NANDI SCHOOL OF ART

Today is the day that I planned to return from India and Pakistan. Since my trip to Pakistan was cancelled I returned home a week early; so here I sit in Wheaton at 4:00 in the morning. I’ve been told that it takes ten days to recover from jet lag. Victoria, the master traveler of the office, told me that after ten days I will feel much better. She said that until I start to feel better I will not realize that I wasn’t feeling good. Aside from my sleep schedule being disrupted, I don’t feel bad. Right now I am going to sleep around nine and waking between two and three. By three I’m up and putzing. I hope that I can keep to this schedule. The evening is usually a waste, television is a wasteland, I’m too tired to read anything but the news, and Marilyn usually retires early, so why stay up. After I get a little coffee in me I not only have the energy, but also the desire to write.

The first few days after the trip I was wiped-out, I returned last Thursday afternoon; on Friday I made a token appearance at the office. Marilyn had her weekend planned. Andrew was suffering from mononucleosis, so my weekend was devoted to short activities between naps. Andrew and I did manage to get to see ‘Children of Men.’

It was only yesterday that I finally had the time to go through my personal email. I had also been avoiding it – I dreaded the chore of dealing with the junk and spam email that was sure to have accumulated since the 13^th. The most interesting discovery was a couple of messages from Jeannie, my sister-in-law. Jeannie is an artist and works a Nandi School of Art in Montclair, New Jersey. Lisa Rosenthal, the owner of the school, liked the photographs from my trip and decided to use a few as models for the students.

Jeannie sent a few photographs of the students interpreting my photographs. I like the interpretations and curious about the selections why did they pick one photograph as a subject over another? Of course I’ll never know the answer, probably no answer to be found, but still….

By the way anyone interested in learning more about Nandi can contact: the school at:

NANDI SCHOOL OF ART

179 Glenridge Avenue

Montclair, NJ 07042

973-744-3821

info@nandiart.com

www.nandiart.com

I was curious about the name; I thought it was an acronym. Nandi, it turns out, is the name of the bull that carries Shiva, the Hindu god of creativity, hence Nandi represent the conveyor of creativity.

I have completed the planning for my next trip. I travel to Durban, South Africa in a few weeks for a ten day stay. Once again it will be a long flight, this time through London’s Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic and return on Air France through Charles de Gaulle. I’ve become accustomed to the long flights; as long as I have an aisle seat the flights are fine. I’ve enjoyed the Air France flights; between the food and the movies I may end up a Francophile.

While my trip has ended, the Online Travel Journal will continue. I have about twice as much written than I have posted, and much more in the form of recorded notes and photographs. I will edit and post as time allows. I have also been working on a day-to-day chronology. I want it to keep track of where I went when and with whom I meet. We’ll see if I can make it interesting.

I discovered that if I sent out a notice when a trip begins I had better have items posted and update the Journal at least every other day. Seems obvious, right? On this trip I sent out a notice the day before the trip. However, between travel, recovery, and internet access it was several days before I published anything to the Journal. After I sent out the notice people went to the Journal but there were no posts – after a few days many gave up.

I think I will set up a system of email notifications for posting. The trick will be to avoid annoying everyone by adding to their email volume. I will just have to set it up as an opted-in system.

Photographs at NANDI courtesy of Jeanmarie Mara