6 months after....

....the last post.
- the month of May. Delhi, India. Sweltering heat, powercut, work, water shortage, visitors, shooing lizards in the kitchen. Blanking out - Showing someone the map of our US trip itinerary, I forgot the name of the place in Arizona which has the vortexes. It came back just now - Sedona.

Sitting here, in this world which is so far away from the one I visited, I wonder how something that still feels so fresh in my heart and my inner eye, is receding from my mind in this way. And as I write, I understand that this is happening in a process of taking distance from the excitement that I had been immersed in as I relived moments, memories, visuals and vistas, laughter and faces of The Trip each time I talked about it. For until this happened I could not write or think - really think about the trip. I needed this time to assimilate the 4 months that I spent in America in such a fantastic way.

I think today I have breathed enough and taken in enough to be able to write here. Everything here is about the trip, except that now it is coming in a chewed and enzymed form - mixed with the juices of my system that has been digesting America inside me all these months.

Today, I can write with ease about the drive through the snow storm from Stamford, Connecticut to Cincinnati, Ohio. At that time I was in it - The person who was in that drive, focusing on the road, aware of the danger, enjoying the flurries, enjoying the thrill of it all, the adventure of driving for the first time in a snow storm through landscape that had been hidden and silenced by the same snow again and again - that person was not the same one who is sitting here, in Delhi, with the computer on her lap and ice melting in the freezer, in the mode of writing about that drive. This Writer Self and That Driver Self are ready to meet.

And that my friends is an introduction to what is to come. I am going to email Carol and ask her to invite all her America Trip Selves and if she is game will party here in this blog and exchange stories and invite you all to join us.

With Love,
Komal

Thanksgiving

Nearing the end of this Thanksgiving weekend, I am grateful for so much:

- For Manna's amazing kitchen and culinary skills and also that I didn't eat as much as I could have.
- For my daughters, Bita and Matata, who both came to spend our first Thanksgiving together since Bi left for college in 2003.
- For Judy and Joe who have repaired furnaces, moved equipment, and shared kids, food and music to make us all comfortable and welcome. Judy further endured hours of shopping and shlepping us all to the malls -- with her usual grace and smile.  She was grateful that we shop less now than we used to.
- For my traveling companion, Komal, and her amazing family who made our Thanksgiving so special.
- For the cold weather which makes me happy I live in India most of the time.
- For warm coats and gloves that make me happy to be here now.
- For Lori and Mimi who danced with me last night to Joe's Bruce Springsteen band, even though I danced once in stocking feet and next in my hot pink reflecting sneakers.
- For all the friends and family members who have hosted, feted and feasted us over the past 3 months and nearly 11,000 miles. I'm only now beginning to process the enormous outpouring of care, love and warmth I've been surrounded by -- that I'm still surrounded by. It's quite overwhelming.

May your holiday season be as joyful and as full of surprises.

Glorious Days

Something about the coziness of being in this 'efficiency' apartment that invites me to write. So we are in DC now and the apartment is Bi's. Washington DC where everything is Capitol and Presidential, American and First. Many a day have passed since I wrote last. Many people, many vistas, trees and miles! So, the day we were leaving Atlanta, we stopped on the way out to meet Shalini - a college friend, who I hadn't seen or met since 1983. How does one 'catch up' on 27 years of connection that has been like an underground stream - there but not seen, heard or even felt? And then suddenly 'it' reappears. Surfaces. Now it is alive and bubbling!

From Atlanta to Tryon, on the border between North and South Carolina. It's in the North part of this gorgeous gorgeous belt of hill, lake and color dripping trees. A word about the trees from today - I think people living in America are so fortunate. How wonderful it must be to wake up everyday - during Fall - and walk out of the door into the fairyland that this landscape. It's like living in a painting!

To continue - Yep! done it again - the scenic-drive meandering through my conversation here. Ok, to continue - So we went to Tryon, near Asheville and met The Davins, who are absolutely lovely. They live in a beautiful house by a little lake and the golf course. The porch is covered and has windows wrapping it in light, color and the moon glow when it shone in the night smiling at us at the dining table and as Carol's hidden stream of energy was fed by these loving elders from her past.

From Tryon to Charlotte, North Carolina. The romantic, the gracious, the home of Margaret Mitchell. Perhaps she spelled out the words of Gone With the Wind sitting on the swing in a gazebo and blooming magnolia trees leaned over her shoulders to take a sneak peak at the book, while slim pencil-pillars holding up terraces and porches of her mansion provided a backdrop that stretched into the Carolina blue skies.

