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.