It was about half an hour until we landed in Memphis. I was visiting the city as a stranger..had never been here before..not even so much as passed through it.
"Did you know Memphis has one of the highest crime rates in the country??"..my new friend in the seat next to me was beaming..something to be proud of..she just got a point in this little battle we started between Mumbai and Memphis..It is a statement which makes your anxiety levels peak...especially when you are a few thousand feet above sea-level and on your way to a sea of people of which not a single one you know.."NEVER walk on the streets by yourself..muggings are so dang common!"...aaah!..bliss!...and realization that totally new levels of anxiety can be achieved!..Your only re-assurance is that you have been living in the heart(almost!) of Atlanta for a little over a year..
My ride arrives...a friendly face in a sporty Volkswagen EOS...PK(let's call him that until I get the rights to mention his name publicly..:P) is a twenty-something I was fortunate enough to get in touch with online..We start talking and by the time my motel arrives we are conversing in Bambaiyya hindi..as if we have known each other for quite sometime now..Apparently the motel owner knows him and had helped him out when he was in my shoes...a restless clueless stranger to a new town..Wait!I should probably rephrase that to "restless clueless desi"..it explains why there is abundant help in any place you visit in the US :)
Within a couple of days, I have moved into a new apartment. It's probably too crude yet to be called a home..given the lack of furniture and the holes in my pockets that make it impossible for me to gift it with some..But that will change after sometime..What makes this abode comfortable is the new friends I have made over the past week..About a dozen of them who are willing to help out..from the apartment complex..workplace..the motel or the cricket team..(Yea..believe it or not I was enrolled in the town's cricket team the weekend I got here..We owe a lot to cricket..the one common thread that binds desis together!..But more about that later maybe.)
So here I am..at the beginning of a new phase in my life..It's surely begun well and also got me thinking about how many new people I will meet..I sure look forward to that..because every person has a fascinating story behind them...A new one starts with every child born..So it's impossible to run out of them..and very much possible to listen to a new one everyday!
