gah-see-uh mah-kez
I have always wanted to go to India. Never thought it would happen. My traveling companion + that guy I married lists visiting India in between the teeth pulling scene from Marathon Man and eating fried oysters (he's violently allergic) on his "Shit I Hope Never Happens" list.
Hen House Linens is a textile company. We produce our goods in China and India. Don't judge. I don't want to have to open up a can of Global whoop Economy ass on you. We really love our factory in India. This trip is a good will mission and opportunity to find more ways to grow our company. From my lips to the god of bidness' earholes.
So, why India lady? You don't strike me as the lonely planet, grow-your-arm-pit-hair-out kind of wanderer. Damn straight.
It started in the 80's as many important things in my life did (including my signature haircut). I grew up in Athens, Tennessee. Small town, rural, mountain-y goodness without the dueling banjoes. It was a damn good place to come of age, which I did not appreciate it at the time. For a public high school in a less than urban setting, I received a pretty amazing education. Hands down the best history teachers ever. Georgia Lamb, my biology teacher, made it possible for me to breeze through the required science credits in college. A++ you'ins. Here's the rub. The one subject I should have had the best, I did not. English. Tragedy of epic proportions. I was not introduced to great literature. (Ethan Frome? Scarlet Letter? Quoth the raven, "Nevermore.") I supplemented by watching films. Everything I could get my hands on...
Why India? Reason 1
A Passage to India. Judy Davis. Godbole. Dr. Aziz. That cave. Bicycles. The clown court. Straight up blown away.
And then I went to Meredith College and ended up in a World Literature course with Susan Gilbert. A classy, firecracker with a sharp wit and a gorgeous Raleigh accent. I can hear her now. "Gah-see-uh Mah-kez (Garcia Marquez) gives you a divine excuse for not starting supper on time." That class also blew my tiny mind. The picture above shows most of the books we read. Garcia Marquez, Italo Calvino, Nadine Gordimer, Manuel Puig, Carols Fuentes, V.S. Naipaul, Alain Robbes-Grillet. Folks, we read The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I read Salman Rushdie before he had a price tag on his head.
Why India? Reason 2
World Literature. Magical Realism. And a deep dive into novels about India. Salman Rushdie. VS Naipaul, Vikram Seth, John Irving, Jhumpa Lahiri, Vikram Chandra (who wrote a 5,000 page tome that I loved about the mafia in modern India), and on and on. I am fascinated by the culture, the people, the complicated history, the absurd bureaucracy, the highest highs and the lowest lows. I want to experience it. I want to have my life changed. I want to buy inexpensive, brightly colored baubles.
I am going to re-read something, probably Midnight's Children and try something new. Maybe Deepak Chopra (bahahahaha).