John's Monsoon Diary

More Jaisalmer - camels, trade, sexism, and forts (and also perhaps my last entry)

2008-02-18T12:36:00.003+05:30

OK, I am back on my feet and healed in Jaisalmer. I have spent the past few days exploring the golden fortress, going to the Sahara-esque sand dunes, and then looking at the merchant havelis (mansions) in this very cool former trade route town.

Jaisalmer was a major link along the camel trade route for silk, spices, perfume, etc. right up until partition in 1948. Since the border with Pakistan was sealed then, the trade coming through the town has all but stopped. In it's place the new main source of income for the town is tourism. There is a beautiful "golden fort", that as I said before is still occupied, as well as a lake (well, a lake-ish kind of thing - we are in the desert), and miles and miles of open space around (the Great Thar Desert).

As in everywhere else I've been in India, the cows rule the street. But in this smaller town (less than 100,000), like also in Pushkar, they rule even the narrrow city streets. Cows eat much of the daily refuse (sometimes even plastic which makes me sad - apparently there is a guy in one of the big cities who goes around doing cow surgeries for these poor animals). I like here though that you can see the cows poking their heads into their master's houses as if to say "where's my dinner?". It's quite the sight. One I imagine is difficult to ignore if you're calmly watching cricket in your house or cooking as meal.

The old merchant havelis are very cool. Ornate carvings, intricate fanning and cooling systems, the ever-present security features to trick or slow marauders and hide their money.

The other thing to mention here is about Jaisalmer Fort in general. The fort is sinking back into the hilside. Restoration experst suspect that the heavy water use of the fort denizens (especially hoteliers) creates more than the sewer system can handle and thus causes erosion. I chose not to stay in the fort for this reason. But it seems that hotels there are alive and kicking. In general, the state of preservation seems strained a bit here. I can understand this, it's not like the government has enough money just to work on literacy or clean water or sewage. But still, it can be sad. Alot of the Havelis are privately owned and rely on leveraged "donations" on top of their admission fees or sales of trinkets, etc. to keep up their places (or in some cases perhaps lived on the donations and let the places fall apart). I had an interesting conversation at dinner last night with a man who was in town for the big Desert Festival that starts tomorrow (camel races, Mr. Desert contest - picture long twirling mustaches, horse races, etc.). He was an official with the Rajasthan Dept of Tourism and we talked about various festivals, his job, what has happened in tourism since he started in the early 70's. I think he was at my hotel to collect a little baksheesh. The servers brought him out wrapped bottles of whiskey that seemed to me to be "presents" for him (he shared with me). Also, he was very keen in me getting people to come to Rajasthan and told me if my mother wanted to come he could help her make arrangements. Also, he talked about his daughter and son who both wanted to study in the US at the "O-yo" university (it took me awhile to figure out he meant Ohio). He was nice, but sadly I've grown to be somewhat suspicious of nice people who just approach you. A result of all the factors that make India what it is: friendliness, chattiness, poverty, caste, thievery (there is supposedly a traditional Rajasthani dance to the theft deity Baba Ramdeo), curiosity, poverty, poverty (did I mention poverty), and in the case of tourists lots of competition for our relatively meager offerings. The amount of money we drop for a bottle of Pepsi could represent a significant chunk if not all of someone's average daily salary. Yikes. Anyways, I liked him and kept his card. I don't know if I'll refer Mom to him though...

Yesterday when I went out to the dunes I did a very short camel ride - about 1 km - out to the "sunset view" area of the dunes. See me here on my camel! It was fun, but a bit tricky, getting on and off. They actually lie down, then you climb on, then they stand up. But they stand up back feet first so you're at quite an angle for the first bit and have to hold on tight! They are also quite vociferous. When the camel tenders try to get them to stand or sit the camels turn their heads to look right at them and groan as if to say "what? again? leave me alone!" The dunes are a bit of a scene as usual for any place frequented by tourists. Little boys mob you and ask you for money, "pens for school", to buy very expensive drinks and snacks, etc. Little girls dressed in traditional garb go around with musicians and try to get you to pay for them to do a traditional dance or song. My sense - though I'm not an expert - is that these are gypsies. Maybe outside the caste system. So, in a manner very out of character for Indian women or girls, they can be very direct with you - making eye contact, etc - and very pushy. I've noticed this with some women all around Rajasthan, not only the girls. Smiling, chatting, making eye contact with men. This is not at all usualy behavior for women in most of India.

I did some shopping at a women's cooperative and paid more than I would have for a nice hand-decorated wall tapestry. The woman at the store was telling me how she got about doing this. She went to university, studied art and history, learned to speak english very well, etc. Now she is 28, still not married, and feels that when her parents bring suitable prospects around she has the economic viability, maturity, and strength to say "yes" or "no" (she says "mom, dad, I have to live with this person my whole life!"). She told me just last week she had a good prospect - very handsome, intelligent, said he didn't drink at all. Then, that night by mistake she ran into him drinking with his friends and she went and got her parents right away and brought them to where he was partying with his friends and said "this is what you want for me?" Anyways, it was fun to talk with her and I hoped that the money I paid was in fact going to support women's lives (my new theory about India is that while you can't really control whether or not you are going to get ripped off - unless you want to really have a miserable time and make everybody exasperated with you - you can control WHO rips you off, or who you give your money to). Interestingly, she also told me - and I have noticed this - that there are almost no women merchants. The merchants in the town in fact despise her, because she is "doing men's work" by running a shop that is not beauty or henna-painting oriented. All the palaces/forts/havelis I've seen have had entirely separate wings for the women, with usually sneaky passages or doors for the man's "nightime visits" (as the guides like to say). So this is part of a long-standing tradition.
A funny story. Valentine's Day was this week. A friend of mine was at a store when the shopkeeper asked her if she'd like to take part in their anti-valentine's day protest. She thought "sure, I'm single, i'll burn a valentine..." and went outside to find cameras, newspaper reporters, etc, and a bunch of men in orange scarves around a burning trash can with their valentine's day cards. But what she didn't know is that Indians have a different reason for despising this holiday than her. It's a Hindu thing. Valentine's Day, according to the more traditional elements in the society (perhaps the BJP sympathetic), represents an opportunity for young couples to fool around with out getting married. It also represents the growing trend of "love matches" vs "arranged matches" (virtually every non big-city person I've met who is married has had arranged marrianges). The paper stated that there were gangs of the faithful roaming the parks and rocky coastal areas of Mumbai where young couples normally go to tryst. They would find a couple, demand to see their wedding rings, and if the couple weren't married they threatened to marry them right there on the spot. The newspaper even had a quote from a leader of one of these groups saying that "most people who celebrate valentine's day don't eventually get married". Also in the paper a cautionary tale about a young couple on the rocks by the sea who were so distracted by each other that they were swept out to sea by the incoming tide and drowned (that's what making out will get you). So, anyways, there my friend is, the leader of the protest urging her to tell the cameras that she hates valentine's day, the reporter asking her "do you really hate valentine's day?" and her having a hard time keeping a straight face... oops.

Tangent. In one part of Jaipur there are women shoe-shiners who are really prostitutes, or so says my shady rickshaw driver. Men come to have them sit at their feet and look down their saris. Ew! He says that if they're not at their post than they are off for some real business (he called it tikki-tikki). Definitely there is a culture of peeping. A woman I met down in the south told me a story about seeing peepholes in the place she was getting massage. I think that in this culture, at least the traditional part of the culture, men are expected to marry quite late and be celibate til marriage. But this collides with puberty, western advertising, etc. and causes all this built up sexual tension. Men can be absolutely awful to women here, especially western women, but not exclusively. I can see more now my friend's market for her book for solo women travelers. Sadly much of her advice - and it is the practical advice - is covering up, avoiding eye contact, etc. This can be very hard for western women to do and seem like taking a step backwards, but...

Ok, I think things are winding down. I'm almost done. In a few hours I hope on a train for 19 hour ride to Delhi. There I have a day to shop and fly out that night. I am capable of no great thoughts at this juncture. The thoughts I do have...-glad I brought toilet paper-did not need to bring shorts (can't wear them anywhere)-needed more warm clothes for the north-should have bought a warm shawl earlier- favorite books read here in this order: The Namesake, Inheritance of Loss, The Kite Runner, Holy Cow, Traveller's History of India, Lonely Planet Guide, Amma's biography (still haven't finished this one yet - it doesn't really grab you).

