Internet still down.....

...on work laptop. - Byl

From Tara -

I have been reading more than ever here, in large part because I have so much more time on my hands. Lately, I have read "Eat, Pray, Love", "The Interpreter of Maladies", "Holy Cow", "A Thousand Splendid Suns", and "The Namesake".

A few of these books give tremendous insight into the Indian psyche, and others were just good reads. The humor that some of these books provide is refreshing, and in other cases they are tragic books.

Basically, it has been great reading as much as I have here in India.

It gives a certain weightiness to my interactions with life here, because all of these authors depict being brought out from their home country and being brought into a state where they must accept and interact with a new land and a new life - and find themselves in the process. This has helped me to grasp the change in myself since being here in India.

It's about seeing my life in parallel to stories of these authors, yet as an American that is silly, because I have so little in similar to the Afghan woman in "A Thousand Splendid Suns"........ but there are parallels, even if by different means. It is almost fraudulent to invite the comparison, in some ways.

It's nice.