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...
3 comments:
That's interesting because I feel very similar after coming back from my trip. When I was in Canada, Montana, and Wyoming I felt so welcomed and accepted, despite how different I was from the typical local. It took me by surprise to be honest. I held the stereotypical view that these small town people would have racist views. I could not be wronger. The level of friendliness over there is something that is immediately apparent. When I came back and went to Fry's the other day, I was wondering why no one would smile at me when we made eye contact.
Anyway, like you say, when I was there I felt homesick. Now that I'm back, I long for the road. Some people are never happy ;).
I was in Huntsville in 1992 to give a few lectures in spectroscopy and I spent 2-3 very pleasant days with one of the senior professors who was earlier in IIT Kanpur.I have always looked forward to come back to the dust and smoke of the narrow lanes of Varanasi.It seems you have been assigned a lot of work these days. I cannot function in a new environment for first few days even if I had been to the place. I greatly admire your capacity to work.
This has been my first trip to Huntsville, where I'd rather not be here. I'm really looking forward to going home on Thursday. Aiya, I'm usually pretty tired my first day of travel too. Quiet and tired. The time difference is only 2 hours, so that's not too severe. If I can get a good night of sleep in, I can function normally, but that first night in a hotel is very hard for me. I find it very difficult to sleep in a foreign place.
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