I guess that's the best I can do right now. I've processed as I've gone along. I want to come back here someday. I feel like I've just touched a tiny bit of the country and had it touch me. It's a noisy, dirty, smelly, sneaky place. But it's also full of life for the same reasons. There are so many different types of culture, religion, language, caste. It's such a mish-mosh of everything. I can really understand why Ghandi wanted it all to stay together and not divide. Together it symbolizes all the ways that people can live together even with vast cultural differences. Apart it focuses on those differences. Even India itself, after partition, is to me a monument of the struggles of various groups to get along, in a most unusual and (hopefully) succesful way.

I'll be back mid-week. Perhaps I'll write again if I have time in Delhi. Otherwise thanks for tuning in. It's been nice to stay connected to people while I've been here.

Love,
John
PS and I'm feeling healthy again!

Jaisalmer - limping through my first day here

2008-02-16T16:34:00.002+05:30

Hi All,

I had a rough 24 hours or so. I took an ayurvedic
massage in Pushkar that was really interesting, but
alas also really cold. I started getting sick
yesterday, and continued to get more sick in my
overnight busride to Jaisalmer today. Whew it was
cold in that bus! I was in a sleeper, but there was
still a weird breeze coming into my little compartment
every once in awhile. Note to self - no more long
sleeper buses without bathrooms.

But I got in to Jaisalmer at about 8, slept til 1 or
so in the afternoon still cold, baked out in the sun
by the pool (yes, I have a pool here) for awhile, and
finally mustered the energy to walk up the fort for
the first time, where I took the tour of the Fort
Palace.

Jaisalmer is a pretty cool place. It's right on the
border with Pakistan. Harsh desert climate. Like all
of Rajasthan it would seem (except for Pushkar which
is centered around a lake, a lake which formed when
Vishnu dropped a lotus blossom to the earth), it is
centered around a hill fort. This one is unique,
however, in that it is actually inhabited. So it's a
piece of living history. It reminds me of this place
my mother went in Morocco a few years ago, I can't
remember the name. A piece of history, but in a way
caught between the present and past. Up the narrow
cobblestone streets, through old wooden gates, most of
the vehicles that come and go are motorcycles (like
most of India). But alongside that, in the town
squares or walking in almost any direction you go,
there will also be cows. Traipsing around like they
own the place! And in many ways they do.

Anyways, this fort and town were started around the
12th century by the Maharaja (not sure if they called
him that back then) Jaisal. Jaisal (him) - Mer (hill
or mountain). It's been a hindu stronghold more or
less all these years. Interesting thing about
Rajasthani history - they were lead by a warrior
caste, the Rajputs, and these warriors were famously
fierce. So they weren't conquered very often. Except
for by one another. In the end, these guys tended to
"contract out" military services to the powers of the
day (Mughals, British) and in return retain dominion
over their tough-to-conquer desert strongholds.

So I'm gonna hang out here for a few days, catch an
overnight TRAIN back to Delhi on Monday, and then I
fly out on Tuesday night. My adventures are
fading fast. If I had more energy I might ponder the
significance at this point, but I'm still feeling
fluish so I'm instead going to go back to my hotel
room, eat my first meal of the day, watch some cable
tv (I really splurged this time), and go to bed early
so I can look around more tomorrow. I want to get out
to the sand dunes if possible, I want to go to the
Jain temples inside the fort, as well as some of the
mansions (havelis) that have been preserved as
museums.

That's it.

I have to admit I'm getting ready to be home. It's no
fun being sick on the road. Usually in the post-sick
period you get this strange realization though, one of
survival. I survived being sick away from home - what
else is possible??

OK, I digress. No pictures today, internet is slow
and I don't want to hassle.

Adios,

John

camels, scamels, desert forts - welcome to Rajasthan!

2008-02-13T20:16:00.003+05:30

OK, my first entry from Rajasthan! I am sitting in an internet cafe in Pushkar. I just spent a harrowing but fun two days in Jaipur, but I'm happy to be past that place I must admit.

The train ride was long, and a bit uncomfortable. I gave my juicy side bunk so a father could be with his son, and was regretting it a bit in the wee hours b/c i had no place to stretch my legs. But, he took this nice photo of me so that is a good second prize. They were a german father and son importing business on a business trip.

Feeling a bit weathered by all the heavy attention from cheats and touts, I jumped right back in the fray in Jaipur and regretted it pretty shortly thereafter. I met a smooth-talking cab driver who won me over with his sense of irony. I initially told him no go, but then ran into him later in another part of town and he agreed to give me the "tour" at the rate the bus tour was giving the next day. This I should have realized was my first mistake, way too cheap a price, so he must have an angle. The next day, his "friend" shows up, says that Om (the guy I met) is going to be late, and that we should start without him. Also, his friend immediately starts being over-nice, and also a bit threatening like "you treat me like friend, I treat you like friend, you treat me like cab driver I treat you like tourist." It all seemed plausible at the time. That. The stopping to talk to a shady guy to pick up a new laminated, slightly forged looking, copy of his and his buddy's driver's licenses, the learing at women (especially western ones) in a creepy kind of way, constant hindi conversations with others, sometimes them glancing my way never translated, the constant having to pay "parking fees", the place he took me for lunch where I told him I'd buy since he paid the "parking fees" and it was 5-6 times the going rate (his commission), the deciding to take the scenic route home without mentioning to me, the trip to see his silk paintings, and the coup de gras, the visit to the aura reader and gem healer who tells me that only he can fix me (unblock my third eye chokra) by saying the right words over the right gem, having it set in a pendant, and me wearing it for 5 months but not telling anyone about it (because the energies could be bad). And, as luck would have it, he is a gem dealer himself (on the side of his true spiritual calling, aura reading, which he never charges money for...), and shows me a gem which will unblock my third eye shockra for a mere 36000 rupee (plus 500 for special ceremonial materials at the market)- yes that's about $940. Then he said he could do it with a smaller gem of the same kind for about $120. Then I left, feeling a bit stormy. Mad for letting it play out for so long, and for being open to the gem guy a bit at first. But I guess that's not a bad thing, to think with possibility about such situations. I did, however, happen to be residing in a gem dealer's section of town, and asked one of the guys theoretically what the maximum possible price could be for a gem of that size and type and set in a pendant that way, and he said - if the gem was of the utmost quality - the most it could be would be about $90 or so.

Anyways, amidst all this hyjinx I did get some of my most amazing photos of the entire trip, around the Amber Fort, did some amazing shopping which was quite lively and fun (lots of haggling in the bazaar), and got to see urban, high density area, street tree planting and get some photos. Shopping here was really fun, and there were also lots of craftsmen/women doing stuff not supposedly of interest to us foreigners (key repair, tailoring, broom-making, bangle making), etc. So that was fun.

and today I snuck out of my hostel, trying to avoid the guy from yesterday who said he'd made me "a reservation" on the bus to Pushkar (a bus the guidebook says doesn't exist, that you have to get off at another town on the way). But I persevered, escaped, and now in another world. A touristy one no doubt, but one that has considerable charms as well.

Pushkar is a very holy town. A big lake, surrounded by bathing ghats on all sides, a temple to Brahma, and about 500 other temples. It is pretty strictly vegetarian, not even eggs, but on the other hand "special" lhassis are legal here. Cows roam back and forth on the narrow crowded streets. Lots of pilgrims. There is a "holy man" scam everyone has warned me about where these "holy men" perform "ceremonies" for you without asking your permission and then want exorbitant amounts of money. So I've been on my guard (especially since all the crooked cabbies I've come across recently). But, aside from the scammers and the market callers, the throng of European tourists and the types of stalls that inevitably pop up all around us, there is great beauty here. A 5 minute walk in any direction and you're out of town, walking up a dusty road with only a few cows for company. Today I walked about 700' up to a Shivatri temple on a stunning hilltop above town. It was beautiful. Shivatri is Brahma's wife. There is sign in the temple requesting silence, but just below there is a cafe where they carry all the drinks up by hand and play Indian-themed techno-lounge music. I had a very relaxing post-temple interlude there before walking back to town.

Plus, I had a tailor mend a pair of my pants. And I'm staying in the "Pink Floyd" guest house. Rooms named after Floyd songs, hot water, and a stunning 5th floor rooftop restaurant overlooking the lake (all the other buildings are 4 floors or less).I sense that my guest house pink floyd thing has something to do with the draw of the "special" lhassi to the western tourist, but for that price, that view, and hot water (not to mention a room with a window and nice stained glass windows), count me in!

So, that's about it for here. I'll probably write more once I go the Brahma temple. I almost went today but wanted to save it.

