Acronyms

The longer I spend in this country the stronger the mix of emotion. Do I love it? Do I hate it? It's an inexplicable blend of Cabin Fever meets Stockholm syndrome. I cannot bear to leave, I cannot wait to leave. As I cross the border into Nepal will I breathe a sigh of relief or feel pangs of sadness? At this stage, most likely both, simultaneously.

Triple J Hottest 100, 2013

After all my raving and ranting, I managed to lodge a vote in the world's biggest music democracy without too much further ado.


Behold:

Chvrches - Recover
Disclosure ft. AllunaGeorge - White Noise
Goldroom - Embrace
London Grammar - Hey Now
Lorde - Royals
The Naked and Famous - Hearts Like Ours
The Occupants - I've Been Thinking
Rüfus - Desert Night
Skrillex - The Reason
Thief - Broken Boy


Now if only Mumbai was holding some kind of awesome Triple J party of Australian proportions on my favourite day of the year!

Insomnia

I wake up and it becomes instantly apparent; still in India. I know this because I am lying on a bed that feels like a wooden plank punching me in the kidneys, resting on a pillow with about as much yield as day old naan bread. This is like camping in a hotel room, I would be better off on the floor with only a yoga mat for support.

If there was one thing that could slowly drive me crazy, eventually make me snap and send me packing on the next flight home it would be these long, sleepless nights. I am already tossing and turning thank you to the evil anti-Malaria medication, pity I cannot roll over without procuring an all but enviable collection of bruises.

Everything else I can handle. We have been mobbed, pickpocketed, molested. We've had Delhi belly, gotten on a bus we're not sure is heading in the right direction after paying money to a man who doesn't speak English, been reduced to drinking tap water. All fine and dandy, child's play. It's what you sign up for when you visit India. But this?? I could wrestle with my backpack right now, break into a hotel with wifi, book an airline ticket...

And then I remind myself that this is adventure, and a good night's sleep was never in the fine print.

Radio Uh-Oh

That awkward moment when I don't feel totally great about compiling my vote for the Hottest 100.

Usually it's a mammoth task that I attack zealously with equal parts enthusiasm and studious dedication but this year my heart is not in the game. It was too easy to bang together a list of songs that I don't feel is particularly strong. There are some gems of course, and perhaps I simply didn't clock up enough listening hours to appreciate just what was on offer but I am just not bristling with excitement this time around. Either I have changed or music has or a little bit of both and this saddens me. And I am running out of time!

Wanderlust

How does one assimilate with ordinary life after living in such a fashion? Do you long for dusty roads, foreign foods you cannot pronounce and faces unfamiliar? Does life seem a little lacklustre, a little too comfortable after going from technicolor electrocution of culture to having somewhere real to rest your head?

Iddly

You learn the hard way - racing toward dappled shade in a state of emergency - you should have stayed indoors! The daylight hours become slow, peeling back upon one another until the heat has worn even itself out. With signs of human life slowed to an all but imperceptible pulse, only vital signs remain. Time wears on below the unrelenting sky as wilted vegetation and sunbleached buildings beg for mercy until at last, Finally! shadows begin to lengthen. You greedily gulp deep breaths before the air stills and humidity casts its sticky oppression over nightfall.

Congratulations! You have survived another day in a tropical heat that takes no prisoners. Welcome to South India.

Bus Terminal

Sometimes you can cross the boundaries of communication - conversations that are broken down into nods and smiles, appreciation for street-side omelettes, comparing of biceps. It's moments like these that make you wonder how it all went wrong. This Us and Them; this big, bad world? On this humid Keralan night, we have done away with language. We have fresh chai and head waggles. Humanity prevails.

Satsang

"The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!"

- Swami Sivananda

Fleetwood

Well guess what. I still shower daily, wash my hair more frequently than I did back home and yes, I have shaved my legs every week since I have been on the road. I brought my favourite jeans and my hair straightener along for the ride and I did not purchase any ridiculous zip-off pants or succumb to tie-died Ali Babas! It's challenging living out of a backpack, when it is cold I get to layer everything I own which is novel but somewhat unstylish. A lukewarm shower is an amazing feat of Indian modernity, however I bemoan the constantly wet floor more than the shivering scrub-downs squatting under a tap. The beds are persistently hard and the pillows offer no relief, strangely slumber comes best from the clickety-clack of a sleeper train. When food tastes this good, brace yourself - you are liable to shed the extra pounds as quickly as you gained them.

As you might deduce, travel is an exciting, though not particularly glamorous affair. This does not mean that one has to give in to "backpacker fashion" and follow all those silly rules. Minimalist pack if you wish, but remember that you might like to live a little. Go your own way.

Bells

There is no need to fear those clouds; they'll bring the rain to wash it all away. Once the air is cool you will notice that everything is shiny and new again. Always welcome a change in the weather.

Learning to Live Without a Sink

He lives in a mud hut, next to the plot he toils. A simple farmer happy just to wake up to a rural outlook and freshly baked chapatti. Electricity and running water are for those flashy city types, after all. With our Western vision we have this displaced notion that the have-nots need access to all the things that we cannot live without; yet something disarming in his broad smile - like many I have encountered across the countryside - tells me otherwise.