It seems only yesterday that I last wrote and yet it has been two months! How much has happened. We took a six week long trip through southern India from Chennai, Bangalore, Kovalam and Calcutta. Saw close family we hadn't seen in over a year. Attended a traditional Bengali wedding, my first since my own wedding eleven years ago.
Through all this, I felt how much had changed and how things still remained the same. TV and internet has revolutionized media. Where there was filters and channel control, now there is a plethora of channels and quite a bit of media mayhem. Utterly delightful as it is for the viewer, the senses occasionally reel from the onslaught.
And yet, things still take inordinately long to get done. Be it my order at a restaurant, a simple withdrawal at a bank or catching a cab to the airport or railway station, conveniences may seem trivial, but on a trip the little details matter because that's where the devil's at.
I used to daydream about homecooked meals, the taste of my native land. This trip made it very clear to me how much my tastes have changed. After a month of Indian food three times a day, I was craving some good ole' northwest salmon, slowgrilled in foil with garlic and proscuitto on top....I guess the Indian inside me has left the building.
What remains fresh in my mind regardless of the joys and trials, are the sight and sounds of waves crashing on Kovalam beach. Rough and powerful surges of water crashing on the rocks, spilling all over the black sand beaches, gently swaying the coconut and palm trees. My parents trying a siesta in vain as their energetic grandkids jump all over them. My sons trying out new hindi words they hear on TV. Sounds of a midsummer vacation that will remain while the smell of traffic fumes slowly fade from memory.
