Arrival, in brief

The previous post was started on January 16, which is when I wrote the first two paragraphs, but owing to various pressures and constraints, I found the keyboard again about 7 weeks later. After posting it, I realised that blogs (at least on this site) get published with the date you save the first draft for them. So effectively, you can publish something in the past! Interesting way to metaphorically screw around with time.

I am still writing about the past, one that starts after my arrival in India. This time around in India has felt very different from before, since I have hardly done any of the things I was used to doing while I lived here, I have visited hardly any places I used to visit, and I have "hung out" with very few of my old friends. The current experience of living here is far removed from the memory of doing the same in the past. But I shall get to that by and by.

So Delhi. Hot, even in January, though I suppose it is not true from an objective point of view. My body was perhaps still acclimatising or some such. AJ did his best to make it a bit like old times, like getting some ganja from some shanty (which was straight out of the really old times), smoked in a park, talked about music and computer games and blah. But meeting Stef (dude, no offence meant) in the middle of it, while nice in itself, definitely made the scene a bit surreal. My 'meeting' with Rajdeep Sardesai passed most uneventfully, as I had expected. Then, there was the proverbial saving grace in the form of Venus, whose plentiful familiar bosom I lost myself in for the next few days. Being a most unexpected luxury, it felt even better than ever. Ah, Venus sweet Venus, I worship thee and thy melodious body and thine divine carnality.

But as surely as small spurts of good things follow long stretches of bad ones, the small spurts in question fall back to the ground. I reached Calcutta, where surprisingly, a couple of friends were in town for a couple of days, so I did not absolutely die of boredom. Then, there was packing up the house to shift to Bangalore. The packers came, packed and took away the stuff and we left by car to drive about 2000 km. The journey, I will write about in a separate post. And once I reached Bangalore, we reach at my present life, which also will be revealed in a separate post. I know this is no un-put-downable thrilling novel, but if you are reading this, you probably will read the next post too anyway.

As for my observations about the country and how it has changed in the time I have been away... The cities have become more expensive and the young working people don't seem to mind, or even notice I suppose. The economic crisis has affected people insofar as they won't be getting their usual 30-70% hike this year, and some might even get a paycut. I have yet to meet anyone who has lost a job, though people are not risking quitting a job to find another. People in trains are thankfully still as talkative as I remember them, and onlookers on the street as curious and brazen. I also notice improved civic sense, but that may be because I have seen a whole different part of the country this time, and very little of the bits I know from before. In a nutshell, this country is still much the same, loud, noisy, chaotic, in your face, bursting with people, blah blah, and yet, there is a sense of betterment that doesn't lend itself easily to explanation. If I find the time and inclination to get all emotional about it, maybe I will dedicate it a post, though I have my doubts about that.

Oh, happy Holi.