I have been in Pune, India (a very rapidly growing sprawling mass of 3.5 million people) for 6 weeks now at an ashram (or more correctly the Osho International Meditation Resort) - great to get away from the cold and snow to the warm and reliable weather of India... And doing some intense inner work including assisting on an 8 day Primal course and participating in a 7 day Path of Love. After these then I was completely exhausted (physically, emotionally, in every way) - but I still managed to notice a few things about India... the good, the bad and the very ugly... not necessarily in that order.
Things that I dont connect with:
- The traffic on North Main Road - Five years a go when I first came here it, this was a poorly paved road which didnt really go anywhere and it had a few cars and bikes that bumped their way up and down the road. Cows roamed the verges in search of food, and water-buffalo were regularly herded up and down it on their way to the river, causing not much inconvenience to the trickle of traffic.
Now it is a fully paved dual-carriageway-superhighway crammed full of cars and (motor)bikes. It is not just 'busy', everyone using it is attempting suicide. And as I have to cross the road several times a day (as the ashram is on one side and I live on the other) and apart from at 5.30 in the morning when it is quiet, I always feel that I am half a step away from not making it. So then that makes me a reluctant road user, and therefore an unwilling participant in this suicide pact.
Getting halfway across is the worst as then I have to stand cms from traffic, whizzing by in both directions, who sole aim is to miss me by as little as possible. And if I should wobble, lose balance or take a tiny step forward or back I would immediately be gobbled up in a knashing of spokes and a mess of car body parts.
I occasionally sat and watched it all (whilst drinking freshly squeezed sweet lime at the roadside) and was amazed at how close everything came to hitting each other - the only word that kept coming to my mind was 'Suicide! Suicide!' How can these people put themselves through this it is madness only worse! Somehow they miss - I dont know how. But with 30,000 people killed on India's roads every year and countless more injured then I guess they dont always. But there is no road rage, no one gets angry, no-one is taking anyones elses space, because in India the rule is that 'everyone has right of way all of the time unless someone else gets there first' and everyone knows this and this allows them all to drive like maniacs without ever realising it!
There is a crossing - and I used it once - it has green and red lights to tell the traffic when to stop and the pedestrians when to cross. Unfortunately I thought it would work - that was my mistake - and so crossed when the green man appeared only to find the traffic roaring all around me as if I shouldnt have been there. Safer not to use the crossing!
And of course the road gives rise to incredible noise and pollution... but that is a whole other story.
- Pollution - this is a whole other story (told you so) - being unable to breath, being knee deep in rubbish, being awakened at all hours of the night, the stench in some places... from every imaginable source: cars, bikes, rubbish, washing powder in the rivers - in short everywhere and everything pollutes and no-one really seems to do anything about it...
- Cockroaches - I find it difficult to respect the (Hindu) sanctity of life when there are large cockroaches in my room - sod them they are gonna get trodden on!
- Words that Indians dont understand No. 8
'Quietly' - Nothing is ever done quietly - it is all an excuse to make a noise. Even in the cinema everyone loves to describe each scene to their neighbour as though they were blind; in English, Hindi or Marathi, or frequently a combination of the three.
But enough of moaning - there must be some great stuff about India:
What I was in tune with:
- Th eoccasional small herd of Water-buffalo crossing the road as if they own it (well I guess historically they do). What I love is that they just walk out into the streaming traffic without a care in the world and without any fear at all. The traffic realises this and has to slow or even stop (a rarity in India) and the buffalo just stroll around totally unhurried - I found it beautiful to watch - it makes a change, the old creating havoc in the 'advanced' world rather than the other way round - maybe the balance is being restored.
- The food - it is great, fantastic, can be very cheap, always interesting and usually waiting time is minimal. This applies to Indian food. (It does not apply to the various Indian attempts at European food which are woeful and embarressing! In England we have Indian people who cook Indian food, Chinese people who cook Chinese food, Italians to cook Italian food etc etc and that is they way it should be - this experience has shown I do not value that diversity enough!).
- The wildlife - diverse and beautiful in all its ways - the constant supply of different coloured flowers that fall around me as I walk along (less busy) roads, the herons, egrets, kingfishers, cormorant, striped squirrels, parakeets, and elegant vultures that constantly glide overhead (like birds of prey not like the scrawney ugly ones in cartoons) and small birds - they all somehow put up with the pollution to live here - how they do it I dont know but I am grateful that they do. And then there are the enormous fruit bats which come out every evening and dance around they sky.
There is an exception - the elephant that is made to walk up and down the superhighway to grab the attention of locals and foreigners alike - it is an amazing animal but it should not have to suffer this environment.
- The markets (mainly fruit and vegetable) full of vibrant colour and shapes, and with some things I had never seen before - especially the matt black stuff that looked like small bit of coal - I was told you have to peel and cook them (a bit like potato).
- The meat market - despite being mainly Hindu (who are vegetarians normally) and cows being sacred, I did manage to eventually find a thriving (Muslim) beef market. Oddly enough an awful lots of cats and a huge number of vultures seemed to have discovered it too!
- The colours - this is a colourful society beyond doubt - why do we wear desperately boring colours in England - maybe we are desperately boring?
- The dogs - There are many on every street corner almost all unowned. I am strangely attracted to them - most are in decent health - as they are playful and friendly and I love the way they just go to sleep by the roadside and expect everyone to go around them (and everyone does) and then just get up when they want and wander around, defending their territory against insurgent dogs - it is a whole culture in itself.
- The pavements - actually the pavements are useless for walking along - I have no idea what the actual purpose of a pavement is in India but where they exist they are put together with such care that they must have a purpose. What I love is that if there is an obstruction, like a tree, in the way they just incorporate it into the pavement, no cutting down of trees here. Unfortunately this often means that the pavement is completely obstructed by the tree and so everyone has to step into the road to walk around it. So most people just end up walking in the road anyway.
- The poverty and the disparity between rich and poor - I have to mention it even though the huge divide between rich and poor goes unnoticed after a while - it is just part of the fabric of life here. It is a direct result of being Hindu - if you are born desperately poor then it is your karma and so you should stay that way for this lifetime. In Pakistan, which is generally poorer, there are almost no very poor people, as one of the tenants of Islam is to give to the poor. I do have to remind myself that the whole of India's poor are not my problem although it does sometimes feel like it - especially when the beggars who target westerners are on the prowl (and that means that they aren't 'real' beggars anyway but out to con those who are a little more gullible).
When I came to the end of my stay I gathered up all my excess clothes and bits and pieces that I wasn't going to take home to give away to locals who ran basic stalls along the roadside so they could sell them. Amongst them was a plastic 'lunch' box that I had bought, used and no longer needed. I decided to fill it with nice stuff and give it to someone who I had come into contact with and who was obviously poor. This raised tonnes of issues such as:
- what do I fill it with - what does a 'poor' person in India need?
- Am I helping the right people - I mean is the family I intended to give it to really poor? - I mean there must be poorer people around.
- what does poor mean in India? How little do you have to have - do you have to be starving to be poor - and how do I know whether they are or not? They do look poor and most people who are poor try and look like they aren't (apart from professional beggars).
- If I can help one family a bit why can't I help others - 2 families, 3, 4, ...10 ...100 ... In some ways helping one family seems so pointless in amongst the millions that need it.
- And why am I doing it - is it just to feed my ego? (not that 'poor' people would care but I did feel that my motivation was important.
- And what if they didnt accept it - unlikley in India but who was I to break the Hindu concept of karma and acceptance?
In the end I decided:
- Anyone who sits by the side of the road all day trying to scrape together a very basic living is poor.
- Helping one family is better than helping no-one
- I can only do as much as I am able in this moment
- I may be feeding my ego but creating this 'opportunity' and making it happen also it felt like an important thing to do (not historically being some-one who gives anything away).
So I asked at a shop what 'poor' people might need and filled my box with what they suggested (like shampoo, toothbrushes, tothpaste etc) plus I added a few more fun things like chocolate and biscuits (well if you are going to clean your teeth you might as well make it worthwhile). And they were delighted to accept it - as delighted as I was to give it. And whether it made a difference I dont know - I would guess at 'a little'. And ego satisfied - giving is not that difficult after all.
I have concluded that India, and Pune in particular, and North Main Road Superhighway in particular particular is simply an experiment to see how much stuff you can throw at one place (and by stuff I mean people, cars, bikes, rubbish, pollution, dogs, shops, in fact life in general) and keep throwing more and more stuff at it, and without anyone controlling anything, just see what happens. This is what it feels like and so far the experiment is progressing well with huge increases in everything and life adapts and still functions - which is lucky cos the experiment has very far to go! I hate to think what it will be like in 10 or 20 years, but it will be stretched to the limit, and probably beyond. But being India, it will still some how function just because it has to cos people's lives depend on it worksing somehow (although outsiders may not use the word 'function' to describe it).
The last word must go to the Indians who put up with all the shit, accept it and get on with life, cos that is just how it is right now. I am not sure if I want to learn a lot from this or not! The acceptance of 'what is' is great, but it feels like there is also an acceptance that things will always be like this (or worse) so why bother trying to change them - and that feels like a missed opportunity. India is full of contradictions and I should expect nothing less than to be challenged by them all!
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Monday, 25 January 2010
Monday, 21 January 2008
The Path of Transformation --OR-- A Brief Summary of the Spiritual Parts of My Journey
I was a spectator, not only of the spectacular crescendo of explosions that enlightened the Thames in the first minutes of the 21st century, but I was a spectator in my life too. Just watching it bounce along in no particular direction. Of course I did have direction, but it was from work and others. My life was being directed by others; I was just fitting in, to their show. What was I getting out of my life? Where was I going?
I was a bank manager. A hard-working, focussed, stressed and thoroughly pissed-off bank manager. I had a ‘good’ job and I played hard too, but I was (very) slow in realising that I didn’t have a Life. I was merely a distant and powerless observer of my existence, as it slid aimlessly down a slippery slope. I was devoid of feeling, unknown to joy, and had never been truly ‘in love’. And I was a complete stranger to the values of peace and fulfilment. Plus I was lost in the maze that is the corporate jungle…
And then it all changed.
Within months I had a choice to make. Move to another role with the bank or take a redundancy. I thought, I analysed (‘cos that’s what I did best), I thought again, and from somewhere I found uncertain courage to take the money and run. And run I did. Well actually I stumbled a bit at first. But once in my stride I ran and ran and ran. For six years, through over 50 countries and across six continents (Antarctica still eludes me).
Along the way I ended up in India and thought that I would take in an ashram for a week just because… well, to see what it was like and to try something different (I had never meditated before). And luckily I found a fellow traveller to drag me along to one, although not without a stack of reservations on my part about... everything.
So what was it like? Like getting up at 5.30am to do a one-hour very active meditation, then a shower, then a one-hour very silent meditation, and that was all before breakfast. And then meditate some more during the morning, more in the afternoon and some more in the evening. And they were the easy bits! I struggled with the numerous petty rules – you must wear a robe, and it must be this colour during the day… and this colour in the evening (more stuff to buy)… and only this colour trunks in the swimming pool… and use this payment card in the day but only this one in the evening and… AAAAAAARGGG! Plus it was very expensive by Indian standards and I was a backpacker on a budget. Now suddenly submerged and lost in a bewildering world, rules stalked me - openly, money flowed worryingly quickly from ATM to ashram, and the only thing I was ‘Being’, was totally confused. For five long days I fought and struggled bravely with these multi-headed monsters. And then tragedy! I was shocked to learn that my mind, which I had considered to be my ultra reliable and dependable sidekick ‘til then, was actually the sworn enemy of meditation and even that it wasn’t me at all! By now my world was gyrating uncertainly.
Sure, there was value in the meditations, and some of the multitude of multi-day courses looked good if I could only understand what they were all about, but they were sooooo expensive… and anyway, I was only there a week, so no time for that. But it was playing on my mind – if indeed it was my mind? Confusion reigned.
I was just about to book my tickets for ‘elsewhere’ when my resistance suddenly ceased! It was the calm after the storm. OK so maybe the clothes weren’t totally ridiculous and everyone else wore them, and besides I had bought them now. And comparing the ashram prices to those in UK made it a little easier to swallow. In these terms, maybe it wasn’t sooo bad. But that lead to a new dis-ease around there being nothing now to stop me carrying on and ‘doing stuff’ here. The meditating felt good, and I somehow felt a desperate need to do these courses. And I realised I needed some help, so ‘I’ could look at ‘me’ - was this a ridiculous concept? Could I really broaden my vision and shed the narrow view I had held all my life? And for the first time ever, could I challenge myself, challenge what I thought, connect with my feelings, have emotions, feel true love and discover who I really was? Now I was getting scared!
And that is when my journey really began.
I stayed a month, I had to move on because my visa was running out, but the seed had been sewn and I had taken a new name, Ankur (meaning 'new growth'). I had only scratched the surface, but at least I now knew where to dig. And just 12 months later I was back, this time for four months. Many hours of meditation, numerous courses, much pain and self-discovery later I emerged a very different person: with emotion, with a heart, with an awareness of true self and a new level of self-esteem. I experienced the qualities of joy, peace and total fulfilment that are my true self and can just feel how incredible it is to be in that space. I was not complete though, these were just the first few steps, but I had found a path….
And as well as going back to that ashram, further steps on my journey have included studying NLP, Life Coaching and Enlightenment Intensive work which I now combine with my experience for my new roles in life, as a Spiritual Life Change Coach and Meditation Teacher – my path it seems, is also to help others discover themselves.
So am I still a spectator of my life? Yes, I certainly am. But I am no longer looking from afar. I am looking from the inside, at the inside, aware of who I am and how I feel in every moment (well… most of them); and I realise that I am responsible for my own feelings and behaviour and I have real choices about my future. I am finally scripting my own show.
Now with new Openness and Awareness, I constantly seek the courage to Allow and Accept whatever is there. Just trying to be connected with myself and be real in every moment is an enormous challenge, which I relish simply because I can feel the benefits in every moment. I create my own reality – and my intention is always to do that from the blissful space of my True Self.
Check out how you can discover yourself and change your life at
http://www.spiritual-coaching.co.uk/
and
http://www.lifechangecoaching.co.uk/
I was a bank manager. A hard-working, focussed, stressed and thoroughly pissed-off bank manager. I had a ‘good’ job and I played hard too, but I was (very) slow in realising that I didn’t have a Life. I was merely a distant and powerless observer of my existence, as it slid aimlessly down a slippery slope. I was devoid of feeling, unknown to joy, and had never been truly ‘in love’. And I was a complete stranger to the values of peace and fulfilment. Plus I was lost in the maze that is the corporate jungle…
And then it all changed.
Within months I had a choice to make. Move to another role with the bank or take a redundancy. I thought, I analysed (‘cos that’s what I did best), I thought again, and from somewhere I found uncertain courage to take the money and run. And run I did. Well actually I stumbled a bit at first. But once in my stride I ran and ran and ran. For six years, through over 50 countries and across six continents (Antarctica still eludes me).
Along the way I ended up in India and thought that I would take in an ashram for a week just because… well, to see what it was like and to try something different (I had never meditated before). And luckily I found a fellow traveller to drag me along to one, although not without a stack of reservations on my part about... everything.
So what was it like? Like getting up at 5.30am to do a one-hour very active meditation, then a shower, then a one-hour very silent meditation, and that was all before breakfast. And then meditate some more during the morning, more in the afternoon and some more in the evening. And they were the easy bits! I struggled with the numerous petty rules – you must wear a robe, and it must be this colour during the day… and this colour in the evening (more stuff to buy)… and only this colour trunks in the swimming pool… and use this payment card in the day but only this one in the evening and… AAAAAAARGGG! Plus it was very expensive by Indian standards and I was a backpacker on a budget. Now suddenly submerged and lost in a bewildering world, rules stalked me - openly, money flowed worryingly quickly from ATM to ashram, and the only thing I was ‘Being’, was totally confused. For five long days I fought and struggled bravely with these multi-headed monsters. And then tragedy! I was shocked to learn that my mind, which I had considered to be my ultra reliable and dependable sidekick ‘til then, was actually the sworn enemy of meditation and even that it wasn’t me at all! By now my world was gyrating uncertainly.
Sure, there was value in the meditations, and some of the multitude of multi-day courses looked good if I could only understand what they were all about, but they were sooooo expensive… and anyway, I was only there a week, so no time for that. But it was playing on my mind – if indeed it was my mind? Confusion reigned.
I was just about to book my tickets for ‘elsewhere’ when my resistance suddenly ceased! It was the calm after the storm. OK so maybe the clothes weren’t totally ridiculous and everyone else wore them, and besides I had bought them now. And comparing the ashram prices to those in UK made it a little easier to swallow. In these terms, maybe it wasn’t sooo bad. But that lead to a new dis-ease around there being nothing now to stop me carrying on and ‘doing stuff’ here. The meditating felt good, and I somehow felt a desperate need to do these courses. And I realised I needed some help, so ‘I’ could look at ‘me’ - was this a ridiculous concept? Could I really broaden my vision and shed the narrow view I had held all my life? And for the first time ever, could I challenge myself, challenge what I thought, connect with my feelings, have emotions, feel true love and discover who I really was? Now I was getting scared!
And that is when my journey really began.
I stayed a month, I had to move on because my visa was running out, but the seed had been sewn and I had taken a new name, Ankur (meaning 'new growth'). I had only scratched the surface, but at least I now knew where to dig. And just 12 months later I was back, this time for four months. Many hours of meditation, numerous courses, much pain and self-discovery later I emerged a very different person: with emotion, with a heart, with an awareness of true self and a new level of self-esteem. I experienced the qualities of joy, peace and total fulfilment that are my true self and can just feel how incredible it is to be in that space. I was not complete though, these were just the first few steps, but I had found a path….
And as well as going back to that ashram, further steps on my journey have included studying NLP, Life Coaching and Enlightenment Intensive work which I now combine with my experience for my new roles in life, as a Spiritual Life Change Coach and Meditation Teacher – my path it seems, is also to help others discover themselves.
So am I still a spectator of my life? Yes, I certainly am. But I am no longer looking from afar. I am looking from the inside, at the inside, aware of who I am and how I feel in every moment (well… most of them); and I realise that I am responsible for my own feelings and behaviour and I have real choices about my future. I am finally scripting my own show.
Now with new Openness and Awareness, I constantly seek the courage to Allow and Accept whatever is there. Just trying to be connected with myself and be real in every moment is an enormous challenge, which I relish simply because I can feel the benefits in every moment. I create my own reality – and my intention is always to do that from the blissful space of my True Self.
