I've now reached San Francisco - spent a day wandering around this city that I left a year ago; went for a run along Crissy Field; looked up at the Golden Gate bridge bathed in a purple dawn, standing imposingly over the San Francisco Bay still healing from a massive oil spill several weeks ago; ate lots of yuppy Californian food and tasted the wine again; took a drive looking for housing up and down a few of the city's seven famous hills.
It's coming back pretty easily - the feel of the place - almost so easy that I'm afraid the reasons why I left to go to India, why I traded investment banking for Microfinance, and what I saw and learned while overseas might be melting away from my brain and out of my memory a little too quickly.
The end of my time there seemed to come a bit suddenly. Monday morning I was dodging cows and camels on my way to the Delhi airport. By Wednesday afternoon I was driving my rental convertible down the California 101.
So the next few days I'm going to write a series of posts reflecting on the origins of my trip as well as my feelings on the state of the microfinance industry in India today. I'll try to relate what I liked about my work, and what I didn't. Where I felt I was successful, and where I felt my ideals came up short. I also want to give my two cents on the current direction of the industry (as I see it) and where my concerns about the future lie.
On the personal side - I can start by saying that when I finished the last chapter in Shantaram two weeks ago, sitting on a Rajasthani train to Pushkar after watching Pakistan defeat India in a bitter eight-hour cricket match in Jaipur, I felt as though I was closing a chapter in my life. The next few weeks were enjoyable, but nothing, not even the last Bollywood movie I saw hours before leaving, seemed to sum up my experience, my feelings about India, my emotions about my time on the sub-continent and the people I met, as that book.
Thankfully, I never spent time in an Indian prison like Gregory David Roberts, but like him I did manage to experience the country's amazing diversity of life, at times inspiring, often wrenching, but always, always engaging.
I was never once "bored" in India.
And as two or three of my very close friends there know, for all the criticisms I laid bare (usually when the temperature had surged to over 100 Fahrenheit, the water and power had stopped simultaneously and my Visa extension had been denied), I also developed a love for the place that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
I'll start the summary of my microfinance thoughts tomorrow - if there are specific topics you think I should address or questions you'd like to ask me about anything related to microfinance or the Indian economic development story, send me an email or add a comment and I will be sure to respond.
Thanks again for continuing to read.
I'm sure India misses you as well. Your blog has been insightful and interesting to read - and opened my eyes to lots of aspects of India that I had thus far taken for granted or, mostly ignored.
I'd like some bagels too - thats what I miss most! :)
Happy New Year and good luck with your life back in San Fran. Come back and visit...
Posted by: Arundathi | January 15, 2008 at 10:56 PM