Indra's Net: 2011

Leaving Hapiz, Varanasi, and India

The Poem That Took the Place of A Mountain

There it was, word for word,

The poem that took the place of a mountain.

He breathed its oxygen,

Even when the book lay turned in the dust of his table.

It reminded him how he had needed

A place to go to in his own direction,

How he had recomposed the pines,

Shifted the rocks and picked his way among clouds,

For the outlook that would be right,

Where he would be complete in an unexplained completion:

The exact rock where his inexactness

Would discover, at last, the view toward which they had edged,

Where he could lie and, gazing down at the sea,

Recognize his unique and solitary home.

Wallace Stevens

You May Leave if You Wish

In a Sense, Abroad

Ciao, Professore!

Fries With Mayonnaise

A Father's Gift to His Daughter

Sanskrit Street

The Curse of Socrates

Miles From Nowhere

Today is my last day in Madurai, and it is with a deep sense of bittersweet melancholy that I will be saying good-bye to an amazing city and the people I have met here. Madurai is without a doubt one of the most interesting places I have ever visited in my life and I know that I will be back one day to experience this city in all its glory, chaos, beauty, grime, and so many other sensory experiences.

Please stay tuned for final postings and pictures this weekend of Madurai and environs, and then my journey will take me to the North for a short while before heading back to Belgium. I can only imagine that an entirely different world awaits me in Varanasi...

vanakam from Madurai

Saying Good-Bye and Hello

What A Teacher Earns
(INCLUDES SEVERAL SCHOOL PICTURES)