"I feel Luv"

I am standing on the brink of a new day and I sense this strange excitement curling around my guts, gripping tighter and tighter as it closes in on my heart. “I Feel Luv.”

This love is for this fantastic adventure called life… like they say, life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans!! I had imagined a year or two in Delhi, and before I knew it... I was off on a new adventure. (I am very grateful to the kindness of friends and family who gave me an opportunity to sneak a peek into their lives and be a part of their happiness.)

I grew up reading Enid Blyton, and just like George and Julian or the six cousins about to embark on a new hair raising un-put-downable tale, I began to sense a buzz in me. It flared the first time when I was boarding the train to Mumbai a few days ago. I was off to join a challenging new job on the western coast. As the weather grew warmer I felt a familiar tug of memories flooding my head. Finally, Maharashtra! I’ve had a long love affair with this state thanks to living in Pune. At the first “ye tikre” I found myself grinning stupidly, the rough Marathi crashing my ear drums. I’ve had occasions to want to slap the crap out of Pune, but it’s gotta be true love because I learnt to embrace the flaws and think them endearing.

My train journey was the unfolding of a dramatic play. I was reading Shantaram and like a fascinating film, I could see his experiences unfold before my eyes. The warmth, curiosity and generosity of the average Indian person was laid bare, just as he described, in the sleeper class compartment as people slept in the aisles and shared food and water and life’s problems with each other for thirty long hours. There were banana leaf piles in the toilet and people trying to stand and sleep. And yet there were small smiles for those you recognised from climbing and sidestepping your way to the somehow useable toilets.

But I digress. Tomorrow, I will be in a place I have talked of for too many years. It epitomizes many things I have had too much faith in and have looked for. A community of happiness and belonging, of acceptance and music, and a chance to make that difference I’ve always believed I am capable of bringing to this crazy country I call home.  

Here’s looking forward to a new place, a new language, a new community, new experiences, old loves, more music, another breathtaking sunrise, and another chance.