Counting the days...I really miss home

I have visited Pench NP, Maharashtra site. It was really beautiful and even though in the same state as Tadoba, the greens are of a much greater variety. Because this park is in a more hilly area and the roads leading through the park have many many bends, I thought the park was bigger then Tadoba. In this I was wrong. It’s actually 2,5 times as small!!

Tomorrow I will go back to Chandrapur. My stay in Nagpur has been extended with a few extra days and many games of chess in the evening, which I lost most of the time.
I really have to work on my moves and on my patience. Since I don’t like to think too long before crossing the board, I got myself killed during the battles too early. I guess I won’t make a good soldier…

With every day that passes I want to go home more and more. It definitely was a time well spent, but 5 months away from family and friends is a lot tougher this time than when I left for Australia now almost 10 years ago. Of course that was for a whole different reason.

My moods swing from happy to annoyed and back. I need more personal space, something that is not always available in a country like India. I don’t know how the people do it, living with all family members in houses we consider too small for 2 people, let alone 6. I look at it with amazement and realize that for me this is not the way and I am very happy that I am born in the Netherlands with all its own non likable things. Nowhere is a perfect place, but at least in your own country you know how to behave in certain situations and also you know what the consequences of your behavior are likely to be.

I have learnt a lot about myself. Good things and bad things, sometimes by being alone and other times because of people around me. I tried to adapt to the Indian culture as much as possible within my limits. (I can’t change who I am and the way I act all the time.) I have learnt to eat the mild Indian food, which is quite spicy still. I now know I can make a nice deal when I want to buy something, although I doubt I will use this skill when I come back. I am better at keeping my patience in any possible way, but the most Indian thing I have to do at times is using the toilet and cleaning my bum with a can of water and my left hand.!!! (oh yeah, toilet paper not commonly available or the toilet gets blocked).

I look forward to the next 3 weeks, when I will see Shanoo, Suleman and the children again, will stay in my shed in Tadoba, have my so needed time by myself and enjoy Dutch humor when Claudia arrives. The latter will be on the 8th of September and I can hardly wait.