In a few more days, we complete our first festive season in Arco Iris. It has been a lovely ride so far. In this period, we have had the pleasure of meeting wonderful people who have given us the privilege of hosting them during their stay in Goa. What has been particularly revealing is the relative brief amount of time that it takes to make friends with people who we met for the first time. Without exception, all have arrived as guests and departed as friends. At the same time, dormant friendships have been rekindled. Facebook stands testimony to this.

I guess, Beni and I have truly found our niche as “hosts”. Although the learning curve has been steep, in a sense, it has been an extension of what we were doing in Bangalore and in Chennai before that. We have always prided ourselves in hosting friends in our home. It is a little different when people who you have not known before express a desire to stay with us in Arco Iris. Any apprehension that we have soon disappears after a few hours. This also affords us an opportunity of seeing things constantly through others’ eyes. So many things that all of us take for granted in our daily lives, be it the chirping of local birds or the sight of the mist rolling in from the lake or the simple joy in enjoying a hot cup of coffee by the lakeside becomes memorable when you get to see others enjoying it so obviously.

This period has also reiterated that all of us have so much more in common than we would like to believe. It has been strangely reassuring to be reminded that all of us have our personal battles which, come to think of it, are not very different from the next person’s. It is simultaneously humbling and elevating to be reminded of this. Life is all about facing up to these and hopefully overcoming them.

What started as a lab scale experiment has now become a way of life. Without falling into the trap of looking too far ahead, we would like to believe that the results have been very encouraging which gives us the conviction of continuing along this path. It has been a while since I made that assertion.