The "Right" of Passage

There is an entire concept in the US called a rite of passage. A rite of passage is about experiencing the world and discovering yourself in order to become a man. The concept, I feel, applies more to men than to women. For many Americans this rite of passage is living in New York City. Every year hundreds of thousands of young college graduates move to this beautiful city to discover who they are. I'm back in this amazing city for a couple of days... work conference. I find it so easy to get "lost" in this massive city. It's ironic that most people come here to find themselves. My perspective leans me towards small towns as better place to figure out who you are. It's much harder to hide your true nature in a place where people know you. I've been walking up and down the streets of this city forgetting who I am and what my goals are... No one knows me here, I can be anyone I want to be.

The Sound of God

I'm in Huntsville again, which means my days are full of meetings listening to people talk, and my evenings are very quiet. Every evening I make plans to do something new, just to keep myself busy. Last night I drove for hours in my boredom. The roads in Huntsville are very different from the ones in California. They remind me of the open roads to Gangauli; two lane roads with fields of wheat surrounding you on both sides. The weather this week has been unusually pleasant... hot but not humid. More like California's summers. I was driving down these empty quiet roads with my window rolled down. After awhile I heard a very loud sound, I thought it was my engine, so I pulled over and turned off my car. The sound got louder when I turned my car off. It was the sound of thousands of crickets singing in the brush that surrounded me. Aiya, the music of the crickets was so loud it was deafening. I was moved by the shear beauty of it. I thought for a moment this is what God sounds like. As a scientist you understand more about the world around you than most people. What most people consider miracles can easily be explained with simple science. I know in the science community religion is very prominent. That element of the unknown always leads us to believe in a higher power. The sound of the millions of crickets singing could easily be explained as a typical summer night in Alabama... It was the force of the sound that moved me. I felt like I was standing in the center of of an orchestra. I could actually feel the music in my heart.
I know in my past blogs I have spoken about the virtue of silence... today I'm thinking the power of noise.

Home Is Where the Heart Is

Aiya, 

I'm sorry I haven't written in a long time. I have spent a large part of the past month traveling for work. Some of it was very exciting, I got to stand inside the space shuttle! A lot of my travels were pure work. I do not get sent to glamorous locations, unless you consider Huntsville, Alabama glamorous. Huntsville is a small town, with a lot of engineers and scientists. There is something very nice about small town America. People are much simpler and the world is much quieter. I long for this, I've noticed: simple and quiet.

I don't think it's possible to go to new places and not meet new people. I don't think it's possible to meet new people and not fall in love with the new places. People are the souls of their town. I leave a little piece of my heart in every place I go. I've left a little piece of my heart in Nand Nagar in Varanasi as well.

I have been going to Huntsville about every other week. I've noticed when I'm there, I want to be in California, when I'm in California I want to be there. I don't have any friends there. In fact I eat all my meals alone when I'm there. I am just in love with the serenity of Alabama. I realize that any place where your heart is is your home. Most of the time your heart resides with people, every now and then it resides with a place...