November

I just gave someone my blog address claiming that i blog here "fairly regularly" and then that felt like a lie in recent weeks, so I was forced to come here and write something!

No, don't ask me for an update. I have been avoiding blogging and emailing (and even writing my diary, strangely enough) because too much has happened in the last 2 months, and writing about it is like being asked to process it. Don't want to go there, don't want to reflect on CLAP, don't want to process the madness of the few weeks that preceded it, so we'll sum it up as "It went well, much better than I had expected." Unfortunately, I was too stressed out making it happen to actually be able to enjoy it fully... still, i know that the experience was enjoyable and powerful for the participants (I still get SMSes and emails and calls about how much they miss those 4 days together!), so that's satisfying. I think I will write more about the Writing workshop at another time, though... that was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life... so you will hear more soon, jsut not yet.

Today, I went to the Daryaganj book bazaar with Dad. This is a Sunday used-books and used-stationery market that takes place on the pavement outside closed shops in one of the busiest areas of Old Delhi. It's a delight. I picked up lots of books at Rs. 20 or 3o each... but mostly it's jsut a pleasure to watch this place. The variety of stuff you'll see there is simly mindblowing-- I saw everything from Shakespeare and Ovid, to Jane Austen and Dickens, to Da Vinci Code and Sweet Valley. Even more interesting, I saw a book called "How to start a business in Georgia" (exactly what a random Delhi book browser would need, no?), one called "Robotic Science for traders" (still trying to figure out why a trader would need to know robotic science), and another called "How to really love your child" (anyone who buys that one must be beyond help!). It's a relaxed but exciting way to spend you Sunday morning, picking out your favorite books, then just thinking about all the books there and who must buy them...

Still thinking about other things like friendship and trust, although in different ways than what I wrote about a couple of entries ago. my close friends have long accused me of naivete, but i like to think i'm just innocently trustful. They are right, and I am too... I'm just not sure where the line should be drawn.

Another completely random jump: J, a close friend from SUA, visited me for a couple of weeks recently (she just went home on the 6th). It was the first time I introduced a non-Indian friend to my home, my life, the madness that is India. I had fun, and I think she did too. But also, I really got to see India through the eyes of a foreigner. If you read my entries in Feb- April of this year, you know that I was already feeling like I am looking at home from an outsider's perspective, but this time round was different. When I look through the phtographs she took, I am amazed at how I woudl never have taken half the same photos! So much that was new and strange to her was too normal to me for me to even consider photos. But when I look at it now, it's new (on that note, J, if you are reading this, one of the bulls that hung around in the lane behind my house died today, not sure how :(... just saw it as i was leaving for pottery today).

It was cool though, exploring Delhi like this. For the first time in years, I went inside the Lotus temple. For the first time ever, I went inside the Jama Masjid. And to all my Delhi friends who havent been to either, GO! I was amazed by the complete sense of peace inside both those places, especially Jama Masjid, given that it is surrounded by some of the most crowded and noisy streets you can imagine. There's something about buildings that are 5 or 6 centuries old, I tell you... the temperature drops by a few degrees, the noise gets shut out, and suddenly you really feel transported to a different place altogether. Beautiful.

OK, this is perhaps the most incoherent entry I have written in a while. At least I am back to blogging. Hope to write something more meaningful in a few days, now that CLAP is over and I have a life again :)