The light at the end of the Chutney

Wow, it has been two weeks since I posted anything on this. Time flies when you are not isolated in a third world country clocking 16hr work days. I am writing now from my friends apartment in India. I incidentally moved apartments today and perhaps because of karma, even my new apartment does not have internet, an affliction shared with my old apartment. I have two more days before I am done here and just writing that is eerie. It is almost as surprising as how familiar it felt when I landed here from the US for the second time a few days ago. Could it be that our intrepid protagonist has conformed to this foreign wasteland? The answer is oddly "yes". For all I have mentioned and for as unsettling as much of this experience has been it has jarred me enough that I think differently now. This was most evident when I landed in Los Angeles, my first taste of Amedika in months. For the first few days I was in Balki Bartokomous mode.

(Before I go on I want to mention that I am going to retroactively add some posts to this because I want to have a full account of my jaunts before I close this nerdonic blogging chapter of my life)

It actually took me by surprise how much India had affected me when I was home. Just seeing our American way of life in person after much time in drastically different settings was a unique experience because I felt like I was a visitor now, even in places I had seen before a thousand times. It was like I had to reconsider many things in my life one would think are settled upon for life. Not sure if that made sense but let me try to explain. So my first meal back was Mexican food at a restaurant. Traditionally this is a joyous event. Natalie and i had a great meal and the food was just what I wanted but it was somehow not the same for me to be there. First of all I could not eat that much (I found out later that i lost 15lbs while I was out here) because my stomach was full about half way. When you are in a familiar setting and feel like its your first time is a rare sensation. Looking at the other tables, I couldnt get over how much people were eating and how much was left over to be thrown away. I was not shocked at all this, in fact I expected to feel it, and its not like I was in rural Africa starving for three years, but It was a really interesting feeling. Even paying brought on the sensation because he meal was a good price for Los Angeles but I was even taken aback at that point because I kept thinking how much the equivalent would purchase in food in India.

Driving around LA is a trip no matter where you come from but the same odd sensation was present while in a car too. The cars, the people, the streets, the shops, the scale of everything had new meaning. And how much money invested in all of it too! This may all sound weird or over-dramatic but what I kept thinking was do we need all of this?