Apr 23 2008
The Virtues of a Steady Diet of Virgins’ Blood and Truffled Chocolates
[Originally transcribed: 12/04/08]
It's funny, I'm here in Sumatra — between surf sessions — and the amazing sitar playing of Anoushka Shankar came up on my iTunes during a random shuffle. Even now, after all the shit I went through in India, listening to this Punjabi music STILL fills me with a vague, if not altogether sane, desire to visit India again.
Luckily for me, I've already been there (at least briefly), so I can separate that romanticized sitar-filled vision of India with the India of reality.
Yes, I still dislike the contemptible, toga-laden 'drippy-hippies' I met who were seeking out the India of their dreams. Yes, I still think India itself is an overcrowded and over-polluted cesspool. Yes, I still equate the entire country with the wrenching agony I suffered in the clutches of the Dengue Fever.
However, for possibly the first time since before I first left for Sri Lanka and India last November, I can empathize with these knuckle-dragging simpletons in drag — albeit on only a slighter, more sane level.
Maybe it's because I've had a chance to just sit back, relax, and get in some halfway decent surf sessions during the past couple weeks. Maybe enough time has passed to mellow my views on the country. Maybe it's my new diet of virgins' blood and truffled chocolates.
Whatever. It's actually kinda nice to look back at India with a 'bit' less disgust. Now, if I can just hold out until November 2, maybe I'll be able to do the same with respect to the United States … but I ain't holding my breathe.
