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NOTE: This is my final post about my month of traveling – if you want to skip the chatter & JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE PIX, CLICK HERE – there is a SMALL set of PIX & a COMPLETE set of pix.
Also, if you want to see all my travel posts to this point click HERE.

As many of you know I just got back from almost a month in the Olde Country – India. It was a big and fascinating trip – and there was a lot I liked about it & honestly some big things I *really* didn’t like about it. There was both much fun and much not fun. Some of that had to do with India & some of that had to do with the fact that I was LARGELY BY MYSELF FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH. If you ever want to drive a hyper-gregarious, hyper-talkative person suicidal, send them to a large, fascinating & difficult country by themselves in the non-tourist season FOR A MONTH. Sit back & watch the fun! Anyway, it has been a week since I got back & now that my super-powers are returning, it is time to write up my impressions…

Before I get into what I liked & disliked about India it is important to understand that the key part of any trip is having resilience, curiosity and a good attitude. Normally these qualities are a strong suit of mine. But this trip, “curiosity” was the only one I could consistently muster. A variety of things combined to cause the others to come & go. As I said, the biggest factor by far was that I only had people to really talk to for maybe 4-5 days combined out of my 3.5 weeks in India: NOT GOOD FOR OUR HERO.* So I guess that means maybe if the circumstances of my trip were different my impressions would skew differently…

But that all being said, what follows are my impressions of India such as they are, for better & for worse. Here is the quick list for those of you skimming – feel free to click on just the items that seem interesting. (damn this is a long post! Did I mention I had no one to talk to for a month?)

Things I liked:

• Food
• Music
• Assimilation Skill
• History By the Ton
• Wildlife
• Cultural Mannerisms
• Mumbai

Things I did NOT like:

• Transaction as Argument
• Constant Honking
• Indians Trashing India
• Cheating Strangers Is To Be Expected

I should also state up front that I’m more curious and more demanding of India than I would be of many other places for a variety reasons. Obviously, being my genetic homeland, I’m going to be pretty curious, but also there are many people in my life (my immediate family for starters, but others as well) who expect that I SHOULD have a strong connection to India: “India is your home!” or “You just don’t understand that you ARE Indian” etc etc. This all leads to a closer scrutiny on my part.

Anyway, without further ado, lets get to the superficial impressions that I will attempt to pass off as facts. (hey look! “hubris” – I AM returning to normal!)

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So I’m in Mumbai a.k.a Bombay & thus it is a perfect time to mention Bollywood dance numbers – one of the best things about India. Here is an awesome recent one with an great song that has been the Official Theme Song for My Trip. I saw it on MTVIndia one night & the next day heard it again on a car stereo & was hooked.

I bought the movie too (Movie Night Soon!) & it isn’t bad (a little cheesy of course) & is full of amazing eye candy – Hellloooooo Priyanka!) and even more importantly great song/dance numbers. This video covers pretty much everything great about Bollywood dance numbers:

• great outfits
• spectacle
• ridiculous yet inspired choreography
• and finally, pure joy

That last one is it actually, there is something about a musical (& India seems to be state of the art) that just does JOY perfectly….

‘deep

.ps be home soon & very much looking forward to it

.pps “Salaam e Ishq” translates to “Love’s Salute” I think.

So I’m an American & I’m traveling in the third world (maybe India is somewhere in-between by now) & I feel it is important that I represent!  So I’m trying to use a hugely disproportionate allocation of resources while I’m here.  But it really isn’t easy. 

To wit:

• Showers: It is very very hard to take 1 hour scalding showers when it is 4 milion degrees outside.  Though that is in Celsius, so it is only like 2 Million degrees Fahrenheit.  (& with the wind chill factor it’s like 1.9999 Million degrees F.)

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In my past few trips abroad, I’ve discovered my favorite way to travel. I love it & India is a country that supports it fully. See the world, experience it as fully and immersively as you can (or as much as any tourist can) but share it with your friends as you do it & without compromising the experience itself. (I need a good name for it – electronic umbilical? e-travel?) Well one good way to think of it is travel with my Lil’ Electronic Friends. (DeepLEF?)

