Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Big Love or Where On Earth Are Those Star Trek Travel Pods

No this is not a blog about my thoughts on polyamory or on the HBO show with the same name dealing with polygamy. I do have some thoughts on the subject (like - if you can actually manage multiple relationships at the same time and still retain your sanity - well good for you). But there's more than one kind of polygamy/polyamory. In my case, I'm in love with two places at the same time even though I'm geographically monogamous right now.

I'm in love with India and with San Francisco. I never thought I'd live outside India - definitely wanted to travel outside but never wanted to live there. - To that end I turned down a couple of opportunities to work and live abroad.

After two years in the Bay Area - I still miss India a ton - the chaos, the energy and liveliness hidden within that chaos, the colors, the Hindi songs playing out of tuneless radios in every shop, the corrupt politicians (well I don't miss them too much cos they're right here in the US too :(, the carefree (read insane) driving, being able to see Hindi movies the same day they're released...my family and friends...and not missing significant chunks of their lives. It's a somewhat romanticized view, I admit. I found many of those things irritating most of my life - but in my defence, I had that romanticized view even when I was living, sweating and swearing at power cuts in India. As an overall package India always felt right for me.

Until I moved to San Francisco. I moved to SF for some good reasons - like the many fabulous clubs that you can go to anytime you want :) - and the fact that they had a mayor who thought nothing of marrying men and women to other men and women - while in India they were still debating the (il)legality of being gay.

It took me less than two weeks to fall in love with San Francisco - its spirit, its values, its loony left politics, the fact that 'coming out' doesn't cause a pause in the conversation, the wonderful weather - (Hey, I actually LIKE always having to carry a jacket), the blue blue sky framing the rust red of the Golden Gate, the all-pervasive entrepreneurial spirit...San Francisco feels like home (too).

The only thing keeping me locationally monogamous right now is that Star Trek-style travel pods haven't been invented. Makes you wonder why that hasn't happened yet - if we could land a man on the moon way back in the 60s, then surely we should've been able to figure out travel pods by now.
For the record, I'm not a loony conspiracy theorist; I believe we did land on the moon - if it had really been staged on a Hollyowood set like some people think, Neil Armstrong would have looked like Tom Cruise, he'd probably have made love to a glamorous woman in space, and the picture would have been less grainy. The dialogue though would've probably been just as corny... umm inspirational... as "A small step for man, A giant leap for mankind."

However if I WERE the moon-landing-doubting-kind, I'd wonder if the Pods have actually been invented but kept hidden under pressure from those concerned (read the Family Values crowd) about not letting Big Love have its chance in the world in any shape or form. You say, well that's silly, where would they hide these travel pods anyway? --- Anyone heard of Area 51?

2 comments:

U Chandra K said...

somewhat inteeligent compared to the other ones. WEll has its own stupidity as well.

CadeRageous said...

It's funny. I've lived here less than half a year, and this city felt like home almost immediately. However, I hated the city the first couple times I visited it--of course I was with my then current-evil-bf, but I really thought it was a dirty, over-estimated place. I have a couple interesting stories, but my first couple impressions were not positive.

I was totally WRONG, and glad to be. This city IS my new home, and one I plan to stay in for a long time.