Vanishing and Reappearing

Date: 06/17/2011

The writing's on the wall: I am going to do horribly on the final exam for the gastrointestinal system because my brain is already yearning for the heat of the Indian summer and Indian chillies. The latter has a remedy (Indian mangoes!!!) and the former is meant to be suffered bravely (which allows you to boast freely when you meet people from more temperate parts of the world).

I was just having an evening coffee with a friend from med school. As we parted, I got into my car, revved up the engine and almost ran the stop sign just as she was crossing the street while also being on the left side of the road. She gave me a very very befuddled look and I had to embarrassedly tell her to move on and not judge me (Sorry, Sandi!). What can I do? My brain thinks it's in India already.

My flight to India is on Tuesday. I get to fly my favourite carrier: Jet Airways. They serve mango lassi and Indian food and, most importantly, give me a chance to catch up on all the escapist Hindi cinema that I've been missing in America. As I get closer to my flight, I cannot get a quote from one of my favourite books, "If on a winter's night, a traveler" by Italo Calvino, out of my head:

"To fly is the opposite of traveling: you cross a gap in space, you vanish into the void, you accept not being in a place for a duration that is itself a kind of void in time; then you reappear, in a place and in a moment with no relation to the where and when in which you vanished."

You can imagine how exciting the prospect of "reappearing" in India is for me.

This picture was taken three years ago in the Montreal airport as I waited to vanish and reappear in New York City.