Jan 29, 2012

last leg.

We are on the last leg of our journey.

I am officially in mourning.

Please don't make me leave. I have a plane ticket with my name on it for Tuesday - Delhi - Kuala Lumpur - Hong Kong...but I don't want to accept it. ha.

Things in Udaipur have been fabulous. It is a chill place - quiet, not much to do except eat cake, read books, and peruse shops selling sparkly, leathery, or hand chiseled things. There is a woman on the corner who has been chiseling away at marble elephants the past two days. We will visit her street-side shop after this internet cafe where internet is 75 cents an hour.

Yesterday we rode horses through a village, I got an 8 dollar pedicure from a woman named Lissy, and then we saw a native Rajistani dancing show in the evening. A fabulous mix of activity and relaxation. Today we are bumming around until our evening train to Delhi. It is supposed to be 12 hours, but all of our trains have been running hours late because of fog in Delhi. So who knows when we'll get there. But we'll eventually get there. We're in the lowest class on the train - with bars instead of windows, so it'll be an adventure.

Right now in the internet cafe there is a heated discussion happening over whether there are power cut-offs today in town. I really am in a different world.

The boys and I were discussing yesterday that we sometimes have out-of-body experiences. Like, we see what is happening around us, and know our bodies are here, but don't compute that we are here. Does that even make sense?

I've been thinking a lot about the unfairness of life. How easily I could have been born a villager in Udaipur, India. How I could be pumping water from a well and carrying sticks on my head in bundles while draped in a shiny sari. I won the genetic lottery - parents who are still together and lack addictions, Protestant, moral upbringing in upper-middle class suburbia America, easy access to higher education, living debt free, access to clean water and electricity and plenty of food every day of my life. And now I travel places with far less than what I have and take photos.

It's not fair.

But instead of living in guilt for what I do have, I need to look around and ask what can I do? These are rudimentary thoughts, but are thoughts just the same that swirl around as I pass water buffalo, goats, and pant-less, shoe-less children in the streets.

I'll have to form my thoughts better on this before writing about it, but these thoughts have been reigning supreme in my mind as of late. I feel so inspired to use what I have been given. My infinite blessings are equally unfair and a call to service to others. To whom much has been given, much will be asked. I've been day-dreamy with these things the past few days.

I'm also knee-deep in a fabulous book. If you like book recommendations - allow me to recommend The White Tiger. It's fab.

Well, internet time is about up. Thanks for reading my rambles. ha.

See you in Delhi.



walk slow. xoxo.

1 comment:

agapelife said...

as usual thanks for sharing.