We're here now!

Tuesday, 29 Dec 2009, morning, Radisson Hotel, Chennai, India: We arrived last night in Chennai (used to be called Madras) a little after midnight. Before that, on the plane, an Indian man and his daughter sat in front of us. They both lived in the US now, and we're coming for a visit to family in India. I think she was born in the US, attending Purdue, majoring in Mechanical Engineering, having done summer internships with General Mills and Proctor & Gamble.... as American as apple pie. He also was some kind of professional, although I did not ask for details. We got to talking about yoga, Vedanta and various spiritual teachers.
As I told him, my first exposure to Indian culture was when I was initiated into Transcendental Meditation in 1973. He also had been initiated when he was 17, by a couple of Germans who had been trained by Maharishi and were teaching meditation in India at the time. We also talked about Yogananda, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Swami Vishnudevananda and Swami Satchidananda. I owe so much to my Indian spiritual teachers, and also my engineering professors. So much of my heritage comes from Mother India. When we left the plane, the man said, "Even though you are not from India, I say to you, welcome home." I responded, "Thank you, it feels like home. Namaste."
The most interesting sight one sees in developing countries is the scene that invariably presents itself to you when you pass customs and begin to walk out of the terminal toward the taxi staging area. You are faced with a huge crowd of men, women and children all pressed up against a restraining rope, waiting for the arriving passengers. Many of them are drivers holding signs with the names of their guests. Others are family members awaiting their loved ones. Remember that this was about 1 AM in the morning, but still there must have been a few hundred people there, all pressed hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder, brightly colored saris. No such sight greets a visitor to New York or Boston, especially at 1 AM.