it's been a long while

Hi, my stomach checked out in august and still doesnt seem quite ready to come home yet. Also now i have some chest cold and i have been running around alot since august. my mind is dizzy with all that has to be done and is getting done. bear with me please.

I thought of you before Diwali ( Happy New Year!) and during Dandiya Ras:

I’m supposed to be compiling addresses for invitations, but I got bored/overhwhelmed (however you want to read my very bad habit of procrastinating during personally excruciating moments or days) and decided this would be more fun:

The rhythmic click-clack of dandiya echoes over the cacophony of honking vehicles, people’s yells as cars screech to a halt at their road-crossing feet, the monotonous advertisement of fruit and vegetable vendors, the tearful whispers of pot bellied children begging for alms, town crazies with maniacal smiles offering blessings and cursing when a shiny paisa doesn’t shine in their hands.

I'm also thinking of home because Halloween is here. well, they are celebrating in tokyo. Eat alot of candy, bob for a lot of apples, drink a lot of cider, and run through some graveyards drunk for me!

xoxoxoxoxoxo BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

private or public?

One thing I have noticed when driving by slums is how the bathroom situation is worked out. At night the lanes closest to the sidewalks are populated by people sleeping. So essentially a two lane becomes a one lane. Sometimes I see people get up in the night (often I go home around midnight or 1am) and cross the street and then go back to sleep. I am not sure why, but not until recently did I comprehend that the other side of the road was the “bathroom”. This afternoon I was in an auto rickshaw headed to the phone company. Near the phone company is a huge makeshift settlement where all the rickshaw-wallahs live with their families. As my auto slowed near the phone company I heard a loud, persistent, human noise. So I turned my head to see a less-than-ten-years-old kid taking a dump trying to get rid of the last bit of it. What I noticed was that there wasn’t a mug of water near him to wash himself after he was done nor was there an old newspaper or a leaf. I wondered if he would finish his job and just yank his pants up and go about his day.

The same day, much later I was talking to a friend and he told me that he noticed how open American sitcoms are about discussing the foibles of a couple’s sex life- the role play, the image problems, the boredom, the attitudes of each partner. Odd, I guess, in a place where people moving in for a kiss cuts to the same woman holding a “newborn” in the next scene.

future tense

Lately I have been in a planning frame of mind. We’ll be moving back near the middle of next year. As a result I was perusing journalism job sites in an effort to get a sense of what’s available stateside — possible points of re-entry. From the little I saw, the picture looked dismal to me. There isn’t a dearth of jobs, just a dearth of jobs I would want. People tell me to go back to school if after a few months nothing I like comes up, but I don’t understand randomly going back to school. Also in terms of the plans I have for further academic training I need a bit more experience first. Maybe it’s a little early to psych myself out. Hopefully over the next few months I’ll realize that I have an option that I can’t see right now.

An eye on mumbai

Decrepid
Vengeful
Torrential
Flooded
Overpopulated
Noisy
Apathetic
Deplorable
Gruff
Self-centered
Throbbing
Soiled
Festive
Boisterous
Generous
Yielding
Gorgeous
Sophisticated
Untarnished
Blazing
Resilient
Unabashed
Uninhibited
Delicious
Secretive
Elusive
Vivacious
………………............... city