June 11, 2007. I had wanted to maintain a web log during the entire course of our stay here in India, but somehow never got around to it until now. Hopefully, I will be able to recollect some of the salient aspects of my life and experiences in these last few months, and continue to record my thoughts during the rest of my stay in India, too.
I cannot believe that it is 5 months since Ramya, Rajani and I, with our aging husky-shepherd mix faithfully in tow arrived in Chennai, India. We were going to live in in India for the next 12 months at least! My feelings were one of apprehension, concern and resignation, filled with a mild element of curiosity. I had taken a leave of absence from my employer in the US, Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, CT. I was going to spend the year as a visiting professor of information systems at the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, located at Chennai.
The trip's mission? Ostensibly to be of assistance to my aging parents, to help them move to a newer house, and to see if India might figure in as the next stop in my, and Ramya's professionnal careers. Somewhere along, Ramya and I also thought that a year in India might be a good way to introduce Rajani to the land of her people, to her grand-parents, uncles and aunts.
In the posts that follow, I'll try to maintain a semblance of chronology in recounting and recording some of my experiences at IIT and Chennai, India. Till then, adios.
