What do you miss living abroad??

[Thiru]

I tend to miss a lot living abroad... Though most of these things tend to be a headache most of the time, not having these for the last few years makes me yearn for them... The road side tea kadai with a bench and tamil newspapers, the early morning cycle bell of the milkman or the newspaper guy, the gossiping maid-servant, the bargaining with vegetable vendors, the weddings and the numerous functions, the occasional night show and subsequent police checks, the 5 minute osi batting from kids on the street, the free advice from neighbours etc... What do you folks miss the most??

[hehehewalrus]

Morning walk
Home food
Scanning the engagements section of the papers for local functions, talks or megasales
Finish reading the paper by 6AM and sit by my tinted glass window and watch the neighborhood thanni-thozhiching, oldies walking/going to temple and officegoers/kids getting ready.
Listen to the primary school kids chatter as they pass by my window 3pm in the afternoon.
Watch the kids play cricket in the maidan in front(i would often keep score and follow the game )
The best part of life is to watch the city spring to life or go to rest(6-7AM and 6-7 PM)
Lazily chatting for 2-3 hrs with relations after a good afternoon meal, especially in summer holidays.

The rest of the items you quoted are big headache/nuisances - Every other encounter in india is a win-loss encounter, rarely a win-win encounter like abroad.
Worst part is TV - when you wish to chat with someone and they are too engrossed in the TV.

[svasu_ani]

I miss

Home food
The flowers (malli, mullai, jaadi)... I used to keep them everyday....love flowers like anything
fortnight train travel between chennai and bangalore..
the sunday market to buy fresh vegetables...
beach....
the temples....

[malligai]

The thing that I really miss is Malligai poo...everytime i wear a saree for some party, i feel that it is incomplete without mallipoo...

I also miss all my cousins weddings, family gatherings, my college friends [many still live in my home town ]...the worst part is when people describe all the fun they had in the gatherings [inspite of me, not being there ]

one other thing that i reallyyyy miss is eating in 'kaiyendhi bhavans' [the roadside dhabas]...i always think that when i come back to live in India[ ], then i will NEVER cook...

[Thiru]

malligai
have you ever eaten in highway punjabi dhabas?? There is nothing that comes close to that...

[malligai]

Thiru,

i have eaten in every kind of dhaba...i like the simplicity of the food...

[Girish11]

Playing cricket with friends on a small open terrace or other
small area within the house with a tennis ball or rubber ball
and not neccessarily with a cricket bat (just the small bat
using for washing clothes most of the time)

Get to gethers with friends every day night for 30 minutes
near the potti kadai sharing cigarettes

The movies together with friends

Site adichufying with friends (appa bachelor aiyya)

Bunking college and hanging around with friends.

Last but not the least the food (home, our great hotels of
India (restaurants of course), mess, kai yendhi bhavan etc etc)

Many many more.....

Thiru.....you culptript......noga vechittinga sir.

[Anoushka]

Good thread Thiru

Seven years after leaving India and 16 years after leaving home, I am yet to find what I miss! It is not that I don't miss anything! When I was in India, away from home, I used to travel home atleast once a month. And now I fly home every six months.

I tend to get a bit restless if I don't go home twice a year. But I still don't know what I miss. So now you have got me thinking....

I call up home atleast once a week, email my Dad everyday, send SMS ever so often and so I don't miss my people that much!

I make all Indian food at home, right from vatha kozhambu with paruppu thuvayal and sutta appalam to pav bhaji and bhel puri, so it is not food!

I speak Tamizh with most of my friends, read tamil on the net and the books that I have at home so it is not the language.

I don't even have a long list of things to do when I go home, I just laze around at home.

I rarely bring back stuff from home, infact my total luggage each time is less than 15 Kgs.

Most of my friends are outside India and I call them up regularly as well.

Beyond all this, I miss home, Maybe it is lazing on the couch when the rest of the family is watching TV and commenting on all the serials and irritating everyone else that is in the room, maybe getting pampered for a day or two when I go home (day three my brother says that I should go back because I am fighting for the remote), maybe the odd day that I tend to sleep on the terrace, or even just spend the entire evening sitting on the terrace and reading a book or chatting with someone!

Oh my God! It is time to book my tickets for my next journey home

[Thiru]

Few other things I miss

Deepavali... As a kid I remember getting up as early as I could and light the first fire cracker in our street.. there used to be a competition between us and our neighbours on this... Also showing off the new dress to everyone and then sharing sweets and stuff with the neighbours.. Now a days I dont even realise its deepavali being abroad :(

Cricket: I wont miss a single game during my school days.. even if its zimbabwe vs newzealand I would watch it.. When I went to college we rented a colour TV for 2000 Rs for 2 months and watched the entire world cup with about 30 people in our house.... ( Imagine the cheer and noise during Jadeja's sixer and when Venkatesh prasad took Sohail's wicket).. Now its me watching only the finals of a tournament alone on a PC

[Anoushka]

Thiru, our Deepavali used to be the same, the whole family used to get together and while the women made sweets, the children found a way of sneaking into the kitchen without anyone noticing and stealing them, the fire crackers always came from Sivakasi and we always waited till everyone else finished to show off what we had But now it is not the same even in India, all the kids have grown up and the house nearly feels empty!

As for Cricket, for the last world cup we were 25 of us sitting in blue coloured t-shirts supporting India in a friend's house screaming and shouting and enjoying the matches...