Day 245: "If perfection is stagnation, then heaven is a swamp!"

I awoke in New Delhi at 5 this morning to catch my flight home from Indira Gandhi International Airport. During the first leg of my journey, I slept for a while before taking a peek at Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, which Nayaz had recommended to me yesterday. Whether due to my interest in the philosophy presented or because of the rush of actually being able to read at a pace slightly faster than a snail's, I ended up finishing the novel. Illusions is about the "secret to happiness" -- being in control of one's destiny, and understanding that the reality of oneself is the only reality that can be relied upon. There's a lot to be said about it and a lot I didn't understand, but the sentence on the last page -- "Everything in this book may be wrong." -- exemplifies the quirks of the tome pretty well.

I had just enough time after this reading to meditate for an hour, into our landing at London Heathrow. Given my tight connection time, I had no opportunity to enjoy the airport! The photograph below is solely for structure's sake.

I spent the start of my second flight catching up on Ars Amatoria. I've now completed the second section of three, and am approaching this amator's offering of advice to women. I'm behind schedule but loving every word.

I was drifting into another meditation session when my sense of smell was aroused by that wafting odor of Indian cuisine unable to be ignored even by one who has just spent three months in the country whence it hails. I narrowly avoided a crisis by swapping my tortellini alfredo for butter chicken in the nick of time. You all can be assured that many tears would have been shed had I not demonstrated this Promethean foresight, which included the fabrication of an "allergy to white sauce" and embarrassing recanting of my former statement of vegetarianism (which had been designed to steer the desi food my way). Phew!

Exhausted by this adventurous endeavor, I drifted into a deep sleep interrupted only constantly by the fact that the cabin was freezing. Anyway. I arrived safely at Dulles and passed smoothly through immigration and customs, to be received by my favorite one-woman welcome party!

I held off on insulting Laura's hair long enough to offer her a drink at Starbucks, before we settled in at the ol' coffee shop to catch up on the last three months and review the difficult-to-follow timeline of my India trip. Papa Gill soon arrived at the airport, commented on how much we both have changed over these months (one for the better, one for the worse), and took us home. I got to give my Mommy a big hug before leaving to pick up the Priya Monster from volleyball practice. A fantastic sister reunion ensued.