Post Script

We are flying back to England and it is night.  It is only two days after the night in Dhampus where I saw nothing but a candle flickering in the distance.  Now I look out as we approach London, tired from the journey and still with just under an hour to go.  I see mile upon mile of sodium lights, lighting up the roads and clustered together in large areas where there are towns and villages.  It hits me - really hits me after the night in Dhampus - just how much energy and light we use as a matter of course.  I peer around looking for areas of darkness on the ground below but there is nothing, just a continuous stream of yellow sodium patches and criss cross lines extending to the horizon both in front and behind.  And still we are not near London.   As London approaches the concentration of light below increases to one continuous haze of yellows and whites with other colours from lights and adverts.  It is nice to be able to pick out familiar streets and sites of London after three weeks away - I feel home again - but also torn with the memories of Dhampus and a feeling that somehow all this I see below me is wrong; the last three weeks have clearly had an effect on me if only in that I have become happily detached from the luxuries, the pace and the excesses of western life.