It is exactly one year since I landed in the UK. I reached here on this very day in 2016. It is hard to say whether the year has flown by or dragged on. However the only thing sure is that it has been the most relaxed (can read it as lethargic too) year of my whole Salesian life!
The other thing that strikes me today as I reflect on how same or different am I from the day I left India is that the things that I initially found weird or strange are no more so. I guess living the life makes one accustomed to the different aspects that make up life. I was more than aware of this last Sunday when I met a couple of Indian Salesian Sisters from the Province of Tiruchy. They were here along with a couple of their relatives and other nuns for a month long holiday in Europe (that Salesian Sisters in India were permitted to a foreign trip for a month was in itself shocking!). After Mass as we introduced one another outside the Parish, I found them asking the same questions that I had when I first began to see things. Their follow-on questions to my replies were all the more revealing of the differences, both between the Indian context and the English context and most importantly, my ways of explaining to them (in as close an Indian context as I could) and their grasp of the same. As I walked back home, I was laughing to myself!
Katie wanted to make today's meal special to commemorate this event! So we had yellow rice, potato curry, egg and chicken curry, dal, chapati, bhajjis and some masala curry. God bless her! Ultimately, cannot but ultimately thank God for the year that has gone by and all that He has graciously blessed me with. Feel so strange thinking, where is Sulthan Nagar, Hyderabad and where is Chertsey, UK - and all the places and experiences I've been through in between!!
The other thing that strikes me today as I reflect on how same or different am I from the day I left India is that the things that I initially found weird or strange are no more so. I guess living the life makes one accustomed to the different aspects that make up life. I was more than aware of this last Sunday when I met a couple of Indian Salesian Sisters from the Province of Tiruchy. They were here along with a couple of their relatives and other nuns for a month long holiday in Europe (that Salesian Sisters in India were permitted to a foreign trip for a month was in itself shocking!). After Mass as we introduced one another outside the Parish, I found them asking the same questions that I had when I first began to see things. Their follow-on questions to my replies were all the more revealing of the differences, both between the Indian context and the English context and most importantly, my ways of explaining to them (in as close an Indian context as I could) and their grasp of the same. As I walked back home, I was laughing to myself!
Katie wanted to make today's meal special to commemorate this event! So we had yellow rice, potato curry, egg and chicken curry, dal, chapati, bhajjis and some masala curry. God bless her! Ultimately, cannot but ultimately thank God for the year that has gone by and all that He has graciously blessed me with. Feel so strange thinking, where is Sulthan Nagar, Hyderabad and where is Chertsey, UK - and all the places and experiences I've been through in between!!
No comments:
Post a Comment