Check out how you can discover yourself and change your life at
http://www.spiritual-coaching.co.uk/
and
http://www.lifechangecoaching.co.uk/
Monday, 5 June 2006
Where 40 - Delhi, India --OR-- Mangoes and the Truth about Indian Food
Hiya,
In May Mango Mania arrives in India - yes it is the time of the year when mangoes are ripe and the whole of India goes nuts for them (well the rich people anyway). Everything that can be made out of them is. And some are even eaten as they are - especially the Alphonso variety, the king of mangoes.
And after 4 months sitting around doing nuff... meditating and stuff ... I finally managed to remind myself that travelling is about going places (and it was getting very hot in Pune) - and so I went somewhere, some places in fact, although at first I was wondering why ...
To start with something familiar kicks in - here I am on a train or a bus... then I encouter the disgusting squat toilets which look lke they have been just used by a herd of free roaming cattle which had a particularly bad beer and curry night the night before and whose aim was worse than a Peter Crouch penalty. Then the poverty - no matter what I have seen one day there is always something worse to see the next. Everyone walks round it, ignores it and builds huge very posh hotels next to it ... thats just the obscene way it is. And if you want to see the worlds biggest toilets just look out of the train window in the early morning as it pulls into a big city - endless rows of people squating down baring all (nearly all men oddly enough - I dont know where the women go)???
First stop Udaipur, which is a pretty place (well the bit around the lake and palace is at least) and spent most of the 3 days on the open air restaurant of the place I stayed looking at the views, but hardly moving cos it was so hot (over 40C in the shade) and once the palace and the odd temple had been viewed there wasnt really that much to do. So I decided to go to Jaipur...
Big mistake! Not only was Jaipur hotter than Udaipur - about 45C - (too hot to even lie under the fan comfortably), but it has to be the most scummy city I have been to in India, and you can imagine that is up against some pretty stiff competition. And since India can pride itself at being top of the world scummy city league then you may be able to imagine what Jaipur is like. Suffice to say that the description in LP of Jaipur being 'Whacky Races on acid' is about right. Traffic is constant and choking and constantly choking and when I tried to avoid it, it came looking for me! Everything is crammed in to small spaces. There are twice as many people, cars, rickshaws, cows per sq metre than in most cities in India, and more animals per sq metre than an english farm. The piles of rubbish and muck that line the streets are competed over by cows, goats, water buffalo, dogs, pigs and rats and often people as well, (cardboard is a delicacy for the pigs, cows and goats - Ive never seen humans eat it, yet) and then once they have eaten, they wallow in it. Then they follow me! I have been closely followed by people, dogs and cows (and in the mountains by monkeys) - I dont know which is worse, but it is best not to turn your back on any of them...
However I did realise that there is some value in a society that castes everyone into a specific role in life - opportunists follow the water buffalo herds as they trundle along the street and as soon as the poo hits the floor they grab it and mould it into rounds the size of chappaitis and dry it out for cooking fuel (it is normally poo of good consistency, unlike the liquid splodge left by cows - you cant spend time in India and not be an expert in poo - its everywhere - Regular washing of footwear is advisable).
Out in the villages things are not as bad although the transport can be worse. I was in a normal size jeep heading to a local market with 5 (inc driver) in the front, 6 of us in the 2nd row and about a dozen in the back (several hanging on the rear door). Now even for India I thought this was pretty full but was astounded to find that the next time we stopped to pick up passengers there was a brief discussion and no -one got on. At last I have been on a vehicle in Inida that even the locals considered was full - a first for me! Then at the next stop 2 people got out of the 2nd row ... and 4 got in. I think that in the school syllabus here, maths has been replaced by people management!
Travelling by state owned bus on the narrow winding roads in the hills of Northern India has to be about the worse transport experience I can remember - not only was I jammed in, knees crushed against the seat in front, but after about 5 minutes I was feeling like decorating the bus a queasy shade of green. Luckily it was only a 5 hour trip and I got over it in a few days (just in time to catch the next state owned bus on the narrow winding roads in the hills of Northern India...)
After trying to see the Dalai Lama and finding that he was busy, I went to Dalhousie, a place where Indian tourists go and there are hardly any foreigners, so it was kindda weird. But I did bag myself a small cottage in the hills where I stayed and meditated, and read and found I could sit on my porch gazing out at the spectacular view with one eye whilst watching England play Sri Lanka (live) at Cricket with the other. One eye is all you need to watch cricket anyway...
__________________________________________________________________
Interlude
Its hot, hot , hotter here. At least in the hills it was a lot cooler, even cold. And it rained. And when it rains it rains.
Cool and wet? Reminds me of home.
__________________________________________________________________
Now a bit just for the travel averse, who think an Indian is a restaurant in the high street, and a taste of India means going into an 'Indian' after a large number of beers, here is some other true stuff about India:
- Onion Bhajis - forget it, India's best food is not actually available in India! Well i did find one place that did them ... and they were rubbish, the english versions far better.
- And whilst we are on the subject they dont do poppadoms and pickles like we do either ...
- And Cobra beer doesnt exist here (cos it was invented in Bradford, England) - although Kingfisher is available (and there is an airline also called Kingfisher which astoundingly uses the same logo as the beer! - what does that say about air safety in India?)
- India has (inventively) partyly solved it transport problems by declaring that on the roads, everyone has right of way over everyone else all of the time. So there is no 'waiting' for other traffic to pass, no 'holding back' to let oncoming traffic through before overtaking, no waiting at traffic lights just because they are red ... everyone just goes for any space that is available happy in the knowledge that he has right of way over everyone else. Even more odd is that there is no road rage either. Despite everyone cutting up everyone else all of the time, no-one gets the slightest bit upset or shouts or says anything at all. And everyone having right of way works - well about 98% of the time. There are clearly some teething problems to be ironed out but I don't want to dwell on the number of dents, the odd vehicle on its side or the occasional bodies strewn across the road; it is sufficient to say that I have been repeatedly reminded by repetition that the word for 'accident' in Hindi is 'accident'! Anyway only 80,000 people a year are killed on India's roads (one every 6.5 minutes) so with a population of this size and growing this quickly it's clearly not that important...
But now (save a taxi to the airport at the dead of night) all that is behind me - I have been vegetarian (the only way to be in India) and had virtually no alcohol in the past 5 months, so to be plunged into several rounds of World Cup BBQs and beer extravaganzas very shortly which will be a challenge ... cos I will be home before the big tournament kicks off (lucky coincidence that!).
And that was all the travelling I did in 5 months. For the other four 'I' was the journey.
See ya soon
Love and Hugs
Ankur / Pete
In May Mango Mania arrives in India - yes it is the time of the year when mangoes are ripe and the whole of India goes nuts for them (well the rich people anyway). Everything that can be made out of them is. And some are even eaten as they are - especially the Alphonso variety, the king of mangoes.
And after 4 months sitting around doing nuff... meditating and stuff ... I finally managed to remind myself that travelling is about going places (and it was getting very hot in Pune) - and so I went somewhere, some places in fact, although at first I was wondering why ...
To start with something familiar kicks in - here I am on a train or a bus... then I encouter the disgusting squat toilets which look lke they have been just used by a herd of free roaming cattle which had a particularly bad beer and curry night the night before and whose aim was worse than a Peter Crouch penalty. Then the poverty - no matter what I have seen one day there is always something worse to see the next. Everyone walks round it, ignores it and builds huge very posh hotels next to it ... thats just the obscene way it is. And if you want to see the worlds biggest toilets just look out of the train window in the early morning as it pulls into a big city - endless rows of people squating down baring all (nearly all men oddly enough - I dont know where the women go)???
First stop Udaipur, which is a pretty place (well the bit around the lake and palace is at least) and spent most of the 3 days on the open air restaurant of the place I stayed looking at the views, but hardly moving cos it was so hot (over 40C in the shade) and once the palace and the odd temple had been viewed there wasnt really that much to do. So I decided to go to Jaipur...
Big mistake! Not only was Jaipur hotter than Udaipur - about 45C - (too hot to even lie under the fan comfortably), but it has to be the most scummy city I have been to in India, and you can imagine that is up against some pretty stiff competition. And since India can pride itself at being top of the world scummy city league then you may be able to imagine what Jaipur is like. Suffice to say that the description in LP of Jaipur being 'Whacky Races on acid' is about right. Traffic is constant and choking and constantly choking and when I tried to avoid it, it came looking for me! Everything is crammed in to small spaces. There are twice as many people, cars, rickshaws, cows per sq metre than in most cities in India, and more animals per sq metre than an english farm. The piles of rubbish and muck that line the streets are competed over by cows, goats, water buffalo, dogs, pigs and rats and often people as well, (cardboard is a delicacy for the pigs, cows and goats - Ive never seen humans eat it, yet) and then once they have eaten, they wallow in it. Then they follow me! I have been closely followed by people, dogs and cows (and in the mountains by monkeys) - I dont know which is worse, but it is best not to turn your back on any of them...
However I did realise that there is some value in a society that castes everyone into a specific role in life - opportunists follow the water buffalo herds as they trundle along the street and as soon as the poo hits the floor they grab it and mould it into rounds the size of chappaitis and dry it out for cooking fuel (it is normally poo of good consistency, unlike the liquid splodge left by cows - you cant spend time in India and not be an expert in poo - its everywhere - Regular washing of footwear is advisable).
Out in the villages things are not as bad although the transport can be worse. I was in a normal size jeep heading to a local market with 5 (inc driver) in the front, 6 of us in the 2nd row and about a dozen in the back (several hanging on the rear door). Now even for India I thought this was pretty full but was astounded to find that the next time we stopped to pick up passengers there was a brief discussion and no -one got on. At last I have been on a vehicle in Inida that even the locals considered was full - a first for me! Then at the next stop 2 people got out of the 2nd row ... and 4 got in. I think that in the school syllabus here, maths has been replaced by people management!
Travelling by state owned bus on the narrow winding roads in the hills of Northern India has to be about the worse transport experience I can remember - not only was I jammed in, knees crushed against the seat in front, but after about 5 minutes I was feeling like decorating the bus a queasy shade of green. Luckily it was only a 5 hour trip and I got over it in a few days (just in time to catch the next state owned bus on the narrow winding roads in the hills of Northern India...)
After trying to see the Dalai Lama and finding that he was busy, I went to Dalhousie, a place where Indian tourists go and there are hardly any foreigners, so it was kindda weird. But I did bag myself a small cottage in the hills where I stayed and meditated, and read and found I could sit on my porch gazing out at the spectacular view with one eye whilst watching England play Sri Lanka (live) at Cricket with the other. One eye is all you need to watch cricket anyway...
__________________________________________________________________
Interlude
Its hot, hot , hotter here. At least in the hills it was a lot cooler, even cold. And it rained. And when it rains it rains.
Cool and wet? Reminds me of home.
__________________________________________________________________
Now a bit just for the travel averse, who think an Indian is a restaurant in the high street, and a taste of India means going into an 'Indian' after a large number of beers, here is some other true stuff about India:
- Onion Bhajis - forget it, India's best food is not actually available in India! Well i did find one place that did them ... and they were rubbish, the english versions far better.
- And whilst we are on the subject they dont do poppadoms and pickles like we do either ...
- And Cobra beer doesnt exist here (cos it was invented in Bradford, England) - although Kingfisher is available (and there is an airline also called Kingfisher which astoundingly uses the same logo as the beer! - what does that say about air safety in India?)
- India has (inventively) partyly solved it transport problems by declaring that on the roads, everyone has right of way over everyone else all of the time. So there is no 'waiting' for other traffic to pass, no 'holding back' to let oncoming traffic through before overtaking, no waiting at traffic lights just because they are red ... everyone just goes for any space that is available happy in the knowledge that he has right of way over everyone else. Even more odd is that there is no road rage either. Despite everyone cutting up everyone else all of the time, no-one gets the slightest bit upset or shouts or says anything at all. And everyone having right of way works - well about 98% of the time. There are clearly some teething problems to be ironed out but I don't want to dwell on the number of dents, the odd vehicle on its side or the occasional bodies strewn across the road; it is sufficient to say that I have been repeatedly reminded by repetition that the word for 'accident' in Hindi is 'accident'! Anyway only 80,000 people a year are killed on India's roads (one every 6.5 minutes) so with a population of this size and growing this quickly it's clearly not that important...
But now (save a taxi to the airport at the dead of night) all that is behind me - I have been vegetarian (the only way to be in India) and had virtually no alcohol in the past 5 months, so to be plunged into several rounds of World Cup BBQs and beer extravaganzas very shortly which will be a challenge ... cos I will be home before the big tournament kicks off (lucky coincidence that!).
And that was all the travelling I did in 5 months. For the other four 'I' was the journey.
See ya soon
Love and Hugs
Ankur / Pete
Saturday, 6 May 2006
Where 39 - Pune (again), India --OR-- Where Did Being Sane Ever Get You?
HI Everyone
It has been yet another month's hard labour at the ashram, breaking rocks and the like.
Someone did ask me to describe the place I am in, but since I have been here over 3 months, walking up and down the same road everyday it has ceased to have any cultural attraction. Suffice to say that:
- The ashram is like living in a pradise with loads of jungle like trees, plants and flowers interspersed by walkways, open areas, air-con buildings and a swimming pool; You can always check it out at
www.osho.com (meditation resort)
- The main roads are hotbeds of hotrods and hotheads, choked with SUVs, tuk-tuks and two-wheelers striving to make their mark on the clock, the road and (sometimes) their foreheads since crash helmets are not required in cities (!). Calling it mayhem would hardly confer the insanity which prevails in even venturing near the roadside (the pavements being virtually unusable, let alone trying to cross it. The real killer though is the (perfectly acceptable) practice of driving or riding at the side of the road in the opposite direction to the traffic in the nearest lane ... just when I thought it was safe to walk at the side of the road, some bugger is coming the opposite way and expects me (walking) to move out into the traffic so he can nip behind me staying close to the relative safety of the kerb.
I have, on a few occasions, made the dubious decision to ride pillion on two wheelers (often driven by Italians (need I say more) - the men are crazy, the women are worse - I sit there hanging on grimley to anything that feels relatively fixed, considering that maybe this is what suicide feels like, not listening as the respective Italian enthiusiastically recounts stories of this and that (actually I have been to scared to ever listen so I dont know) in broken english with one hand forsaking the handlebars in order to give the story an unnecessary flourish, the other hand merely has a passing acquaintance (two fingers are just enough to keep the twist grip on full power, any excess fingers would reduce the excitement by bringing in an element of control). I am frozen whilst in wonderment at their power of longevity as we crash through another pothole, swerve around a large water buffalo with excessively long and threatening horns, and at this point I am tempted to remind them that whilst I have changed a lot in the past few months, I am not yet immortal!
_______________________________________________________________________
Interlude
From the reports the weather in UK actually seems to be getting a little warmer ( or less cold at least), although the amount of rain doesnt sound great. Here it is 40C during the day and 20C at night, so the fans are on all 24/7. Not that the temperature is the problem, the humidity is the killer, and it is getting to be unpleasent during the middle of the day - the only respite is air-con but then the suffering is double upon exit...
Unfortunately, as I head up north the first two places I am heading for, Udaipur and Jaipur, are even hotter - forecast 45 during the day and 30 at night!!! After that I head to the hills and cooler weather ... I hope.
_______________________________________________________________________
The most fun thing in the last month was a 3-day course on tantra - more about love, energy and breath than sex - but mingling amoungst (some) hot bodies is always beneficial; and delving into my own heart emotions by projecting onto my partner or using them as a mirror is very powerful and revealing - and maybe just a bit frightening.
And the main event has been 21 days of Mystic Rose ... I can see I will have to explain ... it may sound strange ... this is a meditation that consists of 7 days of laughing (at nothing), 7 days of crying and then 7 days of silence ... actually its not a whole day just 3 hours but the mood created inside does affect the whole day (and night). Laughing for 3 hours was really hard work cos it is non stop. Crying was extremely difficult, although it is getting in the state of mind and body that is more important than the tears themselves. Silence was a breeze! And so after that my emotions are swirling round in strange directions and will take a while to settle ... so I am heading off to a quiet place by a lake for a few days before doing a bit of travelling.
Yes after all these months, I finally have a plan which actually involves going somewhere! Starting with getting on a train and heading up north via the desert to the mountains where it should be a bit cooler; and leaving this place behind ... and I feel it really is time to leave ... I have been through so much here and existence is now pushing me elsewhere, somewhere quieter, less intense and reflective ... where I can look forward to the blossoming of new emotions...
You may of course think I am insane ... but where did being sane ever get me?? Or you??
Love and Hugs
Ankur
It has been yet another month's hard labour at the ashram, breaking rocks and the like.
Someone did ask me to describe the place I am in, but since I have been here over 3 months, walking up and down the same road everyday it has ceased to have any cultural attraction. Suffice to say that:
- The ashram is like living in a pradise with loads of jungle like trees, plants and flowers interspersed by walkways, open areas, air-con buildings and a swimming pool; You can always check it out at
www.osho.com (meditation resort)
- The main roads are hotbeds of hotrods and hotheads, choked with SUVs, tuk-tuks and two-wheelers striving to make their mark on the clock, the road and (sometimes) their foreheads since crash helmets are not required in cities (!). Calling it mayhem would hardly confer the insanity which prevails in even venturing near the roadside (the pavements being virtually unusable, let alone trying to cross it. The real killer though is the (perfectly acceptable) practice of driving or riding at the side of the road in the opposite direction to the traffic in the nearest lane ... just when I thought it was safe to walk at the side of the road, some bugger is coming the opposite way and expects me (walking) to move out into the traffic so he can nip behind me staying close to the relative safety of the kerb.
I have, on a few occasions, made the dubious decision to ride pillion on two wheelers (often driven by Italians (need I say more) - the men are crazy, the women are worse - I sit there hanging on grimley to anything that feels relatively fixed, considering that maybe this is what suicide feels like, not listening as the respective Italian enthiusiastically recounts stories of this and that (actually I have been to scared to ever listen so I dont know) in broken english with one hand forsaking the handlebars in order to give the story an unnecessary flourish, the other hand merely has a passing acquaintance (two fingers are just enough to keep the twist grip on full power, any excess fingers would reduce the excitement by bringing in an element of control). I am frozen whilst in wonderment at their power of longevity as we crash through another pothole, swerve around a large water buffalo with excessively long and threatening horns, and at this point I am tempted to remind them that whilst I have changed a lot in the past few months, I am not yet immortal!
