INDIA TRIP 1973 ZOOM CALL
Tonight, for an hour and a half, the group that I led to India in the winter of 1973-74, gathered on a ZOOM call for the first time and reminisced about the trip and got to know each other. This was a group of 20 year olds, meeting again after 52 years, now all in their 70’s and almost all retired.
Getting together was Andy Scott’s idea. A few of us met at the group’s 50th anniversary Homecoming early in October. Andy was in England at the time but heard about our having dinner together and organized the ZOOM call.
We went around in a circle on the ZOOM screen and learned what each one of us had done during our lives with a wide variety of experiences: multiple divorces and remarriages, multiple jobs, muliple trips, living in multiple cities. It was extremely interesting.
The other thing we talked about was our shared experience of India. After a trip it is hard to share the experience of another culture very different from our own. Usually when you come back from a trip to some exotic place where you have had rich experiences and someone asks you, “How was your trip?”, you don’t know what to say, so you just say, “Fine, had a great time.” Because there is no way to share the depth of your experience. When I mentioned to my doctor earlier in the week that I had been to Morocco, he pulled out his cell phone and showed me photographs of his trip this summer to Morroco with his sons. He didn’t have to explain the photographs to me, it brought back my own driving across Morocco with my daughter Susie three years ago. I had experienced those huge sand dunes he showed me, he didn’t need to explain.
And so it was with our group Thursday evening. Each of us had been struck by something different, but we all had experienced the feel of India together. We had someone we could tell our story to who understood us.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 