Three weeks in India -- Day Eighteen
In case you're wondering about my health, I'm getting better all the time.
I may not be able to post tomorrow night so I'll treat this as my sign off. When I return to the US perhaps I'll add a postscript.
Quite a few months ago my boss asked me if I'd be willing to go to India. Toady that I am, I said I'd consider it, and then immediately forgot the conversation. Two months or so ago he asked me for real and I knew for all sorts of reasons that I had to say yes. I haven't regretted the decision, except for the many times that I did, sorta. (You know, getting sick, jet lag, etc.)
I haven't traveled internationally in years and it was, frankly, a pain to prepare for the trip. But too often I'm a bump on a log and I'm very pleased I had the chance to break free from that. My employer has expanded it's operations around the world in the last 5+ years and I'm thrilled to be off the sidelines in that effort. Professionally it's been very challenging and rewarding to prepare the course materials and work with the staff here in Hyderabad for the last three weeks. I wish I'd had the time and chance to get to know them better and I hope someday I'll see some of them again in the US.
For me, while I definitely agree there's no place like home, as Dorothy learned you can't fully realized it until you leave. But unlike Dorothy, I won't say I'm never leaving again. Hyderabad is exotic in a way no standard vacation destination could ever be. Though I'm looking forward to sitting down on that log for a while again, thank you very much, the trip's been an eye opener I'll never forget. I've tried to describe the place but I've only touched the surface -- that's all I've touched myself after all. Hyderabad's a boom town, busy and bustling. It knows this and is changing every day as it tries to manage the change, embrace it, incorporate it, and encourage it. I'm sure if I came back in 5 years I'd hardly recognize parts of it. I don't know when the change will slow down but I don't think it will be all that soon.
It's an exciting place that I've been fortunate to visit, and the fact that I'm looking forward to leaving diminishes none of that.