Cheers,

John

PS I regret no pictures. Especially now because my pictures have been spectacular recently, but upload speeds here are prohibitively slow...

More Mumbai- a gentler side of town (and wealthier)

2008-02-10T17:22:00.000+05:30

OK, another day, another entry. I have about two hours til my train takes off for Jaipur, located in a state called Rajasthan, in western India between Delhi and the Pakistani border. This is supposed to be an amazing, and for many iconic (camels, deserts, castles) place, and also is supposed to be heavy on the tourist trail. So I am steeling myself, and also getting excited.
Today I saw another side of Mumbai. I was over on the West side of town, Banganga Tank, Malabar Hill (where most of the old wealth Parsi families live - and still feed their dead to the vultures in high towers), a temple to Lakshmi, and a beautiful mosque on an island off the coast reached by a causeway that sinks during low tide.

Banganga tank is in a very quiet part of town. I don't know if I've talked about tanks or not. Basically religious bathing tanks with steps coming up from a big pool in the center. Most of them I've seen are too dirty to actually bathe in, but for one in Varkala. But there are still lots of things that happen around them. This one had laundry, cricket, marbles, kids playing with tops, and was ringed by about thirteen small temples. All the streets were very quiet from vehicle traffic, though they were loaded with people: pilgrims, kids, etc. In myth it is significant because it is where lord Ram shot an arrow into the earth (the pole in the center is this arrow). And, oh yeah, the arrow marks it as the center of the earth too (sometimes I forget these details).

Then from there I went up to the Lakshmi Temple (called Mahalaxmi here). Lakshmi is the consort of Vishnu I believe, and is the goddess of wealth. Often she is depicted with a stream of coins or gold coming out of one of her hands. Fittingly for Mumbai, she has a very nice and fancy coastal temple here. This one had tons of people, giving puja baskets (see here a "puja store") after waiting in long lines to get inside (it looked like the line for the matterhorn at disneyland, turning back and forth, but everyone had baskets of flowers). Then you can walk down a set of stairs to a little courtyard with two more shrines and a wrought iron fence that has waves crashing on rocks a few feet below it. The amount of people visiting it was staggering. Until I went to the place next door.

The Haji Ali Mosque is built about 200 meters out from the shore on an island. This place was packed! At high tide it sits out there, floating, as if completely isolated. Then, at low tide, a causeway appears and you can walk out to it. And boy do people do so. It's packed. The whole causeway, the mosque, the shrine inside to Haji Ali. Apparently Haji Ali is a muslim saint who died during the Haj and his coffin was put out to sea. It floated to this spot. So a Mosque was built. The tradition is to walk out the causeway and give to beggars lining the way. Alot of beggars. Or, if you are wily like me, you can go to the yummy food stall inside the mosque courtyard (I had yummy snacks in both the Lakshmi temple and the Haji Ali mosque, but the picture is from the mosque) and buy a few meal tickets to give to people on the way out. So I did that, looking for the ones that had kids to take care of. It was quite the gauntlet. One little girl wanted me to give her money and I had already given a bunch out and was out. She followed me for awhile and finally slapped my arm in frustration before walking off to try someone else. Oh well. But inside it was quite a lively place. Musicians (I love the music I've heard in Muslim places - beautiful call and response with percussion and other instruments). Security was more evident than at the temple, but not much more. To get into both you need to pass a metal detector and a bag check. But the mosque has two such stops. Mumbai has seen it's share of anti-muslim violence and retribution in the past, though in general it seems that the two cultures (like most everywhere else in India) are pretty enmeshed and difficult to tangle out.

Ialso went to the mahalaxmi dhoba (washing) ghats. Here most of the laundry on Mumbai comes that is washed by hand. It's a village in a city, devoted to hand washing clothes. Quite a sight.

So, tonight I get out of one big city and head off to another, Jaipur. I'm curious how it'll be up there. It will be cooler I know, but I'm quite ready for that. Mumbai has had record low temperatures which I have enjoyed immensely.

No movie last night, I went to my cell (see picture) and read the Namesake for three hours. I'm going to need to buy another book for my long train trip tonight. I have my eye on a copy of "The Kite Runner" at a shop outside the train station for 100 R. Maybe I can bargain him down a bit..

Just an interesting anecdote on Indian politics. Three days ago in Nagpur (I'm pretty sure that this is an industrial city in east Maharasthra), during a political rally, a member of congress was mobbed by the crowd and killed using sticks and stones. Can you imagine this happening in American politics? Now in all fairness I have to say that Indian politics is in a strange place right now. You have the fairly conservative BJP which is a bit weird in and of itself, but in poorer and more rural states lots of members of congress (BJP or no)actually are gangsters. Something like 25% of congress members at this time have criminal charges pending. The crowd in this case was linking this member of congress to some murders earlier in the year. Yikes. It's just a startling thing to be on the headlines of your morning paper.

Also, last night I went on a meat lover's paradise dinner outing. I went to Bidemaya Seekh Barbecue. Whew! This is street food, but very yummy, and so popular with the locals that they took over an across the street eating hall. Food comes really fast with lots of sauce and garnish, and is very heavily meat and roti oriented. Very yummy. I had two tikka rolls (chicken tikka wrapped in a roti like a burrito, and was so happy that I got more roti and a chicken murgha, which is a kind of thick dipping sauce. Mmmmm.

Mumbai again ... whew ... and more rambling thoughts...

2008-02-09T19:13:00.001+05:30

Hi folks,

I'm back in Mumbai again after doing the overnight
train. I'm a bit tired today. I didn't sleep so
great on the overnight train, and my shoulder is
hurting.

I've been reading Jumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, which
is very moving (and so far better than the movie, a
movie I really liked). It's about the immigrant
experience for an Indian family in America,
specifically a Bengali family. Reading it has helped
crystalize some thoughts I've been having about my own
experience here in India, and I think also has put
into focus some other thoughts about my experience as
an American.

1) America can be isolating.

Ashima, the woman who emigrates in the 60's to be with
her husband, goes through a profound shock coming
here. America seems to her cold, lonely, and
isolating. When she gives birth to their child she
tries to get her husband to move back to India because
whe would never want to raise her child in such a
lonely place. I've noticed this here. Indian
families are, as a general rule, very tight. Old old
traditions bind families together. Plus, living
spaces are generally smaller (there are so many people
here), so families are used to being all in a room, or
sharing a small flat. Even Ashima's family, educated
and fairly well off, would all be together all the
time. So it's hard for her to understand this need
for space that Americans seem to have.

2) Isolation can be difficult to give up once you are
used to it.

One of my observations here as a foreign tourist is
that, especially when I am on the tourist trail, I get
very exhausted very quickly trying to "read" people.
I'm approached on the street all the time, literally,
every 5 minutes. It's exhausting. They want to know
my name, what country I'm from, etc, etc. Usually
it's a set up for a sale (taxi services, a shop, a
postcard, whatever...). Often there is an inherent
lie in their story... "oh that hotel is full, that
museum is closed today, that train is full" meant to
get me to choose something else. Sometimes people are
just genuinely curious. It's hard to tell the
difference. And as a Westerner I can find it
particularly difficult. I find myself wanting space.

3) There is a connection between wealth and the
ability to be isolated.

Then, it becomes clear how one gets space in India.
Money. The minute you step into that domestic airport
terminal, past the armed guard, or onto that luxury
tourist bus that no working class Indian can afford,
this sense of quiet comes. It's a totally different
experience. As tourists we get all this different
treatment. Special lines to buy train tickets and
quotas, special buses, and then on the flip side we
pay usually about 25 times more than the locals to see
museums, monuments, etc. It's like that Eddie Murphy
skit when he wears white make-up and becomes white for
a day, and finds that they serve cocktails on the
public buses and everything is free... So I've found
that I need to play with that line a bit. Sometimes
take that slow local train so I can meet the 5 cool
Tamil students, and sometimes I need to be in that
"2AC" train with air-conditioning, sheets on my bunk,
and foreign tourists and Indian businessmen and middle
class families riding with me. I've more or less come
to peace with it, but it is interesting to me how much
money dictates being able to make those choices. And
it makes me wonder what things would be like had I not
those choices, those options. I don't think it's
actually fathomable for me to know what that would be
like.

4) Americans, kind of left on our own in some ways to
find meaning in our lives, sometimes can't really
understand why it's so hard for immigrants to do the
same. WE did it, didn't we?