_______________________________________________________________________
Interlude
From the reports the weather in UK actually seems to be getting a little warmer ( or less cold at least), although the amount of rain doesnt sound great. Here it is 40C during the day and 20C at night, so the fans are on all 24/7. Not that the temperature is the problem, the humidity is the killer, and it is getting to be unpleasent during the middle of the day - the only respite is air-con but then the suffering is double upon exit...
Unfortunately, as I head up north the first two places I am heading for, Udaipur and Jaipur, are even hotter - forecast 45 during the day and 30 at night!!! After that I head to the hills and cooler weather ... I hope.
_______________________________________________________________________
The most fun thing in the last month was a 3-day course on tantra - more about love, energy and breath than sex - but mingling amoungst (some) hot bodies is always beneficial; and delving into my own heart emotions by projecting onto my partner or using them as a mirror is very powerful and revealing - and maybe just a bit frightening.
And the main event has been 21 days of Mystic Rose ... I can see I will have to explain ... it may sound strange ... this is a meditation that consists of 7 days of laughing (at nothing), 7 days of crying and then 7 days of silence ... actually its not a whole day just 3 hours but the mood created inside does affect the whole day (and night). Laughing for 3 hours was really hard work cos it is non stop. Crying was extremely difficult, although it is getting in the state of mind and body that is more important than the tears themselves. Silence was a breeze! And so after that my emotions are swirling round in strange directions and will take a while to settle ... so I am heading off to a quiet place by a lake for a few days before doing a bit of travelling.
Yes after all these months, I finally have a plan which actually involves going somewhere! Starting with getting on a train and heading up north via the desert to the mountains where it should be a bit cooler; and leaving this place behind ... and I feel it really is time to leave ... I have been through so much here and existence is now pushing me elsewhere, somewhere quieter, less intense and reflective ... where I can look forward to the blossoming of new emotions...
You may of course think I am insane ... but where did being sane ever get me?? Or you??
Love and Hugs
Ankur
Tuesday, 11 April 2006
Where 38 - Pune (still), India --OR-- How to Have Everything You Want so long as You Want Nothing at All
Hiya
Thanks for all the emails warning me about being brainwashed at ashrams in India. I'm sure some of them were out of genuine concern, and the others were at least amusing.
I have spent most of the past month indulging myself in massages and the like - not intentionally of course, but it just happened that way ...
- Firstly, I went to th Ayuverdic doctor to try and fix my left knee which has been getting worse since I have been here (and is my excuse for not being able to kick a football with my left foot). I ended up having my whole body smothered in oil several times and then on numerous occasions my knee was swabbed firmly with boiling oil which was excruciatingly painful. At least my knee did get a lot better (back to where it was when I got here).
- Then a couple of times I had deep massage - the guy (who has been recommended to me by loads of people) found bits of me I didnt know could hurt but I floated off somewhere afterwards so it must have been good.
- Transomatic Dialogue - next I stumbled upon this, but still dont know what it means. It isn't massage but I got to lay on a table (clothes on though) and after revealing my deepest secrets to the therapist, she proceeded to talk to my body for an hour and a half - kindda weird but it went deep.
- And now finally I have decided to try Acupuncture (Tibetan style) and have needles stuck around my knee and all over the rest of me as well. Ive just started the course but I will let you know how it goes...
Just in case it seems like I am at a health farm, there are occasional reminders that I am in India, like:
Roads - Around here they love laying new roads. Unfortunately there is no overall plan and so when a road that has never been anything other than a dirt track gets tarmac'd, someone found they needed to dig a trench the whole way across within 2 days!
Language - It constantly amazes me how the locals can change languages several times in the same conversation apparently seamlessly between Hindi, Marati and English, and then back again without anyone batting an eyelid. Whether anyone really understands what is being said does not seem too important.
Pavements - these rare stretches of paradise are built around existing trees which is very enviromentally friendly (about the only thing here that is) but often to the point where the pavement is completely blocked by said tree and everyone has to walk in the road (not recommended due to ridiculous amount of traffic and standard of driving), although often there are less potholes in the road than on the (new) pavement!
Elephants walking along the road. It happens!
The diet is of course a vegatarian one (chancing eating meat here is an unnecessary risk I dont need to take) and the veg food is very good. Add to that the variety of ripe fruit available at very cheap prices and I find I am stuffing myself at every opportunity with fruit and veg and still eating more healthily than ever before. The only problem is that I'm struggling to take in enough calories, especially with the rising heat having a negative effect on everyone's appetites. So just to increase the sugar intake a few of us have started to have a weekly pig out at an unlimited thali place with loads of sweet stuff as well ... ah, the joys of Indian food... but I have definitely lost quite a few kgs since I got here.
And talking of looks, my hair is now long enough that it needs a direction to grow in other than simply outward!
____________________________________________________________________
Interlude
It is kindda strange that London is now getting over an hour more daylight than we are here but according to the BBC the temperature is attached by an elastic band to a point near freezing. Here I am just glad that it hasn't breached the 40C mark although it has been 38 or 39 most days for some time now. At least the humidity is relatively low, although that is starting to rise unstoppably in anticipation of the monsoon in June, by which time I will hopefully be back in the UK enjoying more friendly temperatures - mid 20s would be nice.
_____________________________________________________________________
And of course there are meditations - yes I am still getting up at 5.30am to jump around the inside of a marble clad pyramid although I only managed to do 26 days in a row this time as I was getting bored and wanted a few days rest. Better meditations include poi (swinging 2 small weights on strings around the head) - these can be alight but at the moment I am settling for the ones with brightly coloured scarves attached as being safer (when it all goes wrong) and better in daylight anyway; I'm not that good but for some reason a couple of people asked me to teach them, so I now teach it as well! And yes it might sound (an awful lot) like playing but this really is meditation - one of the major points of (eastern) meditation is to get out of the mind, and it really is impossible to think about what is happening to those weights at the end of the strings as they whizz round in funny patterns - so the mind just gives up ... trust me ...
And of course, Courses.
- All these courses that I have done have (eventually) brought up their share of confusion of the mind and body (emotionally) which is a bit weird at first cos it catches me unaware; suddenly, for no reason, I feel different.
- The main one this month was called 'Who is in?' which is an intensive 3 days where the first thing they do is take your watch away and then tell you to be on time, everytime. They also made us get up at 4.45am (although we had no idea what time it was) and eat boiled veg and tofu (yuk, yuk, yuk). And we were not allowed any salt and pepper either. If ever you need a reciepe for tastelessness then try tofu and diet dal.
So having got us all under their complete control 'they' sat me down opposite a partner who asked me the koan (Zen word for a riddle with no answer), 'Tell me, who is in?'; I looked inside myself and had to talk for 5 mins on how I felt (emotionally, sort of), on what was there. Then I asked my partner the same question and then 5 mins later I was asked the question again and so it went on for 3 days - I was asked 100 times and gave 100 different answers. The whole point is to bring up all these masks, personalities, egos, conditioning which are not me and discard them. Then what I am left with eventually is 'I'. And at the end of the second day I felt a different space inside me, that had been covered up by all the other rubbish - a space of contentment, beauty, happiness and bliss, and yet all so simple. Although I didn't recognise it at first I found that this was the 'I' I had been searching for!
And then I realised that I could have absolutely everything I wanted, so long as I wanted nothing!
And realising and understanding this is very powerful indeed.
Let me know if you get it!
Love and Hugs
Ankur / Pete
Thanks for all the emails warning me about being brainwashed at ashrams in India. I'm sure some of them were out of genuine concern, and the others were at least amusing.
I have spent most of the past month indulging myself in massages and the like - not intentionally of course, but it just happened that way ...
- Firstly, I went to th Ayuverdic doctor to try and fix my left knee which has been getting worse since I have been here (and is my excuse for not being able to kick a football with my left foot). I ended up having my whole body smothered in oil several times and then on numerous occasions my knee was swabbed firmly with boiling oil which was excruciatingly painful. At least my knee did get a lot better (back to where it was when I got here).
- Then a couple of times I had deep massage - the guy (who has been recommended to me by loads of people) found bits of me I didnt know could hurt but I floated off somewhere afterwards so it must have been good.
- Transomatic Dialogue - next I stumbled upon this, but still dont know what it means. It isn't massage but I got to lay on a table (clothes on though) and after revealing my deepest secrets to the therapist, she proceeded to talk to my body for an hour and a half - kindda weird but it went deep.
- And now finally I have decided to try Acupuncture (Tibetan style) and have needles stuck around my knee and all over the rest of me as well. Ive just started the course but I will let you know how it goes...
Just in case it seems like I am at a health farm, there are occasional reminders that I am in India, like:
Roads - Around here they love laying new roads. Unfortunately there is no overall plan and so when a road that has never been anything other than a dirt track gets tarmac'd, someone found they needed to dig a trench the whole way across within 2 days!
Language - It constantly amazes me how the locals can change languages several times in the same conversation apparently seamlessly between Hindi, Marati and English, and then back again without anyone batting an eyelid. Whether anyone really understands what is being said does not seem too important.
Pavements - these rare stretches of paradise are built around existing trees which is very enviromentally friendly (about the only thing here that is) but often to the point where the pavement is completely blocked by said tree and everyone has to walk in the road (not recommended due to ridiculous amount of traffic and standard of driving), although often there are less potholes in the road than on the (new) pavement!
Elephants walking along the road. It happens!
The diet is of course a vegatarian one (chancing eating meat here is an unnecessary risk I dont need to take) and the veg food is very good. Add to that the variety of ripe fruit available at very cheap prices and I find I am stuffing myself at every opportunity with fruit and veg and still eating more healthily than ever before. The only problem is that I'm struggling to take in enough calories, especially with the rising heat having a negative effect on everyone's appetites. So just to increase the sugar intake a few of us have started to have a weekly pig out at an unlimited thali place with loads of sweet stuff as well ... ah, the joys of Indian food... but I have definitely lost quite a few kgs since I got here.
And talking of looks, my hair is now long enough that it needs a direction to grow in other than simply outward!
____________________________________________________________________
Interlude
It is kindda strange that London is now getting over an hour more daylight than we are here but according to the BBC the temperature is attached by an elastic band to a point near freezing. Here I am just glad that it hasn't breached the 40C mark although it has been 38 or 39 most days for some time now. At least the humidity is relatively low, although that is starting to rise unstoppably in anticipation of the monsoon in June, by which time I will hopefully be back in the UK enjoying more friendly temperatures - mid 20s would be nice.
_____________________________________________________________________
And of course there are meditations - yes I am still getting up at 5.30am to jump around the inside of a marble clad pyramid although I only managed to do 26 days in a row this time as I was getting bored and wanted a few days rest. Better meditations include poi (swinging 2 small weights on strings around the head) - these can be alight but at the moment I am settling for the ones with brightly coloured scarves attached as being safer (when it all goes wrong) and better in daylight anyway; I'm not that good but for some reason a couple of people asked me to teach them, so I now teach it as well! And yes it might sound (an awful lot) like playing but this really is meditation - one of the major points of (eastern) meditation is to get out of the mind, and it really is impossible to think about what is happening to those weights at the end of the strings as they whizz round in funny patterns - so the mind just gives up ... trust me ...
And of course, Courses.
- All these courses that I have done have (eventually) brought up their share of confusion of the mind and body (emotionally) which is a bit weird at first cos it catches me unaware; suddenly, for no reason, I feel different.
- The main one this month was called 'Who is in?' which is an intensive 3 days where the first thing they do is take your watch away and then tell you to be on time, everytime. They also made us get up at 4.45am (although we had no idea what time it was) and eat boiled veg and tofu (yuk, yuk, yuk). And we were not allowed any salt and pepper either. If ever you need a reciepe for tastelessness then try tofu and diet dal.
So having got us all under their complete control 'they' sat me down opposite a partner who asked me the koan (Zen word for a riddle with no answer), 'Tell me, who is in?'; I looked inside myself and had to talk for 5 mins on how I felt (emotionally, sort of), on what was there. Then I asked my partner the same question and then 5 mins later I was asked the question again and so it went on for 3 days - I was asked 100 times and gave 100 different answers. The whole point is to bring up all these masks, personalities, egos, conditioning which are not me and discard them. Then what I am left with eventually is 'I'. And at the end of the second day I felt a different space inside me, that had been covered up by all the other rubbish - a space of contentment, beauty, happiness and bliss, and yet all so simple. Although I didn't recognise it at first I found that this was the 'I' I had been searching for!
And then I realised that I could have absolutely everything I wanted, so long as I wanted nothing!
And realising and understanding this is very powerful indeed.
Let me know if you get it!
Love and Hugs
Ankur / Pete
Wednesday, 15 March 2006
Where 37 - Pune, India --OR-- How to Live in Bliss - the Intellectual Answer
HI Everyone ...
... from the land of bombs and bird flu. Not that anyone asked, but if they had I would have been able to tell them that although I am close to the location of the confirmed cases of bird flu, I have not eaten eggs or chicken since I got here and am currently surrounding myself with cats and street dogs (easy here) to avoid any birdfowl coming close. And I have been some distance from the bombs which have killed quite a few locals (but no tourists) so far.
I have been in India 2 months now and have got used to the little intricacies of life here:
- the constant power cuts which happen several times during the day, and are of indeterminent length - the only reliable thing is that they DO happen every day.
- yesterday I ate at an italian restaurant for a change from the usual curry, and they gave me a knife and fork! I thought they only had spoons in India? I havent used a knife and fork for 2 months and could barely remember how to use them - mind you eating pizza with a spoon could also be tricky.
- Festival - today was the Hindu festival of Holi which involves half the population (i.e. half a billion) roaming the streets armed with copious amounts of coloured powder and paint to throw at the other half a Billion. As you can imagine the result is an enormous unholi(!) but xtremely colourful mess. Luckily, I have avoided being coloured to death (so far) although the road is a mosaic testimony to the heavyweight encounters that have taken place, and many of the locals shimmer like rainbows.
In the past month I have managed to find a bit of time to relax, that is when I have not been beating myself up on some course or other. Last post (a month ago) I was part way through a Fresh Beginnings for a New Life Course ... thankfully now completed. But first a few things I forgot to mention last time.
Vipassana (10 day course)
It only took 20 hours for me to learn to drive a bus to carry and look after 50 people - it took 100 hours to learn Vipassana meditation to look after just me. Efficient it is not - but effective? Well, maybe it allowed me to experience a new level of ... just living!
Fresh Beginnings for a New Life Course
I was told by the facilitator that the first thing I had to do (before the course started) was find someone to do my laundry for the first 12 days of the course when we were in isolation! I was horrified - I had just arrived, I hadn't even met anyone yet; Imagine having to go up to someone you have never met before and ask them to do your laundry for 12 days. Now that is a test (of what I don't know), but I had to do it, so I did. Hopefully never again!
As part of the course I had to carry around a large blue bunny rabbit (covered with pink hearts) for 10 days (his name was Blue Bunny and he has magic ears so he can fly!). He had to go everywhere I went: sit next to me in the meditations and at mealtimes and in bed. We must have got some funny looks wandering around like that - but we weren't allowed to make eye contact with anyone so thankfully I never saw any of it!
Part II of this course was 8 days spent examining our adolesence; Strict committment to secrecy prevents me from revealing what we did on this part of the course (and you wouldn't believe me anyway) suffice to say that it was examined in depth and at some length (but it did involve a lot of chocolate!).
And finally, Part III which was 3 days of silent meditation - and that was the end of the course, a massive 28 days after it started (inc breaks) - and it did seem like a lifetime!
And at last I get to have a lay-in - well deserved I feel after a record (for me) 42 consecutive days of getting up at 4.15am or 5.30am. And you all thought I was having an easy life ...
Before I left the UK someone said to me that if they had 28 days they wouldnt spend them doing this. Yes, it is possible to look on this as 100% of your annual holiday entitlement being spent on a course, which lets face it, is not absolutly guaranteed to change your life; but if I live for, say, another 40 years, these days amount to is only 0.19% of the rest of my life - a bargain - especially compared to the 30% that will probably be spent sleeping!
_________________
Interlude
The Weather - It has been steadily getting hotter and hotter here (up to about 35C and down to 15C at night) without a cloud anywhere to be seen - and then suddenly it rains together with a huge lightening storm. At least the few days after were a little cooler (low 30's) and it made a change from all that blue sky stuff.
__________________
Other Stuff
- Three days spent in a police station...My ipod mp3 player was stolen which I had only bought 2 months before so I was really annoyed; then I spent most of the next 3 days in a police station trying and eventually suceeding to get a police report for the insurance. To say that it was bureaucratic is a slight understatement, and in the end I only got what I wanted because during one of my long vigils (meditations!?!) in the police station, the elder brother of one of the officers came in and I got talking to him - then he had a brief work with his younger brother and suddenly the police report (which I had to write myself anyway) became a slight priority and they stamped and signed it which took them all of about 10 seconds - after 3 days of waiting! Bloody Hell! People have committed murder, been arrested, tried, found guilty, executed and reincarnated in less time that it took me to get a signature on a piece of paper!!!
I have now come to terms with the loss seeing this theft as a gift of a beautiful opportunity to indulge in reading books and talking to people rather than encasing myself in artificial world of sound (I bet the person who stole it wasn't thinking that though).
- Escape!
After getting that bit of paper from the police, I was finally able to escape the intensity of the ashram and leave the energy of the course behind - and go to another ashram(!), but this one was on a hill overlooking a beautiful lake with unbelieveable sunsets ... and I was virtually the only person there - now that is bliss. And I needed it more than I could have imagined, I went for 3 days and stayed 9 before I felt I was ready to come back and face the intensity of the ashram again. And all the stuff that came up in the course is still swirling round my body, mainly subconciously until it wants to escape and drain me of my energy.
- Who Am I?
Since glibbly asking this 2 months ago I have come to realise (OK so someone told me) that this is the only question worth asking. So (unintentionally) I started off on the right lines. Unfortunately this does not make answering the question any more easy. But at an intellectual level the answer is something like this:
- You are not the body, you are not the mind (or the ego). What you really are cannot be defined in words.
- The past is just a record of events, do not indulge in your sad life-story (just thinking about it leads to more sadness).
- The future is your vision but must be without craving or aversion or ego. - Be totally in the moment, with no thoughts.
- Totally accept what is happening in that moment (it is happening anyway - it already 'is'). And there you will find who you are!
