The boundaries of reality are the area of play…

It is 2:42 in the morning, and I am still wrapped up in last-minute packing, project writing, and general panic. I am still unsure if I’ll get my Indian visa in time for my departure Thursday morning - this is what happens when you parents give you birth in China, even when you hold an American passport…

Packing used to be utterly uncomplicated when I only had to worry about looking cool. Now I have to worry about what camera to take - cables, memory cards, iPod, laptop or no laptop, film or no film. Endless decisions, compromises, and headaches. Perhaps tomorrow when I wake up, I’ll opt for a good ol’ FM2 with a 50″ or a Rollei (you can’t afford to forget the lead bags for the films these days though). Still I think life will be easier without all the electronic appliances. I have become over-equipped and dependent on technology (sigh).

The only book I’m bringing is the Gita, with all the highlights. The entire book should be highlighted, btw:)

Currently reading : The Bhagavad Gita (Penguin Classics) By Anonymous Release date: 25 February, 2003

It is not the language but the speaker that we want to understand.

Veda Upanishad

I have noticed that between plans for the holiday season, end-of-the-year work and art obligations, I have been very absent on the blogging front. I have also been spending way too much time on Facebook planning my trip to India (why is everybody on Facebook these days?), so this is my occasion to say “hi.”

Here’s the itinerary stripped down to the bare essentials, with some further fine-tuning needed (Everything in bold is SET IN STONE!):

* * *

13 Dec, 23:00 Delhi, arrival at Gandhi International Terminal 2 (Air India 7148)

15 Dec - 22/23 Dec: Rajasthan: Udaipur, Jaisalmer, (Pushkar?), Jaipur (transit), Agra (Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri)…

22/23 Dec: overnight train from Agra to Varanasi (Benares, holy city on the Ganges).

23/24-29 Dec: days in Varanasi, day trip to Sarnath (Buddhist holy site)

29 Dec: overnight train to calcutta, fly to Goa

30 Dec - 2 Jan: Days on the beach

2 Jan: Jaie returns from Goa to Delhi, flight back to London.

3-7 Jan: either take the train to Hampi, Karnartika or follow Anita to Kerala (undecided!!)

3-4 (maybe 5) Jan: 48-hour drive through the Karnataka and Kerala coast to meet Anita’s mom in Cochin!

after: south India stuff - Anita, Sammi, Amanda, Ahmad and CC - the Lakshdveep (I think this may be too ambitious for me given the time frame).

7 Jan, fly from Cochin or Bangalore to Delhi

8 Jan, 1:20 Delhi, departure from Gandhi International Terminal 2 (Air India 7147)

8 Jan, 5:40 Paris, arrival at Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2E

Things I don’t want to miss:

- Meet a Vedic astrologer. Anita do you know a good one?
- I need to buy some Indian traditional music as well as meditation music. BTW, what are some gifts that Indian people appreciate?
-Good ayurvedic massages
-Meditation and yoga
- I need to buy some sculptures, preferably in wood or stone, silver jewlery…
- Many more things that I’m too tired to think of now…

Anyone been to India? Any good advice?

Am making a flyer now for an international medical congress that I’m going to be participating next Wednesday entitled, “Esthétique de la vulve: critique et techniques” (aesthetics of the vulva: critiques and techniques). Some 150 doctors and plastic surgeons around the world are going to be gathering together to discuss the ethical implications of plastic surgery on the vulva, a recent global phenomenon in vogue.

My short film on the female genitalia project will be screened at the end of the conference, and I hope to learn new things and meet people of interest for my research. I also got a stolen Powerpoint presentation of a renowned plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills called Dr. Matlock. His slogan? - “Medicine is business.” Dr. Matlock holds a M.D. as well as a MBA in medical business. The Powerpoint is hilariously engaging and unintentionally parodistic to the plastic spirit of Beverly Hills, THE mecca of cosmetic surgery in the world.

Report coming shortly on that front. I am also cleaning up my thesis for possible publication in France. That’s a lot of work before I leave for Delhi! And my head is full of India, and needlessly to say, of pussies .

Currently reading : The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner By Friedrich Nietzsche Release date: 12 April, 1967