I think when I was taught and/or learned about India,
we always leaned towards judgement. We heard about
violations of civil rights, we heard about abuses
against women (suttee, wife burning - a separate thing
where a woman is burned by her husband's family
"accidentally" so that they can either get rid of her
or get her to leave usually for financial reasons),
poverty,etc. These things all happen, and life can be
very difficult for Indians, and Indian women in
particular. But I think we also judged things because
they seemed foreign or different. More importantly
I'm realizing the level of ignorance I've been
carrying around when dealing with Indians I come
across in the US. It's not like it's one country,
there are 30-some languages, more ethnic groups, etc.
There are fierce rivalries (as I wrote about earlier).
And I think we have a tendency not to see the
complexity behind the people we meet. In the book
Ashima is talking to her neighbor about how sad she is
to be going back to India 6 weeks after Divali, trying
to get some support. She tells her neighbor "It's
like going 6 weeks after your Christmas." The
neighbor replies, "oh, well Alan and I are Buddhists,
so...".

5) The grass is always greener... or Americans have
lots of choices, perhaps more choices than we are
ready to handle.

This is another thing I've been thinking about. This
idea here for us that we can completely jump out of
our cultural identity, that somehow we can choose it.
It just doesn't ring true for me. And I think,
because of the prevalence of this idea, we think that
other people who come here (to the US) should be able
to do that as well. Apparently the Dalai Lama has
said that he thinks it's OK for westerners to take up
Buddhism, but he thinks also that it is a more
complicated path for us, and that it might be easier
and more beneficial if we were able to find the truth
inherent in our own cultural traditions (given that he
thinks there is truth in all religions, and that they
are basically talking about the same thing). Or,
another example, I would chat alot with a friend from
Israel at the Ashram about religion. She came to
India to search in a way, but part of what she was
finding was that she had what she wanted right there
in Israel, right in front of her nose. For her it
wasn't necessarily strict Judaism, but it was a
community of spiritual minded people coming from the
Jewish tradition.

OK, OK, I'll stop now. And don't get me wrong. I
love Americans, I miss my country, my country is GOOD,
Americans are good. I mean, who else could have come
up with Sesame Street? But for me this has been an
eye-opener. Or a re-eye-opener. And food for
thought.

I also was a tourist today. I took the hour long
ferry out to Elephanta island. This is yet another
rock-cut temple complex, from the early first
millenium. Again lots of cool Shiva stuff. Three
lingams, a nataraj Shiva, a cool half male/half female
Shiva (to show the unity in everything, or the union
between worshipper and god depending on your
interpretation). And of course, my other favorite
Ganesha, Shiva's son. One thing I should mention
about the lingam. It's not just a phallus. It's a
phallus set into a yoni, which is a female symbol.
People often just mention the lingam, but in fact it
is almost always portrayed as a phallus set in a yoni.
Thus the creation. Just wanted to make sure that you
didn't think it was all phallus all the time.

Also, I had another nice dinner in Aurangabad last
night with this guy Jerry and his daughter (she lives
in NYC). He was interesting because he is an old
hippy who has lived on one of the oldest communes
since the 60's in Tennessee, called the Farm. I was
asking him alot about it, and his daughter about what
it was like to grow up on the Farm. They were both
really nice. The farm, it seems, moved slightly away
from communality (one bank account, 25 people in a
house) towards something more privatized (many bank
accounts, one family per house). But they still do
lots of interesting stuff. A press, a mail-order
business, etc. And it was nice to see a father and
daughter travelling together and getting along so
nicely, and to have HER be the one who had commitments
to get back to (he was travelling for 6 months, she
had to leave in April).

Ok, that's it. I may try to see a movie tonight,
Mumbai, as I said, is a bit overwhelming... Tomorrow
I want to see some temples in a quieter part of town
before I head up for my last week or so to be spent in
Rajasthan. Very exciting!

Love,

John

2008-02-08T20:24:00.000+05:30

Hello Everyone,

I'm writing from the same internet cafe as two nights ago.

Yesterday I went to the world famous caves of Ajanta - picture of outside here. These caves were very interesting. Much older, and still with some paintings in them. Some of these are 2-3oo BC, while another batch are later, maybe 4th or 5th century AD. All Buddhist. Interestingly, the story goes that all these caves were lost to humanity for over a thousand years until an indian scout working for a British hunting party spotted one. I don't believe this story. But I believe that it may have been advantageous to hide the caves existence during more strict Muslim reigns. Anyways, the caves are very dark, much darker than Ellora, and generally a bit smaller, and built on a steeper slope. The biggest difference is that many of the paintings still exist. This is pretty cool, and why I think these caves seem to get more attention from the Indian government. Anyways, the paintings tell scenes of every day life, and also scenes from the Buddha's life, and also, interestingly to me, they have Jatakas (scenes from previous incarnations of the Buddha). I didn't even know that Buddha had previous incarnations. It seems like the more I learn the more confusing things get. Plus, especially confusing since in Hinduism Buddha is a previous avatar of Vishnu, and both Buddha's previous lives and Vishnu's previous lives they take the form of animals, including a bull. So I'm trying to sort out if these two stories accomodate one another.

Also, on my tour yesterday, and then at my dinner table, was a Polish woman and Vedic scholar/philosopher/university professor. I was speaking to her about the Vedic texts, her area of specialty, and why a pole might be interested in them. So what are these Vedas? The Vedas are ancient texts, many think coming from Central Europe in the first millenium before the birth of Christ. They are thought to form the basis of Hindu thought by many. They are written largely in Sanskrit I believe. The Vedas include the Upanishads, which are thought to be written later, as well as the Rig Veda, a very important text. It is later, after the Vedas, that the other three main pieces of literature the Mahabharata (more or less the story of Krishna but way more complicated and also including the Bhagavad Vita), the Ramayana (the story of Rama, Sita, and Hanuman and their battle agaist the demon king Ravana), and the Puranas (a series of treatises on many subjects including the now-famous Kama Sutra). In the Vedas you are dealing with older gods, gods like Varuna, Agni, etc. Most think that one of the early Vedic gods, Dyaus, is the same god as Zeus of the greeks (these Aryans got around!). These early gods either morphed to form other gods (somehow in here we got the trimurta of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva) or fell out of popularity as the new gods rose (even Brahma, supposedly the creator of everything, the one without whom none of the others can supposedly exist, the big boss, is hardly worshipped at all in India these days). So, again, why would a Pole be interested? Well, maybe you can guess better now. Apparently there are alot of linguistic similarities to Polish and Sanskrit (most notably an alphabetic character for the sounds "s", "h", and "sh" whereas we simply have the "s" and the "h" and combine them to make the "sh". I was asking her what scholars know about pre-Christian Polish belief systems, and she said that sadly nobody really knows for sure because Christianity so ruthlessly destroyed any evidence of other religions. Another interesting thing about religion, languge and symbology: the Ramayana and Mahabharata did not get really popular until in the 2nd millenium when they were translated from Sanskrit to a language people could read (I think Hindi). Before that, it was all in the hands of the Brahmin priests, and this in essence released these ideas and allowed them to really get into the hearts and minds of Indians, making it more than ever a people's religion. We had an interesting discussion last night (me, the Pole, a German, and a Frenchmen - I know it sounds like the start of a joke), about Ajanta and other things, but a main thread being the way we interpret ancient texts and artifacts. The frenchmen was saying he felt at Ajanta that the message of alot of these drawings was completely unfathomable to him, and was arguing that by extension they were probably so for contemporaries, and on purpose (thus helping to consolidate the power and influence of the priests).

Further confusing things about the Vedas are newer ideas, mostly by Indian researchers, claiming that this idea that all the Vedas came from Europe is hooey. They claim, based on references in the Vedas, that they had to be in the area of India. For example, the Vedas reference the Saraswati river, which is one of the famous (many thought it mythical, or underground) rivers of Indian folklore. Now, however, using evidence of climate and elevation shifts, they are thinking the Saraswati actually simply ran dry, and using modeling techniques they have figured over 10,000 possible archaeological dig sites of which only a few apparently have been tested. Plus, there is now a school of thought that there was a large city called Meghar, or Meghara, or something like that, that predates what was thought to be the earliest Indian large civilization (the Harappans who were thought to start up around 3500 BC, around the time of the Egyptians and Mesopotamians). A guy told me some place Meghar at almost 6000 BC. I know nothing about this, but they also claim that Meghar may have some connection to the Vedas as well. So, I want to learn more about this.

Anyways, I digress. Also look at this yummy dhosa I had the other night. Mmmm.

Off to Mumbai tonight on the overnight train!

