Thursday, January 03, 2008

Neitherland

I am back from my fourth trip of the third world. It is heartening to see that the bridge between the third and the first world seem to have reduced, yet the distance needs to be traversed. It is as if there is a narrow suspension bridge one has to cross, and until the traversal is complete, life itself remains in suspension. It is as if one is in no man’s land. The body is neither here, nor there. I wake at three in the morning and threaten to collapse on my office desk after lunch. There is the strange experience of food not being presented to you, and the temperatures in Fahrenheit over here are remarkably close to the temperatures in Celsius in India. The sounds of silence around make me yearn for the mindless honking I had begun to anticipate. My brain is probably missing the place more than my heart is. Neither here nor there.

My mind is torn between the myriad tasks to be done. I have around eight hundred photographs to download, process, and stick to my customary routine of uploading with captions to the awaiting audience of family and friends. I am hounded by what should be a delight: multiple topics on which to post on my blog. My annual Hindi film song list, my experiences of India, photographs and stories from London. All that need to be done today, yet can’t be, since time has still continued at its usual pace. Then there’s the allegiance to the paycheck and responsibilities of the house. The state of suspension needs time to resolve. Thank you for the messages in my absence. I had the unique experiences of celebrating several new years as I flew west on the night of the 31st. Hence, I’ll accept unique wishes from you for the unique new year’s I passed. I am hoping to resume normal services soon. Till then, I’ll wait for the surreal to pass me by.

17 comments:

Persona non gratis said...

Welcome back. Nice way you put it.

Pallavi said...

WB...you sound so jetlagged and tranced.:)

RagzZmatazZ said...

Welcome Back !

:) Waiting for your posts. :)

Sridhar said...

Hey look who's back! Hope you had a good trip. Looking forward to the trip report with pictures etc...

frissko said...

hey..welcome back!..when there are too many things to be done, nothing gets done...so good luck...

Radha said...

Look forward to all those posts you mentioned in this post!
Welcome back!

Anonymous said...

Ah, jetlag and nostalgia. One of them is easy to get o'er :-). Welcome back! and look forward to the commentary.

sd said...

Yay! Sachin century at last...

Stone said...

Hi,
Our wish turned into reality!!!
Some relief at last :-)

hmm..also eagerly waiting to see ur posts on India trip, and yearly top songs list.

Extempore said...

Oi - Happy New Year and welcome back! The trip sounds very busy - am quite looking forward to the posts forthcoming. And yes, the next time, I'll be sure to mail you well in advance instead of leaving a comment that you might see too late. :-)

Dhruv said...

Celebrating several new years on the same day.. Wow! Was that deliberate? :) and the wait for a Sachin century is finally over! When'll the wait for your song post be? :)

RTD2 said...

One more request for the songs list. Especially since you'll have to burn the CD/s for me too :)

TheExperimentalMom said...

Won't that be nice if you have a photolog too? to post all the lovely pics you've taken:). Waiting...n yes, A belated Happy New year to you!

J said...

Happy New Year!

Parth said...

@All: Thanks for the patience and the greetings. Woke up in the morning to the news of our defeat. What's more distressing is that things worked against us: both the low behavior of the Aussie cricket team and the umpiring. Credit to Sachin on getting the century despite Bucknor. Surely that must count highly. Post typing is underway. Take care.

30in2005 said...

Please please dont call it the Third world.....

Welcome back and waiting for the ball by ball posts!

Sukanya C said...

WhileI agree that Chak De rocked the nation, there was another really great song in the movie which I was hoping to see on your list, "Mere maula le lein meri jaan"...it I thought that was Kabir Khan's title track (if not the movie's) :-)