Last Day

Greetings: Today is my last day in India and I have some time to kill before my plane leaves. Some final thoughts and feelings of this trip................I'm glad I came. It seems like just yesterday that I was laying on my bed with a bad case of Delhi Belly and planning to cut this stupid adventure short and go home. That was 55 days ago and I'm glad I stayed. Back in the 70's I read a quote from Socrates, he said 'know thyself', I took those words to heart and have made a feeble attempt to follow that advice ever since. If one really wants to know one's self, traveling solo in a foreign country will do it. I have seen my strengths and weaknesses come in my face full force. Strength in my empathy, but weak in my shyness and susceptibility to guilt. These forces are constantly playing off each other to make a rich time, day in and day out.
I have also come to appreciate the country, as a people. Yesterday was Republic Day, the biggest national holiday. It celebrates the forming of the constitution, not quite Independence but close. It was the 60th anniversary of that break from British Law that they celebrated. At that time this country was so poor that the average yearly income was less than 1$ a year. I have talked to several men who's monthly income is between 40$ and 70$ per month. They can raise a family on this amount, they work 80 hour weeks to do it but they do it. The British left this country a mess, in 1943 over 10 million people starved to death just because of poor management and total lack of compassion.
I also Appreciate Gandhi much more now. How he pulled all 400 million citizens, of vast diversities, together it was an extraordinary feat.
The desk manager is huffing about my time on the computer so I'll sign off for now...............See you all soon.

NAMASTE

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