They went to bed early, but not before pulling up ‘The Darjeeling Unlimited’ on the big screen for me – along with the all important pre-short (which features a nude Natalie Portman!).

I watched with a different eye, this film I wrote about digging long before I ever got the chance to go to India. The opening scene, which I fell in love with (‘King of the slo-mo shots’, Tim commented, before heading to the back of the bus where their bedroom lies), which just so happened to be the one I pulled into after my ‘bhang lassi’ nightmare.

I had been there.

I had been there.

While some places that you occasionally see in film bring back a quick smile, or immediate street-cred, this one was different. I was lucky enough to have been warned by many of the sub-continent, one of the pearls being from a friend who ‘hated every minute of it until she got back home and then she wished she was back’ which resonated the entire time this Wes Anderson masterpiece played to a captive audience of one.

I had been there.

I smoked outside and took a quick survey around. I was in New Orleans. With a classmate who I attended 8th grade with and no more. I was broke, but, if I didn’t mention it from time-to-time, you’d think just the opposite.

‘Absurd’ is the word I choose to use, only because it carries such unknown luck, but that can’t be it. No one deserves this much – certainly not me. I’m a nice guy, but could have been a lot nicer. A caring son – but one who left the minute he was able to. A citizenship of many suffering, yet I show up and not only have a job producing, but others which might very well take me to different countries very, very soon. Free trips to Berlin and people along the way who go out of their way to have me in their homes. I live in an expensive bus that tours the best our country has to offer driven by friends who make sure I’m fed, have enough to drink, and then some.

Absurd needs to stop being a catch-phrase and start being a realization that I am in the middle of something that was misplaced.