It is nice to be able to cross Continents and World Views in a matter of Hours.. at Midnight one day, you are at the Oberoi Lounge at the Bangalore Airport and within hours, you are sipping Cafe and tasting pain au chocolat at the Air France lounge at CDG... with it comes a tremendous deep change, thinking has to change, I am not a visitor to the west, I have lived in the west almost all my life but with forays in various other cultures, disovering Asia only since 2002, when my brother, deeply dedicated to good asian food, wanted me to travel with him. Since than I have enjoyed visiting Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Burma. The most surprising gift of all was Malaysia, which has become like a second home... Somehow the spirits wanted me to compensate for the loss of Cuba in my life.. No, I have not lost Cuba, but not able to go there as frequently as before (once a month, you would have found me in Cuba, unbroken for ten years!)..
This visit to Asia ( I dont include India here, which is a Culture and Nation on its own) was very good: as usual, the gracious hostess, MC and the House of Glass; the Diamond in our skies, AG from Bombay and her lovely two children and VY, a very good teacher from Bombay who took time to come and introduce us non-Indians to this ancient indian philosophy.
Within days I could see the effects of Yoga, not in my body but in my spirit. I could see myself becoming more tolerant ( i travel frequently and was intolerant of ignorant travellers, but this time at KL departure lounge I didnt feel it) and also more accepting of the situation. As my UmonHon Indian friends have always said: Be happy with what you have..
I am.
KL: A lecture which went well. four days of Yoga with complementary atmosphere of the house of AG/BT, whose birthday we celebrated... seeing the eclectic mr H and his delightful wife S and their infant daughter with a whole head of black flowing hair, Little S.
Each night, our palates would lit up with the Chinese food, the chinese who know how to eat, who rather forego buying new things in favour of eating good tasty meals. I remember clearly a chinese avising me in those early days in Brunei. For us, the food has to look good, smell good and taste good ...
On my last day, the wonderful DimSum at Hotel Oriental and the dinner at Restoran Oversea, were exceptional meals..
it is nice to feel enveloped in this net of affections in Malaysia, which has truly become my second home.. or more truthfully to be added to the emotional homes I have.. Paris, Miami and Havana..now add KL.. Even when I was a student, I thought of more than one place as home Melbourne and Miami, Melbourne, Miami and Kingston... London and Kingston... Now add KL to that list.
I wish to thank all my dear friends, now separated in distance but not in thoughts, who made my life a little bit sweeter, to give me the strength to face the ice and the snow of the MidWest and comfort and counsel the American Indians, to whose welfare I am dedicated to.
Hope the winds bring me back to KL, my home House of Glass, soon enough. My Kickapoo sister from Mexico begged me not to travel to Asia between mid may and mid august, so after that premonition is lifted, you will see me... at the arrival gates of Kuala Lumpur international Airport.. Until then, Teremah Kaseh and Arigato Gozaimasu...
