raindrops on roses

the days are flying by now as fast as a dandelion disperses in the wind. the tighter i try to hold on to it, the faster time slips away... like grains of sand falling through my fingers. i am leaving india in a week... and it breaks my heart.

5 months ago, i lay on a bed completely foreign to me, in a country that i knew nothing about. i was so scared that i flirted with the idea that maybe i could sleep for a few months until bec got here... so i didn't have to face my fears and the unknown alone.

but i dug deep and found the courage to leave that room and go out into a world that intimidated me... and i discovered a beauty and peace i've never seen before. i learned that smiles are easy and people are loving, if you give them the chance... and life is way more than making money.

it turns out that there is so much beauty in this world that sometimes it takes my breath away... literally.

red and purple flowers fall from the trees while women meticulously sweep them up and wash their driveways. bold, vivid colors splash the streets from saris and butterflies floating in the wind. the smell of jasmine constantly floats through the air, mixing with the spicy scents of curry and rice wafting in through the windows. the rythmic hum of conversations in kanada meld with the street vendors singing about their wares. power outages and rain storms. easy, brilliant indian smiles. sincere joy and happiness radiating from every pore. the calm, almost still pace in a culture of cluttered calamity.

manasa... a little girl riding on the back of her dad's scooter, leaning back and holding tightly to his waist. she soaks up the sun with a huge smile on her face. she is a constant reminder to me of what i'm looking for in life. she smiles endlessly and dances about. she doesn't speak much, but she laughs all the time.

leaving all of this is heartbreaking to me. i have found a home in india. i have found friends and i have found myself. i have learned and grown so much here. i am strong and i am at peace. i'm glad i didn't sleep for 5 months... it's hard to imagine now that i ever wanted to. there are so many things that i will miss about being here, but what i'll miss the most is how india makes me feel about myself... and i give thanks for that.

and now i can go home because i am happy and i am strong... and i know i'll be back.

into the wild

i've been trying to upload videos for weeks now and the indian internet isn't having any of it. either the power goes out randomly (which is about 95% of the time) or the super-slow indian internet connection freezes up and crashes if i try to do anything complex (which includes the complexity of uploading any videos to my blog)... so you'll just have to be satisfied with me simply describing our adventure into nagarhole national forest... and keep in mind that i do have video to actually back my story up this time to prove that i'm not exaggerating... for once.

the trip to nagarhole national forest began with a phone call to the central bus stand... which turned out to be quite the adventure in itself.

the phone rang a couple of times before a man picked up mumbling something that sounded like "hallo", being followed by a string of very fast words spoken in a language that i do not understand.

"hi, um, hello. i was wondering if you could tell me what time the bus leaves for nagarhole national park tomorrow morning?"

the man rattles off another string of very fast kanada... this time, a little faster and a little louder.

"um, hello? is this the central bus stand? what time does the bus leave for nagarhole?"

another mumbling string of words and i hear the phone being shuffled and passed over.

"hallo?"
"hi. yes. what time does the bus leave for nagarhole?"
"eh?"
"nagarhole. what time?"
"nagarhole?"
"nagarhole."
"6:15. 9:30" click.

seeing that this is a normal indian phone call for me, i mistakenly overlook the fact that this should of been a very inauspicious sign for us...

bec and i get to the bus station at 9 am the next morning, still questioning if we will even get close to the national forest. after wandering around aimlessly through a maze of honking city buses with drivers yelling and ticket men trying to convince us to come to bangalore instead, we finally find ourselves on a bus heading to nagarhole.


















side note: according to our guidebooks, we should avoid the crowds and go to the forest during the week instead of the weekend to ensure a spot on the safari that will take us through the forest to view the fascinating wild animals that live there. since this was a monday, which happened to be a day off for us because it was a moon day, we were happy and relaxed not to have to elbow our way into the park.

our guidebooks also gave us some vague directions on how to reach the park from the small town we were to be dropped off in... i figured it would be a perfect little town to have lunch in before we headed into the forest, so i made sure to have a small breakfast as to not ruin the fabulous lunch i had envisioned for us.

alas, you can imagine our surprise when the city bus dropped us off in the middle of the forest instead of in the small town we were expecting. as we get off the bus, the bus driver and the ticket man smile widely and wave as they slam the doors and tear off down the road. bec and i watched the back of the bus until the cloud of dust disappeared.

we slowly turned a full circle to stand facing each other again... i think we realized at the same time that we were the only 2 people in a country of one billion that had decided to go to nagarhole national forest on moon day. we looked at each other in utter silence and i hesitantly shrugged my shoulders and smiled...

and then my stomach growled.