The Elephant Vanishes in Bhutan

There is an awful phenomenon associated with travel between time zones. And it's called jet lag. No matter how hard you try, your sleep pattern just cannot regulate. I've just come back from the US and its impossible to stop waking up in the middle of the night. Like right now.

So here I am, trying to zonk back off to sleep but being unable to, listening to the wierdo nearby who is playing some sad loser video game which involves some form of gun machinery, as evidenced from the shots being fired incessantly throughout the game.

Egad. So let me share some thoughts with you. Yesterday I went for a book sale (I know I love book sales. Good thing I have my own salary!!) and I bought a travel book and a book called "The Elephant vanishes" by Murakami.

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author who is known for a style of writing which can only be best described as "surreal" (like the Dali paintings). I've only read one of his novels so far, called Kafka on the Shore. It's about a young boy who goes off on a mission to find himself, or to lose himself. One of the dominant themes in the novel was that of coping with being alone and that of solitude. I still remember that the boy runs away and seeks refuge in a small town's library - and I don't think you can get any more reclusive than by being in a library. It's one of the only places where you can be surrounded by people but as a rule, cannot talk. That's in contrast to being in a public place, being surrounded by people, but still not talking since you don't know anyone around you. Perhaps that's what the author is also trying to highlight, among other things. We are after all, alone in this world.

My travel book was an aspiration book. What is an aspiration book you're asking? Well, an aspiration book is like a pair of aspiration pants. You buy it because one day you want to fit into it. So my book on Bhutan is a book I hope I will one day use when I go to Bhutan and the North East. I have my batchmates there so I hope to visit them and then travel to Thimpu.

My grandparents and Mom have been to Thimpu and they say it is simply beautiful. Lush, green and unspoilt by man, the policies of the tiny nation have kept it isolated and its people content. It's one of the only countries in the world to have a "Happiness Index". Last I read, they had banned cable television, and getting entry to the country is an arduous process.

Wouldn't trekking through Bhutan and North East India be awesome?