Heartcrossings

I was in India for a week after a hiatus of eleven years. Except for a cousin who came to see me in Delhi hours before my return flight, I did not meet any family. In that sense it was a strange way to visit the home country after all this time. I called no one and no one called me. Work kept me too busy to notice the disconnect from my roots. I had left and I was left and that's only fair. So without the distractions of personal ties, I was able to focus on India. I was visiting Chennai after twenty years. The pace was more frenetic, traffic more chaotic, the signs of renewal and decay were never too far apart. The more things had changed the more they remained the same. It was like I had been away for a couple of years and not two decades. Like a comfortable well worn blanket Chennai was there for me like it had been a long time ago. In other cities I traveled to the people were as they had been all those years ago - largely peaceful, interested in the other person and ge...