It will change you, hurt you and yes you will be back more than alive.

Happy holidays 🙂