Love,

John

2008-02-06T20:05:00.000+05:30

Greetings all! What a cool day. Sometimes I guess going on the package tour is worth it, because I got to see a ton of cool stuff today.

First, Daulatabad. A medieval hill fort, now abandoned. It was used on and off for about 6 or 700 years. Built by Hindus, used by whomever conquered. This place I wasn't really looking forward to, but it was really cool. They literally carved this fort out of a mountain (get used to this concept).

It has several different ramparts, secret passageways for night travelers to come in (where they have to stick their head up first so it gets bonked if they are the wrong person). Then, a moat! Then, a labrynth! In the dark, with stairs, and bats living in the caves a few feet above our heads. They have to bring us through with an oil torch, up the stairs, and tell us which are the wrong turns so we don't take them (wrong turns end up to either a dead end or a 150' drop to the moat). Also, the doors have spikes on them so that elephants can't knock them down (the guide said that they solved that problem by putting a camel between the elephant and the door - seems to me like something non-sentient would have done the job just as well, but I digress...). The picture of the cave and torch is from there, as is the sideways one of me (taken by the nice Korean couple).

Then, the main event. Ellora. Three sets of caves, all of them carved in the second half of the first millenium, when we westerners were mired in the dark ages, one set Buddhist, one set Hindu, one set Jain. Arid cool hill country in the middle of India (Maharashtra). HUGE caves, and lots of them. I looked at one Buddhist cave (Buddhist caves are oldest) that has three floors, stairways, lots of buddhas, and even rock beds for the monks carved in with rock pillows.

Then, the Hindu caves. These are more ambitious and more lively (lots of gods). I attached a picture of the most famous one, the Kailash caves, which really are a whole temple (three stories again) carved out of a rock face. That's right. They started at the top, and worked their way down. If they forgot something? Oops, too bad. If they messed something up? Same. Our guide said that this was the biggest rock cut temple in the world, it's only peers being Petra (where I've always wanted to go), and a place I can't recall the name of in Ethiopia (Allatabad or something?). I have to admit my bias here. Rock-cut temples make me hot. I can't help it. Anyways, I picked the picture of Kailash that shows the greatest overall look, though I was actually more partial to the details. Inside there is a cool and actively worshipped Shiva Lingam (phallus) that has flowers and oils, etc placed on it and rubbed into it. See what I mean about getting me hot? Anyways, touching it gives great power. Shiva is the destroyer, but in that destruction, he creates. We didn't have time to go next door which is too bad because the next cave over apparently has a big Nataranja Shiva (do any of you remember your Shiva avatars, the cosmic dancer?) and also a Shiva bursting forth from a lingam. Very cool.

Then to the Jain temples. These aren't as large as the Hindu caves, but very interesting nonetheless. The Jain prophet mostly pictured (I think Maravi? but this is likely wrong) looks very much like a Buddha. The only way to really tell it's Jain is the details. He never has clothes on (there is a little bump between his legs), there are animals all around (Jain's respect all life, even refraining from eating veggies from under the ground out of respect to the underground insects), and there is a woman and man to either side of the image (Jains were progressive and felt men and women were spiritual equals according to our guide).

After that, we went to a pilgrim Shiva temple, one of the 12 temples any Shiva devotee must visit if he/she is to feel complete (important because they contain jyoti linga [sacred linga?]) and jump out of the cycle of death and rebirth. Again, a lingam, lots more active worship, more pilgrims, very cool. They let us into the sanctum. I like lots of details of Hindu adoration. Wafting your hands through the candles and incense to feel the warmth of life and the smell of the divine (also like that in Judaism). Prostration. Touch. Barefeet. The mark on the forehead (Amma has a little poster in the 'ram about the marks. She says that they are not only a mark of the spiritual, they also help aid the body's functioning because that point is an important part of the skin, and also they focus not only your energy but that of the person talking to you). Men had to be bare chested here as well, just inside the temple, like the temple I was in in Kanyakumari. I took a picture of a little puja basket (I think I am using this correctly - puja is a tribute made to the divine sometimes physical and sometimes an act). Pilgrims would buy these and then put the flowers on the lingam, etc. Two funny signs outside this temple: a) please do not pour milk on the lingam (don't ask me, I thought it was a kosher form of respect - in India milk is very important because it comes from cows and is used in lots of rituals), and b) please do not break coconuts in the shrine (again, beats me? Coconuts were a part of most puja baskets, but I guess they need to be whole).

Finally, to the mini Taj Mahal (built by one of Aurangzaeb's sons for his mother), more commonly called the Bibi-Qa-Maqbara. Very strangely reminiscent and inspired by the Taj (perhaps giving some credence to Shah Jahan's fears that it would be replicated?). But smaller and much more poorly maintained, and not made from all marble. Still kind of interesting. I could probably swap a picture into my Taj pics and none of you would know the diff. Interestingly here I've noticed a more traditional Muslim presence. Lots of women with their face hidden except for little eyeslits, and wearing all black. Check out this nice detailed metalwork on the old wooden doors. Mom, I may be outdone here. When you go, perhaps you would be satisfied if I built an addition to the house, or a sandcastle? I could set up my tent in the backyard?? I'll put some nice drawings on it?

Oh yes, and a medieval wonder of engineering, the Panchakki. A water wheel designed to grind flour, built in the 1400's I believe and powered by water coming downhill from a reservoir, underground, over 6 km away. Very cool. And a wonderful huge Boddhi tree, the biggest I've seen. Urban forestry dorks be alert, I am about to give a dbh... maybe 2.5 meters. Seriously.

Anyways, I'm beat. But I will attach one more pic, the pic from yesterday's trip to Mumbai. Chivatri Shivaya Station (formerly called Victoria station) is thought to see 2.5 million people passing through it per day. Per day!! This is a crazy, and huge, and wonderfully Victorian building (I still haven't got a pic of the exterior). But I hope that this picture gives you at least an idea.

Ok, that's it. I feel the Maharashtra tourism corporation should be paying me. I feel a bit like a cheerleader with this entry, but it was a really cool day. Oh, and by the way, I believe I've been misspelling ascetism as aesceticism. What can you do? I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg in my grammatical inaccuracies.

Love to all,

John

2008-02-05T22:25:00.000+05:30

Hello everybody!

My whirwind of travel has brought me up to Mumbai, getting charged double for a taxi ride from the domestic airport to a skanky hotel in Colaba, the southernmost part of Mumbai, touring by foot around Mumbai in the morning, and then hopping on a train up here to Aurangabad in the afternoon. Unfortunately this computer isn't reading my camera, so no pictures (perhaps tomorrow I'll go to a different cafe).

I'm staying at a nice little guest house in Aurangabad. In general things are not as cheap here as when I travelled in Asia a few years ago. Or maybe I'm getting more picky. But I'm regularly spending $10/night (except for at the 'ram). Tomorrow I'm going to Ellora to look at some cool caves. I was wrong, they're not Gupta era. I will learn more and tell you soon.

I'm going to back to Mumbai in a few days to spend more time, but I'll share my impressions now. Accomodation, at least on the budget end, is as skanky as i've encountered. yuck! No windows, and unpainted, and some suspicious bites on my legs this morning (my mantra for the day "no bedbugs, no bedbugs..."). The city itself is really fun though, and different than Delhi. Way more cosmopolitan (though the film producer I ran into in Delhi says that Delhi is where all the cutting edge culture is now), cleaner, bigger, and the climate is way better, at least this time of year. Nice big trees (always good for the urban forester), and plentiful. And the architecture... the architecture is very interesting - I'm not a big architecture buff but it seems to me that my sister Amy would really really like it. Lots of old Victorian buildings, some art deco, and all of it in pretty good condition and on a fairly large scale. I think Bombay may be the first city in India I encountered that has a standing gay club night. Women wear western clothes (well, some of them).

Also in Bombay right now is lots of seething ethnic tension. The day before I flew in 5 or 6 people were assaulted in the streets by crowds riled up by local politicians' inflammatory anti-northerner words. His words were in response to an announcement by Amitabh Bachman (forgive me if I spelled wrong), a demi-god of the Bombay film scene, that he was going to build a school in his native Uttar Pradesh (though he lives in Bombay). Back in '92 Bombay crowds were spurred to violence, that time against southerners. So it seems as if there exists some tension. I think it's the same old immigrant story - people come for work, get treated like crap, some of them persevere, and all of them are targeted by the "locals" for whatever goes wrong as handy scapegoats. My train today was a maiden voyage. Very exciting. There was a big press conference with the Maharashtra minister of transportation outside my train window as we waited to pull out the station. At first I was worried when I entered the police station because I saw cops in riot gear, then I figured out what was going on. And besides, I wasn't even that worried. Through my travels I've become more adjusted to the site of the (friendly?) police or military presence at airports, train stations, museums, etc., and even adjusted to their somewhat intimidating weaponry (rifles, AK-47's, etc.).

