C'est fini

So my final three months in India were a blur of memories, farewells, filing, and last minute dashes to places I’d missed.... I fell well short of completing the India bucket list.... perhaps deliberately – now I have a reason to return.

So three years in India – how was it? Certainly, my world view got a tune up, and my assumptions about everything else got a good shake. It’s very hard to avoid clichés when talking about India. Here’s one: There is nowhere in the world like India. And there are plenty of words in the world that can describe it, but none that capture it perfectly. I like the word CRAMAZING – crazy and amazing, both of which walk an ambiguous line between positive and negative.

I’m inspired by plenty of things in India (insert a long list of wonderful generous creative people I met and their works). And I’m thoroughly depressed by others (insert fox news-esque tv anchors, and the hard lives of ordinary people etc). It feels like the oldest and youngest country at the same time. It moves breathtakingly fast at times, and magically slow at others. It made me happy and sad and all shades in between – sometimes at the same time. It is thoroughly confusing to the senses. It is the future.

I once described living in India as like diving into a swimming pool – the underwater world is immediately disorienting, filling your pores, leaving no space for thoughts of elsewhere. When I was in India, I didn’t have time to reflect on it, and now I’m not, I wonder if three years in India was a dream!

Back in Australia I see things anew – the space, the environment, the prosperity... the big clear sky...the small number of people!! I know now that we are not the norm, India is, and we’re a freaky side show.

I miss India – somewhere deep in my heart it burns. I found myself downloading Bollywood songs this morning and the little flame lit up. I will always miss it. I’ll return. Soon. There’s still so much more to discover.

I really enjoyed taking snaps of India (thank you friends for all the kind comments).
I’m not sure what I’m doing with this website, but it might fire up again one day - who knows what the future holds. I’m going to continue posting random pics at a new website: www.bidip.tumblr.com - less SLR and more Iphone! Check it out if you have nothing to do one Sunday afternoon.

Peace out. Jai Hind. Sachin 4 PM.

Xx Tim