Bullet the Blue Sky

I think I am a "closet nomad". This particular species of irrationalis hoiminis seeks to plant roots but is incapable of doing so, comfortable flitting from place to place, never settling in one. From the time I left home to "make my mark on this world"(no mention will be made of the craters I left behind by merely using my jogging track!), I have flitted from place to place, moving like a butterfly and stinging no one. From Bangalore, to Mysore, to Delhi to Boston, to BeerSheva, the jouney seems to never have started and dosent look like it will end. I currently reside in Beer Sheva, the largest city in the Negev Desert. I was here for a whirlwind three-day tour in February (Re: I was there too! link on the right) and I then decided this is where I was going to do my summer internship. BeerSheva has a desolate beauty. This city was built by the Ottoman Turks (it existed as an oasis before that, me thinks) as a resting place in their trade route. This is a beautiful city, currently being defaced (as are all cities of the world) by a horde of multi-storey apartment buildings, lies an hour and twenty minutes south of Tel Aviv. But the Old City, preserved in its Turkish-British-Israeli splendor, lives on.
The day I landed, crossing many Seas and one Ocean, my lovely roommates took me to the Student night at the Ben Gurion University. A famous rock band, Mashina, was performing and I gamely agreed to transport my jet lagged body concert-ward. It was amazing-I felt like I was back in the Palace Grounds, rocking to Rock Machine (Indus Creed to the younger generation!)...the excitement, the energy, the enthu - i was jealous that I was too tired to take it all in! If any of you reading this were there, and I stepped on your toes, or poked your face, while swaying various parts of my anatomy to the beat, all I can say is "It wasn't me, it was the one-armed man".
I have met a lot of Israeli Jews and a few Israeli Bedouin since getting here. The "conflict" is in the news all the time, and sometimes in the background but to most of these people, there are more important things to do in life- write a research paper, submit homework, research supermarkets to see who has the lowest rate for tomatoes, select a dress for the graduation party... all the things that stress out families all over the world. To the visitor, The conflict seems to be everywhere, brought home by seeing security guards everywhere, the ubiquitous army personnel, the kids with guns, et al. Hey, this is peacetime. But life here goes on...
I will be here till August, when I shift base to London and then on to jolly Beantown a.k.a Bahs-ton!