This weekend will be a long one. The Diwali and Id holidays are happening together and so, we have a holiday starting this Saturday and going on till Tuesday. It would have been good to go home this time but changing flights twice each way would have meant me spending just 2.5 days at home. after making all the effort to go, this would have been like getting too less of home and maybe i would have been missing home more after coming back!! So i am going to be here but not sure whether I would be in Chennai or not as i might as well go someplace close by. The places around Chennai seem to be better than Chennai itself.

I would read up on some stuff that I have been missing and also write something on topics I was not getting time to write on. As i listen to the music of Coldplay, I am reminded of two places - one, my apartment where i worked and also my home as it was in these two places where I used to listen to the X&Y album the most.

I would now go home in December. I would meet up with friends there annd would once again, enjoy some time in BHU..that place gives me a terrific sense of freedom with its huge landscaped campus where there is greenery all around. I remember the times I have spent there with fondness as do perhaps all people who have studied there at some point in time. The faculty buildings are designed in the old colonial style and they can be pretty imposing stuctures like the department of Chemistry building where my father did his research. They are distinct from any other department structures you usually see in universities. Modern buildings do not have the same appeal in a way. Also not all places have the kind of budget that BHU had at the time it was built.

I do not have any homesickness but I do understand when people have the same here. For people who are out of home for the first time in their lives, the stress can be too much without the solace they find in their parents company, the reassurance that everything is fine and he is not alone. Guys are no less missing home than girls. It is a common misconception but totally untrue I feel. When i was out of home for the first time, I think i did miss home and went back every two months. My cousin at IT BHU used to rush home to Lucknow every weekend when he first joined engineering. Now, he is in Singapore and has not been home for over a year and is fine. So it seems to be a function to how much you get used to circumstances that are different from your home and it is this adaptability which makes us successful.