Unfortunately, these words are not the answer, words are only signposts. So intellectual understanding is only a small step - the answer must be experienced. To get a start on that just sit there without any thoughts entering your head for a few minutes - not as easy as it sounds.
When I came to write this post I was convinced I had nothing of interest to write, and now you have experinced that too! But if you have made it this far ... you probably skipped the middle bit!
Love and Hugs
Ankur / Pete
... from the land of bombs and bird flu. Not that anyone asked, but if they had I would have been able to tell them that although I am close to the location of the confirmed cases of bird flu, I have not eaten eggs or chicken since I got here and am currently surrounding myself with cats and street dogs (easy here) to avoid any birdfowl coming close. And I have been some distance from the bombs which have killed quite a few locals (but no tourists) so far.
I have been in India 2 months now and have got used to the little intricacies of life here:
- the constant power cuts which happen several times during the day, and are of indeterminent length - the only reliable thing is that they DO happen every day.
- yesterday I ate at an italian restaurant for a change from the usual curry, and they gave me a knife and fork! I thought they only had spoons in India? I havent used a knife and fork for 2 months and could barely remember how to use them - mind you eating pizza with a spoon could also be tricky.
- Festival - today was the Hindu festival of Holi which involves half the population (i.e. half a billion) roaming the streets armed with copious amounts of coloured powder and paint to throw at the other half a Billion. As you can imagine the result is an enormous unholi(!) but xtremely colourful mess. Luckily, I have avoided being coloured to death (so far) although the road is a mosaic testimony to the heavyweight encounters that have taken place, and many of the locals shimmer like rainbows.
In the past month I have managed to find a bit of time to relax, that is when I have not been beating myself up on some course or other. Last post (a month ago) I was part way through a Fresh Beginnings for a New Life Course ... thankfully now completed. But first a few things I forgot to mention last time.
Vipassana (10 day course)
It only took 20 hours for me to learn to drive a bus to carry and look after 50 people - it took 100 hours to learn Vipassana meditation to look after just me. Efficient it is not - but effective? Well, maybe it allowed me to experience a new level of ... just living!
Fresh Beginnings for a New Life Course
I was told by the facilitator that the first thing I had to do (before the course started) was find someone to do my laundry for the first 12 days of the course when we were in isolation! I was horrified - I had just arrived, I hadn't even met anyone yet; Imagine having to go up to someone you have never met before and ask them to do your laundry for 12 days. Now that is a test (of what I don't know), but I had to do it, so I did. Hopefully never again!
As part of the course I had to carry around a large blue bunny rabbit (covered with pink hearts) for 10 days (his name was Blue Bunny and he has magic ears so he can fly!). He had to go everywhere I went: sit next to me in the meditations and at mealtimes and in bed. We must have got some funny looks wandering around like that - but we weren't allowed to make eye contact with anyone so thankfully I never saw any of it!
Part II of this course was 8 days spent examining our adolesence; Strict committment to secrecy prevents me from revealing what we did on this part of the course (and you wouldn't believe me anyway) suffice to say that it was examined in depth and at some length (but it did involve a lot of chocolate!).
And finally, Part III which was 3 days of silent meditation - and that was the end of the course, a massive 28 days after it started (inc breaks) - and it did seem like a lifetime!
And at last I get to have a lay-in - well deserved I feel after a record (for me) 42 consecutive days of getting up at 4.15am or 5.30am. And you all thought I was having an easy life ...
Before I left the UK someone said to me that if they had 28 days they wouldnt spend them doing this. Yes, it is possible to look on this as 100% of your annual holiday entitlement being spent on a course, which lets face it, is not absolutly guaranteed to change your life; but if I live for, say, another 40 years, these days amount to is only 0.19% of the rest of my life - a bargain - especially compared to the 30% that will probably be spent sleeping!
_________________
Interlude
The Weather - It has been steadily getting hotter and hotter here (up to about 35C and down to 15C at night) without a cloud anywhere to be seen - and then suddenly it rains together with a huge lightening storm. At least the few days after were a little cooler (low 30's) and it made a change from all that blue sky stuff.
__________________
Other Stuff
- Three days spent in a police station...My ipod mp3 player was stolen which I had only bought 2 months before so I was really annoyed; then I spent most of the next 3 days in a police station trying and eventually suceeding to get a police report for the insurance. To say that it was bureaucratic is a slight understatement, and in the end I only got what I wanted because during one of my long vigils (meditations!?!) in the police station, the elder brother of one of the officers came in and I got talking to him - then he had a brief work with his younger brother and suddenly the police report (which I had to write myself anyway) became a slight priority and they stamped and signed it which took them all of about 10 seconds - after 3 days of waiting! Bloody Hell! People have committed murder, been arrested, tried, found guilty, executed and reincarnated in less time that it took me to get a signature on a piece of paper!!!
I have now come to terms with the loss seeing this theft as a gift of a beautiful opportunity to indulge in reading books and talking to people rather than encasing myself in artificial world of sound (I bet the person who stole it wasn't thinking that though).
- Escape!
After getting that bit of paper from the police, I was finally able to escape the intensity of the ashram and leave the energy of the course behind - and go to another ashram(!), but this one was on a hill overlooking a beautiful lake with unbelieveable sunsets ... and I was virtually the only person there - now that is bliss. And I needed it more than I could have imagined, I went for 3 days and stayed 9 before I felt I was ready to come back and face the intensity of the ashram again. And all the stuff that came up in the course is still swirling round my body, mainly subconciously until it wants to escape and drain me of my energy.
- Who Am I?
Since glibbly asking this 2 months ago I have come to realise (OK so someone told me) that this is the only question worth asking. So (unintentionally) I started off on the right lines. Unfortunately this does not make answering the question any more easy. But at an intellectual level the answer is something like this:
- You are not the body, you are not the mind (or the ego). What you really are cannot be defined in words.
- The past is just a record of events, do not indulge in your sad life-story (just thinking about it leads to more sadness).
- The future is your vision but must be without craving or aversion or ego. - Be totally in the moment, with no thoughts.
- Totally accept what is happening in that moment (it is happening anyway - it already 'is'). And there you will find who you are!
Unfortunately, these words are not the answer, words are only signposts. So intellectual understanding is only a small step - the answer must be experienced. To get a start on that just sit there without any thoughts entering your head for a few minutes - not as easy as it sounds.
When I came to write this post I was convinced I had nothing of interest to write, and now you have experinced that too! But if you have made it this far ... you probably skipped the middle bit!
Love and Hugs
Ankur / Pete
Sunday, 12 February 2006
Where 36 - Pune, India --OR-- The Path to Bliss and Emptiness via Meditation and Pain
HI
I have been in India for a month now and what a time it has been. I have spent most of it in isolation, not allowed to talk to anyone in 2 stretches of 10 days and 12 days each. It has been a journey, nay, an adventure, albeit of a different sort to the type I usually end up having, but I am all the better for it. The bad news is that I have spent a tonne of money and tomorrow start another 8 days of intensive course, a break of 2 days then a final 3 days. Then I really will need a holiday!!
So back to the beginning:
Arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) with the aim this trip of gaining some inner peace and happiness - simple enough goals, perhaps?
Firstly, I went to Pune Riverside Vipassana Centre for a 10 day course. Vipassana is an ancient form of meditation as used by the Buddha to gain enlightenment 2,500 years ago (from where Buddhism comes). This pure form was preserved only in Burma and in the past 40 years has spread around the world. Meditation in the west is often seen as a means of relaxation and concentration, giving the mind 'space', but its real purpose is change and there is no change as great in a person as the path to enlightenment - not that I even want to try and follow it too closely, at least not now, but there are many benefits to be gained along that path such as knowing who I really am, or having a better idea at least.
So I end up with 30 guys and 20 women (nearly all local Indians) and in strict segregation, silence etc for 10 days. The timetable was:
4am Get up
4.30 2 hours meditation
6.30 Breakfast
8 Special 1 hour meditation (no moving at all allowed)
9 2 hour meditation
11 lunch
1pm 1.5 hour meditation
2.30 Special 1 hour meditation (no moving at all allowed)
3.30 1.5 hour meditation
5pm Snack (cross between large rice krispies and Bombay mix, a banana and milk)
6pm Special 1 hour meditation (no moving at all allowed)
7pm Video discourse
8.30 Half hour meditation
9pm Finish
9.30 lights out
So about 10 hours of meditation plus 1.5 hour video. And this was Hardcore! Not the silence cos everyone around was in silence as well, so no problem. Not even the food regime of virtually nothing after midday, was that tough: surprisingly I could survive on just Bombay Rice Krispies, banana and milk for 19 hours. It was the sitting there for 10-hours a day, day after day, that was 'hell'. Sitting there very still conentrating on breath for first 3 days, and then on sensations all over the body. Emotionally it was nothing. Physically the first 4 days were excruiating. Mentally the process was like smashing my head against a brick wall time after time. Insanity is too small a word for it. And at the end of 10 days I was told if I did this for 2 hours a day for the rest of my life I would benefit greatly! Thanks, have you nothing that works a little faster?
On the 3rd day, when i was really struggling with it all, I did have a moment; something inside me clicked and I suddenly broke into my broadest smile ever - a piece of inner happiness had escaped from my repressed core and stirred my soul. Fantastic! But that was the only such moment.
So after 10-days we left (there was a board with the no. of the day it was, otherwise I would have had no clue at all - one day was exactly, to the detail, the same as the one before and the one after!) - and I wondered what the point was as I didnt feel any different to the day I arrived (exept for being thankful that it was over). We all crammed on a public bus which was full before we all got on - I managed to sit on my luggage in the aisle, desperately hanging on as we crashed over the bumps, dust being thrust through the floor into my face - the usual Indian hell. And then I finally got it! This wasn't torture at all it was bliss! No matter what the external factors it was what was going on inside that counted. I felt great. Alive. Happy. And no ordinary crap was gonna stop me feeling that way.
--------Interlude--------
Cos I'm English I have to mention the weather!
The mornings are bloody freezing her - well not quite but it has been down to 5 C on a couple of mornings. but by 9am it is warm, and 1pm roasting in the sun. And there is sun - one morning a few weeks ago I saw a couple of small clouds in the distance - they have been the only ones this month.
--------End of interlude-------
I didnt know then, that what I had done so far was just the easy bit! Because, before I really had time to understand the effets of the 10-day vipassana, I was in a different part of Pune at Osho meditation centre - for meditation of a much different style - active, fun and relaxing. Not that I went there for that, cos 3 days after I got there, there was a course starting: Fresh Beginnings for a New Life. So far I have just done the first 12 days, there is a 3 day break and then a further eight days, a break of two days and 3 more days to integrate all the changes. Yes this place is all about change in a big way. The 12 days i have just finished was all primal work - digging up the conditioning put on us by mum and dad in the first 7 years of our lives. And there was plenty of it. Now this really is hardcore (oh so maybe the Vipassana was easy?). The 16 of us were told what to do every minute of the 12 days. We all slept in a communal room for 6 hours a night - they kept us busy every night til 11.30pm and we had to get up at 5.30am (almost a lie in after the 4am of vipassana) for 1 hour Dynamic meditation (exhausting). Throughout the day we were in an underground room with padded walls and we all had to bear our soles like we never thought possible before. Suffice to say that those 15 people and 9 helpers/teachers in the room know more about me now then anyone else on the planet - holding back was not an option - it was blood (not much), sweat (loads) and tears (plenty) all the way. This was mainly emotional pain, but often a lot of physical pain had to be gone through to release it. Silence was more difficult because there was a massive energy within the group and at meal times people around us (not on the course) were talking. We were on a speial diet of no sugar/honey (or anything with sugar in), no tea, no coffee, no alcohol, no drugs, very limited dairy and loads of other rules. F***! It was hard.
My summary:
Primal work is like committing open heart sugery on yourself (without an anesthetic) - it is more painful than you could imagine, but gives you the chance of freedom in a new life.
And that is where I am now. Empty. Simply Empty.
All that supression and supressed emotion of my whole life has been forced out. All my emotional defences went with them. I am vulnerable. A bit scared. Cautious, because any emotional event, however small can fill me with anger, sadness, joy or love - and life in india is full of all of these all of the time. Luckily the support is there, there are people around me who are wonderful, there are a few who spread a different energy - this is a time to choose who I spend my time with very carefully. And I am no longer controlled by all the parental rules which I had stored in my head for all these years and truly thought were my own values. This really is a fresh beginning. Now I am me, I have so many choices about were to go and what to do next. And this was just the first part of the course - the second part starts tomorrow...
But am I scared?
Yep!
More soon!
Love and Hugs
Ankur/Pete
I have been in India for a month now and what a time it has been. I have spent most of it in isolation, not allowed to talk to anyone in 2 stretches of 10 days and 12 days each. It has been a journey, nay, an adventure, albeit of a different sort to the type I usually end up having, but I am all the better for it. The bad news is that I have spent a tonne of money and tomorrow start another 8 days of intensive course, a break of 2 days then a final 3 days. Then I really will need a holiday!!
So back to the beginning:
Arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) with the aim this trip of gaining some inner peace and happiness - simple enough goals, perhaps?
Firstly, I went to Pune Riverside Vipassana Centre for a 10 day course. Vipassana is an ancient form of meditation as used by the Buddha to gain enlightenment 2,500 years ago (from where Buddhism comes). This pure form was preserved only in Burma and in the past 40 years has spread around the world. Meditation in the west is often seen as a means of relaxation and concentration, giving the mind 'space', but its real purpose is change and there is no change as great in a person as the path to enlightenment - not that I even want to try and follow it too closely, at least not now, but there are many benefits to be gained along that path such as knowing who I really am, or having a better idea at least.
So I end up with 30 guys and 20 women (nearly all local Indians) and in strict segregation, silence etc for 10 days. The timetable was:
4am Get up
4.30 2 hours meditation
6.30 Breakfast
8 Special 1 hour meditation (no moving at all allowed)
9 2 hour meditation
11 lunch
1pm 1.5 hour meditation
2.30 Special 1 hour meditation (no moving at all allowed)
3.30 1.5 hour meditation
5pm Snack (cross between large rice krispies and Bombay mix, a banana and milk)
6pm Special 1 hour meditation (no moving at all allowed)
7pm Video discourse
8.30 Half hour meditation
9pm Finish
9.30 lights out
So about 10 hours of meditation plus 1.5 hour video. And this was Hardcore! Not the silence cos everyone around was in silence as well, so no problem. Not even the food regime of virtually nothing after midday, was that tough: surprisingly I could survive on just Bombay Rice Krispies, banana and milk for 19 hours. It was the sitting there for 10-hours a day, day after day, that was 'hell'. Sitting there very still conentrating on breath for first 3 days, and then on sensations all over the body. Emotionally it was nothing. Physically the first 4 days were excruiating. Mentally the process was like smashing my head against a brick wall time after time. Insanity is too small a word for it. And at the end of 10 days I was told if I did this for 2 hours a day for the rest of my life I would benefit greatly! Thanks, have you nothing that works a little faster?
On the 3rd day, when i was really struggling with it all, I did have a moment; something inside me clicked and I suddenly broke into my broadest smile ever - a piece of inner happiness had escaped from my repressed core and stirred my soul. Fantastic! But that was the only such moment.
So after 10-days we left (there was a board with the no. of the day it was, otherwise I would have had no clue at all - one day was exactly, to the detail, the same as the one before and the one after!) - and I wondered what the point was as I didnt feel any different to the day I arrived (exept for being thankful that it was over). We all crammed on a public bus which was full before we all got on - I managed to sit on my luggage in the aisle, desperately hanging on as we crashed over the bumps, dust being thrust through the floor into my face - the usual Indian hell. And then I finally got it! This wasn't torture at all it was bliss! No matter what the external factors it was what was going on inside that counted. I felt great. Alive. Happy. And no ordinary crap was gonna stop me feeling that way.
--------Interlude--------
Cos I'm English I have to mention the weather!
The mornings are bloody freezing her - well not quite but it has been down to 5 C on a couple of mornings. but by 9am it is warm, and 1pm roasting in the sun. And there is sun - one morning a few weeks ago I saw a couple of small clouds in the distance - they have been the only ones this month.
--------End of interlude-------
I didnt know then, that what I had done so far was just the easy bit! Because, before I really had time to understand the effets of the 10-day vipassana, I was in a different part of Pune at Osho meditation centre - for meditation of a much different style - active, fun and relaxing. Not that I went there for that, cos 3 days after I got there, there was a course starting: Fresh Beginnings for a New Life. So far I have just done the first 12 days, there is a 3 day break and then a further eight days, a break of two days and 3 more days to integrate all the changes. Yes this place is all about change in a big way. The 12 days i have just finished was all primal work - digging up the conditioning put on us by mum and dad in the first 7 years of our lives. And there was plenty of it. Now this really is hardcore (oh so maybe the Vipassana was easy?). The 16 of us were told what to do every minute of the 12 days. We all slept in a communal room for 6 hours a night - they kept us busy every night til 11.30pm and we had to get up at 5.30am (almost a lie in after the 4am of vipassana) for 1 hour Dynamic meditation (exhausting). Throughout the day we were in an underground room with padded walls and we all had to bear our soles like we never thought possible before. Suffice to say that those 15 people and 9 helpers/teachers in the room know more about me now then anyone else on the planet - holding back was not an option - it was blood (not much), sweat (loads) and tears (plenty) all the way. This was mainly emotional pain, but often a lot of physical pain had to be gone through to release it. Silence was more difficult because there was a massive energy within the group and at meal times people around us (not on the course) were talking. We were on a speial diet of no sugar/honey (or anything with sugar in), no tea, no coffee, no alcohol, no drugs, very limited dairy and loads of other rules. F***! It was hard.
My summary:
Primal work is like committing open heart sugery on yourself (without an anesthetic) - it is more painful than you could imagine, but gives you the chance of freedom in a new life.
And that is where I am now. Empty. Simply Empty.
All that supression and supressed emotion of my whole life has been forced out. All my emotional defences went with them. I am vulnerable. A bit scared. Cautious, because any emotional event, however small can fill me with anger, sadness, joy or love - and life in india is full of all of these all of the time. Luckily the support is there, there are people around me who are wonderful, there are a few who spread a different energy - this is a time to choose who I spend my time with very carefully. And I am no longer controlled by all the parental rules which I had stored in my head for all these years and truly thought were my own values. This really is a fresh beginning. Now I am me, I have so many choices about were to go and what to do next. And this was just the first part of the course - the second part starts tomorrow...
But am I scared?
Yep!
More soon!
