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Okay the trip was as bad as i imagined and i feel like i've been through the spin cycle of a washing machine. But the trip was relentless as well, i kept hopping from one form of transportation to the other almost continuously and slept under the blare of videos and stereos and whatnot. Saw my first hindi movie in close to ten years (i think) trapped in a 20 hr bus ride from Bombay to bangalore. Already i notice things that strike me as odd: maybe my whole perspective is changing based on these two years spent abroad. I realise how it might be to a foreigner to leave the secure orderliness of a western country and descend on india, where seeing surreal images are a way of life, something normal. For example, the bus was just leaving bombay and it paused (it's an understatement- there was a traffic jam) below a flyover. Some kids were playing cricket under the flyover, when suddenly a shower of sparks descended from the base of the flyover. I thought that maybe it's a short or something, but i soon realised that somebody was welding under the flyover. I couldn't see anything but the golden sparks that descended gracefully onto the ground and scattered. The kids stopped playing, and huddled to the side waiting for the shower to end, while one kid approached the sparks dramatically and thrust out his hand pretending to catch a few, but stepped back just in time to avoid getting burnt. The bus moved soon after and i lost sight of the flyover. I was thinking, this is something that would have great effect embedded in the middle of some movie, and here it is happening all the time all around me. I'm sure I'll have tons of things to write about. While i had a great time in Sede Boqer, I had to stretch the posts, because so few things happened, but i guess i will have the opposite problem. It'll be fun, and i'm looking forward to the latest twists and turns on this path :)