It is amazing how the simplest of things like placing a food order over the phone, asking for directions, taking a shower, or crossing a street can completely unnerve and dishevel ones' graspe of adapting to a new place.
India in so many ways will be the most 'unknown' destination of our trip around the world. I hear from so many students their desire for the familiar of space, moments, feelings, tastes, sounds, or surroundings. It is quite difficult to find any of the familiar here in India. To some extent it is refreshing to know the west has not completely penetrated and annhilated all of India's pride for India. How do we move and exist in this space which is not our turf? How can we soak in the completely 'other' and 'unknown' and embrace it for what it is?
Our time here is so short that it seems insensitive to desire familiar sensations of home - and yet even with all the traveling I've done I understand that desire (dare I say the need) to have a bit of familiar to catch one's footing in order to embrace all the other unknowns.
The simplest of things can unnerve...and yet the simplest of things can recapture steadiness...like google chatting with friends, having skype dates, have a coffee at a lovely cafe, or finding common ground with the unknowns which surround us...there are more than we think.
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