ALL POSTS BY: Asif Shah

Sitting in a (slightly shady!) hotel in Kuala Lumpur called the Concorde Inn – courtesy Malaysian Airlines, on transit waiting for my flight to Dhaka later tonight. Another 6 hours to go before my flight. Soo tired, I’ve been on the road for about 30 hours already. KL is nice, the airport is world class. I am looking forward to spending some time here on my way back to Nashville. I may take the express train to downtown KL in a little bit, its apparently just a 28 minute ride from the airport as opposed to an hour long cab ride, all at the excellent price of 30 Ringitts (approx. $10). Wish the US$ had not depreciated so much, for the first time in all my years in America, I don’t feel the power of the almighty dollar!

(Landing in KL)

I’m sitting on the plane on the long-haul flight to Kuala Lumpur (via Taipei). Its 14-1/2 hours to Taipei, with an hour and half layover and then another 4-1/2 hours to KL. I decided to pick up a copy of the ‘Kite Runner’ to read on the trip. I had heard conflicting reviews on the book, mostly good – but to-date kept away from it. Mostly because I was afraid that like most other pieces of literature written by sub-continental writers, this book too would try to evoke imagery and nostalgic memories for people from that part of the world, while trying to address itself to Western sensibilities (sorry no offence to anyone intended here). I must say, it has been a spell-binder, I could not tear myself away from the book through the trip, and I just got done. Usually I get distracted by airline movies and do a half-hearted job of reading and trying to watch TV. These long international flights are so cool – endless entertainment with movies and TV channels to keep you occupied, unlimited food and drinks… Anyway, I am happy to say the flight’s about to land in Taipei, and I just got done reading the book. What am I going to do the rest of the trip?

I’m sitting here at the Nashville airport, contemplating the fact that just a year ago, Project Pyramid was taking its inaugural trip to Hyderabad, India. And now almost exactly a year later, we’re on our way to Bangladesh, my native country. I am super-excited about the prospect of taking 28 of my classmates and faculty, not just from Owen, but also comprising the Divinity School, Peabody and a couple of other Graduate programs at Vanderbilt AND an alum, to my homeland. This trip has been almost a year in the making. I am slightly nervous, because of all the logistical details that have gone into the trip planning, and since I don’t get into Dhaka until a day after the rest of my trip members, I am hoping (and praying) that everything goes smoothly on the ground till my arrival (and of course after that).