Found and lost

My Istanbul. By the Yeni Jamii.


Like the pashmina i left behind on Base Camp 4,000 metres up in the Himalayas and my coin pouch (which slid out of a hole in my jeans pocket) on a bus ride in Aleppo, i  think we all leave behind a bit of ourselves in those places where we have stayed in for a period of time - which by my definition, is one which involves having to do the laundry.

A bit of my heart is still in Istanbul. Many many laundry trips there, and trips to the local kebapci for breakfasts and baklavaci for sweet snacks, and down Galata bridge on evenings and Independence Street, Istiklal Caddesi in the heart of Galata.

I am a Galata boy. Cim Bom all the way.

Ramayana

Once again, i am looking at all my life, in one bag, in my hands.

Lanka.

In a sense, it will be a bit like going back to India. After one and a half years, the memories still run deep - from standing on a street corner in Chennai sipping chai to watching the Ganga puja one sweltering evening in Varanasi, and standing up there in the Himalayas looking at mountains touching a clear blue sky... My life was never the same after that summer. And hopefully, i will have many more things to learn and reflect upon when in Sri Lanka as well.

p/s: btw, do you know where Adam first set foot on earth, exiled from the garden of Eden?

 - the answer, of course, is Lanka :) Adam's peak, or Sri Pada is a 2,243m high peak in the central highlands of Sri Lanka, where a huge footprint is found on a boulder on its summit - Buddhists claim this to be of the Buddha, Hindus the Lord Shiva, and Muslims and Christians Adam.

From wikipedia, a beautiful description: "Climbing at night can be a remarkable experience, with the lights of the path leading up and into the stars overhead." And better: "The legends of Adam are connected to the idea that Sri Lanka was the original Eden."

from here at base camp Maskeliya where the stairs begin...
















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