By ATIBA ROUGIER, 8/03/2015. It has been years since I flew a kite but I did just that yesterday. It was a moment of nostalgia and utter excitement. I felt like a little boy for that short duration—the eagerness of the kids to show me how it is done Indian style was exhilarating. I wanted to prove to them that though I maybe a tad bit older, ‘I still got it’…I can still do this, haaha, silly man. I am glad I took the five minutes to simply stop and engage the kite, engage memories of my youth, and of days gone, the freedom entailed in just keeping an eye on your kite—I have not yet read Kite Runner…have you? (I just did a Google search and it sounds intense).
Yesterday, I went to the Indira Gandhi State Museum. First off, the grounds are spectacular! It is located in the hills of Bhopal overlooking the lake, breath-taking views! Now I understand the concept of new and old Bhopal. I will elaborate more on this in my final reflection essay.
This is a cliché…being in a place like India, if you self-reflex, you become aware of the things you take for granted. Simple things like fresh/clean drinking water, healthy and sustainable food, clean clothes, basic medicine, and the ability to have an education. Though things are expensive in a place like New York City, I, at times, take certain luxuries for granted—being here has opened my eyes to new perspectives and ways in which I think I will forever be altered. I would spend superfluously on dinners, drinks, and or cabs in one night, some people here, make less in one month than I would pay for a cab from Union Square to the Lower East Side, how can one return and continue such spending, without a conscientious thought?
One thing is universal, we all seek “the good life” in its assorted forms—what is your idea of a good life and are you living up to it? Today’s food-for-thought.
Do you get as excited as I do at the junction/intersection between the end of a book and the beginning of another—that space where you turn the last page of the present book and reach for the first page of the new book? Ah, bliss.