Saying Goodbye

This week has been full of goodbyes—a meal or two each day with friends—, mailing, giving away, packing, and organizing for the next leg of our trip. Norbert’s fellowship ends now and on Sunday, June 1, we fly—8:15am—from Delhi to Heathrow. Where sadly we will part ways for 3 weeks. I will get a cab and head south to the county of Hampshire, to Chawton House Library in Alton, where my fellowship begins. And Norbert will head to Germany to visit family and friends. It’s in fact boring to say how amazing it is that time flies…but again we face the reality.


Our five months in Delhi have been incredibly interesting, restful and, if you can believe it, productive. Not knowing many people and being a bit out of the way, turned out to be a very good thing. We got to know the city and several wonderful people, but we also got to remind ourselves what not rushing around feels like. India is a good place to learn this, as we have discovered that one can only do one or two things a day. What a healthy thing to try! I will also miss the gorgeous mangos that just came in season about two weeks ago and the lychees that have just arrived, the fascinating history that quietly sits among the chaos, and the people we’ve met who have made our stay quite memorable. We feel very lucky to have been here and certainly in some ways changed by the experience…though it may take awhile for us to realize the subtleties of that change.


It’s funny to sit here in this apartment now that it feels like home. I still remember our first day here, when we looked around and wondered how we would make it work. The dust and starkness took some getting used to, and we were slightly nervous to venture. And for awhile I did not go out on my own at all, since there were warnings that women should not travel alone here. But now we are living among our own untended dust, the place feels like home, and we get around with ease. I’ve gotten completely comfortable taking rickshaws during the day in places that I know, and lately we've been talking almost every day about the next time...what we'll do and who we'll see..and how it will feel so familiar!