Love and Hugs
Ankur/Pete
Monday, 14 March 2005
Where 32 - Quetta, Pakistan --OR-- India v Pakistan
HI folks,
At last - and not without a good deal of hassle and money - I have a visa for Iran. For many nationalities it is not a problem, but they dont like giving them to Brits. I have only met one other Brit in Pakistan, and he gave up trying and went back to India.
There are not too many foreigners travelling in Pakistan - I have met about 25 with most of those (for some unknown reason) being S.Korean or Japanese. Most countries do not turn out to what I expect and Pakistan is no exception to that. But first there was a bit more of India ...
Amritsar - Even by Indian standards, this place is a tip. If it didnt have a very small golden temple (and wasn't next to the only land border crossing to Pakistan) then no foreigner would ever go there. But this small 2 up, 2 down house is the centre of the Sikh religion. To make it seem more important they covered it in a huge amount of gold and put it on an island in a lake (a big tank of water really) with a causeway so believers (and non-believers for that matter) dont get their feet wet. It is the opposite to the rest of India - they dont charge you to go in, it is very serene, they give you free food and accommodation, and they let anyone go into the inner sanctum. As pennance everyone has to take their shoes and socks off even it it is freezing cold, and wear a brightly covered headscarf (provided free of course). It is the smallest 'most important' place I have been to and maybe is the more impressive because of that - worth popping in if you happen to be up that way.
Nearby, the border with Pakistan consists of huge amounts of barbed wire with one single crossing point. It is pretty quiet - that is, until the closing of the border ceremony. This is an incredibly coordinated dance by soldiers from two countries who dislike each other intensely. The impressiveness of the height of the goosestep (about head height) is only challenged by the remarkable brevity of the salutes and handshakes they exchange just before the lower their respective flags and slam the gates shut. The whole affair has become a spectacle with grandstands being built on both sides which fill with supporters who come to cheer on their country.
Then into Pakistan. The border crossing is the cleanest, best cared for and (outside the closing ceremony) quietest I have seen, mainly because locals from both sides cannot cross it and there are hardly any foreigners stupid enough to want to. The no-mans land measures about 1 metre inbetween two impressive pairs of gates belonging to the respective countries.
The Difference between Pakistan and India
- I was told the two countries were very different (they parted when the old India gained independence from Britain in 1947), but I have to say that there is more the same than different - The rubbish, air-pollution, dirt, poverty, beggars... I could go on (and probably will).
The cows
- The first thing I noticed about Pakistan was that there are no cows wandering the streets - here cows get eaten before they stray very far (a lot of Muslims here). However to make up for that (and to ensure a reasonable spread of 'manure') the streets are filled with stacks of donkey and carts, horse and carts, cow and carts and even a few camels (and carts).
The Pollution
- Because Pakistan has a large number of donkey and carts, horse and carts, cow and carts and even a few camels (and carts) which do not add (much) to air pollution, the remaining motor transport is desperate to jack up the levels by chucking out clouds of choking exhaust fumes. They are so successful in this that the pollution levels exceed even India (they have to try and beat India at everything, only occasionally do they succeed).
- In the cities and towns the rubbish is everywhere and it stinks (just like India). However in the countryside there are green fields and stuff like 'nature' without any rubbish (unlike India).
The People
- The are the most hospitable imaginable. They are forever inviting you to eat with them and they wont accept any contribution. One guy sat next to me on a minbus and we talked for about 30 seconds and he insisted on paying the fare for me as I was his guest. At street stalls vendors have refused to accept payment or undercharged me! A refreshing change from the normal attitude to foreigners in other countries (India springs to mind).
The Food
- Foodwise, from India to Pakistan is like going from oasis to desert (or should that be dessert given the local sweet tooth). A diet of pure veg has turned into pure chips, naan bread, chicken kebabs and ice-cream - although most of the time it tastes OK, it is not very healthy. Trying to get veg food is a wate of time, so my body had to make the sudden adjustment to a carniverous diet.
- Once I realised that 90% of people eat from the stalls on the street and that it is almost impossible to avoid eating meat then I started to understand the food much better. However, trying to avoid all the stuff that looks dodgy means I have got pretty hungry. And breakfast - forget it. Luckily I managed to find some Weetabix and milk so for a few days I was happy.
- Amazingly, even after eating all this dodgy stuff I have still not got ill, although I do feel I am clinging onto my health by my (remaining) fingernails.
The Travelling
- The driving here is the worst - really really appalling. I have seen several road accidents in the few weeks I have been here - all because nobody has any respect for other road users. One local guy told me 10% of people drive responsibly, the other 90% are dangerous. He was one of the 10% surprisingly enough; I just want to know where the rest of the 10% are... - What is the maximum number of Pakistanis that fit into/onto/clinging to a minibus? Trick question obviously - there is no maximum.
- Why dont Pakistanis have knees? Because there is no maximum number of Pakistanis that fit into/onto/clinging to a minibus.
- Travelling by road here is a bit of a pain in the neck, bum, knees, back, feet, head, ankles, spine etc. But it is cheap!
- Perhaps that is why foreigners get 25% off train travel - but this is such a pain to actually get with a lot of forms to fill in and loads of waiting around that hardly anyone bothers - the trains are pretty cheap anyway. They are also slow and infrequent.
The Religion
- Everyone (bar a very few Christains) is Islamic (as oppose to mainly Hindu in India). If you declare that you are not then they try and convert you straightaway. They haven't had much luck with me though.
- The old guys that dye their hair and beards bright red. I thought for a moment it was Scottish/Irish ancestory but apparently it is all done with henna. Then they let it grow out and they have two tone hair and beards in red and grey - very strange. I was told it was a religious thing but then I saw water buffalo and goats who had the same thiing done to them (yes they looked very strange) and the locals were stumped for an explanation! I dont think the women do it but since I have seen only a few womens heads (most are covered) I cant really say.
- A group of us foreigners went to a 'celebration' where some of the men, in a show of their devoutness, tie small knifes to strings and whip their backs. I'm not opposed to a bit of masocism but the amount of blood on the ground, bloodstained shirts and congealed blood and scars on their backs was a bit much. The intensity near the main place where this was going on got a bit much and even after getting through 4 security checks we were refused entry at the 5th cos we were westeners - even though we were all wearing local clothes and trying deperately to look like locals!!! The atmosphere was unbelieveably charged with religious tension, and I was really afraid that if one local turned on us with an anti western diatribe then everyone else would have followed suit - and we would have been in BIG trouble - I'm not sure the large numbers of police around would have helped us a lot. I was glad to get out unscathed anyway.
The Women
- There is segregation of the sexes in some places. A man is not allowed to sit next to a women on a bus, but compartments on trains are mixed - none of the locals understand that either.
- If I am with a foreign female (and there aren't many travelling here) we have to say that we are married (even if I have only met her 2 mins before) else the locals get very confused and she could get a lot of hassle - cos women simply don't go around on their own.
- Talking to local women, even just to ask directions, is virtually taboo. Not that I have seen too many about outside the big cities. Wandering around looking like they have nothing to do is firmly the man's job!
The Mountains
- This is what people come to Pakistan for - stunning scenery, beautiful peaks etc. Unfortunately not only is this not the absolute best time of the year to go trekking in the mountains (cos it is winter and it is very cold), but this winter has seen the most snow for over a hundred years.
- Also we were told it was too dangerous to venture off the road without an armed guard. In many places the police are non-existant so these are essentially lawless areas, and in tribal areas they have no legal jurastiction anyway.
- I joined a group of locals and made it up to a town that was 3 metres deep in snow but since the road was closed by huge avalanches we had to walk up part of the way. The town had been , and still was, cut off for over a month and food was being flown in by helicopter. As there was no where to stay up there we had to get back down the same day. Unfortunately I trusted the locals to know when it would get dark - and we ended up struggling over frozen avalanches in the dark - not recommended! (but standard practice in Pakistan).
- Whilst walking a long a clear section of road (in the light) we heard a 'ssshhh' sound above us and looked up to see a huge boulder (about the size of a car) heading straight for us. Luckily we had got at least 20m away by the time it bounced on the road and carried on down the valley.
The Kyber Pass
- The traditional route between Pakistan and Afghanistan is still a pretty dangerous place so a small group of us had to have an armed guard just to go there. It is quite easy to get a visa, but when we got to a viewpoint overlooking the border into Afghanistan we could see that it was raining there, so we decided not to go!
- On the road to the border there is aplace called 'Smuggler's Bazaar' where apart from the usual electrical goods there are shops packed with guns and drugs, all seemingly legal and all very cheap - a locally produced AK47 assault rifle costs British Pounds 50. Taking either outside the immediate area however is not a good idea.
The Tombs
Pakistan is not awash with sites to see but I did manage to see some 14th Century tombs. The main one had been half washed away by a flood 200 years ago but as it was circular, from some angles it looked complete. It was covered in blue and white tiles in beatiful mosaics. If the Taj Mahal was a body building in his prime with perfect form but lacking depth, this was a gnarled old man with personality - not in the best repair but he had tons of charcter.
Quetta
The last outpost on the road to Iran - there is nowhere bigger than a village inbetween but Iran is over 600km away. Inbetween there is just desert - and a bus journey of 15 hours on a terrible road. Luckily there is also a train - this takes 24 hours if it is on time and at this time of year it could be delayed by a lot! There are not a lot of people going that way so there is only one train every two weeks; And it leaves tomorrow, so I had better be on it. This could be the journey from hell!
So, if all goes well then I should be in Iran by Wednesday 16th March. It could be an interesting month...
Love
Ankur/Pete
At last - and not without a good deal of hassle and money - I have a visa for Iran. For many nationalities it is not a problem, but they dont like giving them to Brits. I have only met one other Brit in Pakistan, and he gave up trying and went back to India.
There are not too many foreigners travelling in Pakistan - I have met about 25 with most of those (for some unknown reason) being S.Korean or Japanese. Most countries do not turn out to what I expect and Pakistan is no exception to that. But first there was a bit more of India ...
Amritsar - Even by Indian standards, this place is a tip. If it didnt have a very small golden temple (and wasn't next to the only land border crossing to Pakistan) then no foreigner would ever go there. But this small 2 up, 2 down house is the centre of the Sikh religion. To make it seem more important they covered it in a huge amount of gold and put it on an island in a lake (a big tank of water really) with a causeway so believers (and non-believers for that matter) dont get their feet wet. It is the opposite to the rest of India - they dont charge you to go in, it is very serene, they give you free food and accommodation, and they let anyone go into the inner sanctum. As pennance everyone has to take their shoes and socks off even it it is freezing cold, and wear a brightly covered headscarf (provided free of course). It is the smallest 'most important' place I have been to and maybe is the more impressive because of that - worth popping in if you happen to be up that way.
Nearby, the border with Pakistan consists of huge amounts of barbed wire with one single crossing point. It is pretty quiet - that is, until the closing of the border ceremony. This is an incredibly coordinated dance by soldiers from two countries who dislike each other intensely. The impressiveness of the height of the goosestep (about head height) is only challenged by the remarkable brevity of the salutes and handshakes they exchange just before the lower their respective flags and slam the gates shut. The whole affair has become a spectacle with grandstands being built on both sides which fill with supporters who come to cheer on their country.
Then into Pakistan. The border crossing is the cleanest, best cared for and (outside the closing ceremony) quietest I have seen, mainly because locals from both sides cannot cross it and there are hardly any foreigners stupid enough to want to. The no-mans land measures about 1 metre inbetween two impressive pairs of gates belonging to the respective countries.
The Difference between Pakistan and India
- I was told the two countries were very different (they parted when the old India gained independence from Britain in 1947), but I have to say that there is more the same than different - The rubbish, air-pollution, dirt, poverty, beggars... I could go on (and probably will).
The cows
- The first thing I noticed about Pakistan was that there are no cows wandering the streets - here cows get eaten before they stray very far (a lot of Muslims here). However to make up for that (and to ensure a reasonable spread of 'manure') the streets are filled with stacks of donkey and carts, horse and carts, cow and carts and even a few camels (and carts).
The Pollution
- Because Pakistan has a large number of donkey and carts, horse and carts, cow and carts and even a few camels (and carts) which do not add (much) to air pollution, the remaining motor transport is desperate to jack up the levels by chucking out clouds of choking exhaust fumes. They are so successful in this that the pollution levels exceed even India (they have to try and beat India at everything, only occasionally do they succeed).
- In the cities and towns the rubbish is everywhere and it stinks (just like India). However in the countryside there are green fields and stuff like 'nature' without any rubbish (unlike India).
The People
- The are the most hospitable imaginable. They are forever inviting you to eat with them and they wont accept any contribution. One guy sat next to me on a minbus and we talked for about 30 seconds and he insisted on paying the fare for me as I was his guest. At street stalls vendors have refused to accept payment or undercharged me! A refreshing change from the normal attitude to foreigners in other countries (India springs to mind).
The Food
- Foodwise, from India to Pakistan is like going from oasis to desert (or should that be dessert given the local sweet tooth). A diet of pure veg has turned into pure chips, naan bread, chicken kebabs and ice-cream - although most of the time it tastes OK, it is not very healthy. Trying to get veg food is a wate of time, so my body had to make the sudden adjustment to a carniverous diet.
- Once I realised that 90% of people eat from the stalls on the street and that it is almost impossible to avoid eating meat then I started to understand the food much better. However, trying to avoid all the stuff that looks dodgy means I have got pretty hungry. And breakfast - forget it. Luckily I managed to find some Weetabix and milk so for a few days I was happy.
- Amazingly, even after eating all this dodgy stuff I have still not got ill, although I do feel I am clinging onto my health by my (remaining) fingernails.
The Travelling
- The driving here is the worst - really really appalling. I have seen several road accidents in the few weeks I have been here - all because nobody has any respect for other road users. One local guy told me 10% of people drive responsibly, the other 90% are dangerous. He was one of the 10% surprisingly enough; I just want to know where the rest of the 10% are... - What is the maximum number of Pakistanis that fit into/onto/clinging to a minibus? Trick question obviously - there is no maximum.
- Why dont Pakistanis have knees? Because there is no maximum number of Pakistanis that fit into/onto/clinging to a minibus.
- Travelling by road here is a bit of a pain in the neck, bum, knees, back, feet, head, ankles, spine etc. But it is cheap!
- Perhaps that is why foreigners get 25% off train travel - but this is such a pain to actually get with a lot of forms to fill in and loads of waiting around that hardly anyone bothers - the trains are pretty cheap anyway. They are also slow and infrequent.
The Religion
- Everyone (bar a very few Christains) is Islamic (as oppose to mainly Hindu in India). If you declare that you are not then they try and convert you straightaway. They haven't had much luck with me though.
- The old guys that dye their hair and beards bright red. I thought for a moment it was Scottish/Irish ancestory but apparently it is all done with henna. Then they let it grow out and they have two tone hair and beards in red and grey - very strange. I was told it was a religious thing but then I saw water buffalo and goats who had the same thiing done to them (yes they looked very strange) and the locals were stumped for an explanation! I dont think the women do it but since I have seen only a few womens heads (most are covered) I cant really say.
- A group of us foreigners went to a 'celebration' where some of the men, in a show of their devoutness, tie small knifes to strings and whip their backs. I'm not opposed to a bit of masocism but the amount of blood on the ground, bloodstained shirts and congealed blood and scars on their backs was a bit much. The intensity near the main place where this was going on got a bit much and even after getting through 4 security checks we were refused entry at the 5th cos we were westeners - even though we were all wearing local clothes and trying deperately to look like locals!!! The atmosphere was unbelieveably charged with religious tension, and I was really afraid that if one local turned on us with an anti western diatribe then everyone else would have followed suit - and we would have been in BIG trouble - I'm not sure the large numbers of police around would have helped us a lot. I was glad to get out unscathed anyway.
The Women
- There is segregation of the sexes in some places. A man is not allowed to sit next to a women on a bus, but compartments on trains are mixed - none of the locals understand that either.
- If I am with a foreign female (and there aren't many travelling here) we have to say that we are married (even if I have only met her 2 mins before) else the locals get very confused and she could get a lot of hassle - cos women simply don't go around on their own.
- Talking to local women, even just to ask directions, is virtually taboo. Not that I have seen too many about outside the big cities. Wandering around looking like they have nothing to do is firmly the man's job!
The Mountains
- This is what people come to Pakistan for - stunning scenery, beautiful peaks etc. Unfortunately not only is this not the absolute best time of the year to go trekking in the mountains (cos it is winter and it is very cold), but this winter has seen the most snow for over a hundred years.
- Also we were told it was too dangerous to venture off the road without an armed guard. In many places the police are non-existant so these are essentially lawless areas, and in tribal areas they have no legal jurastiction anyway.
- I joined a group of locals and made it up to a town that was 3 metres deep in snow but since the road was closed by huge avalanches we had to walk up part of the way. The town had been , and still was, cut off for over a month and food was being flown in by helicopter. As there was no where to stay up there we had to get back down the same day. Unfortunately I trusted the locals to know when it would get dark - and we ended up struggling over frozen avalanches in the dark - not recommended! (but standard practice in Pakistan).
- Whilst walking a long a clear section of road (in the light) we heard a 'ssshhh' sound above us and looked up to see a huge boulder (about the size of a car) heading straight for us. Luckily we had got at least 20m away by the time it bounced on the road and carried on down the valley.
The Kyber Pass
- The traditional route between Pakistan and Afghanistan is still a pretty dangerous place so a small group of us had to have an armed guard just to go there. It is quite easy to get a visa, but when we got to a viewpoint overlooking the border into Afghanistan we could see that it was raining there, so we decided not to go!
- On the road to the border there is aplace called 'Smuggler's Bazaar' where apart from the usual electrical goods there are shops packed with guns and drugs, all seemingly legal and all very cheap - a locally produced AK47 assault rifle costs British Pounds 50. Taking either outside the immediate area however is not a good idea.
The Tombs
Pakistan is not awash with sites to see but I did manage to see some 14th Century tombs. The main one had been half washed away by a flood 200 years ago but as it was circular, from some angles it looked complete. It was covered in blue and white tiles in beatiful mosaics. If the Taj Mahal was a body building in his prime with perfect form but lacking depth, this was a gnarled old man with personality - not in the best repair but he had tons of charcter.
Quetta
The last outpost on the road to Iran - there is nowhere bigger than a village inbetween but Iran is over 600km away. Inbetween there is just desert - and a bus journey of 15 hours on a terrible road. Luckily there is also a train - this takes 24 hours if it is on time and at this time of year it could be delayed by a lot! There are not a lot of people going that way so there is only one train every two weeks; And it leaves tomorrow, so I had better be on it. This could be the journey from hell!
