From Sasural to the land of mountains


After almost a month of repetitive packing, travelling and unpacking, I have finally settled in my new abode. Now that it’s been a week of staring at the ceiling and appreciating the craftsmanship of the person who designed the lights and door handles in my flat, I ponder over the many things that happened during the past two months. As I have anyway decided to run a flash back, let me go deeper into the whirls of flashback like in old Indian movies!…….
It’s November of 2009 and my wedding has been fixed to ‘the NRI from Dubai’. Till then Dubai was just another country in the ‘Gelf’ that I get to hear a lot on my vacations to Kerala. As a kid I had always thought that as a rule, at least one person in each Malayali family had to be in ‘Gelf’. Suddenly Dubai became the most important word in my life with anyone and everyone I came across talking only about Dubai. From the aunty next door to the CEO of Saint Gobain, everyone had their comments to offer on Dubai. ‘How do you feel about going to Dubai?’ was the most popular question put to me during the golden period between engagement and wedding. I was kind enough not to mention that like any other engaged lady, my special feelings at that time would naturally not be towards Dubai! So I collected all the comments and free advices showered upon me and somehow developed the feeling that Dubai was my Sasural.
It’s March of 2010, and things didn’t really change a lot after the wedding, except for the fact that now new people enquired about my special feelings towards Dubai. I couldn’t tell them I was already overloaded with facts about Dubai and ended up adding to my already large collection of facts. Now, now, I started wondering what’s so unworldly about Dubai. “Wait for two more weeks” was all ‘the NRI from Dubai’ had to say.
It’s April of 2010, the D day on which I landed in Dubai. “Welcome to Dubai”, ‘the NRI from Dubai’ uttered waking up from his deep slumber as the flight landed at 2 am. I was not able to sleep all along the three and half hour journey; I am not too sure if it was the anxiety that kept me awake. I loved the aerial view of Dubai at night; a never-ending line of lights seemed like the whole city had been awake to welcome me. “This city never sleeps”, I was told. As we approached the arrival area, I was welcomed with a whole bunch of red roses by my nephew and family. All along the drive home I remained silent, watching the city, still wondering what made people go crazy about it; as I tried to concentrate on my nephew who was dumping as much as possible to my already overflowing collection of Dubai facts.
It’s September of 2012, ‘the NRI from Dubai’ had decided to change his surname to ‘the NRI from Oman’.  As a devout wife, I followed him and we started the arrangements to bid goodbye to Dubai. I suddenly realized that I had fallen in love with the city of sands; but like all true lovers I didn’t know when and how; and now as the time had come to leave, my heart did feel heavy.
It’s October of 2012 and I have landed in this new city of mountains and hills. I prepare to settle down, wondering what this city has in store for me. Whenever I open my window, I always look up to the mighty hills clueless whether I will fall in love again; this time with another city and for other reasons.

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