Arrival

I have arrived. I am not tired; I am not sore; I have come back.

The journey from Des Moines to Chicago to Frankfurt to Delhi to Bangalore was long and uneventful-- long enough that you forget to be antsy after hour 30 because it seems as though the transit itself will never end. Of course, once I started to get close, excitement set in-- coming back to a place you love, wherever it is, feels like shaking off dust off a favorite novel; it feels like the first surya namaskar after a long time away from practice; it is finding the muscles that have been left dormant, feeling out how much you can still do. As I watched the ground approach from several thousand feet, I could not help that every inch down was lightening my steps. Even the landscape itself excited—There are no rolling hills to speak of, but rather oddly randomized rock outcroppings, sprinkled over the landscape, surrounded by entirely flat farms and developments. It looks nothing so much like an artist’s depiction of the sea on a still day, a fish’s back arcing out of the water – rendered in stone. So uniquely Bangalore.

There was a great deal I did not recognize upon my arrival – the driver sent to pick me up – the ultra modern buses that took us through the “New Airport” part of the city—the New Airport part of the city itself. There is a great deal of bustle, a great deal of construction, all of it focused on an area significantly outside the heart of the city. This new Bangalore will take some getting used to, especially as it has also changed Guddilahalli, Kothanur, Dodda Gubbi, all of these haunts that I just got to know the last time I was here. They are sleeker now, more full with cars and Maruthis and Qualises and Fords than bullock carts or handcarts or even rickshaws. (This is a bit of concern, actually – the traffic on the outer ring road has sped up, to a point now that I could see it being rather dangerous – riding along in the bus from the airport reminded me a great deal of The Knight Bus, in Harry Potter) with it's high speed weaving.

But pulling into Visthar was a coming home. The campus is little changed; they have added a bakery unit for the girls to learn to make delectable things to go along with their cooking (speaking of -- does anyone have a good eggless cookie recipe? Is there such a thing?) I am staying in a gorgeous second story one bedroom flat, that I will be sharing with another girl in the relatively near future. My Bandhavi girls were startled to see me -- I think they have been told that I was coming, but only in passing -- I am remembering their names as well as I can, and several girls are already happy to inform me that my Kannada is still terrible but their English is better so they will translate for me. The mosquitoes are still pestilential, and the campus is completely laden with fruit: guava, mango, jackfruit (in the running for weirdest looking fruit ever: http://s3.amazonaws.com/picable/2007/07/27/45430_Jackfruit-Tree_620.jpg), coconut, banana. I think everyone needs to know that I can pick guava from my balcony! Not that they are quite ripe, but it's the proximity that counts!

Tomorrow being Sunday, I will probably sleep a bit late to account for the many hours of sleep I didn't get while sitting in the Delhi airport. After that -- exploring and wandering and unpacking and making myself a general nuisance :) I then begin work on Monday, as Visthar's Program Associate for International Education. I will be here for at least 6months (a visa requirement will have me home in November), and the excitement of it all is breathtaking!

More soon!

Lindsay