Last Entry

We knew the day would come when we would post the final entry to our blog. We just could not comprehend on September 10, 2005 when we landed in the dead of night in Chennai that this day would arrive so quickly. Recapping our full experience over these past months in a few paragraphs is beyond our literary reach. We can say without hesitation that we have had a most marvelous adventure.

After a few carefree days of vacation in Paris, we will land in the US on May 11 and resume lives that, prior to our life in India, we considered adventuresome. Yet having trekked about the Indian subcontinent, strolled the streets of Hanoi, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and dusted from our trousers the dirt from Sri Lankan gem mines, we may find our sense of adventure in the familiar surroundings of our Atlanta home requiring some adjustment. We are ready for that challenge.

We will face other challenges upon our return as well. We will move from left hand to right hand traffic flow, centigrade to fahrenheit, from never drinking the tap water to having our fill, bananas purchased from street vendors to bananas sold in wide-aisled, well lit Kroger stores. We’re looking forward to it.

The view from our back balcony overlooking the N.R. Colony will change to a view of full-leafed oak and poplar trees. Rather than having our neighbor’s dog Princess as an occasional visitor, Katie, Leopold and Sammy will be our regular canine companions. Grimmy and Elana, our two tiny fully grown cats, will find comfort with the return of our inviting laps.

Work at Jay’s Bangalore office will continue. New arrivals will continue to fill the ranks of the Bangalore Overseas Women’s Club. Our Indian friends from the apartment who are already home will continue to mingle on Republic Day in the apartment compound. We suspect our absence will hardly be noticed.

What will long linger are our many wonderful memories, many of which we’ve captured in this blog. Some that transcend photos are the retelling of his escape from the tsunami waters by Coconut Raj, the heat felt on our skin in the towns along the Malabar Coast and the quiet nod of appreciation when a few rupees were given to street beggars. These and other memories will remain as we adjust from urban to suburban living, rupees to dollars and begin letting our imaginations formulate our next great adventure.