May 28
Udaipur, India
Dear Jeff
I have a strange tale to unfold. The events and sentiments very mixed up. I would have liked your company and your council at some points.
Begin:
I’m in Udaipur.
Been here four days. Spent the first three soaking up the relaxed atmosphere, passively. One of the most beautiful city views I have ever seen [...]
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everywhere & nowhere 47
You will not find abundant wealth without finding by its side the rights of people that have been trampled.
No rich morsel is eaten without there being in it the hunger of those who have worked for it.”
—from The Sayings of the Islamic Shia thinker Ali
At the time I was in India, the [...]
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everywhere & nowhere 46
The morning I arrived in Udaipur, I didn’t think I had the energy to make a re-acquaintance with Ahmed, nor to track down his father’s guest house, so I headed for a rather elegant little higher-end hotel on the edge of the lake, instead.
At $18 a night, it was probably the best bargain [...]
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everywhere & nowhere 45
I took an overnight train on my way to Udaipur, and out of Rajasthan’s desert furnace. Exhausted, I decided to ride first class to avoid the inevitable press and hassle, and I was rewarded with my first heart-to-heart talk with an Indian woman. Back in the 90s, unless one hung out among the [...]
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Posted in Chapter 3, This is where I've been, tagged travel, adventure, travel writing, letters home, India, rajasthan, maharaja, Taj Mahal, Agra, poverty on May 28, 2008 | 2 Comments »
everywhere & nowhere 44
May 16
Ajhit Bahwan Palace Hotel
Rajasthan, India
Dear Doug and Leanne,
I’ve been thinking a lot about all the things I want to put in this letter: descriptions of landscapes and people, little snip-its of dialogue, inevitable philosophical reflections, some of the humourous scrapes I’ve managed to fall into (and pull myself out of), details [...]
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everywhere & nowhere 43
May 11, 93
McLoud Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, India
Dear Jeff,
In my manic way, this letter will reflect my complete satisfaction and sheer joy at what I sometimes encounter on these travels.
(Although, I imagine a little of my confusion and a little of my habitual amateur philosophy will probably seep in—just to dispel any possibility [...]
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everywhere & nowhere 42
I was reading Naipaul early in my travels through this complex country. In the end, I can’t be sure if that was a good idea or a bad idea
[T]o awaken to history was to cease to live instinctively. It was to begin to see one’s self and one’s group the [...]
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Posted in Chapter 3, This is where I've been, tagged adventure, Bombay, carpet sellers, Delhi, Himalayan voyage, India, Indian trains, Mumbai, travel, travel writing, where i've been on May 24, 2008 | 1 Comment »
everywhere & nowhere 41
India was definitely a turning point for me: in terms of acknowledging how little I really I knew (about ANYTHING)… and in terms of my limits when it comes to processing or even approaching an understanding of the world that “goes round and round”, as Gertrude Stein put it.
The sub-continent confounds, even as it charms [...]
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Posted in Chapter 3, This is where I've been, tagged adventure, banglamphu, India, ko samui, letters home, post cards, sharks, thialand, travel, travel writing on May 21, 2008 | No Comments »
everywhere & nowhere 40
By the time I got to Thailand, I knew it was just going to be a transit point, and so I used the time to do some reflecting. I still didn’t know what I wanted to get out of the journey I had embarked on. Mostly, I don’t think I wanted to get [...]
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everywhere & nowhere 39
Some say the world is like a giant mirror. We search for ourselves in its face.
Me, I think sometimes the world is more like a kaleidoscope of mirrors: each beveled plane edged & defined by a fractured image; never itself, always its self.
Or maybe a shattered kaleidoscope, a collision of images so [...]
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