Isolation

...Is not good for me,
Aaaisolation...
I don't want to live on a lemon tree...

As a popular song's lyrics go, I've found that solitude is one thing isolation is not for me.
For the last 10 odd days I have been isolated - by choice - from all I hold dear - my parents, the rest of my family, my books, hell (pardon the cuss word), even my bed! To be fair to me, I embarked on the journey with all seriousness and fastidious resolve . And managed fairly well for about, umm…honestly…well, 5 whole days till the smell of home made masala-laden food wafted up my nostrils. This from the first floor of the 2 –storied apartments I had chosen to (w)hole myself in. Waaaaaaah, I wanted my mommy. (Oh hey, I know I’m a certain age but who EVER stops wanting their mommy?). So after a long weepy call with her here’s all of what I found:
1. Living in isolation is not the easiest of things to do. I now shudder when I think of those in solitary confinement. What a cruel, cruel punishment
2. We NEVER stop wanting our mothers and the special flavor of the food they make
3. Try as we might, the rajma will NOT be as good as ma makes it
4. I am too much of a creature of comfort. I spent the first 6 days ordering things from home and now the last 3 days requesting for this and that while I’m waiting to be picked up at the end of my voluntary confinement
5. The air conditioner is a luxury no more!
6. Much as you love to cook when you live alone, you WILL eat Marie biscuits and bread (not together obviously, but these will be the first thing you reach out to when hunger pangs gnaw at that great crumbling wall we call ‘stomach’)
7. If not diabetes and heart-attack, the water problem in this country WILL kill you one day.
8. I can survive 10 days without eating anything (this of course does not apply to Marie biscuits).

So, so much for the learnings and big words like isolation solitude searching for oneself. I'll leave those to the mahayogi's. For me, the gnawing increases.

I’m just happy to be going back home today.