Well, that's it for now. I plan on being up here for a few days, but they may be long days as both caves (Ellora and Ajanta) are fairly far away. I think I might even (gasp) go on an organized tour! i hope to get some time to do a little silk shopping tomorrow too. Aurangabad is known for a certain type of weaving that incorporates silk and silver into cotton (or something like that).

Adios,

John

Kochi - exporing the spice trade and the imperial legacy

2008-02-03T17:10:00.000+05:30

Well, I've decided to "reward" you with another post since I've been so long in not writing. This one you get many pictures too (yay Kochi for fast internet). Firstly, I am encluding a picture from the Keralan backwaters. I took a boat to get to the ashram, and from that boat I saw many wonderful sites. The backwaters, by the way, are actual backwaters, not just metaphorical ones. For almost 700 km along the coast of Kerala there are these intertidal lagoons which have been carved into a massive network of canals. Villages are interspersed throughout them (like the one in which Amma grew up), and all throughout them there are these cool huge cantilevered Chinese fishing nets. Perhaps I'll put a picture in later. Anyways, I liked this guy sailing down lagoon as we came up. By the way, there's a big market for houseboat cruises on these backwaters. I believe lonely planet has called it "one of the ten things to do before you die". I think that that may be hyperbole, but indeed it looked fun. I decided not to do it since I believe that it would be an experience best had in a group, both socially and financially.

Next to beatiful Kochi (Cochin) which I explored today. The Portugese came to India first before all of Europe, and they also left last. This was one of their settlements, an island right off the coast making a great harbor for the spice trade. I hope to tour some Portugese history tomorrow, but today I beelined for the thoughtfuly named "Jew Town". That's right, "Jew Town". I thought - this is a place, as a New Yorker, I want to visit (my Israeli friend Nama at the ashram said being a New Yorker made me honorarily half-Jewish)! There was a really cool synagogue there dating from the 1340's. Jews came much earlier actually, some suggesting a mass exodus around the time of the Romans burning and sacking temples in Jerusalem, etc. Interestingly, the Jewish settlements along this western coast of India have all been in decline since the formation of Israel, because of the desire for people to emigrate and live in a Jewish state. All this makes me want to go to Israel even more, because it must be so interesting with all these people from across the world living there. Anyways, I digress. But I did want to take a picture for all you folks back in NYC. Also interesting about Kochi is the slightly more European feel to the place. Walled blocks with little gateways to courtyards, old old trees, as many kids playing soccer as cricket (usually cricket is king), and good coffee and croissants. Supposedly you can get wonderful food here (which I am about to investigate).

My last picture is of a cat on a tree. But look how oddly shaped is this tree? This is the kind of photo us urban forestry-types take on our vacations and think is fascinating, only to have most of our friends at home is an urban forestry look at it and say ... and? The impact of pit grown trees, but when the pit is above grade.... exciting! Tomorrow I look more around here - perhaps see Vasco de Gama's grave (Jim can you remember the import of Vasco de Gama's voyage?), and then i am flying to Mumbai to catch up with the time lost as I lingered at the ashram. This is a big country, and getting around is not easy. Turns out the train corridor through ever-popular Goa and up to Mumbai is all booked, so I'm flying. It seems so decadent after all my 34 rupee or 7 hour train rides (almost $90 or 3700 R to fly up there). But that should give me time to see the caves at Ajanta, which I've wanted to see since seeing that E.M. Forster movie. Hopefully I won't faint (like in the film). Ajanta is actually a great example of Gupta era cave painting, and the Guptas were perhaps the greatest empire India has ever seen. A golden age. More on that later (I read alot of Indian history at the 'ram [my new pet name for it]).

I think I mentioned earlier that Indians have taken bureaucracy to a new level, almost an art form. I have been observing this in the train system. The other day, to get on my train from the ashram, I had to wait in line for 50 minutes to find out that the train I wanted wasn't possible. There were 12 or 13 people in line, each of them taking 4-5 minutes to deal with. There was one line, in a concrete room, a wall full of reservation windows, all of them closed but for one. All these windows were behind a metal grate, and behind the windows was also put up a cloth to keep people from looking in. When I got to the front of the line I looked past the teller to see what must have been his supervisor sitting at his desk. Looking intently at a paperweight, turning it over and over again in his hands. Occasionally looking up at the window. This system seems to have had an effect on Indians. Lines are things to be cheated. If you can cut, it seems that the going ethic is to "go for it". The one exception is for women, who seem mostly to get their own line. As a good cue-ing westerner I can find all this very disconcerting. Ah, well, so it goes.

Bye,

John

Reflections on ashram life

2008-02-03T10:31:00.000+05:30

Greetings from Kochi, in central Kerala. I arrived
here late last night after 4 days in the ashram. It's
quite a change to be back in the tussle of everyday
life (though Kochi is pretty leisurely for Indian
standards - more on that later).

I plan to spend
the day catching up to worldly things (touring, train
reservations, etc.). One big reminder of not being at
the ashram was the trainride I took from there to
here. The nice guy I was riding with, stuffed into
the cheap seats (I'm finding this very interesting but
harrowing to do), sitting on the luggage rack above
the folks in the berth below us, warned me that there
would be "a moment" when it was time to get off the
train. I was still not prepared. We had to jump down
from the luggage racks, find our shoes (the folks
below don't appreciate it when you wear your shoes on
the luggage racks), grab our bags (my big bulky bag
included), and jam our way OUT the door as 50 or so
indian men tried to get IN. They almost wouldn't let
me out. This was brutal fighting. All their
strength, and elbowing, and everything. A policeman
starting jabbing at the guys nearby me who wouldn't
let me pass with his nightstick, and finally I got
out. But I could have been knocked down. Yikes!
Apparently, once I got clear and breathed my sigh of
relief, he told me that this was a long hauler train
going to Calcutta, at the other side of India, and
these guys were all trying to get in to this car and
get a seat, for if they didn't they would be screwed
big time, standing all the way for the next 50 or 60
hours. So this made me at least a little sympathetic
to their cause.

The ashram. What an interesting experience! My
greatest regret is that I was not able/willing to stay
long enough to recieve amma's darshan (which as you
all know is given as a hug, a long hug). I decided to
stay one more day with the hope that she might do it
yesterday, but as the day wore on it became clear that
she had other plans. I think, being gone on the tour
of South India for several weeks, when she returns she
needs to tend to her several charities for a few days
before getting back into the swing of things. Many
said that I might get a hug if I waited one more day,
but I had been getting restless and decided to move
on.

Life in the ashram was also interesting. In the
middle of a small village, these 15 story buildings
rise up around a temple compound. Amma supposedly
wanted the ashram to feel like a village or a city to
remind her worshippers that they didn't need a quiet,
monastic, place to pursue spiritual pursuits. All
around there are people bustling to and fro to work at
the printing press, the cafe, the garden, the farm,
the laundry, the juice bar, the ayurvedic store, the
second hand store, the internet place, or the western
clothing store. They charge a nominal fee to stay,
but ask that you perform some service (seva), both to
help defray the cost of your stay but also, I think
more importantly, because that is a big part of Amma's
beliefs. Specifically, that we find escape from our
ego and thus access to god via selfless service (ie
where we don't expect anything back).

The atmosphere is interesting. Most of the people who
live there or are there for a long stint wear white
clothes. It gives it a bit of weird feel (I did,
however, get some nice second-hand white pajama pants,
which of course i am very excited about). I think the
people drawn to a place like this represent at one
time a broad spectrum of the population in that they
are from most every (developed) country, they speak
many languages, and that they are from every age
group. Also, though, I think communities like this
draw from a specifically disaffected kind of
westerner, into alternate spiritualities, etc. For me
at times this was a bit hard to take seriously (like
the Austrian guy expounding on the Atlanteans and how
they were highly regarded for their ability to
communicate with stones). But on the other hand you
have the english electrician-turned elementary school
teacher who wanted to use this time to expand his
spiritual base and had the time as his oldest son was
now in college.

