No pains - no gains

A thought popped out in my mind: I want to quickly document this very moment:

It is March 22nd, 2011, 1.35am. I am sitting in our living room of a two-room apartment I share with 3 interns from Ghana, Mexico and the UK. It is my 6th permanent flat I occupy in India since July 2010 when I started my Indian journey. The people I have shared a living space with, my past and my future projections, my dreams and my questions... It is a very intense learning day to day experience that is being created by so many hands...

I am listening to bits of Eminem rapping in my laptop, listening to the fan's noise that keeps me cool in this humid +37C weather of Chennai city, covering my legs with a blanket from annoying mosquitoes... And I catch myself at another thought: I am away from home on this very day when we celebrate Nauryz - the Persian New Year or the Kazakh or the Kazakhstani New Year ( google it if you are interested ).

Where was I on March 22nd in different years and what I missed/gained?

• 2005, I am in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia - Missed celebration of Nauryz with my student mates and free university lunches :D Learnt how Kyrgyz people celebrate Navruz- they cook beshbarmak making noodles instead of a whole dough divided in square pieces as Kazakhstanis do, and they celebrate it on March 21st. By the way, I have tasted Kyrgyz beshbarmak with people from Slovakia, from the Caucasus region, from the Czech Republic, from Kazakhstan. Not an AIESEC event :)
• 2009, I am in Romania at an International AIESEC Conference EuroXpro- 5am, Salta and I are sitting in the hotel lobby, thinking of a Nauryz video content to display at the morning plenary for 200+ delegates from Central/Eastern/Western Europe. We understand how much we miss home and we are happy we had a quick skype chat with our relatives while making the video. The images from that morning are still so vivid! Unbelievable!
• 2010, I am in Latvia, cooking baursaki in our MC flat for the team mates. It is an early morning, and I feel excited about the New Year concept in general. I am planning to call home to hear my Mum, my family. I miss them and I am happy as well I can be exposed to other cultures to appreciate and share.
• 2011, I am in Chennai, South India, listening to Eminem, designing ideas for the next AIESEC conference in Sri Lanka. Incredibly missing my family, my brother, wanting to be with them now to hug every family member, to see and hear them speaking... To see the spring in my hometowns... To celebrate Nauryz with every one like I celebrated Holi yesterday in Hyderabad - with loads of laugh, hugs, fun, pictures, posing, fooling around...