Alternate Vision

I took the long route back from the banner printing services office along West Cliff drive past the harbor and back into downtown because it was the right thing to do given the unreal weather. Not a cloud in sight. Clear blue waters with the surfers visible in the foreground. I stopped by the cliff and just sat there for 10 minutes doing nothing. After working 15 hour workdays this week and having nightmares about blurry low resolution banner mishaps, it felt good to zone out from everything and surrender myself to the moment. And just as I was falling into a soft-eyes slightly open-sleep I suddenly remembered that the brochures had to be paid for, and the website had to be updated, and the demos had to be ready, all because when your showing up to a conference with the likes of Jeffrey Sachs, Vinoh Khosla and Silvio Crestana as conference speakers you'd best be ready. It'll be worth it. Back to living the dream....

in my experience, is not uncommon to randomly meet a white dude with long black hair and a mustache that would have given the notorious Veerappan a serious run for his money, who can school you in 6 languages including Japanese, Hindi, Arabic, French, Spanish and Italian, who has no concept of home (he has been on the road for as long as anyone can remember) and sustains his lifestyle by simply teaching English be it in Marrakesh, Tokyo or Pune, who lives out of a truck when "in town" in the U.S., who will suddenly switch from throwing down a groovy dance hall rhythm on the surdo in samba class to singing Kishore Kumar's Ina Mina Dika, who will gladly chat in Hindi about his experience studying Khyal for many years in India or about his fascination with Japanese and Moroccan culture, who makes you feel like a wannabe traveler, and who goes by the name of Breakfast (don't ask me why cos I don't know).

Ignorant me was expecting a bunch of stuck-up, silicon valley fat cats who spend their retired life in a villa by the beach when I moved here last summer, instead I run into people like Breakfast keeping it real at the 418 project. He came into town two days ago and he is gone tomorrow. A month in Hawaii he says, then who knows?

A few pictures taken at my new favorite hangout in Santa Cruz.

Labels: Chaikhana tea culture, tea house