For me personally, it was a nice chance to rest, read,
and reflect on the place of spirituality in my life.
Also, I happened to get sick while there and I had a
nice visit with a gentle, elderly, Ayurvedic doctor
(although I took my antibiotics too). She held my
pulse, looked at my pupils, told me that it was no use
doubling medications and to just finish my course of
antibiotics. But she did give me an Ayurvedic
prescription for medicine should my western cure fail.
Also, she asked me when I was leaving and I told her,
and that it meant I probably wouldn't get to meet
Amma. She smiled and said "I bet you will stay", then
paused looking for the right words... "she is a
fisherman." I heard that from many people (from some
of them it was kind of annoying), but from her I liked
it. Another highlight for me was the day I did my
seva in the tulasi garden. Tulasi is a kind of basil
that is regarded as a sacred plant. We transplanted.
It was fun. We also prayed to the plant at an altar
before working (something along the lines of "oh
tulasi if I hurt you when I am gardening please
forgive me"). Then we had tulasi tea and it was very
yummy, and also one of my few chances to converse with
Indians at the ashram. Generally, there seemed to me
to be a wider gap between Indians and westerners at
the ashram than on my other travels here. Mostly
because there were so many westerners, and they had
their own canteen (you could get cappucino and
pancakes if you wanted). Also, the Indians observed
strict rules of gender separation. There was a
woman's eating area and a men's. The westerners did
not.

Westerners find it hard to be there at first I think
because of all the rules (gender separation, extremely
modest specifications for dress, no alcohol, the early
hours). I found some of it hard and though other
aspects were interesting. I found the gender
separation interesting. It was more to keep men away
from women than vice-versa. If the Indian women
wanted to go eat with the Indian men, they could. Of
when we were all singing devotional songs, women could
walk over to the men's side of the aisle but not
vice-versa. I think men can be so dominant (just as
in India as in the US) in all aspects of society that
it was kind of nice for the women to have a spot
carved out for them where they could be free of that
dominance if they chose to be, even if just for a
meal. When Amma is not there, apparently devotional
songs are sung by men/women in completely separate
buildings (i as a visitor was welcome to go to either
so long as I stayed in the background).

So what is the upshot? What does it all mean? I'm
not sure. I didn't get the hug, which I really
wanted. I have decided I'd like to meet her when she
comes to New York in the summer. I want a hug! What
I am most grateful about the experience for is the
opportunity to look at the role spirituality plays in
my life in a stable, peaceful setting. For me, ashram
life may not be the path of my pursuits. I found the
style of worship as practiced a bit pious for my
tastes, not very earthy. And I think that that piety
translated, especially with the westerners (perhaps
because it grafted easily onto our own roots rife with
traditions of religious piety?), into a certain degree
of posturing and trying to measure one's goodness by
comparison with others or with how close one was to
the guru.

Also it was interesting to me to observe how my little
handful of travelers that I arrived with, how we all
reacted to this environment. We had some very
interesting conversations about the role of
faith/spirituality in our lives. Some people got very
scared very fast (I think it either reminded of them
of a church they had eschewed as young adults or it
threatened beliefs they were raised with) and left
almost immediately or within a day. Most started with
a kind of curiosity, and slowly that began to turn for
many of us. I tried to remain open to the possibility
that I would find something valuable there, but I
think in the end the same thing happened with me. I
wanted to make sure that I was reacting to the right
thing. On one hand the place stood out as a big
spiritual, non-denominational, opportunity. An
opportunity to reexamine. A place where worldly
things are deliberately given a back seat. And I
didn't want to react negatively to that. On the other
hand it did have it's own quirks, foibles, etc. I'm
not sure if I gave it it's fairest chance, but I did
my best. And in that environment I did make some nice
friendships, which can be hard to do on the road. It
was striking the intensity of feeling, either negative
or positive, that this place inspired in people. I
think it demonstrated the power of the place, and of
belief in general.

The question of amma's touch is different. I stayed 4
days waiting for it. I could have been checking out
the elephants in Periyar or the high elevation tea
plantations in Munnar, with cool nights and beautiful
vistas. But instead I was sleeping on a mattress on
the floor in a 15 story building trying to convice my
russian roommate that I wouldn't be able to sleep if
the fan wasn't turned on in this humid tropical heat.
Why did I wait so long? I remember reading "eat pray
love" a few months ago and she does talk about how in
Hindu tradition one of the ways to release a certain
aspect of your spiritual energy is thought to be via
the touch of a guru (though that release may not show
itself right away or even in the next few years). I
think this story, and accounts of my friends who have
met Amma and been hugged, kept me there so long. And
I think that's a good instinct. On the other hand, I
had an interesting conversation with my american
roommate. He told me that some other gurus almost
never give darshan these days. They want their
followers, most of whom clamor for their touch (I know
Amma's did as I did got to see her perform a wedding
where she gave her blessing to the wedding party of
about a hundred people), to learn to exist without it.
Or rather to learn that they actually don't need it.
My russian (and extremely cold blooded to be able to
sleep without that fun) roommate had a documentary
about god on his laptop, and we watched it. All of
these mystics from all the world's religions talking
about god. The last one, a christian guy whose name I
can't remember (the documentary was called "one") says
that the highest level of spiritual attainment comes
when you realize not that there is a god, but that
that god exists inside of you and you inside of it,
that there is no separation. Amma (I've read the
first part of her autobiography) talks of the moment
when, as a young girl, she realized that Krishna was
not only walking alongside her, but in fact was her
and she him. This was a big realization for her.
Throughout most of her adolescence she would sing and
cry out to Krishna saying "why have you abandoned me?
why do you not come to me?". Her big realization was
that he was there all along, in the sand, in the
water, in the wind, in the trees. This is what made
her a guru (they call it "swimming in the sea of
infinite bliss" or something like that). So again,
what does this mean for me? Definitely something.
Maybe the image in my head is that of a lotus, still
unopened, moving it's way up through the water, but
knowing that in time it will surely blossom. But
don't worry, I don't think that means I'm going to
become a monk or ashramite anytime soon. I'm still
more likely of the tradition I saw in Thailand, where
you could come and go from a monastic life either with
the seasons or with certain periods of your life. But
always a give and take, a push and pull.

More later on Kochi and points north.

Love to all,

John

PS sorry, no pictures from the ashram. they prefer to
not have people taking photos. a rule i (mostly)
adhered to. If interested I may have a few I could
show you in person (ie not posted on the web).

amritpuri

2008-01-31T16:59:00.001+05:30

Hi Everyone,

Just a quickie as I'm way out in the backwaters where
the internet is slower than molasses. I decided to
stop by Amma's ashram, and now I'm thinking I might
stick around until she returns tomorrow so I can meet
her. She's a pretty amazing woman, sort of an Indian
Mother Theresa (4'11"), who has done amazing things
against poverty and the tsunami, not to mention being
a Hindu mystic and spiritual leader. I'm also
impressed with the way she deals with gender.
Anyways, I hope to write much more about this once I'm
done, but for now just know I'm ok and that I hope to
meet Amma tomorrow, and that at the latest I'll be out
of here by Sunday, more likely tomorrow (depending on
whether I decide to stay and get her darshan
[blessing] which could delay things a bit). Learn
more about this place (her main ashram and the village
where she was born) at www.amritapuri.org.

It's wild,
a tiny little village with a huge ashram with over
2000 people living there in highrise buildings. I'm
on the 8th floor of a 15 story building, one of 4
buildings. Room and board are cheap, 150
Rupees/night, and there are western food options
available cheap if you don't like the free indian food
here. Days start at 4:50am with chanting (1000 names
of the divine [I think it's Krishna here]), and
dinners are late after hindu devotional singing
(bhajans) from 6:30-8. But for me, all that is
optional. All in all it's been a nice excuse to slow
down even more, try some mediation, meet interesting
people. In invitation to explore spirituality (she's
fairly non-denominational).

