Welcome back!
It’s the official end of summer (and hopefully, runway melting heat waves).
Even by my standards, I’ve had a bizarre summer, and I will share my summer stockpile of thoughts/observations with you.
Observation One: life is fragile
This is a known quantity to me, but I’m not ready to part from this world and those I love.
I have lived for so long, and I have the receding hairline, early morning body aches that testify to this.
But all of a sudden, I am reminding of life’s finite nature and that I’m constantly working against an unrelenting tick-tock to do the things I want to and meet those I want to share part of my life with.
Is this the only experience of time that I can have as a human?
Observation Two: A bittersweet homecoming
I am an Indian immigrant that has the good fortune of being born in Africa. Recently I spent time in South Africa.
It has been many years since I returned to Africa, and a peace comes to my soul every time I spend a few days there. It is as if I have come home.
But of course, it is not home, because like any sheep, I followed the crowd to a safari.
I went on my 5th safari to the same 58,000-hectare game park, that’s primarily focussed on conservation. It is incredible. (Here is a link and I cannot recommend this place enough).
South Africans are incredibly warm, accommodating, and humane. Everywhere I went, irrespective of the colour of the person’s skin, I was treated as if I were their own.
Therefore it shocked me to the core when we drove through a shanty town outside Cape Town. It was about 2 miles of crowded living conditions and what I can only describe as filthy. It was heartbreaking to see a country that is so incredibly beautiful and has so much potential.
We continue to ignore wealth disparities at our peril. This cannot end well for anyone.
Finally, I want to write about the gentrification of beauty, but that probably deserves its own blog.