So, if all goes well then I should be in Iran by Wednesday 16th March. It could be an interesting month...
Love
Ankur/Pete
Saturday, 19 February 2005
Where 31 - Delhi, India --OR-- How I Found Out Who I Am in an Underground Padded Room
HI Everyone,
Seems ages since I was in Goa dodging the waves - since then I have spent a month at an ashram followed by a couple of weeks rushing around.
Firstly, the Osho Ashram in Pune (actually it is now called the Osho International Meditation Resort so they can charge loads of cash for meditating there [ashrams are normally funded by donation only]). I was only intending to go for a few days but ... ended up staying a month - you know what it's like when you find somewhere that it so not like real life (or real travelling), it is not only easy to stay, it is frightening just thinking about having to face the outside world again, let alone actually doing it. Some people I met there are still too scared to come out, and a months stay may seem like a long time, but it hardly made me a long term inmate by Osho standards.
If you think meditation is about sitting silently in a room with loads of other people also sitting silently in a room then think again. OK, so some of it did involve sitting silently in a room with loads of other people also sitting silently in a room (the quality of this silence was something else, if you made a sound or coughed you were swiftly thrown out (quietly of course) by the neo nazi guards), but most of the meditations were dynamic, meaning you have to move and make sounds and stuff like that. In the 6am Dynamic Meditation we were encouraged to make as much noise as possible for 10 mins; and immediately after was 10 mins of jumping up and down continuously - call it circuit training if you like!
What kept me there really were the courses - I did two 3-days and one 5-day course - mainly looking at how my childhood conditioning affects me now (yes it is all to do with the people called parents) and how I can change back into who I was supposed to be and not the stranger I had become. The 5-day one was a bit tough as we (30 of us) were in total silence outside the group room for thefirst 4.5 days. I had to get up at 5.30am, and didnt get back to my room until 11.30pm - and then had to do homework! So there wasn't much time for sleep ...
Sharing all those emotionally intimate experiences in an underground padded room with 30 people I didn't know, and wasn't allowed to speak to, was kind of weird but very powerful; then after 5 days when we talked I realised I had 30 intimate friends who I didn't know a thing about - and none of us could think where to start. But when we did get it together it was like having a whole new family of friends, wonderful!
So after a month of what approximates to an exorcism of my past, I turned out to be a completely new person (perhaps a slight exaggeration), although whether I changed back the moment I stepped back into the street I'm not yet sure. Anyway to celebrate being this new person (however briefly) I had my head shaved (OK so that was years ago) and have a new name, Ankur (I'm sure I have been called something similar to that before anyway). Whether this is a final step or just a first step I'm not really sure, but it is a step...
So having gritted my teeth and with one eye on my visas' expiry dates, I left for more orthodox 'adventures' - up north to Rajasthan and into the desert:
Jodhpur (which really did give its name to a pair of trousers) - A huge fort, perched on an enormous slab of rock dominates this town, nearly all of which is painted blue (they reckon it helps keep the mossies away, but what mossies would be doing in the desert I have no idea). And apart from (What have the Romans ever done for us?)the very inpressive fort, the lovely (and cheap) food, superb lassis (note for Scottish people - these are yogurt drinks, not girls), the clock tower, full on sun, views across the town from rooftop restaurants and vibrant markets (there is no aqueduct here), what has this place got that is worth coming here for? Nothing!
The fort was founded in 1459, in was gradually expanded by various rulers, and despite having faced many attacks and sieges was never taken - when I stood at the top of the 125m high rock but still at the bottom of the huge walls I understood why.
Jaisalmer - further into the desert, out of which a walled city rises in defiance of everything that surrounds it (which is nothing except rock and sand, but the thought was there). Started in 1156, inside is a beautifully quaint whole town where even quainter people still live with quaint cramped houses, temples so squashed (and quaint) that they literally merge into one another, quaint narrow winding alleys ... and of course, being India, fat cows, shit excreted by all manner of mammals, an abundance of rubbish and nutcases on motor cycles.
- So I escaped into the desert on a camel for 3 days (with 7 other travellers and 4 guides/cooks/camel herders). Unfortunately ... after being driven by jeep an hour into the desert, when I tried to get on my sitting down camel for the first time, I had half a leg across the 'saddle' and it decided to get up and I only narrowly avoided castration but did lose half a fingernail in the process (a fortunate trade off perhaps), then opening my daysac (to mend my finger), I found I had lost my waterbottle, and then once I did get on my beast, my stirrups (which were only pieces of string) broke. So I rode off into the desert without water, stirrups and with only 9.5 fingernails. I felt that at least one of these was probably not a good idea!
- I didn't like the camel too much after that (it was lazy and always at the back as well) so later I managed to change to the one that was always at the front and was by far the biggest, a magnificent beast and quite well behaved, although he did keep trying to attract the females by blowing up cabbage sized pink sacks from his mouth which drooped (unattactively, need I add) over his bottom lip. Camels mouths are incredible, looking into one is revolting - a kalidascope of geen, red, purple and blue slime resides there - with teeth as twisted and colourful as Bugs Bunny's 85-year-old grandma who had been a heavy smoker (of Camels?) all her life.
- One thing that no-one advises you to take into the desert is wet weather gear, so I didn't. And yes it did rain - luckily only briefly. I do now know the difference between rain and camel spit, and this was definitely rain.
- The desert is not empty - if you have ever wondered where peacocks live, they live (at least some of them do) in this, The Great Thar Desert (Todays useless fact : peacocks are India's national bird). Mainly they walk everywhere although a few did fly briefly, probably just for our entertainment, but we didn't stop to find out why - we got away quick in case they came and hassled us for 'rupees' or 'school pen' - it is like that in India.
- Back inside the walled city the 7 Jain temples with a total of only 3 entrances betweenn them(merged remember) contained a maze of stunning 3D carvings - I could try and describe them but would probably fail and anyway you probably would get bored or have work to do, or most likely, both (and no karma sutra ones this time) - suffice to say they are probably the best I have ever seen for detail and condition given the age (12th - 15th century) - yes even better than Bantrey Srei at Angkor in Cambodia.
Bikaner - Then onto the most shit filled streets I have ever walked (and there is some pretty stiff competition in India). And it rained really heavily during the night and flooded the streets. And I was wearing open toed sandels. Liquid cow shit - and I just had to walk through it - not just for fun, but there simply was no other way to get from room to breakfast.
- This was not the main attraction of going there however. Even worse was 'The Rat Temple!!'. This is a temple filled with rats. They are not just tolerted but actually fed, watered and worshipped, no-one knows how many there are but one guy who worked there (over)estimated 60,000 - they only count the white rats which are considered lucky if you see one - there are 11, I saw 3 (or the same one 3 times).
So just relax and imagine going into this temple barefoot.
Rats are running around everywhere.
And these are not nice, specially bred rats; these are the degenerates of the rat world: scrawny, scabby, brown rats varying from mouse size (presumably younger ones) to the size of, well..., a well-fed rat.
So you are standing there, and just watching hundreds of them crowding round the food only a metre away makes your blood curdle.
You stand close enough to have your photo taken with them, and even crouch down to make it look like you are really pally with them; you may be thinking 'JUST DON'T ... come any closer'.
Then they run really close to you and you may think 'I'm OK'; breathe deeply, 'I'm bigger than them, they're not going to attack me or anything'.
And then they come right up to you, the scabs on them screaming 'I'm a scabby rat' at you. Then they nibble your toes ... Urrrgg ... and you try not to scream.
Then they run over your foot ... and you try and remember how honoured you are to have this happen to you.
Then they run up your leg!
F**K OFF ME!
It was just like that - and yes I do have the pictues to prove it!
- Agra - Couldn't leave India without seeing the Taj Mahal (completed in 1653 so fairly old). Got up an hour before first light to see it wake up. It is spectacular as it changes its hue in the early light, a wonderful testament to a man's love for a women and what happens when the King has too much money to waste. The best views are from a distance; I immersed myself in its shape, its form, its colours and its beauty - it makes an impact. But the closer I got the less interesting it was. Then I got too close and realised that apart from a few bits of intricate inlaid stones, it is just huge slabs of marble; just a building and not an overly interesting one at that.
And nearby there is a fantastic Red Fort made out of red sandstone, and adorned with white marble palaces - all built by the same people who built the Taj Mahal.
Delhi
Onto the capital, just for a couple of days. I expected this to be a modern westernised place, and some of it is. But it also boasts roads covered in muck (those cows again) and traffic jams of cycle rickshaws (a really slow but pleasant way to travel if you can stand the pollution). It also has a red fort (made of red sandstone!) which isn't a patch on the one at Agra, and India's largest mosque (completed in 1658) which can hold 25,000 people. Surrounding this mosque are streets of butchers shops, something of a surprise in India - the muslims eat stacks of meat, and judging by the displays of the shops, goat's heads are a speciality. Strangely there were no cows wandering the streets near here - wonder what happened to them?
So after 3 months I am nearly finished in India - just up to the Golden Temple at Amritsar and then over the border to Pakistan. I feel like I am heading home - well at least I am heading NW which is pretty much the right direction - may take a few months to get back but the food might be better than if I went by 'plane.
- Incidentaly I have been travelling nearly 5 months in Nepal and India, eating fantastic food and haven't been ill once. I will regret writing that sometime soon!
- I was tying to think how to sum up India in a few words or a picture. After careful(?) thought it would have to be a picture of a man pissing up against the wall of the Taj Mahal!
India is the best and the worst of everything expertly blended together.
So what is happening with you ... ?
Home soon(?)
Love
Ankur/Pete
Seems ages since I was in Goa dodging the waves - since then I have spent a month at an ashram followed by a couple of weeks rushing around.
Firstly, the Osho Ashram in Pune (actually it is now called the Osho International Meditation Resort so they can charge loads of cash for meditating there [ashrams are normally funded by donation only]). I was only intending to go for a few days but ... ended up staying a month - you know what it's like when you find somewhere that it so not like real life (or real travelling), it is not only easy to stay, it is frightening just thinking about having to face the outside world again, let alone actually doing it. Some people I met there are still too scared to come out, and a months stay may seem like a long time, but it hardly made me a long term inmate by Osho standards.
If you think meditation is about sitting silently in a room with loads of other people also sitting silently in a room then think again. OK, so some of it did involve sitting silently in a room with loads of other people also sitting silently in a room (the quality of this silence was something else, if you made a sound or coughed you were swiftly thrown out (quietly of course) by the neo nazi guards), but most of the meditations were dynamic, meaning you have to move and make sounds and stuff like that. In the 6am Dynamic Meditation we were encouraged to make as much noise as possible for 10 mins; and immediately after was 10 mins of jumping up and down continuously - call it circuit training if you like!
What kept me there really were the courses - I did two 3-days and one 5-day course - mainly looking at how my childhood conditioning affects me now (yes it is all to do with the people called parents) and how I can change back into who I was supposed to be and not the stranger I had become. The 5-day one was a bit tough as we (30 of us) were in total silence outside the group room for thefirst 4.5 days. I had to get up at 5.30am, and didnt get back to my room until 11.30pm - and then had to do homework! So there wasn't much time for sleep ...
Sharing all those emotionally intimate experiences in an underground padded room with 30 people I didn't know, and wasn't allowed to speak to, was kind of weird but very powerful; then after 5 days when we talked I realised I had 30 intimate friends who I didn't know a thing about - and none of us could think where to start. But when we did get it together it was like having a whole new family of friends, wonderful!
So after a month of what approximates to an exorcism of my past, I turned out to be a completely new person (perhaps a slight exaggeration), although whether I changed back the moment I stepped back into the street I'm not yet sure. Anyway to celebrate being this new person (however briefly) I had my head shaved (OK so that was years ago) and have a new name, Ankur (I'm sure I have been called something similar to that before anyway). Whether this is a final step or just a first step I'm not really sure, but it is a step...
So having gritted my teeth and with one eye on my visas' expiry dates, I left for more orthodox 'adventures' - up north to Rajasthan and into the desert:
Jodhpur (which really did give its name to a pair of trousers) - A huge fort, perched on an enormous slab of rock dominates this town, nearly all of which is painted blue (they reckon it helps keep the mossies away, but what mossies would be doing in the desert I have no idea). And apart from (What have the Romans ever done for us?)the very inpressive fort, the lovely (and cheap) food, superb lassis (note for Scottish people - these are yogurt drinks, not girls), the clock tower, full on sun, views across the town from rooftop restaurants and vibrant markets (there is no aqueduct here), what has this place got that is worth coming here for? Nothing!
The fort was founded in 1459, in was gradually expanded by various rulers, and despite having faced many attacks and sieges was never taken - when I stood at the top of the 125m high rock but still at the bottom of the huge walls I understood why.
Jaisalmer - further into the desert, out of which a walled city rises in defiance of everything that surrounds it (which is nothing except rock and sand, but the thought was there). Started in 1156, inside is a beautifully quaint whole town where even quainter people still live with quaint cramped houses, temples so squashed (and quaint) that they literally merge into one another, quaint narrow winding alleys ... and of course, being India, fat cows, shit excreted by all manner of mammals, an abundance of rubbish and nutcases on motor cycles.
- So I escaped into the desert on a camel for 3 days (with 7 other travellers and 4 guides/cooks/camel herders). Unfortunately ... after being driven by jeep an hour into the desert, when I tried to get on my sitting down camel for the first time, I had half a leg across the 'saddle' and it decided to get up and I only narrowly avoided castration but did lose half a fingernail in the process (a fortunate trade off perhaps), then opening my daysac (to mend my finger), I found I had lost my waterbottle, and then once I did get on my beast, my stirrups (which were only pieces of string) broke. So I rode off into the desert without water, stirrups and with only 9.5 fingernails. I felt that at least one of these was probably not a good idea!
- I didn't like the camel too much after that (it was lazy and always at the back as well) so later I managed to change to the one that was always at the front and was by far the biggest, a magnificent beast and quite well behaved, although he did keep trying to attract the females by blowing up cabbage sized pink sacks from his mouth which drooped (unattactively, need I add) over his bottom lip. Camels mouths are incredible, looking into one is revolting - a kalidascope of geen, red, purple and blue slime resides there - with teeth as twisted and colourful as Bugs Bunny's 85-year-old grandma who had been a heavy smoker (of Camels?) all her life.
- One thing that no-one advises you to take into the desert is wet weather gear, so I didn't. And yes it did rain - luckily only briefly. I do now know the difference between rain and camel spit, and this was definitely rain.
- The desert is not empty - if you have ever wondered where peacocks live, they live (at least some of them do) in this, The Great Thar Desert (Todays useless fact : peacocks are India's national bird). Mainly they walk everywhere although a few did fly briefly, probably just for our entertainment, but we didn't stop to find out why - we got away quick in case they came and hassled us for 'rupees' or 'school pen' - it is like that in India.
- Back inside the walled city the 7 Jain temples with a total of only 3 entrances betweenn them(merged remember) contained a maze of stunning 3D carvings - I could try and describe them but would probably fail and anyway you probably would get bored or have work to do, or most likely, both (and no karma sutra ones this time) - suffice to say they are probably the best I have ever seen for detail and condition given the age (12th - 15th century) - yes even better than Bantrey Srei at Angkor in Cambodia.
Bikaner - Then onto the most shit filled streets I have ever walked (and there is some pretty stiff competition in India). And it rained really heavily during the night and flooded the streets. And I was wearing open toed sandels. Liquid cow shit - and I just had to walk through it - not just for fun, but there simply was no other way to get from room to breakfast.
- This was not the main attraction of going there however. Even worse was 'The Rat Temple!!'. This is a temple filled with rats. They are not just tolerted but actually fed, watered and worshipped, no-one knows how many there are but one guy who worked there (over)estimated 60,000 - they only count the white rats which are considered lucky if you see one - there are 11, I saw 3 (or the same one 3 times).
So just relax and imagine going into this temple barefoot.
Rats are running around everywhere.
And these are not nice, specially bred rats; these are the degenerates of the rat world: scrawny, scabby, brown rats varying from mouse size (presumably younger ones) to the size of, well..., a well-fed rat.
So you are standing there, and just watching hundreds of them crowding round the food only a metre away makes your blood curdle.
You stand close enough to have your photo taken with them, and even crouch down to make it look like you are really pally with them; you may be thinking 'JUST DON'T ... come any closer'.
Then they run really close to you and you may think 'I'm OK'; breathe deeply, 'I'm bigger than them, they're not going to attack me or anything'.
And then they come right up to you, the scabs on them screaming 'I'm a scabby rat' at you. Then they nibble your toes ... Urrrgg ... and you try not to scream.
Then they run over your foot ... and you try and remember how honoured you are to have this happen to you.
Then they run up your leg!
F**K OFF ME!
It was just like that - and yes I do have the pictues to prove it!
- Agra - Couldn't leave India without seeing the Taj Mahal (completed in 1653 so fairly old). Got up an hour before first light to see it wake up. It is spectacular as it changes its hue in the early light, a wonderful testament to a man's love for a women and what happens when the King has too much money to waste. The best views are from a distance; I immersed myself in its shape, its form, its colours and its beauty - it makes an impact. But the closer I got the less interesting it was. Then I got too close and realised that apart from a few bits of intricate inlaid stones, it is just huge slabs of marble; just a building and not an overly interesting one at that.
And nearby there is a fantastic Red Fort made out of red sandstone, and adorned with white marble palaces - all built by the same people who built the Taj Mahal.
Delhi
Onto the capital, just for a couple of days. I expected this to be a modern westernised place, and some of it is. But it also boasts roads covered in muck (those cows again) and traffic jams of cycle rickshaws (a really slow but pleasant way to travel if you can stand the pollution). It also has a red fort (made of red sandstone!) which isn't a patch on the one at Agra, and India's largest mosque (completed in 1658) which can hold 25,000 people. Surrounding this mosque are streets of butchers shops, something of a surprise in India - the muslims eat stacks of meat, and judging by the displays of the shops, goat's heads are a speciality. Strangely there were no cows wandering the streets near here - wonder what happened to them?
So after 3 months I am nearly finished in India - just up to the Golden Temple at Amritsar and then over the border to Pakistan. I feel like I am heading home - well at least I am heading NW which is pretty much the right direction - may take a few months to get back but the food might be better than if I went by 'plane.
- Incidentaly I have been travelling nearly 5 months in Nepal and India, eating fantastic food and haven't been ill once. I will regret writing that sometime soon!