And, at this time, I am about to wind up this little piece about our lives and others'. Today is Prithvi's birthday. We are going out for lunch. Carol and I have packed to move from Mala's house in Fairfax to Michele's in Arlington. This DC stay has very interesting elements. We'll share them - teser in a wrinkle in our packed time to the quiet writing zone! (That was a reference to two books that we have met that talked about time travel. REad/hear them!
1) A Wrinkle in Time. 2) When You Reach Me)

With lots of love.
It is a sunny happy bright, post rain day that is inviting us out.

Komal

Inside Job

Cousin Debbie, Komal and I went to a movie tonight, the first we've seen since coming to the US. "Inside Job" is worth seeing. As the promo poster promised: "If you don't leave this movie enraged, you weren't paying attention."

Because I know that it's more productive to fight for something rather than against something, I'm all fired up right now to support strong regulation of financial markets and institutions. But I have to admit to rather strong urges to shoot some of the smug sonofaguns who clearly have no intention of behaving differently. And I'm disappointed in the academics who, for some reason, I think should act objectively instead of being bought out like everyone else.

I'm enjoying Charlotte, being with Debbie, and the gorgeous fall weather and colors. Another long walk planned for tomorrow morning, then we'll be off to Raleigh/Wake Forest. 

Skirt counting

"I only have 16 long cotton skirts left!"
"Yes, you've sold at least half already."
"And 6 short ones and 9 silk ones."

So the morning begins: coffee by Terry, kid picture sharing (Bi, Mattie, Adam, Halina), skirt sharing accompanied by flute blowing. Terry is heading to Los Angeles this morning, needing to get Bela the dog over to her friend for the weekend,  yet we find time to relax, to exclaim, to enjoy these moments. Last night after driving nephew Gaurav back to campus, we were treated to videos of Halina's performances -- what a voice and stage presence that young woman has!

A beautiful visit, unlike any other we've enjoyed so far; each has been unique, unexpected, irreplaceable.

Today, on to visit The Davins. Always written in capitals for me, after so many years. They've retired from Glen Ellyn to Tryon, North Carolina.

Partial Statistics

I checked this evening.

58 - days into the road trip

9106 - miles added to Sweet Chariot since we started.

26 - states we have driven through
Connecticut, Massachussets, New YOrk, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan,
Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada,
California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, Mississipi, Alabama,
Florida, Georgia

5 - states traveled through in one day
Texas, Louisiana, Mississipi, Alabama, Florida

9 - Cuisines tried
Lebanese, Mexican, Tex Mex, Thai, Indian, Chinese, Lousiana, All American Hotdogs,
Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

4 - minutes before my computer dies.

Good night.
To be continued later.

Love,
Komal

Fall is

It is an interesting time capsule that I entered through the doorway of trees coloring themselves into fall. Red, orange, yellow and shades in between that were so beautiful and so intense that as I walked through this doorway and we drove all those miles and as the landscape changed I did not even notice that there were places during the drive that were not changing their greens. Until now. I am in this amazing sun room in Atlanta, Georgia, in Terry's house watching yellow leaves drip and float down to the peach and pink orange - everything has changed again. In these woods near Emory University, a mile away from seemingly everywhere, I can hear the water running as Terry does things in the kitchen and the sound of the season in full bloom.

Today we are in Atlanta, the land of Marting Luther King and Jimmy Carter. Also Gaurav - nephew, Babbu Mausi - Shani Narang's sister, Shalini Subbarao from college, Frank - Christine's son who is a new father, Shreyas - Shrikant's son. I am delighted that I am surrounded by this energy of people I know and of. I have spoken with some and will meet some. I may also miss meeting someone that I thought I would definitely meet. I may also meet someone inside me who is known and someone who I may discover, quite by chance as I gather my jacket to fold me in warmth, smiling at the wind. I feel the sun on my grey leopard print sock, and enjoy the tickling of its heat, as I feel movement in me and around me. Sitting here watching the leaves and being touched by the sense of time traveling at a slow, pleasurable, morning-walk pace I wonder at this woman - Komal - who has come all the way from Delhi, India, spent time money energy to be here and driven all these miles for something - and that something is this witnessing.

With love and gratitude,
Komal