It's hot here--hot, we're told, even for here.
It's also magnificent, in all kinds of ways. Before my first Semester at Sea voyage, in Spring 2012, I spoke happily but a little casually about being headed to places I had never expected to see during my lifetime; but by the end of the voyage, I felt I'd been an idiot not to have done all I could previously to visit some of these places, India chief among them. The future is here, especially in Kerala, the state where our port, Cochin, is: if you don't know of Kerala's astonishing achievements in terms of literacy and life expectancy (especially relative to per capita income), they are worth looking up. The place is a miracle, not least, in my view, because of the elements of beauty that are interspersed so widely and vividly in a place that has done so much with so little. A walk today in Ernakulum, the business part of town, found much development since 2012 but many of the same remarkable mixes, all of it too much again for me to fathom.
My family is sticking around Cochin and mostly around the ship, which is largely deserted during: many folks are away on distant trips, others on day trips. I had mentioned in an earlier entry that those who have an eye on us here but who are far away should not be surprised, and, if possible not too disappointed if you don't hear much from us while we're in ports. Well, there is so much to take in here, and those processes can be so overwhelming, that I'd especially urge you to patience in the week ahead.
I hope you'll have been with patient with me too. I am sorry to have been off this for so long. Myanmar had its own distinctive challenges and absorptions, and for me the stretch between Myanmar and India was especially busy, partly because we had so much faculty, student, and visiting expertise to draw on. Our two pre-ports were, I'd say, among the most exciting we've had. I think folks arrived here as ready as they could be, which, because there is so much to India, must necessarily have meant only a very little ready, with ready hardly even the right word for what one could aspire to.
It's also magnificent, in all kinds of ways. Before my first Semester at Sea voyage, in Spring 2012, I spoke happily but a little casually about being headed to places I had never expected to see during my lifetime; but by the end of the voyage, I felt I'd been an idiot not to have done all I could previously to visit some of these places, India chief among them. The future is here, especially in Kerala, the state where our port, Cochin, is: if you don't know of Kerala's astonishing achievements in terms of literacy and life expectancy (especially relative to per capita income), they are worth looking up. The place is a miracle, not least, in my view, because of the elements of beauty that are interspersed so widely and vividly in a place that has done so much with so little. A walk today in Ernakulum, the business part of town, found much development since 2012 but many of the same remarkable mixes, all of it too much again for me to fathom.
My family is sticking around Cochin and mostly around the ship, which is largely deserted during: many folks are away on distant trips, others on day trips. I had mentioned in an earlier entry that those who have an eye on us here but who are far away should not be surprised, and, if possible not too disappointed if you don't hear much from us while we're in ports. Well, there is so much to take in here, and those processes can be so overwhelming, that I'd especially urge you to patience in the week ahead.
I hope you'll have been with patient with me too. I am sorry to have been off this for so long. Myanmar had its own distinctive challenges and absorptions, and for me the stretch between Myanmar and India was especially busy, partly because we had so much faculty, student, and visiting expertise to draw on. Our two pre-ports were, I'd say, among the most exciting we've had. I think folks arrived here as ready as they could be, which, because there is so much to India, must necessarily have meant only a very little ready, with ready hardly even the right word for what one could aspire to.