- I was tying to think how to sum up India in a few words or a picture. After careful(?) thought it would have to be a picture of a man pissing up against the wall of the Taj Mahal!
India is the best and the worst of everything expertly blended together.
So what is happening with you ... ?
Home soon(?)
Love
Ankur/Pete
Friday, 7 January 2005
Where 30 - Goa, India --OR-- How to Run Away from a Tsunami --OR-- How to Start a Sex Riot on a Railway Platform
HI Everyone,
Last time a tragic and unexpected world disaster happened I was in Oz, and although I watched it on TV, felt very remote from the collapsing twin towers. This time I literally got my feet wet.
But I am getting ahead of events. Trivial as it now seems ... I was just escaping Varanassi (a city which is everything your mother told you not to be) in north India, but it wasnt that simple. My train was due at 11.35pm for a 7 hour journey, so a nice overnight trip. I waited on the platform, and waited and waited. I got out my sleeping bag, sat on it, and waited. I fell asleep ... for hours on the platform (a large % of the population sem to sleep on railway platforms so I was far from alone) and when I woke my train had still not arrived. Finally it rolled in at 8am - my overnight trip was now in daylight and I was mighty pissed off at having wasted a day on a train when I should have been there by then! Eventually it got me 'there' over 10 hours late.
No-one else I met had had any problems with their trains, so I was confident that the next one I caught would be pretty much on time. Due at 8pm for a 14 hour journey, I waited on the platform thinking well if its an hour late thats not too bad. I waited all that evening, past midnight, got my sleeping bag out again, went to sleep, still no train; all night long there was no train; it got light, no train; all morning, no train. I asked why it was so late and, in a reply that was typically Indian, was told 'Late Running!' Not absolutelly satisfied with that I pressed further and was told 'Technical Problems!' Then I gave up asking (and probably swore loudly - most peole there didnt speak english anyway). That afternoon, just as I was thinking about how much confusion it would cause if it was 24 hours late (each train has a no. but there is one of that no. every day and no way to distinguish which days train it is) it turned up 16 hours late. Worst still, I had to scramble off the train at 2.45am (having stayed awake trying to guess the station we were passing through and trying to read the Hindi train signs in the dark) and then spent the rest of that night sleeping on the platform. At least then I got some sleep as I wasnt worried about missing my train!
Enough about trains (and I wont even mention the buses). I had theough that India is a place where loads of foreigners go, and in some places there are quite a few. But most places they are thin on the ground. This means that the enormity of the Indian male population sees fit to descend on you whenever they can. On the street they call out like little kids, and queue up to shake my hand. But it is at train stations where I was cornered and where no-one has anything better to do. I got completely surrounded by on one platform by about 50 guys all wanting to talk to me - only about 3 of then actually spoke english but they translated into Hindi for the benefit of the masses. Once you stop being overawed by the whole thing it can get pretty interesting - especially when you mention their favorite subject. One guy asked me 'Are you married?' to which I replied 'No'. He then looked at me in a very confused way and after a pause said 'Do you like sex?' Then I was a bit confused, until I twigged what he meant. In India marriages are arranged and there is no sex before marriage. I said in my culture you do not have to be married to have sex. Once that got translated it bought the house down, all the (presumably unmarried twentysomethings virgin) macho guys went mental, jumping around llike nuts. Eventually the crowd was broken up by the riot police (well, one policeman with a big stick) and I tried to look innocent and hide somewhere else on the platform.
In one small village I was cycling along and an old guy was walking the other way. Despite no suggestion of a uniform anywhere, he stood up straight and saluted me ... old habits perhaps.
Nearly all signs are in Hindi especially at railway stations. At one place the whole train info was entirely in Hindi apart from one sign on the platform in English 'Please do not spit.' Very helpful.
All this travel has been with purpose as I have been to a few tasty places:
- Khajuraho - Fantastic small stone temples 1,000 years old adourned with an enormous no. of carvings of incredible quality and almost perfectly preseved. Most are of everyday life, beautiful women with gravity defying chests and bums so flat that it looks like they're bottom halfs are pointing the other way. Amoungst these are what people really come for - a good collection of 'karma sutra' carvings - hardcore porn so old that it is 'art', explicit sex in interesting and often improbable positions (some needing a couple of helpers to help then into the start position) presented in film strip style with a row of carvings culminating in orgasm! Oh and there is the odd cow thrown in for good measure. Yes, it really is art. Yes, I can send you the photos. Just email me your credit card no and expiry date...
- Ajanta - A row of 30 Buddhist temples carved into a cliff on a horseshoe bend in a river. They date from 200BC. The largest is 20m x 20m inside with over 20 carved pillars, wall paintings, buddha statues etc. All instunning condition considering their age.
- Ellora - More caves carved into solid rock, but one of which is stunning. Instead of building a temple they started with a solid cliff and chipped away at the rock (apparently 7000 men for 150 years - although presumably not the same 7000 men) creating several floors, domes, towers, loads of carvings of real quality etc And all with just the rock that was there, exactly where it was. The concept is mind boggling. The reality is so good, and so like a normal (superb) temple, that I had to keep reminding myself that it was created like that. Must be the most under-hyped thing I have ever seen.
Now i am all caved out. Or should that be caved in?
- Matheran - A hill station perched on a flat topped mountain, which is reached by a 2 hour 'toy train' ride. The town has no means of transport other than hand pulled rickshaws, all the supplies have to be pulled around by 8 men pushing a cart up steep slopes. There is no traffic or even cycles. Is this really India?
And then to Goa. A very pleasant state which is not like anywhere else I had been - for a start there are as many tourists as locals, but Xmas is Xmas and Goa is one of the few mainly christion areas of India (Portuguese influence). Goa has miles of empty coastline withh great beaches all the way along it - so as usual nearly everyone crams into a couple of small beaches. We got an idyllic place right next to the beach and just a few metres above (the very basic shack was on stilts). Xmas passed by and then on morning of Dec 26th we heard about a tsunami somewhere in Indonesia. Didnt sound too serious then. That evening we were in a restaurant just above the beach when waves of water started coming over the wall into the restaurant. It seemed odd but I was more concerned that I hadn't finished my (milk) shake, but suddenly we were nearly the last people in the restaurant - the staff were the first to leave - and we exited rapidly onto the street behind where it was just panic. Indians drive autorickshaws and motorbikes like lunatics at the best of times but in a panic - it was mayhem, but when the locals start running you had better join them. A few people were hurt in the rush but I didnt see anything too bad. We found the tallest solid looking building in town and slept on the roof. Next morning the beach looked very different with some restaurants on the beach hit badly (but they were open again a few days later). The water had come up to just below our hut, but it wasnt the level of water that was the worry, it was not knowing what caused it and not knowing what was going to happen next. Apparently it was a high tide caused by the effects of the eathquake combined with what was due to be the highest tide of the month anyway.
It doesn't really bear thinking about, but if the Portuguese had built their trading post on the other side of India, facing East (and it had some nice beaches) we would probably now be just a statistic in the body count column of this event. I try not to think about it.
So that was Goa. Now it is back up north, another month and a half in India and then Pakistan...
Meantime: This is India, a land where nothing is unbelievable - except everything the locals tell you. If you ever ask a closed question (to check info etc) the reply is always 'Yes' even if they haven't understood the question. And it is always accompanied by that bloody annoying little shake of the head (that only Indians can do) which means 'Yes'. Or 'No'. Or 'I have 9 kids to feed, 2 water buffalo and some potatoes. How much will you give me for one of my kids.'
Ta ta from the land of the long wait,
and
Happy New Year!
Love
Pete
Last time a tragic and unexpected world disaster happened I was in Oz, and although I watched it on TV, felt very remote from the collapsing twin towers. This time I literally got my feet wet.
But I am getting ahead of events. Trivial as it now seems ... I was just escaping Varanassi (a city which is everything your mother told you not to be) in north India, but it wasnt that simple. My train was due at 11.35pm for a 7 hour journey, so a nice overnight trip. I waited on the platform, and waited and waited. I got out my sleeping bag, sat on it, and waited. I fell asleep ... for hours on the platform (a large % of the population sem to sleep on railway platforms so I was far from alone) and when I woke my train had still not arrived. Finally it rolled in at 8am - my overnight trip was now in daylight and I was mighty pissed off at having wasted a day on a train when I should have been there by then! Eventually it got me 'there' over 10 hours late.
No-one else I met had had any problems with their trains, so I was confident that the next one I caught would be pretty much on time. Due at 8pm for a 14 hour journey, I waited on the platform thinking well if its an hour late thats not too bad. I waited all that evening, past midnight, got my sleeping bag out again, went to sleep, still no train; all night long there was no train; it got light, no train; all morning, no train. I asked why it was so late and, in a reply that was typically Indian, was told 'Late Running!' Not absolutelly satisfied with that I pressed further and was told 'Technical Problems!' Then I gave up asking (and probably swore loudly - most peole there didnt speak english anyway). That afternoon, just as I was thinking about how much confusion it would cause if it was 24 hours late (each train has a no. but there is one of that no. every day and no way to distinguish which days train it is) it turned up 16 hours late. Worst still, I had to scramble off the train at 2.45am (having stayed awake trying to guess the station we were passing through and trying to read the Hindi train signs in the dark) and then spent the rest of that night sleeping on the platform. At least then I got some sleep as I wasnt worried about missing my train!
Enough about trains (and I wont even mention the buses). I had theough that India is a place where loads of foreigners go, and in some places there are quite a few. But most places they are thin on the ground. This means that the enormity of the Indian male population sees fit to descend on you whenever they can. On the street they call out like little kids, and queue up to shake my hand. But it is at train stations where I was cornered and where no-one has anything better to do. I got completely surrounded by on one platform by about 50 guys all wanting to talk to me - only about 3 of then actually spoke english but they translated into Hindi for the benefit of the masses. Once you stop being overawed by the whole thing it can get pretty interesting - especially when you mention their favorite subject. One guy asked me 'Are you married?' to which I replied 'No'. He then looked at me in a very confused way and after a pause said 'Do you like sex?' Then I was a bit confused, until I twigged what he meant. In India marriages are arranged and there is no sex before marriage. I said in my culture you do not have to be married to have sex. Once that got translated it bought the house down, all the (presumably unmarried twentysomethings virgin) macho guys went mental, jumping around llike nuts. Eventually the crowd was broken up by the riot police (well, one policeman with a big stick) and I tried to look innocent and hide somewhere else on the platform.
In one small village I was cycling along and an old guy was walking the other way. Despite no suggestion of a uniform anywhere, he stood up straight and saluted me ... old habits perhaps.
Nearly all signs are in Hindi especially at railway stations. At one place the whole train info was entirely in Hindi apart from one sign on the platform in English 'Please do not spit.' Very helpful.
All this travel has been with purpose as I have been to a few tasty places:
- Khajuraho - Fantastic small stone temples 1,000 years old adourned with an enormous no. of carvings of incredible quality and almost perfectly preseved. Most are of everyday life, beautiful women with gravity defying chests and bums so flat that it looks like they're bottom halfs are pointing the other way. Amoungst these are what people really come for - a good collection of 'karma sutra' carvings - hardcore porn so old that it is 'art', explicit sex in interesting and often improbable positions (some needing a couple of helpers to help then into the start position) presented in film strip style with a row of carvings culminating in orgasm! Oh and there is the odd cow thrown in for good measure. Yes, it really is art. Yes, I can send you the photos. Just email me your credit card no and expiry date...
- Ajanta - A row of 30 Buddhist temples carved into a cliff on a horseshoe bend in a river. They date from 200BC. The largest is 20m x 20m inside with over 20 carved pillars, wall paintings, buddha statues etc. All instunning condition considering their age.
- Ellora - More caves carved into solid rock, but one of which is stunning. Instead of building a temple they started with a solid cliff and chipped away at the rock (apparently 7000 men for 150 years - although presumably not the same 7000 men) creating several floors, domes, towers, loads of carvings of real quality etc And all with just the rock that was there, exactly where it was. The concept is mind boggling. The reality is so good, and so like a normal (superb) temple, that I had to keep reminding myself that it was created like that. Must be the most under-hyped thing I have ever seen.
Now i am all caved out. Or should that be caved in?
- Matheran - A hill station perched on a flat topped mountain, which is reached by a 2 hour 'toy train' ride. The town has no means of transport other than hand pulled rickshaws, all the supplies have to be pulled around by 8 men pushing a cart up steep slopes. There is no traffic or even cycles. Is this really India?
And then to Goa. A very pleasant state which is not like anywhere else I had been - for a start there are as many tourists as locals, but Xmas is Xmas and Goa is one of the few mainly christion areas of India (Portuguese influence). Goa has miles of empty coastline withh great beaches all the way along it - so as usual nearly everyone crams into a couple of small beaches. We got an idyllic place right next to the beach and just a few metres above (the very basic shack was on stilts). Xmas passed by and then on morning of Dec 26th we heard about a tsunami somewhere in Indonesia. Didnt sound too serious then. That evening we were in a restaurant just above the beach when waves of water started coming over the wall into the restaurant. It seemed odd but I was more concerned that I hadn't finished my (milk) shake, but suddenly we were nearly the last people in the restaurant - the staff were the first to leave - and we exited rapidly onto the street behind where it was just panic. Indians drive autorickshaws and motorbikes like lunatics at the best of times but in a panic - it was mayhem, but when the locals start running you had better join them. A few people were hurt in the rush but I didnt see anything too bad. We found the tallest solid looking building in town and slept on the roof. Next morning the beach looked very different with some restaurants on the beach hit badly (but they were open again a few days later). The water had come up to just below our hut, but it wasnt the level of water that was the worry, it was not knowing what caused it and not knowing what was going to happen next. Apparently it was a high tide caused by the effects of the eathquake combined with what was due to be the highest tide of the month anyway.
It doesn't really bear thinking about, but if the Portuguese had built their trading post on the other side of India, facing East (and it had some nice beaches) we would probably now be just a statistic in the body count column of this event. I try not to think about it.
So that was Goa. Now it is back up north, another month and a half in India and then Pakistan...
Meantime: This is India, a land where nothing is unbelievable - except everything the locals tell you. If you ever ask a closed question (to check info etc) the reply is always 'Yes' even if they haven't understood the question. And it is always accompanied by that bloody annoying little shake of the head (that only Indians can do) which means 'Yes'. Or 'No'. Or 'I have 9 kids to feed, 2 water buffalo and some potatoes. How much will you give me for one of my kids.'
Ta ta from the land of the long wait,
and
Happy New Year!
Love
Pete
Wednesday, 1 December 2004
Where 29 - Varanassi, India --OR-- How to Get Past Big Sacred Cows in Narrow Alleys --OR-- How to Speak Spanish in Nepal
I was just wondering where to start this one. How about :
Nepal continued...
I was in Kathmandu, but heading for 10 days of white water ... I say 10 days, actually it took 3 days on a bus to get there (see 'struck out' below) one day and night to get back, so we had 6 days on the river - plenty of time to get wet...
High fives
- The Karnali River in the far west of Nepal, a big river on its way from Tibet to India. The water was big, white, wetand cold; the paddlers were not so big, white, wet and cold. But when that grade 4 or 5 wave is heading straight for you, then emerging, with both the boat still the right way up and you still in it, is a triumph which no amount of cold water down your throat can dampen. The scenery was stunning too, narrow gorges, vertical cliffs and somehow superb beaches on which to camp everynight (why these are not washed away by the monsoon I'm not sure).
- On the flatter parts of the river we were allowed to use the safety kayakers boats to play in. They were very short boats (some of the rafters were too tall to fit in them) and almost impossible to keep straight but I did manage a Grade 2+ rapid and my first ever eskimo rolls (however a few times I didn't make it back up and just ended up sitting in an upside down boat thinking "I'm freezing cold, underwater, and upside down in an upside down boat - why the hell am I doing this!")
- After the rafting everyone else was heading for a wildlife park nearby, so I went as well (not to see the wildlife, just to chill out) and spent a week living in a mud hut without electric, water by pump, shower by bucket, cooking by fire and squat toilet. As this was far away from the normal touist places and deep in mousey-maoist controlled areas we were just about the only foreigners in the place. Gone were the locals asking for 'schoolpen' and money - here were the villagers who grinned and looked embarassed at being close to a foreigner. However, once they realised that they could see an image of themselves on the back of my camera, I was besieged by whole groups of people just wanting to stand bolt upright with severe faces, for their photo - getting them to relax and smile a bit was the most difficult part. If you are not good (and I work out how to do it, I may send you some examples). Walking around the paddy fields and tracks of this community was so refreshing. However the objective of taking a few pics of farmers ploughing their fields with oxen became an exercise in recording an image of just about every person I met (and several pics of each of their babies), being an instigator of civil unrest as people surrounded me on the dirt road and causing a huge power drain on my batteries. Simple living, simply brilliant. I couldn't ask for more.
Pains in the butt
- Walking into more mouse traps on the rafting trip in the far west on Nepal which is deep in mouse territory. We knew they were there cos we had a guide. We had to pay USD 20 each to be allowed to travel through the area by bus and then back be raft. I didn't see any guns this time but we were warned not to take any photos in Maoist areas as they like to take away your camera and not give it back. The rafting coy had to give other villagers paddles and stuff on the way down the river but had a note from the head mouse saying they didnt have to give them the raft that they asked for ! Its all such a circus. Both sides know the score - The army are heavily ensconced two hours bus ride from the mouses but there is no attempt to try and break the mouse control. Mind you , the army are equipped with very old (WW2 Vintage) Lee Enfield rifles, so maybe that is why.
- I only know one word of Nepali. After that, if they dont speak English then I automatically revert to Spanish (this is the only other language I can speak). This does not always help a great deal as their knowledge of Spanish may be limited too. Worked all right in south/central america though ... If only I could have spoken Spanish that well when I was actually with Spanish speaking people.
- Wildlife - since I ended up staying about 100 metres from the entrance to a wildlife park I though I may as well go and search (again) for tigers. After spending 2 whole days ( and a load of cash hiring guides, park fees etc) we had seen no rhino, one elephant a long way off, and no tigers. Then as we walked out of the park entrance at the end of the 2nd day, there was a real, genuine, actual rhino slumped against the gates - asleep! So we all posed with it, felt its rough armoured looking skin and looked at it horn ... until it started to move ... then we ran away ... real fast!