Those of you who don’t like their cell-phones or don’t check email when they can help it, you and I don’t see eye to eye anyway, so the joys of this will be lost on you, and shouldn’t you be putting more coal in your calculating-engine to keep it running while you read this anyway? And check the inter-tubes for blockages while you’re at it

This is the deal: Place meets ‘Deep with his lil’ electronic friends: Mr. Cellphone, Mr. Computer, Mr. Thumb drive, Mama Net & of course a digital camera (neuter).

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My first few days in New Delhi, I got a cell phone Continue reading →

While I was in France I suddenly noted how much happier I was when I was in Paris rather than the South & thought “Yep! I’m an Urban Monkey”* but then I got to Delhi & can’t say I enjoyed it much (though I never really gave it a chance – I was in the “suburbs” with the fam fam.**)
In any case, I’m not sure Delhi is big enough for 2 types of urban monkey:

spotted these guys in Delhi downtown, just as I walked out of Spider-Man 3 (cousin had free tix & took the family)

It is tough for an avowed urbanist to swallow, but so far India seems much more beautiful and interesting outside the cities. Maybe this is what the U.S. was like in the heydey of the Industrial Revolution…

Anyway, I’m just south of Chennai (city #2) and in a beach town called Mammalapuram… more soon…

*to be fair, the weather in the SoF was rainy & so we spent most of our time in the car driving around, not nearly the fun possibilities of sun/bike/Paris.

* more fairness: suburbs is a bit strong, Gurgaon is more like adjacent sprawl. I would imagine Delhi has more nightlife and restaurants, hustle & bustle etc.

(or “Favorite thing about Paris #284”)

[Ed Note: click on any of the pix for all my Space Invader shots, or read to the bottom to get the full scoop AFAIK.]
[Ed Note: Added a few new Space Invaders I found 5/5/07]

Way back in 2003, on my maybe 3rd visit to Paris*, I saw some graffiti off in the distance (here’s the shot) & thought – “Hey! That’s a Space Invader!”

Then I thought “Hey that isn’t paint – that’s tile work!”

 

So now every-time I come back to Paris, I see more….

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It’s April 28th, 2007 & I’m high above some state in the western United States, where the land is flat and cut into huge yet precise blocks by roads – nothing exists here to break up human-imposed geometries. A grid state. Possibly Nebraska.

I’m currently sad, excited, scared, hopeful, wounded, content, anxious, fascinated, and oddly happy. I guess at 38, I can hold more than one at once. . I’m thinking about my friend Greg’s book “Window Seat: Reading the Landscape From The Air”, global warming, a girl, human population (the *real* hockey stick!), wondering how attractive Cameron Diaz really is (inflight movie), and mostly, the beauty of it all. (Don’t think that you know which of the emotions tie to which of the subjects at hand, the combinations are remarkable and fluid )

A while back (Nevada? Utah?) I passed a small wind farm. Maybe 10 giant white windmills, standing silently on a hill, motionless (slackers!). The future is here. It is going to be quite a ride these next few decades. Buckle up I can’t wait. (wow! bravado? sarcasm? hope? anticipation!? bring-it-on-let’s-do-this-coz-i’m-tired-of-worrying-and-what-is-the-name-of-this-feeling-anyway?*)

Natural features have risen to contest the brute-force human ones of the grid state now past. The results, the combination of human geometry and natural diversity, are beautiful! (contour and strip farming – Thanks Greg!).

• Eat every mango I come across.
• Avoid getting married off.
• Face time with mega-fauna.
• Observe humans in their natural habitats (both current & historical).
• Marvel at people’s ability to lead apparently functional lives without direct contact with ME
• Finally see India after all these trips, rather than just see relatives (god bless them and their kindness & hospitality nonetheless).
• Try to keep you people entertained!

To my peoples back home, I’ll miss you (I always do!). Please remember what I said about not having any fun while I’m gone. No. Really.
‘deep

*I bet the Germans have a name for that feeling, they always seem to…. with their easy to-make-new-words-without-needing-hyphens language. I bet they have a name for that too! Damn!