Ciao, Singapore!

I am back in Bangalore, back for good after a short work-stint of 6 and a half months at Singapore. It feels good to be back, at home, in familiar surroundings, amongst friends and family. Not that Singapore was unfamiliar, after all it was my home for the duration of my stay there, but it was never really “home”, if you know what I mean.

This post was meant to be written before I came back – about what my feelings were as I was on the doorstep, saying goodbye to my abode of the past half year. Well, it didn’t quite happen that way… To think back to my last few days spent there, it was hectic, trying to wrap up all the work, finish shopping – what with, “have I taken something for that uncle? gosh! I totally forgot that aunt!” etc etc , with some last minute meetings with friends and good byes… I almost didn’t have time to sit back and “think” about getting back.

But yes, there was a feeling of happiness, anticipation about returning…there was also some apprehension – about what lay in store for me. Well you see, after 6 months of being on one’s own, a couple of habits do change, one gets used to doing stuff in one’s own way. I was a trifle worried about how easily I could get back to my previous life-style in B’lore.Will I be able to slip into the role of a wife and a daughter-in-law and a working woman with natural ease, doing stuff that I used to do while I was here as effortlessly? Or will I find it difficult to get back into that groove? Would 6 months have changed me so that I have to un-learn and re-learn things? May be it will be like stepping into new shoes like how I did soon after marriage! Phew! am I being unnecessarily hyper and jittery? These were some thoughts that coursed through my mind one night during the last week of my stay there. I ended up calling up my hubby to frantically pour out my misgivings and get some solace! 😀

But once I was here, I found that I didn’t have to do anything extra-ordinary, I hadn’t after all forgotten the way of life here. It all still came naturally to me, may be 6 months is too short a duration to actually worry.

Working away from home in a foreign location has been a good experience – its something that all of us need, especially if we haven’t had the hostel life experience. It teaches one a lot of lessons which otherwise would go un-learned. The multi-hued situation balls that life throws your way, which you gotta juggle without your support system around you, the varied people you have to interact with whose temperaments most often dont match yours, the relative strangers that you end up sharing a home/ meal with, the work-pressure cooker situations that you have to deal with alone, the realization of how often we take our dear ones for granted and how exactly it is to not have them around when you need them the most… and so many more. These are lessons that we learn, many times, the hard way. The Singapore stint, that way, has been eye-opening for me, in several ways. I’ve realized how dear my family and friends are to me, for my existence… I hope they too have felt the need to have me in their lives, even if my presence is only worth two cents.

Thank you, Singapore, for all the delightfully good tidings you’ve brought my way and also, thank you for the not-so-good experiences, for they have helped me grow as an individual. Lets hope to meet sometime, if destiny has its way and our paths cross again!