- Leeches - not the sort of wildlife I wanted to see close up. They are the most revolting creatures I have ever seen and when they are indulging themselves on my blood its simply not nice. Serve them a bit of salt and they get off pretty quick; however the blood keeps flowing for a while after.
- Squat toilets - you get used to the hole in the floor approach after a while, you have to, you cant hang on for ever. Apparently, they are better for your health than the horrible sit down western ones ... so we will probably see them catching on in western places soon - yeah right!
- Struck out - Getting caught in the strikes called by the mousists to demonstrate their power (in truth Nepal is not a democracy so I have to give them some leeway to demonstate, but it would be preferable to do it when I am not there) - once on the way to rafting, where we had to spend 2 nights in a village fairly near nowhere; then again when I was trying to get to the Buddha's birthplace; I left a day early to miss the strike (no-one knows when they are going to happen, they just happen) and still walked straight into 2 days of no buses. Luckily I was very close to the border at that point so ... despite thinking that the longer I had spent in Nepal the more I had liked it ... decided to quit Nepal and went to India instead ... what was I thinking of!!!
I just realised that my list of 'pains' in far longer than the 'highs' - dont be mislead, Nepal definitely gets the thumbs up.
India
I didn't mean to go there, honest, I was just on a bus one day and suddenly ... (actually it wasn't so sudden, it was after a huge amount of time, filling in a small amout of paperwork) I was in India and everything was more packed, more dirty and much more trouble than before.
When you are the only one (foreigner that is, locals cross the border unrestricted) in the queue at the border, you begin to think why am I the only one crossing over here ...
After a 5 hour shared taxi ride, crammed into a very old 'Ambassador Classic' car, and a puncture, I arrived in Lucklow hoping to get a train out that night to Varanasi. I had no idea how the booking system worked and all the signs were in Hindi (a language nothing like Spanish), and finding someone who spoke English was more than a bit tricky - even trickier was getting two different people to agree on where I had to go to get a ticket. Eventually I found a window with a smaller than normal scrum outside and after some barging and shouting found I had to come back at 9pm to try and get on the 11pm night train. I went back before 9pm (when the magic 'spare seats and beds' printout arrives to find a huge scrum at the said window, and got stuck in. The game is simple: Fill in a train request form. Put on your biggest backpack with daysac on your front (these not only give protection and added weight, but also if the swivel move is used, causes significant damage points against the opposition). Stand in an orderly line and as soon as people from the back charge round the side the game is on - you have to get your form through the tiny gap in the ticket window, from any angle, preferably with hand still attached, and get the official to give attention to your form. I am bigger than most Indians (although not all, as the pot bellied gentleman was keen to make clear) so after 30 minutes of unsporting behaviour, and some brief reforming of the line by an official with a big stick (a sort of half-time, no oranges), I finally succeeded. My form got attention! Victory. But there were no spaces on the train! Bugger. A complete waste of time. Resigned to having to spend a night in a hotel, I asked how I could get a ticket for the 7am day train the next day -
'Come back here at 4.30am' he said.
'You're joking!'
He wasn't.
So ventured into streets in the dark amidst traffic, every vehicle of which was trying to kill me (this must be another game I haven't figured out yet), smoke from fires lit in the road, a herd of cows getting in the way of everything and people jammed in everywhere there wasn't anything else.
After spending (part of) the night at an overpriced hotel I crawled to the station along emptier streets (the cows were sitting down by now) at 5am in dense fog. There was only a small queue and 'the game' wasn't on. I got my ticket after about 10 mins. even after a female pushed-in right in front of me (yes, they really are allowed to do that - even though it doesn't really fit in with 'the game', it does keep women interested in the sport which is presumably the reason for the rule). Then I got my train, 45 mins late due to said fog, and got to Varanasi that afternoon (2 hours late arriving - due to being 45 mins late leaving).
And it was when I got to the old city in Varanasi that I found out that, so far, my introduction to India had been a gentle one. A huge area along the west bank of the Ganges (India's holiest river) is a maze of tiny alleyways threaded between 5 storey buildings, crammed with shops, people, pot bellied cows and large mounds of their steaming dung.
Question: If you are facing the backside of a large cow taking up over half the width of an alleyway and the remaining narrow gap is heavily mined with cow dung, then, bearing in mind that you are wearing open toed sandals, what do you do?
A) Wait for it to move
B) Wait for a local to push it out of the way
C) Try and push the cow out of the way yourself
D) Go another way to your destination
E) Go via the mined route but skip delicately over the dung
F) Walk through the minefield and get covered in shit, or worse, lose a sandal in it.
If you answered:
A - You are still waiting there.
B - No chance, almost all locals are Hindu and they wouldn't want the bad karma of pushing a sacred cow.
C - You will have got beaten up by the locals ('cos you are not as sacred as the cow)
D - You will get hopelessly lost in the alleys and are never seen again OR
If you do know where you are going - you end up in another alley facing the backside of a large cow taking up over half the width of an alleyway and the remaining narrow gap is heavily mined with cow dung. Then you have 6 options ...
E - Ha Ha! the cow moves as it feels you try to squeeze past and you end up covered in shit and get slammed into the wall by the cow.
F - You are a local.
Enough about cows for now!
Varanasi is an assault on all your senses including several you didnt know you had - burning bodies, dung, rotting veg - what more do you want. It is an education, even a priviledge to experience it all. Everything is in your face - all the time - and if something is clean, it wont be for long.
It all happens down at the river which is lined with ghats (platforms) where everything happens. If you are cremated here you go straight to moksha (Nirvana) escaping the cycle of life, death and rebirth (the aim of Hindus) even if you have had a bad life ( seems a bit easy to me). So 150-200 people are cremated on the ghats of the ganges every day, in public with crowds of onlookers. It is sobering watching bodies burn, educational, thought provoking and very hot. Thinly covered bodies and laid on 200kg of prime wood and burnt. It takes about 3 hours, during which the skull is smashed to release the soul and the remains are chucked into the ganges. Within spitting distance are the top bathing spots for Hindus - this is both ritual bathing and to get physically clean, although whether you are actually cleaner when you get out is anyones guess (I didn't give it a go). And in amongst all this are the dohbee-wallahs who are responsible for the city's laundry, and this is where they wash all the clothes. If this wasn't enough this slowly moving river is where most of the garbage is chucked. Thank god I am here in the winter and not the even hotter summer when the place must really stink.
Some more plusses
- The food and drink are great. Marvellous thalis (curries), dhosas (pancakes) and masalas (mixed spices). And then there are the sweets - they are very sweet but after trying a few (not all at once) I have managed to pick a few which are tasty without being sickly.
- There is a Hindu festival here just about every day.
Some more Minusses
- There is a Hindu festival here just about every day. And they really are getting a bit the same. Exactly the same in fact, except as the festival reaches its climax there are more participants and more people watching. And then there is a huge crush and - well it very nearly ended up in bad news last night when whilst waiting for ritual to start there was some major pushing (reminds me of the terraces of English footy matches in the early 1980s).
- There is no alcohol served in the old town - it all to do with the holy influence.
- Hygiene? One restaurant even advertises itself with the slogan 'Yes, We are less dirty...' and fearful of the lack of hygiene I am moving rapidly towards vegetarianism.
- The Scams - Everyone is out to scam any foreigner. Well almost everyone, but trying to sort out the 10% of people who are making casual conversation or genuinely trying to help from the 90% who protest their innocence but are really rolling out a scam to e.g. get money for non-existant lepers, is very difficult.
So fearful of another scam or another Hindu festival starting tonight I am on the night train out of here - heading south ...
Bye for now
Pete
Nepal continued...
I was in Kathmandu, but heading for 10 days of white water ... I say 10 days, actually it took 3 days on a bus to get there (see 'struck out' below) one day and night to get back, so we had 6 days on the river - plenty of time to get wet...
High fives
- The Karnali River in the far west of Nepal, a big river on its way from Tibet to India. The water was big, white, wetand cold; the paddlers were not so big, white, wet and cold. But when that grade 4 or 5 wave is heading straight for you, then emerging, with both the boat still the right way up and you still in it, is a triumph which no amount of cold water down your throat can dampen. The scenery was stunning too, narrow gorges, vertical cliffs and somehow superb beaches on which to camp everynight (why these are not washed away by the monsoon I'm not sure).
- On the flatter parts of the river we were allowed to use the safety kayakers boats to play in. They were very short boats (some of the rafters were too tall to fit in them) and almost impossible to keep straight but I did manage a Grade 2+ rapid and my first ever eskimo rolls (however a few times I didn't make it back up and just ended up sitting in an upside down boat thinking "I'm freezing cold, underwater, and upside down in an upside down boat - why the hell am I doing this!")
- After the rafting everyone else was heading for a wildlife park nearby, so I went as well (not to see the wildlife, just to chill out) and spent a week living in a mud hut without electric, water by pump, shower by bucket, cooking by fire and squat toilet. As this was far away from the normal touist places and deep in mousey-maoist controlled areas we were just about the only foreigners in the place. Gone were the locals asking for 'schoolpen' and money - here were the villagers who grinned and looked embarassed at being close to a foreigner. However, once they realised that they could see an image of themselves on the back of my camera, I was besieged by whole groups of people just wanting to stand bolt upright with severe faces, for their photo - getting them to relax and smile a bit was the most difficult part. If you are not good (and I work out how to do it, I may send you some examples). Walking around the paddy fields and tracks of this community was so refreshing. However the objective of taking a few pics of farmers ploughing their fields with oxen became an exercise in recording an image of just about every person I met (and several pics of each of their babies), being an instigator of civil unrest as people surrounded me on the dirt road and causing a huge power drain on my batteries. Simple living, simply brilliant. I couldn't ask for more.
Pains in the butt
- Walking into more mouse traps on the rafting trip in the far west on Nepal which is deep in mouse territory. We knew they were there cos we had a guide. We had to pay USD 20 each to be allowed to travel through the area by bus and then back be raft. I didn't see any guns this time but we were warned not to take any photos in Maoist areas as they like to take away your camera and not give it back. The rafting coy had to give other villagers paddles and stuff on the way down the river but had a note from the head mouse saying they didnt have to give them the raft that they asked for ! Its all such a circus. Both sides know the score - The army are heavily ensconced two hours bus ride from the mouses but there is no attempt to try and break the mouse control. Mind you , the army are equipped with very old (WW2 Vintage) Lee Enfield rifles, so maybe that is why.
- I only know one word of Nepali. After that, if they dont speak English then I automatically revert to Spanish (this is the only other language I can speak). This does not always help a great deal as their knowledge of Spanish may be limited too. Worked all right in south/central america though ... If only I could have spoken Spanish that well when I was actually with Spanish speaking people.
- Wildlife - since I ended up staying about 100 metres from the entrance to a wildlife park I though I may as well go and search (again) for tigers. After spending 2 whole days ( and a load of cash hiring guides, park fees etc) we had seen no rhino, one elephant a long way off, and no tigers. Then as we walked out of the park entrance at the end of the 2nd day, there was a real, genuine, actual rhino slumped against the gates - asleep! So we all posed with it, felt its rough armoured looking skin and looked at it horn ... until it started to move ... then we ran away ... real fast!
- Leeches - not the sort of wildlife I wanted to see close up. They are the most revolting creatures I have ever seen and when they are indulging themselves on my blood its simply not nice. Serve them a bit of salt and they get off pretty quick; however the blood keeps flowing for a while after.
- Squat toilets - you get used to the hole in the floor approach after a while, you have to, you cant hang on for ever. Apparently, they are better for your health than the horrible sit down western ones ... so we will probably see them catching on in western places soon - yeah right!
- Struck out - Getting caught in the strikes called by the mousists to demonstrate their power (in truth Nepal is not a democracy so I have to give them some leeway to demonstate, but it would be preferable to do it when I am not there) - once on the way to rafting, where we had to spend 2 nights in a village fairly near nowhere; then again when I was trying to get to the Buddha's birthplace; I left a day early to miss the strike (no-one knows when they are going to happen, they just happen) and still walked straight into 2 days of no buses. Luckily I was very close to the border at that point so ... despite thinking that the longer I had spent in Nepal the more I had liked it ... decided to quit Nepal and went to India instead ... what was I thinking of!!!
I just realised that my list of 'pains' in far longer than the 'highs' - dont be mislead, Nepal definitely gets the thumbs up.
India
I didn't mean to go there, honest, I was just on a bus one day and suddenly ... (actually it wasn't so sudden, it was after a huge amount of time, filling in a small amout of paperwork) I was in India and everything was more packed, more dirty and much more trouble than before.
When you are the only one (foreigner that is, locals cross the border unrestricted) in the queue at the border, you begin to think why am I the only one crossing over here ...
After a 5 hour shared taxi ride, crammed into a very old 'Ambassador Classic' car, and a puncture, I arrived in Lucklow hoping to get a train out that night to Varanasi. I had no idea how the booking system worked and all the signs were in Hindi (a language nothing like Spanish), and finding someone who spoke English was more than a bit tricky - even trickier was getting two different people to agree on where I had to go to get a ticket. Eventually I found a window with a smaller than normal scrum outside and after some barging and shouting found I had to come back at 9pm to try and get on the 11pm night train. I went back before 9pm (when the magic 'spare seats and beds' printout arrives to find a huge scrum at the said window, and got stuck in. The game is simple: Fill in a train request form. Put on your biggest backpack with daysac on your front (these not only give protection and added weight, but also if the swivel move is used, causes significant damage points against the opposition). Stand in an orderly line and as soon as people from the back charge round the side the game is on - you have to get your form through the tiny gap in the ticket window, from any angle, preferably with hand still attached, and get the official to give attention to your form. I am bigger than most Indians (although not all, as the pot bellied gentleman was keen to make clear) so after 30 minutes of unsporting behaviour, and some brief reforming of the line by an official with a big stick (a sort of half-time, no oranges), I finally succeeded. My form got attention! Victory. But there were no spaces on the train! Bugger. A complete waste of time. Resigned to having to spend a night in a hotel, I asked how I could get a ticket for the 7am day train the next day -
'Come back here at 4.30am' he said.
'You're joking!'
He wasn't.
So ventured into streets in the dark amidst traffic, every vehicle of which was trying to kill me (this must be another game I haven't figured out yet), smoke from fires lit in the road, a herd of cows getting in the way of everything and people jammed in everywhere there wasn't anything else.
After spending (part of) the night at an overpriced hotel I crawled to the station along emptier streets (the cows were sitting down by now) at 5am in dense fog. There was only a small queue and 'the game' wasn't on. I got my ticket after about 10 mins. even after a female pushed-in right in front of me (yes, they really are allowed to do that - even though it doesn't really fit in with 'the game', it does keep women interested in the sport which is presumably the reason for the rule). Then I got my train, 45 mins late due to said fog, and got to Varanasi that afternoon (2 hours late arriving - due to being 45 mins late leaving).
And it was when I got to the old city in Varanasi that I found out that, so far, my introduction to India had been a gentle one. A huge area along the west bank of the Ganges (India's holiest river) is a maze of tiny alleyways threaded between 5 storey buildings, crammed with shops, people, pot bellied cows and large mounds of their steaming dung.
Question: If you are facing the backside of a large cow taking up over half the width of an alleyway and the remaining narrow gap is heavily mined with cow dung, then, bearing in mind that you are wearing open toed sandals, what do you do?
A) Wait for it to move
B) Wait for a local to push it out of the way
C) Try and push the cow out of the way yourself
D) Go another way to your destination
E) Go via the mined route but skip delicately over the dung
F) Walk through the minefield and get covered in shit, or worse, lose a sandal in it.
If you answered:
A - You are still waiting there.
B - No chance, almost all locals are Hindu and they wouldn't want the bad karma of pushing a sacred cow.
C - You will have got beaten up by the locals ('cos you are not as sacred as the cow)
D - You will get hopelessly lost in the alleys and are never seen again OR
If you do know where you are going - you end up in another alley facing the backside of a large cow taking up over half the width of an alleyway and the remaining narrow gap is heavily mined with cow dung. Then you have 6 options ...
E - Ha Ha! the cow moves as it feels you try to squeeze past and you end up covered in shit and get slammed into the wall by the cow.
F - You are a local.
Enough about cows for now!
Varanasi is an assault on all your senses including several you didnt know you had - burning bodies, dung, rotting veg - what more do you want. It is an education, even a priviledge to experience it all. Everything is in your face - all the time - and if something is clean, it wont be for long.
It all happens down at the river which is lined with ghats (platforms) where everything happens. If you are cremated here you go straight to moksha (Nirvana) escaping the cycle of life, death and rebirth (the aim of Hindus) even if you have had a bad life ( seems a bit easy to me). So 150-200 people are cremated on the ghats of the ganges every day, in public with crowds of onlookers. It is sobering watching bodies burn, educational, thought provoking and very hot. Thinly covered bodies and laid on 200kg of prime wood and burnt. It takes about 3 hours, during which the skull is smashed to release the soul and the remains are chucked into the ganges. Within spitting distance are the top bathing spots for Hindus - this is both ritual bathing and to get physically clean, although whether you are actually cleaner when you get out is anyones guess (I didn't give it a go). And in amongst all this are the dohbee-wallahs who are responsible for the city's laundry, and this is where they wash all the clothes. If this wasn't enough this slowly moving river is where most of the garbage is chucked. Thank god I am here in the winter and not the even hotter summer when the place must really stink.
Some more plusses
- The food and drink are great. Marvellous thalis (curries), dhosas (pancakes) and masalas (mixed spices). And then there are the sweets - they are very sweet but after trying a few (not all at once) I have managed to pick a few which are tasty without being sickly.
- There is a Hindu festival here just about every day.
Some more Minusses
- There is a Hindu festival here just about every day. And they really are getting a bit the same. Exactly the same in fact, except as the festival reaches its climax there are more participants and more people watching. And then there is a huge crush and - well it very nearly ended up in bad news last night when whilst waiting for ritual to start there was some major pushing (reminds me of the terraces of English footy matches in the early 1980s).
- There is no alcohol served in the old town - it all to do with the holy influence.
- Hygiene? One restaurant even advertises itself with the slogan 'Yes, We are less dirty...' and fearful of the lack of hygiene I am moving rapidly towards vegetarianism.
- The Scams - Everyone is out to scam any foreigner. Well almost everyone, but trying to sort out the 10% of people who are making casual conversation or genuinely trying to help from the 90% who protest their innocence but are really rolling out a scam to e.g. get money for non-existant lepers, is very difficult.
So fearful of another scam or another Hindu festival starting tonight I am on the night train out of here - heading south ...
Bye for now
Pete
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