Sirens and Lights

Sari shopping in Kanchipuram

(Payal, your sari is the pear-colored one in the front…)

Bus stand in Chengapattu

Beaches of Mahabalipuram just before one of the many monsoon storms that we got ourselves caught in (yesterday, we managed to get soaked while trying to visit the Shore Temple…and had to climb over a fence to get around this huge pile of manure that was blocking half of the road and “flavoring” the small lake covering the other half of the road….not sure how I kept all of the silk stuff I had bought dry, but managed somehow! phew. unfortunately ruined a copy of a picture of my siblings that I love :(. Suj, can you send me another copy of that pic from your birthday? This is the second copy of it I’ve ruined :(.)

Chilling at Ravi’s with Kelli and Alex… (p.s. Payal, that’s your tapestry that he’s working on!).

“Do yourself a favor. Before it’s too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will not regret it. One day it will be too late.”

“Immersing herself in a third language, a third culture, had been her refuge- she approached French, unlike things American or Indian, without guilt, or misgiving,or expectation of any kind. It was easier to turn her back on the two countries that could claim her in favor of one that had no claim whatsoever.”

-Jhumpa Lahiri, Namesake

“I stood for a long time by the roller coaster, and I noticed that most people get on it in search of excitement, but that once it starts, they are terrified and want the cars to stop.
What do they expect? Having chosen adventure, shouldn’t they be prepared to go the whole way? Or do they think that the intelligent thing to do would be to aovid the ups and downs and spend all their time on a carousel, going round and round on the spot?
….The roller coaster is my life; life is a fast, dizzying game; life is a parachute jump; it’s taking chances, falling over and getting up again; it’s mountaineering; it’s wanting to get to the top of yourself and to feel angry and dissatisfied when you don’t manage it.
…If I had fallen asleep and suddenly woken up on a roller coaster, what would I feel?
Well, I would feel trapped and sick, terrified of every bend, wanting to get off. However, if I believe that the track is my destiny…then the nightmare becomes something thrilling. It becomes exactly what it is, a roller coaster, a safe, reliable toy, which will eventually stop, but, while the journey lasts, I must look at the surrounding landscape and whoop with excitement.”

-Paulo Coehlo, Eleven Minutes

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2003 at 1:24 pm and is filed under India. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.