Home is where the heart is...

As I sit here typing in the room which was once mine...my bed..my computer...my books everything lying around me just like the good old days, I wonder what has changed. Is it the colour of the paint that has changed or me? It's not a simple question to answer I guess.

I remember landing in Chennai a couple of days ago. When I stepped out of the airport, I felt the cool breeze that embraced me which made me feel at home instantly.I am sometimes befuddled when I think that it's been nearly 5 years since I left this place. And yet, whenever I return, I don't feel like I left it at all.

Of course, there's a whole new life out here now. People are busier than before. My friends are no longer people who can while away their time doing nothing. But busy people who to me seem like hamsters running in the wheel of life. Either busy with work or with their hubbies or with their kids.

Even my grand mother's routine has changed. She scurries around the house doing household chores, apart from hitting the gym for her daily dose of exercise. She knows everything from running on the tread mill to doing exercises with the dumbbell. She even sometimes shows me how to do the exercises and my does she seem professional. Now that's something I have never seen my grand mother do.

My cousins have grown. They now look me in the eye. Not literally. It's just that they have exchanged their smaller, cuter looking versions of themselves for mature tall beings.Gone are the days when kids were smaller and you could look down at them as you punished them. I realized yesterday that my cousin was an inch taller than me. All of a sudden his height didn't threaten me. I wonder why. Maybe in that instant I grew up.

And about my friends...Of course they have changed.Their priorities have changed. Just today I chatted with a friend of mine who I have been out of touch for nearly 5 years. What was magical about the entire thing was...It didn't seem like we had not spoken for years...but it seemed like we both had just taken a two minute commercial break from this serial called LIFE.

It's approximately 11:11 pm now...and my grand mother has been calling me to go to bed for the nth time. And I reply, "I'm coming..." for the nth as well...:)I guess certain things never change...