Here we go.

Preamble

Here I go again.  Writing.  Words and I are much like passionate, moody lovers.  I am in love with their capacity to open steel doors of expression, flooding my mind with light and understanding.  Yet at any given moment they betray me, and I am back in the confines of wordless feeling and experience.  For me,to write is to understand.  And there is much that I want to understand.  There is much I want to observe, to notice.  So here I go again, fighting up current for the illumination behind the seemingly random. I want to listen amidst the chaos to the quieter things.  And most of all I want to write.  This writing is much more for me than for you, but light is brighter and warmer and fuller when you can stand in it with others.


The Occasion

Twenty four years ago, as a seven year old I left India. In two days, as a 31 year old I am returning for the first time.  As a child, this leaving birthed in me a lingering sense of displacement; of smallness in a very big world; of uncertainty about where and how and why and with whom I belong.  I have learned to carry these deposits on my soul, to take them wherever I go much like an awkward piece of furniture, and in recent years I have even learned to love them and treat them with gentle reverence.  They are weights we all carry in different ways, for different reasons.   And ultimately they are a call on our souls towards our truest Home. 


The details of our first few days:

Our flight leaves Vancouver at 1250 November 2nd and arrives in Delhi November 4th at 3am.  In Delhi my parents will meet us at the airport (thank goodness) to navigate on our behalf the insanity of bartering taxi drivers, coolies and the general mayhem of the busiest airport in the busiest city of one of the busiest countries on Earth.   Its nice to know that in our tired stupor, we'll be in good hands.  My parents have a hotel booked for the (rest of the) night, and then in their competent hands we'll get a crash intro to Delhi, shopping for culturally (and climate-ly) appropriate clothes.  One more night and we'll be on the train North to Dehradun, and from Dehradun we take on the winding road up to Mussoorie.   This is where my own blurred imagination-like memories will unravel into reality.   I'll post pictures and thoughts from my phone when we get to my parents place in Mussoorie.  Or maybe sooner, depending on my level of consciousness post-flight. Wish us luck packing!