Every time I visit my parents home in Chennai in India, where I grew up, all my senses seem to come doubly alive.
There's a ton of sounds all around, from a plethora of birds to construction work to incessant honking in traffic.
There's a ton of color everywhere, starting from clothes and green trees that are decades old to the variety of colorful paint used for houses and rooms. Pink and bright yellow houses are a regular feature of our street.
A couple of new dimensions are added to my taste-buds. Sour and bitter tastes are fairly common here compared to the western world. These tastes nicely complement the extra spice and sweet also found here.
There are a ton of smells good and bad everywhere, ranging from rotting garbage on the streets to sandalwood or eucalyptus in public spaces.
Finally my mind can be at rest when at home compared to the constant running from one thought to another when away. The act of non-doing is critical to my interpretation of life and I'm grateful to still have moments to practice this.
I do shudder when I think about getting back to the US mid-west in about a week. I think of the muted silence everywhere and dimming down of other senses. However, I look forward to the amazing intellectual challenges at work and spending time with my wife.
There's a ton of sounds all around, from a plethora of birds to construction work to incessant honking in traffic.
There's a ton of color everywhere, starting from clothes and green trees that are decades old to the variety of colorful paint used for houses and rooms. Pink and bright yellow houses are a regular feature of our street.
A couple of new dimensions are added to my taste-buds. Sour and bitter tastes are fairly common here compared to the western world. These tastes nicely complement the extra spice and sweet also found here.
There are a ton of smells good and bad everywhere, ranging from rotting garbage on the streets to sandalwood or eucalyptus in public spaces.
Finally my mind can be at rest when at home compared to the constant running from one thought to another when away. The act of non-doing is critical to my interpretation of life and I'm grateful to still have moments to practice this.
I do shudder when I think about getting back to the US mid-west in about a week. I think of the muted silence everywhere and dimming down of other senses. However, I look forward to the amazing intellectual challenges at work and spending time with my wife.
