Election day!

I am living in a ghost village right now. There are no patients at the Hospital, there are no people walking on the roads, the shops are closed. It is Election Day!

On any given day here in Orissa I have about 5 hours where I am alone in my room. These hours are usually right after I wake up, after lunch when it is too hot to do anything else, and after dinner before I go to bed. Sometimes I spend these hours outside talking with people, sometimes I just sit on the porch and enjoy a breeze, sometimes I read a book. All in all, I have a lot of free time here.

Today, I had the entire day to myself. I spent the entire day reading, writing, and thinking. These 3 things are possibly my favorite things to do when I have free time. They are like doing exercises for the brain.

Except the reading I did today. That is more like cotton candy for the brain. I read 2 books by Terry Pratchett Thud! and Making Money. They are both fantasy/satire books based in his insane Discworld. If ever you need to laugh at the world we live in, I strongly suggest picking up any of Mr. Pratchett’s works. They are all excellent.

I write everyday. That is to say, since coming to India I have been writing every day. It is not something I did everyday back home. I sort of used this trip as an excuse to exercise my writing muscle. And for that alone this trip has been worth it many times over. I now find it easier to translate my thoughts to paper… uhh… screen. Many people have commented that they enjoy my writing, and I would like to thank them all. And to those of you that do not enjoy my writing, and yet keep reading my blog, seek help.

I am a few thousand miles from home. Currently my thought processes are running parallel ways of thinking. There is the New Jersey way, and the India way. Everything I perceive, experience, or think about is run through 2 separate filters. This can sometimes lead to some very severe discrepancies in thought. There is something interesting about having one mental foot in New Jersey, and the other in India. It provides a wonderful perspective shift. It gives me the opportunity to think about my home with a new outlook.