Summer, they say, is the best time to visit the US . And if you look around, it’s certainly true. The trees are painted with lush green leaves, daylight goes on for hours and hours and everyone walks around in open sandals, a striking contrast to the time when the snow follows a few months later.

With summer come the migratory birds into our backyards, nibbling on the grains in the bird-feeders, and Indian parents, often for four to six months. It’s hard to miss them, the men walking purposely ahead, women in saris or salwar-kameez following behind, as they stroll around downtown or peer at the two dozen bread varieties in the grocery stores.

For the first few weeks the enthusiasm is palpable. The joy of seeing the children and the grandchildren, the pleasure of mother’s cooking, the exchanging of stories on the latest politics in India or the ever-changing cast of the scandalising TV serials. Then the pollution-free streets, the central ACs, no power cuts and the efficient dishwashers all seem charming. But soon that pales and boredom creeps in, especially when the children are at work through the weekdays.

If the kids are just out of college and starting their careers, it’s easier. Many live in apartment blocks where other Indians live, with their own sets of visiting parents and one can start conversations during the morning strolls and maybe even invite them for chai. But as the children become more established, move on to the bigger cars and the four-bedroom houses, it can become harder for the parents.

Striking up friendships with American neighbours, with their different accents and busy lifestyles, is tough. You can often go for days without seeing anyone pass in front of your house, especially in the suburbs. If you are a city bird, there is a battery of things to do, like museums, concerts and tourist attractions like Manhattan’s Times Square. But jumping in and out of subways and buses or walking down 30 blocks in the sun is not what parents are keen to do.

For people expecting family, conversations change and frantic weekend planning begins. Has the new Shah Rukh Khan movie opened yet, is there an air-ballooning festival this weekend? Frenzied e-mails are exchanged among friends as the summer progresses, and calendars start filling up with activities that will keep parents active. Hurried phone calls are made to cable providers to start Hindi channels so that Koffee with Karan is still within reach.

Toddlers look forward to summers for selfish reasons. They know that most parents will make concessions and they may escape the daily grind of daycare — often the only means of childcare for working parents. But if there are no children to keep them occupied, the ringing of the phone often becomes a welcome distraction for the visitors.

Calls from call centres in India take on a new life during the summer. Parents welcome the Indian accent behind the western names. They are thrilled and intrigued by the slight Bong inflection and launch into conversations which close not with business deals but with exchanges about waterlogging in Calcutta or the price of ilish.

Durga Puja — celebrated strictly on a weekend schedule in most US cities — comes as a welcome mid-point for many parents. Sometimes they even run into old college-mates or long-lost neighbours from their childhood days, and regale each other with the pleasures and pains of American life.

But as the days get shorter, a bubbling eagerness returns to the household — it’s time for the birds to go home. While sad to leave their children, they can hardly wait to get back, to their lives and friends, to known accents and familiar societies. They have clearly had too much of this land of enchantment and displacement, for now.