Aaaaand...he's back!

I'll try to put up more substantive posts this time, or at least something that is enjoyable to read. I arrived October 16th, Friday night, and of course, the very next day had to be Diwali. Diwali, for those of you who don't know, is a festival celebrating the arrival of the Ram back to his kingdom city of Ayodhya after a 14 year exile. Ram is the main character of the Ramayan, which is one of the main religious and spiritual texts of India (as well as cultural!) It was a triumpahnt return, after having rescued his kidnapped wife Sita from the evil clutches of Ravan, the king of Lanka. All of the Ayodha residents lit candles and "diyas," or little oil lamps made of clay to light Ram's way home, and exchanged sweets to celebrate the return. Now, the candles and diyas are accompanied by Christmas style lights, and tons of fireworks. By tons, let me just say that the commotion of all of India lighting fireworks from 6 pm to 12 am sounded like Europe circa 1942.

After that I got a fever, saw the doctor, fully recovered, and now I'm typing this post. It's good to be back in India. My neighbors have welcomed me back, and I have eaten dinners at their houses and even had some Foster's beer : ) The people are so wonderful to me, the culture is so friendly, many people in the market nearby have recognized me and given me smiles and handshakes that say "welcome back." On that personal side people are great, but of course, as many of you know, India is far underdeveloped compared to America, and that makes it hard for an American like me. The heat is not too bad, seeing as how I came in mid-October, but there's a lot of dust, things are not that neat and shiny, buildings can feel like dirty prisons lit with flourescent bulbs, the traffic and driving style brings me to the point of death every 2 minutes, and in general the environment is just tough to endure. Luckily, I've had 6 months of training when I came here from Japan about 1 year ago, so bring it on baby!

You know, Herman Melville once wrote that in order to write a mighty book, you need a mighty theme. Well, I've read lots of great books that I think do not necessarily have "mighty" themes, but it's funny how traveling gives me inspiration to write. It's like, something interesting is going on, and now I have write about it. Here's to inspiration!

Much love, till next time.