8 days
Your muscles tighten up. You're tense, yet exhilerated. You can feel the blood pounding through your head. The adrenalene rush is unlike anything you've experienced in a very long time. All your senses have reached a level of alertness where you are aware of and can respond instantaneously to the most subtle movement or noise on any side. You can not lose. You will not lose. This what you do. This is what you are. This is where you belong. You will not give an inch!.......as you approach the "red light crossing" and the auto wallah, the cycle rikshah walla, the cabbie in the hideous yellow fiat and the 5 spoilt delhi brats in their new Hondas and Toyotas all move in to gain that extra inch on the road which will give them that instantaneous high, as they do the intricate dance of avoiding pedestrians, potholes, dogs and cows!
Welcome back to driving on the mean streets of Delhi!
I'm back from the motherland after a whirlwind 8 day trip and everyone I meet tells me that I look really "fresh", whatever that means. I must confess, this ranks right up there as one of my best trips back home. It was all about sitting back and relaxing with the folks and catching up with the the bazzillion relatives I have in Delhi. There was no drama with women, no pressure to meet up with friends, no self induced need to go out partying, no stressful meetings with immigration officers and such. All I focused on was reconnecting with the extended family that I grew up visiting every Diwali and on my never ending efforts to stay connected with the ever morphing culture in India.
The country is obviously nothing like what I remember from approximately eight years ago when I decided to leave. The surprising thing is that it seems to have gone through about 20 new incarnations even when I visit after a span of 1 year. I often feel like the old "aunties" and "uncles" I meet who have been in the US the last 30 years and are so seperated from reality that they make my grandparents look emancipated. But then I turn on the TV, and see the 40 news channels all reporting the same thing.....cricket! and everything seems just the same.
Welcome back to driving on the mean streets of Delhi!
I'm back from the motherland after a whirlwind 8 day trip and everyone I meet tells me that I look really "fresh", whatever that means. I must confess, this ranks right up there as one of my best trips back home. It was all about sitting back and relaxing with the folks and catching up with the the bazzillion relatives I have in Delhi. There was no drama with women, no pressure to meet up with friends, no self induced need to go out partying, no stressful meetings with immigration officers and such. All I focused on was reconnecting with the extended family that I grew up visiting every Diwali and on my never ending efforts to stay connected with the ever morphing culture in India.
The country is obviously nothing like what I remember from approximately eight years ago when I decided to leave. The surprising thing is that it seems to have gone through about 20 new incarnations even when I visit after a span of 1 year. I often feel like the old "aunties" and "uncles" I meet who have been in the US the last 30 years and are so seperated from reality that they make my grandparents look emancipated. But then I turn on the TV, and see the 40 news channels all reporting the same thing.....cricket! and everything seems just the same.
posted by MJ at Tuesday, March 18, 2008
1 Comments:
welcome back! was just thinking about you a couple days ago... trust the trip was even better than it sounds from the short blog post. (am hoping you made it there and back sahi-salaamat, as opposed to losing/breaking any body parts?)
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