Bangalore

On this umpteenth visit back home I did all the usual things,shopped,ate,met friends. The flavour this time was meeting many friends from way back in the past, people who were close at one time, lost in the mists of time and who would have stayed lost to me if Facebook hadnt intervened.
It was surprising how easy it was to pick up threads left lying about two decades back and start to weave them back into shape.
Each time I have come back to find a fuller Bangalore, full of traffic, apartments, people, malls etc etc. The growing tentacles of consumerism begin to intertwine us more and more. Spouse doesnt have time to meet spouse, parents dont have the time to bring up children. People dont have time for people, so what is it they have time for I wonder. Most of the time is taken in making the money one needs to live the sort of life that is lived now and the rest of it in getting from one geographic point to another.
Even then there are points of redemption. People are starting to see the need to look inward for peace. Youngsters are hopefully acquiring a social conscience. To me the biggest drawcard here is my friends. In all my years away from India I havent met anyone that comes close to them. I have no idea if the flaw lies in me or the rest. Strangely another friend in a similar situation had the same findings too which is some comfort to me.
A trip made to spend some time with friends was so well worth the 8 hr train journey that when I returned I felt fresh and dewy and wiped clean of any impurity that tainted my mind from some altercations with the immature kind.
As I wind down operations and prepare to fly back to home and hearth away from this home I pray for my little one to gain strength to manage the journey, for inspite of her enjoyment of the trip she fell ill at the fag end of our holiday. So its adieu to my beautiful Bangalore(inspite of everything) for a few years.