Before coming here, I had written a blog on my conflicting thoughts… conflict between having to stay away from family for two months on one hand and exploring an unknown place on the other… Today is my last day here in Kerala, going back home tomorrow, and mind is yet again filled with mixed thoughts…

There is no greater happiness than going back to my people… and I can’t wait for tomorrow morning to go back… However, I am leaving behind two months of warm hospitality… leaving behind a place which has been our abode for so many weeks and where everyone we met, has tried his/her best to make us feel comfortable and at ease… be it the waiter in the restaurant serving us every single breakfast and every single dinner with the same enthusiasm… the attendant at client office who never misses to serve coffee at her fixed times and then on our demand, takes care of our unending binges with cashews, biscuits and banana chips… the client project manager who has been more of a mother than a manager, agreeing to every single demand of ours, and today evening said “call once you reach and keep calling… will miss you”… just like my mom says every time I go away from her… then there are other people in client project team who greet us with smile each time they cross us… and more smiles when we cross them, gifted us a beautiful hanging diya as an expression of gratitude, so what if verbal expressions are suppressed due to language barriers between us… the senior management, who ensured we are well taken care of and checked on our stay and food arrangements every time they met us… the drivers at client office who readily ferry us from hotel to office and back, each having unique driving styles, yet managing to give us an experience of disneyland on every ride… the temple priest who drove me out everytime I went there, inspite of me trying out most somber form of dressing… and most importantly my new friend on the block, my colleague Suri, who has been around through all ups and downs over the last two months… together we faced the client and all the paraphernalia that comes with it… together we explored Kerala, its bountiful nature, the backwaters and waterfalls, the local rickshaws and buses and canoes, the native variety in food… as if this is Our Own Country… bless you Suri… may God bless you with a wife very soon… wife as pretty as Rakhi Sawant (his muse… at all times…) :-)

When I was told to work on this project, I remember being very elated… expectations were at their peak… These expectations were bettered by colleagues droning about me going on a ‘paid vacation’, ‘exotic holiday’ and I bought into all of it… Looking back over last two months, I must admit that this place gave me much more than I expected of it… yes, it did have its shades of monotony, loneliness, feeling of confinement and all… but no complaints whatsoever… afterall this is the place where I learned IT Strategy (a much hyped phrase in IBM), uncovered new people and new friendships, diverse cultures, rich palette, stunning landscapes and much more…

For now am glad am going back home… pretty sure that my undying enthusiasm to explore will land me in another unusually mysterious place very soon…