Back home

I returned to Calcutta last night, after a hectic 4 day trip to south India, occasioned by some work there, but principally rushing around, travelling through the soils of my ancestral roots and meeting long-lost friends.

When one is in a ingrained schedule of living, which includes blogging - then, an enforced break from blogging and travel to far-flung places serves to remind that blogging is such a tiny part of life and the world, which must remain largely incommunicable!

I flew from Calcutta to Madras, then took an overnight train to Palakkad. I then took a bus from Palakkad to Cochin, via Trissur, reaching in the evening. I spent the night with my school friend Madhu. The next morning I took a bus back to Palakkad. And immediately took a bus to Coimbatore, from where I took a bus to Kothgiri, in the Nilgiri mountains. I spent the night with my friend Pratim. The next morning, I boarded a bus back to Coimbatore, and then another one to Palakkad. I took an overnight train to Madras, and yesterday I visited my college friend JP's mother in Madras, and another school friend Balaji, before taking the flight back to Calcutta in the evening.

I saw the reflection of the rising sun on the Arabian Sea on India's west coast, and also the reflection of the setting sun on the Bay of Bengal on India's east coast. And I travelled through dry plains, gigantic river basins, lush green countryside, wooded hills and thickly forested mountains.

I could write a fat novel on the resonances and significance of the places I travelled through and the people I met, occasioned by this chance trip!

Returning to a very wet and flooded Calcutta, where there's been incessant rain for 3 days.