FROM SWASTIKAS TO SWASTIKAS


Nothing like getting violently ill the day before you leave India to make it nigh impossible to get out of town.......not to mention not want to ever come back. Tuesday night I had my usual three chappatis for dinner and found myself not sleeping most of the night and having some reflux.... when time for yoga came I was spacey and nauseous and didn't go. I spent the remainder of the morning vomiting (violently) five times (what is *with* the curry leaves remaining intact?) and had The Loose Motions and was generally as miserably ill as I've ever been. On top of that there was the fever and burping and stomach pain and the loud barking dog and the worry that I wouldn't be able to pack let alone travel the following day; the Man in the US was kind enough to call Lufthansa to find out about changing my ticket due to illness -- and they told him it'd cost U$ 2500. So needless to say I ended up following the planned itinerary. Thanks to Jammu I was had everything I needed to get better (including rehydration salts) and the woman across the hall gave me peppermint oil to put on my stomach (which quieted it). I awoke feeling somewhat better Wednesday morning (but very weak and spacy) and changed money and ate a piece of toast and ran errands and packed and paid people off and visited the chemist and packed and somehow managed to make it to the Shadabhi Express to Bangalore (couldn't have done it without Prashanth). In Bangalore I hit the hotel and watched cricket and was much worse for the wear (lightheadedness, 101 temperature, nausea, stomach pain, feelings of doom) and fantasized about flying straight thru to Germany. Tried that at the ticket counter at 11:30PM and it didn't work but they did give me an aisle seat for the loose motions. Somehow I got to Frankfurt and met my friend flying in from Dublin two hours later and we took the train to Nurmburg and our friends who live here met us... and here I am. Can you say culture shock? It's clean and there's good design and the trains are empty and everything works and it actually *snowed* yesterday; we spent some of the day touring Hitler's parade grounds ("the Zeppelin Fields, man") and coleseium thingy they never completed and finally made into a museum and you know what? The Nazis Swastika, which was stolen from the Hindus (who consider it sacred), also goes in a clockwise direction. I guess it's all about intent, isn't it?