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Showing posts from September, 2009

Colombia: Travel, Time, and Tired Knees

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Cocora Valley — where the fog shows up and leaves whenever it feels like it. I remember our visit to New Zealand and Bora Bora 12 years ago. Our days were packed. We would get up at 6 in the morning and retreat at 8 in the evening. A good breakfast, something quick for lunch, and a proper dinner. Day after day, for two weeks. Lots of travel, hikes, and sightseeing — and somehow, we never felt tired. Today, our travel method has changed. We still pack our days, but at a much more relaxed pace. Ironically, we are far more tired. Age definitely catches up. In the middle of a tour, I now look for opportunities to sneak in a secret nap, or I scan the area for strategic locations where a lonely chair might be waiting just for me. I’ve also reached a point where, if given the option between extra excitement and standing around waiting, I’m strongly leaning toward the latter. Add kids to the mix, and the picture changes entirely. Over the last year and a half, we’ve vis...

Rounding off in style

My school days were fraught with difficulties when it came to Maths. I could never understand why 2+2 had to be 4 or why 1+2 had to be 3. It was like Swami (from RKN) learning to solve Math problems in front of his father. Addition and subtraction itself were leaning toward astronomical proportions of difficulty, so there was no way anybody could question my abilities when it came to the mammoth multiplication and division problems. It was at an abysmal dismal level. It took me days, rather years to figure out that multiplication and addition were related by an intricate complexity. 2x3 is nothing but 2+2+2 was a startling revelation learned over the ages, after several years of mutual painstaking experience; mutual because my teacher and my mother used to wield the stick and I used the bear the pain. I had a grudging resolve never to play with numbers because they played around me in weird ways. Division was an altogether different experience. The strict voice still echoes in ...