My Travel Adventures

I had another early start today and spent much of the morning writing posts for this blog. Since Sparsh’s grandfather had me sit at a different end of the table this time, I did not see the shrine very well, but I noticed that unlike yesterday, Durga received her beloved hibiscus blossoms and half a coconut. I also saw that when the priest came, he not only dressed the idols but seemed to put something like hair on their heads as well.  

I departed for India on the very morning after my graduation. As though it meant to taunt me, the weather in Oxford was cool but sunny – a far cry from the torrential rains yesterday.

I will not dwell much on day 0 of this adventure: my dad and I left Prague on a Sunday afternoon, transferred in Istanbul, and touched down in Kathmandu shortly after dawn on Monday. There were two highlights to the journey. First, we found all the alcohol at Istanbul Airport had labels warning customers of a three-litre purchasing limit – but these were, hilariously, only in Russian. The second highlight was seeing the sun rise over the Himalayas. There was also a lowlight: we encountered strong turbulence on our flight from Istanbul to Kathmandu. As I am sure is true for many people, this was an opportunity for me to revisit most of the religious hymns I know.