Sublimity…

When I woke up this morning, I suddenly felt completely and utterly comfortable. Sleeping in on a day off (finally), wrapped in my wonderous warm sleeping bag, listening to the soothing, natural sounds of a very peaceful neighbourhood slowly waking up on a Sunday morning, and most importantly, feeling a cool breeze from the window right next to my head. Life is so wonderful, being able to just lie there and appreciate it all was a much needed bit of deep relaxation.

Lying there, I let my mind wander, and surprisingly, the first thing that came to mind was how similar today’s breeze was to those we get in a good Canadian fall. It reminded me of late afternoon High School soccer practices out behind CDHS, sitting on the bench after a good long run and simply basking in the cool breeze. After a minute, another memory came, sitting in a tent on a Thanksgiving camping trip, one of the best feelings ever.

When I had gained enough conciousness to open my eyes and aknowledge that I was awake, Sunil said good moring and then added that it was raining outside. I turned to look outside, and though I couldn’t see any current/recent signs of rain, I realized that there was a lot of moisture in the air and that rain would likely come later in the day. This also made me understand why this mornings breeze – unlike those of every other morning here so far – had brought back the memories. Back home in Canada (and in Nova Scotia in particular), the humidity is usually quite high (since we’re right next to the ocean) and so I’m quite used to living in a somewhat damp climate. Here in India though, the air is bone dry, and in the 3 months I’ve been here (Wow, I’ve been here for a quarter of a year already!) it hasn’t rained once, hasn’t even showed signs of rain, just day after day of clear blue sky and bright sun. For the past 4 years, the annual September trip from Nova Scotia (where the weather changes every five minutes) to Kingson (where you can count on the weather being warm and sunny for the whole month) to start school has made me aware of climatic changes, but nothing so far has been like this one. It’s somewhat funny as I didn’t even notice the difference for a long time, when the weather is beautiful day after day you start to take it for granted and don’t really think about it much, but now that I have been reminded that there are other types of weather, I’ve suddenly realized that I miss having moisture in the air. Strange as it may seem, what I’d really like to have now is a good day of fog or even a nice cold drizzle – nothing like drizzle and fog to make me feel like I’m home in Nova Scotia…

While I’m writing about memories of my other life, there are two others that came to me recently, both at the same time. While working with Supna on Friday night to produce a map of our watershed, Supna was laughing about something or other, and it suddenly reminded me of Tanya’s laughing, fits of endless giggles that are quite contagious. Such a wonderful reminder of the many fun times we shared, and thinking back to them and comparing them with my current situation, it just made me laugh more. However, at the same instant, I smelled something that made me instantly think of my hockey gear. I don’t know what it was, me, Supna or something else in the room, but the smell was quite clear and strong. It was quite surprising as up until now, I have never come across anything else that smells quite like hockey gear, but we had all been out trekking around the mountains for 4 days without a bath, so anything is possible. Out of curiousity, I later checked myself and decided that I didn’t think I was the source of the smell, making it all the more strange, but it was there all the same. It was also funny since, though it wasn’t really a pleasant smell by any means, for once I enjoyed it, as it brought back wonderful memories of all the fun I’ve had playing hockey, and in particular the wonderful dead tired feeling that comes after half an hour of killer drills in the Canning rink back in the good old days as a CDHS Clipper. Vegetating in the locker room after barely managing to get off the ice, too tired to take off any of your gear so just sitting there, watching the steam come off every single part of you and being completely engulphed in the smell of hot, sweaty hockey gear.

Despite all these recent feelings, I wouldn’t say I’m feeling “homesick”, but I certainly am remembering some of the wonderful little things that are a part of my life in Canada. I’m having a good time now, so far this working with PSI thing has been quite an experience, and one all over the board, from incredible to dull, and inspiring to extremely frustrating. It has certainly been a challenge (I think moreso than anything else I’ve done so far) which I think has made me a little more susceptible to triggering memories from home, but I would still say that things are going well and over all I’m enjoying my time here in India now. Life is one big challenge, and if you shrink away from it you won’t get anywhere, so as much as I have been reminded of home over the last week (memories, Christmas presents), it’s part of life, and I’ve figured out a way to get through.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 15th, 2006 at 3:55 pm and is filed under India. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.