Geographic distance is so vast. Yet, things can sometimes appear so near.

I sit here, in a rather isolated place from the places of our community where our issues are being played out, discussed, experienced, and observed. When i read the discussions of "mumbai/bombay" [the movie], the trikone utsav, the masala, the holi ...

They are in another world far away. A space i do notcomprehend. Yet, within my inner being is the same space which many of us have and share. _Its_ drama unfolds here, wondering what that distant space has that is of mine too, inside.

I watch the parade of pixels which bring that space to me in my home. Yet, the space is difficult to fathom. These colorful pixels, they are so opaque to my eye. The experience is elsewhere.

The discourse is beyond the ken of my experience. How am i to relate my inner understanding of my identity, the space which i have shaped from the given basics, with that distant khush space which you speak of? Without that understanding, how am i to understand that whole of which my inner space is a part?

The bridging of distances, the manipulation of boundaries, the understanding of the importance of the location of my self -- the geographer's dream challenge. The location in North Dakota, far removed from that khush space is mitigated by the pixels you send, you share, and the ones i send and share with you.

We reach out behind these opaque pixels, to an amorphic identity expressed by these pixels, and say a kind word now, and anon a harsh criticism, and yet again a virtual hug for the one who is hurting. A cyber-khush space.

It just isn't the real thing though, is it? it is so easy to say those kind words or those harsh words when there is no physical presence to tie the words to. At once we seem to metaphorize or de-humanize. Yet, this too has its place.

The parade of pixels continues.

The spiritual space of the isolation brings in its wake, the time, the energy, the drive towards understanding. Towards the inward journey so i might find my own peace first before arrogating to myself the position of offering help. So much learned. So much more to learn. As that tamizh poet avvai said: "That which has been learned is a fistful of sand, that yet to be learned as vast as the sands of the ocean."

I have learned. I continue to. But where is the locus for that knowledge? Does it exist in isolation? The answers are unclear. It is part of khush space where, at least one or two say it has found a place, in this pixel parade.

The pixel parade can never substitute for the warmth of the human community of the utsav, of the hanging out at the corner capuccino joint, of a gut-wrenching self-examination in the synergistic dynamics of a live group discussion.

The parade must go on though. For those of us who are distant, aspiring to bridge the distances that separate us from the 'action', this electronic marvel, the Mercury, the nArada roaming the worlds, is a lifeline.

Be in touch.

-- Chandra.