A Home Away From Home

As I look out of my room window and see the sun fading behind the horizon, I pause to look at the time.. The clock has just struck 4:00 p.m. and already the city is enveloped with darkness. Shops are closing up and people are on their way back home.. I am compelled to think of the days in bangalore when even at 4:00 in the evening it seemed like as if the day had just begun.. people thronging the streets, vendors hawking their products, kids out to play, elderly people setting out for an evening walk.. I wonder at how all these moments have evaporated from my life.. It has been almost 3 months since my arrival in the UK.. and yet.. there is that feeling of homesickness.. there is that wanting to run back home.. the longing for indian food.. the desperateness to eternally speak to loved ones... And then.. the chilling wind brings me back to reality.. the bare life that I am existing in right now..

Initially, the prospect of pursuing my masters in a premier institution in the UK sounded very inviting and exciting. A break from work.. the joy of getting back to college days.. to earning to learn something new to improve my skill set.. all this seemed promising enough.. It took quite a bit of convincing for my parents and brother to finally agree to me doing my MS in IT & Management from the Lancaster University. I had never been out alone before.. This was my first and it was challenging.. Thursday, September 28th 2006 was the 'D' day.. Applications, work formalities, visa, shopping, meeting up with friends, spending time with family, last minute packings and phone calls.. in all this hustle and bustle time just flew.. and before I knew I was all set to fly.. to move from being a protected daughter to a confident and independent individual. I was traveling with Dipti, a school friend of mine, who was also doing her masters from the same university. My family was there to see me off... I was through with the emigration check without and hindrances and had an hour's time before I could board the flight.. Surprisingly, I shed no tears. As the flight took off I felt equally nervous and excited. The journey was uneventful. I spent the 11 hours sleeping, bearing to eat the food served and watching some movies on the television. We landed in London, Heathrow airport all safe and went through the required formalities. Dipti's cousin, Balaji was there at the airport to pick us up. We intended to stay over at his place for 2 days before we moved on to Lancaster, our final destination. The taxi drive in a Mercedes, to his place was ideal for me to collect some of my thoughts. As I admired the scenic beauty, I tried to mentally adjust myself to the new life I was going to start. It hadnt totally sunk into me that I was going to be away from home for at least a period of 2 years. I was unable to stop the juggling of my thoughts. I had this weird feeling of being on a vacation. As soon as we arrived at Balaji's place, I could hear the jingles of the phone. It was my parents calling up to confirm that I had arrived safely. The minute I heard my mother's voice over the phone, reality sunk in. I tried my level best to keep my voice steady and sound normal. I told myself that I would surely survive through this ordeal.

On the day we landed in London, i.e. the 28th of September 2006, we did not do much. We just relaxed a bit to get used to our new surroundings. We found it surprisingly easy to get adjusted to the time difference within the first day. Day 2 was eventful. We decided to tour london. We set off early in the morning with maps in our hand and clear instructions from Balaji. We opted to travel via the tube trains. I was totally facinated by them and thoroughly enjoyed traveling in them. Our first stop was to the Wax Musuem - Madam Tussads which was opposite to the University of Westminster. We were faced by a long queue and eventually we made it to the ticket counter. The minute we entered we were totally transformed into a world of surreal reality. There were figurines of famous personalities from actors to sport stars to politicians to freedom fighters and the seemed to close to be plastic. The 2 two tours was hoards of fun and we were clicking away snaps in a variety of poses with all the models. End of tour brought us to the real world. We proceeded towards our next place of interest - The Big Ben. The tower tall clock looked magnificent though, we did not spend much of our time there. We then went on to look at the London bridge. We had a nice view of the england fort and had a walk over the tower bridge too. Further plans of visiting the London Eye was canceled by the arrival of twilight joined by short spells of rain. We reached back home all excited and tired out at the same time. It had proved to be an eventful day.

However, the enthusiasm did not last long.. the very next day a morose atmosphere swarmed us and the feeling of homesickness crept in.. I desperately wanted to get back home.. So, the third day in london was spent in cribbing about being away from home and in consoling each that we would soon get adjusted to the new place. Day 4, Oct 1st, Sunday, was time to get moving to Lancaster. We were traveling via the National Express Stage Coach ans hence had to sit through six and half hours of travel. Once again, we spent time cribbing, consoling each other, taking turns reading a novel and sleeping. We arrived directly at the university's underpass at 6:00 in the evening and to our dismay it started raining. Along with dipti and me there were two more people from India, Ayush and Himanshu, who had taken the same bus along with us. We had with us heavy luggages to trudge along and we had no idea on where we had to go!! We waited for a while knowing not what to do. We were mentally strained and physically tired out. After a while, Ayush and I set out to see if we could catch hold of someone who could help us out. Luckily we were able to locate the student union in Alexandra Square where we were able to explain our predicament to the volunteers who promised to send across porters to help us out. 20 mins of shivering in the cold saw the arrival of the student volunteers who helped us carry our luggages in trolleys unto our accommodation. It was a 15 min walk from the underpass to the graduate college, our home for the year to come. We were dropped off at the porter's lodge where we had to register ourselves and collect our house keys. Dips and me were destined to stay in House 18 - Scales. I was allocated room 14 and she 17. Eventually, with another student's help, we made it to our house. Luckily, our rooms were on the ground floor and we did not have to go through the pain of lugging up our suitcases across the floors. We were too tired to unpack or cook a nice dinner. We had carried with us a lot a ready made mtr stuff and maggie noodles to help us survive the first week until we got used to the new place. After a quick dinner and another round of assurances off to sleep we went.

The Induction program was supposed to start from the 2nd of Oct. Dips and me set of together early in the morning to check out our schedules. It was our first walk around the campus. We went to the Info Lab department to check up with dipti's program. She was lucky enough to not have much on her schedule. I was next and our destination was the management school. I had a busy line up starting from wednesday, the 4th of oct unto the weekend. I had orientation programs the whole day which included meeting up with lecturers, getting to know our subjects, our options, our learning groups, the mode of studying and so on. My class strength was 55 which constituted 16 indians. There were 4 bangloreans including me.The first week also included ITMOC social events in the evenings which I didnt enjoy much because it seemed to involve only people getting together and drinking. Ours was an enthusiastic batch and I made friends quickly. During the intro week we also had special Indian meets along with other meetings, arranged by some of the senior students and the GSA which is a part of the graduate college. This gave us the chance to meet the other graudate students. The orientation week kept me busy and once classes began a mechanical routine set it. It was home to class and class to home. Weekends we used to goto the city to do our grocery shopping from Sainsburys. During the first weekend however, along with Vivek, Shruthy, Ayushman, Sourav and Ankur we went to ASDA in Horwich Parkway to do our grocery shopping. We took the train via Preston. We also got to see the football stadium. The day was tiring and on our way back 7 of us had a total of around 22 bags to carry.

Only two months have elapsed and yet it seems that its been ages since we have come over. Studies, assignments & presentations kept my mind occupied. Though, everyday, on my walk to the management school and back home my thoughts always wanders towards my room. This place has come to be my home for the year to come. Life seems to be constricted within the usual routine. I have begun to look forward to every morning since it brings me closer to the day I wish to depart from this place. Life has become monotonous.. I'd rather say.. life has come to a stand still.. Every time I am asked by someone from back home as to what I have done over the weekend.. All I have to say is that "Oh! its been boring. I have just been in my room". I seem to have nothing else to say. The incessant rains and the chilling weather has made the surrounding depressing. The vacations have made the place all the more desolate..

As I look out towards the sky, I see an aeroplane pass by.. and I console myself with the thought that the day I would be in one of them flying back is not far away...