The Luck Holds

The last fair was long, real long (7 hours), but went well. Mellow. I was even able to make it to the Bombay Store afterwards, with a couple reps from DePaul, to do some last minute shopping. Once kicked out of the store we took a cab to Tendulkar's (owned by and named for the huge cricket star) for dinner. Also, during the fair, I was interviewed twice, once for print and once for national TV. Wow. Y'know - last trip out I was actually quoted in the Financial Times of London (that's like the European Wall Street Journal). I'm such the world-weary celebrity. After dinner we returned to the hotel and I packed up for the big flight. This is where I really lucked out - the big flight was perhaps only a third full. Everyone had their own section to spread out on and sleep. I also completed TWO crossword puzzles - NY Times and USA Today! I'm on a roll...

Sri Lanka & Delhi Anew

Time for a quick update. The Linden India Tour is over. It was rough. Chennai was a madhouse. Our last stop, Colombo, Sri Lanka, was a welcome change. It was kinda like India, but more mellow, more manageable. Less noise, less chaos. Soothing by comparison. I don't think it is coincidence that the majority of the population here is Buddhist.

Then it was back to New Delhi for the first of two IIE fairs. It was also mellow, though not uneventful. I picked up 6 applications. Good stuff. Tomorrow it is back to Mumbai, then home to Southville. I doubt that my luck will hold out and grant me another pleasant fair.

I can taste the biscuits and gravy... hmmm...

Tattered and Frazzled, as if by Barnacles

I read somewhere that the human brain has evolved, to our great benefit, to not remember pain accurately. For instance, I can remember that it hurt really, really bad when I was young and fell off a boat dock, ripping my abdomen open on barnacles. But do I specifically remember the qualities of that pain, like I can remember specific melodies and pieces of artwork? No way. The reason we have evolved this way is so that we can continue to do things that might hurt us, even horribly. Otherwise, I might never again venture onto a boat dock, and women would all quit after one child.

Likewise, I did not remember how much more trying it is to recruit in India as compared to other countries. Oh. My. God. I am beat. BEAT. It really hit me today. As hard as the Middle East tour was sometimes, India is ten or more times that. Part of the reason is that I am right-brained. Indians, even the artistic ones, all want left-brained answers to everything. They want quantitative descriptions of my university, not qualitative ones. I end up spitting out stats and application requirements for hours on end, with no opportunity to wax poetic on the beauties of Southville or to describe the wonderful events my university sponsors. I have not had time to exercise consistently or eat regular meals, let alone relax or catch up on e-mail (ok, I did finally see the Taj Mahal, but it required 12 hours in a bus, so there). That was the worst part of today - opening my work e-mail, and watching that number in the bottom-left corner climb into the triple digits. Under the Wheel. That is how it made me feel.

But now I am going to bed. I am forgetting the e-mail, and the college fairs still to come. I will wake tomorrow, have breakfast, and then have an e-mail party. If I finish before we check out of the hotel in the afternoon, I might even have a chance to update everyone on the last week.

(If I have bummed you out, go check Molly's blog. She's about to get married, and is sickeningly happy. I got her a cool wedding present in Agra - hope it gets there in time.)