Random Thoughts

I have been in the US& A almost 4 months now. I live by myself in the District of Columbia and work in the district as well. I have a content life. But then I went home to Vancouver. Ever since then, I have been stuck. In a dilemma. Why? Well, because I want to go back to Vancouver. Why? The week I spent in Vancouver gave me perspective on what mattered in life to me. I got to say maybe it was fear, maybe it was the lack of rain in DC but I want to return to Vancouver. Things that matter to me are in Vancouver. My family lives there, my dog lives there, my friends live there. Its more than that though; I love the city, I love the people, I love the food there. I had sushi in DC and was blown away by how crappy it was. DC does have better weather; far more hours of sunshine than Vancouver. I do miss the rain though. I miss my garden, I miss my plants, I miss the trees and lakes, the bars and drunks, the girls in the short clothes. I flipped through pictures from the past and saw so ...

I must admit that I have never ever been a fan of cleaning up. Growing up, I had people to clean up after me: my family, the maids. But having grown up and left home for a while, I have become painfully aware of how important cleaning up a place is. While I am no clean-freak, I detest a mess terribly. I came home to Vancouver and nearly got the start of my life... my room was filthy! Guess what? I had made that mess during my several years there and it was exacerbated by my preparations for a hasty departure to DC. My loving family never bothered to clean up the place and I am glad they did not. I have been devoting my free time here, NOT skiing, but cleaning up the mess I had left behind. There are tonnes of things that I no longer use that take up space here and I think that by the end of the week, I will be able to say I did a decent job (albeit 4 months too late) of cleaning it all up. I think half this room is junk. There are papers and layer up layer of dust here. I don't thi...

Many of you no doubt will wonder about the title of this post. Maybe it should have had the word shopping too. Oh well. So, why do I love shopping in America? Well, firstly, they have online shopping. That is amazing in itself... Next, they have outlet malls. That and all the shopping I can think of. Giant malls, insane deals. So, online shopping: I have bought SO many things online. I bought my laptop, monitors, keyboard, dishes, measuring tape, memory card etc etc online. I mean, you can buy almost anything online here. I bought a kettle online. I got it shipped for 97 ¢ from Wal-Mart. Friends have bought tonnes of stuff so far, including a TV. A 50" plasma TV! Outlet mall: there's lots of stuff to buy there. Leesburg is a hike and a bit but it is worth the trip. There are clothes and kitchen things and shoes and electronics! There is so much to buy and so little time.

So, the Persians have a habit of jumping fires. Just before their new year. I wanted to go see. So I did. I went to Ambleside beach in West Vancouver to see the spectacle. It was quite the remarkable one. Hundreds of people of various ages were there in the muddy field. They were dancing. They were eating. They were lining up. To jump over fire. To dispel bad luck from last year allegedly. I was brave. But not too brave. I watched from the side-lines. I had mentioned the fire jumping to my friend. He mentioned that his people do the same thing back home. To an amateur perhaps, it is surprising that such behaviour is similar across thousands of kilometres. But then again, I have seen these sorts of things too many times to be taken in by the the awe of it all. I have been here before. The music is similar. The people are the same happy people I have seen elsewhere. The last time I was in a crowd this big, I was thinking fights would break out. None did. It was the same this time around...

I arrived on Friday night and I had dimsum reservations with my current and former co-workers at Sun Sui Wah for Saturday. We sat around for probably a few hours and ate and talked for such a long time. I found out about a funeral, a divorce, an engagement, a baby on the way, new jobs and that I love Vancouver. This seems to be the perfect way to sit down and catch up with the people that matter. We probably ate a tonne of food (some of us shouldn't be allowed to order :) ) and with breaks, chicken feet and tripe, we finished up our lavish lunch with ease. By the end of it, we were all caught up and realised how precious life was; or at least I felt that way. I moved to DC for a work, but I must say that a good chunk of me wants to come back to Vancouver. You don't realise how important the place you live is until you leave it. There are lots of places on earth to make a home and if you're lucky enough to call this rain-forest of a place home, for god sakes, tell yourself ...

Someone once said there is no place like home. I could not agree more. However, I have been wondering what home really is. I have made my home on 3 different continents through my life so far and I must say that there is something about going home, especially when you've been away from it for extended periods of time. This is probably the longest I have stayed away from 'home'. I live on my own now with 2 rather inquisitive dogs and my computers. I have no televison, I have no family for miles, I have few people I know etc. Home is indeed an interesting concept. I grew up in India and never ever felt that I could live without it. I moved over 10 years ago and while I do miss that first home of mine, I am content to carry on. I do make journeys back every so often and every day I realise I am more Indian that I was. That's what home does to you. While you are there, you tend to take it for granted; once you leave, you realise how much you miss it. I miss India. It gav...