More later,

John

Varkala - slowing down the pace a bit

2008-01-28T09:49:00.000+05:30

Well, I've been here in Varkala for a few days, and have been slowing down the pace a bit. This is not easy for me. I once joked with a friend that my family applies the protestant work ethic to our leisure (this summer at a family reunion we were swimming across the lake and back, kayaking, sailing, windsurfing, playing tennis, so that by the end of the day we were all pooped out - which was very nice by the way). So for me to just laze around is not a normal state - unless of course it's a weekend in Brooklyn and I'm being a serious couch potato. In Madurai someone took my old slippery pair of crocs outside the temple, and since then I've been questing for a good pair of footwear. I got some Indian teva-esque sandals that I am playing around with, but I still am getting some blisters. It's funny how a little thing like sandals can throw you off balance. It's been a few days of sleeping, reading, napping, bodysurfing (nice waves here), eating yummy fish for dinner fresh caught that day, and massage. They have all the day's catch out front, and you can pick what you want and how you want it cooked (I've been doing swordfish tikka). I hope that's PC fish to eat, I can't remember that list. Yesterday I had an Ayurvedic massage. This was a serious experience! They leave no part (well, almost no part) of your body untouched. And a bit rough. Tough love. It was good to have them work on my calves, which have been very tight from all the walking and from the ankle injury I got back in December. Ayurvedic massage involves a serious dousing in oils tinged with herbs and other "medicines". At the end they have you sit up and give your scalp a good scrub with oil - it feels fantastic! Also cool about Varkala is the night fisherman. Looking out over the bluffs at night you can see hundreds of little lights, each representing a small fishing boat out trying to bring in the day's (night's) catch. The waters seem to be rich if the on-land availability is any indication.

As I said before this is a semi-typical beach town. More tourists than Indians, which is quite rare in India, even when you're on the tourist track. Last night I had dinner with some folks from Canada and Minnesota. The Minnesotans were a young couple who had decided, 14 months ago, to sell their house and quit their jobs and travel all around the world (Australia, SE Asia, China, Mongolia, Russia, Europe, back to SE Asia, Sri Lanka, and now India). It was fun to hear their stories about motorbiking around vietnam, driving jeeps across the Gobi desert in Mongolia, and watching the hustle and bustle of Olympic preparations in China. The Canadians had also been travelling in Ethiopia, Israel, Iran, and Pakistan, and it was interesting to hear their stories as well. It seems that there is a whole world out there! I know that as Americans we tend to value other things above travel more than other nations, but it is encouraging to see what people have been able to figure out and how valuable those experiences have been for them and will be for their whole lives. and I think these travels will not only benefit them, but all those around them. I know for me, it is one thing to read in the papers about world issues, but quite another to be in the middle of them.

Anyways, today or tomorrow I ship out further north up the coast. I'm not sure yet whether I'll try to go to Ammachi's ashram or not. I think I may skip it and head up instead to a wildlife preserve in the Ghats (literally "steps", mountains running north/south down the center of India) where you can see elephants, tigers (very rare), birds, etc. Mostly I think this because to experience it properly I'd want to stay longer. Perhaps this is not the trip for that. Anyways, soon it's back on the road.

Oh by the way I am enclosing another food picture. This one of the South Indian breakfast favorite, idly. Ymmm. Idly is fermented rice cakes that come up with a variety of dipping sauces, some spicy, some not. This particulr one came with two steamed bananas (makes the sugar really come out) and a grape/pineapple fruit juice.

John

ps love to all and keep the emails coming. It's good for me to remember that I'm not totally alone even though I'm on the other side of the world. I especially like this one from my friend Sunita in the Adirondacks (whom my mother loves by the way since our little meal this summer in Saranac Lake):

"John, Your latest post had the following effects on me: first, actual shivers of delight hearing about the tip of the continent, then my eyes tearing up when I read that you dipped your toes in the water, then strong desire to EAT your picture of the Thali plate. Man oh man I would like some of that right now!"

kanyakumari - the tip of the continent

2008-01-26T14:09:00.000+05:30

Well, here I am in Kanyakumari. Things here are slower. It's a funny tourist town which seems to be geared towards wealthy middle-class Indians and religious pilgrims (sometimes wealthy middle class pilgrims). It's an important religious site in Hinduism. More on that later. After the temples in Madurai I decided indeed to hop on a train coming down this way. The only one was local, and it ended up taking 6 hours, though the ticket window guy told me 3 or 4. Oops. But in a way this trip may be one of my long-term highlights. It was a local train, second class. I had to cram my bags on-board this sucker, and there were no seats so I started the trip standing at the space at the end of the cars. Which is where I met the gang: Chokolingam, Basha, Suryesh (not pictured here), Pravin Raja, and Subathiran. These guys were all 19 year old students on their way back from interviews to get into engineering school (none of them were accepted, but this didn't seem to worry them too much "we'll try again next year"). They were going to Nagarcoil which is where I was going as well (then to catch a bus down here to Kanyakumari). At first they were curious with lots of typical questions: where are you from? what is your job? are you married? what is your salary? (yes this is quite typical to ask in India). Later, we made some space on the floor at the end of the car and sat down. The doors open to the countryside on both sides of us. Stopping all the time to exchange passengers and take on fresh snack and samosa and coffee vendors. A good chunk of the trip was an extended lesson in Tamil for me. But I tried to answer their questions about the US as much as possible as well : do they grow rice there? do they have elephants? explaining to them my job was very very difficult. I finally left it at "gardener". Aside from Tamil they were telling me about their job prospects, their school, their families, their religion (three were hindu, one muslim, and one christian [syrian christian maybe?]). Then in the little village of Nagarcoil they all walked me the 2 kilos to the bus stand and waited with me for the bus to Kanyakumari and waved me off. These guys were very sweet. Most striking for me was to see how comfortable they were with one another - arms draped around each other, cuddling, playing. Not very much like american teenage boys, especially 19 year old ones! Anyways, I told them I'd send them a picture or two so I'll probably send this one above.

Kanyakamuri was a draw to me because of it's location - at the tip of the continent (Cape of Comorin). Lots of windfarms, and a special monument dedicated to Vivekenanda. Vivekenanda was a swami of the late 19th, early 20th centuries. He attended several world conferences on religion, and his teachings are a mix of hindu aescetism and social action. You have to take a boat ride out to his memorial (a site where he meditated for many days and had a vision about the future of India and his role in it). On land, but quite near here, is a very holy temple thought to be the place where Devi (virgin goddess) conquered demons and gained freedom for the world. All in a day's work. This religion, I must admit is much harder for me to figure out than any other religion I have ever studied. Interesting about this temple is that men must remove their shirts before entering. This is very rare in this flesh-phobic society (one must cover up all limbs almost all the time - I think it's worse for women though they get to show their belly-buttons). I must admit that I was a bit road-weary upon arrival here, so I took a little travel break and watched some movies on hbo in my room after doing a light day of tourism. I did apparently miss the sunset thing, which is where everyone goes down to the land at the tip and watches it. Oh, also, another cool thing and significance maker for hindus (and me too) is that this place is where the waters of three oceans mix: the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal. I dipped my toes in.

So today, I'm back on the road. I took a bus here to Trivandrum (Thrivanpurum) in Kerala. I am stopping to book train reservations for my long overnight trips (Feb 10 Bombay to Jaipur and Feb 18 Jaisalmer to Delhi - then I fly out of Delhi that same evening - it's amazing how time flies). In a bit, once I send this, I'll hop on a quick bus to Varkala. I had a nice ride this morning with a young french woman travelling (Morgan) and a nice Keralan christian couple behind us with a really cute daughter who gave me a kiwi that tasted of cinnamon.

The food. I haven't really written much about the food. It is amazing. I'm mostly doing the Thali, which is a lunch type, all you can eat, plate of various concoctions in little metal cups and either bread (chappati) or rice. Today I had one with a little metal cup of fish curry, and then all of these other yummy but unidentifiable tasties. I did take a picture of Thali, I'll add that as well. And sometimes when you get dhosa you have to imagine that it might be 2 or even 2.5 feet long. Saravana Bhavana, a vegetarian place with 30-some outlets in Chennai (and one in NYC for you adventurous types) served one that was definitely over 2 feet. Yikes! By the way, this is all eaten with your hands. Specifically your right hand. Your left hand actually must not be used to feed yourself. This is very hard for me, but Indians seem to take it as second nature. Sumitra, in Delhi, thought it funny that it was hard for me not to use both hands. The good part about the south is that you get to use your whole hand, in the north just your right fingertips. Anyways, they let us foreigners cheat and use silverware in some places if we want, but I've been trying not to.

OK, I'm off again. Internet access is ubiquitous but often quite slow so I may not always do pictures (though they really do tell a thousand words). Today I stopped here for fast internet in the big city. I was going to see a movie too but I thought I might wait for Mumbai for that.

Adios!

John

Pallava and Madurai

2008-01-24T13:53:00.000+05:30

Greetings from Madurai! Yesterday was pretty busy and I didn't have much time to update you on stuff, so today I hope to catch you up, though I am still on the run and continue to be so for another few days. But there are things I must tell you about.

Mamallapurum - cool Pallavan rock-cut caves from the 7th/8th century. No photos up from here yet. Older images from the Vedic texts and early Hinduism. Some of them were buried under sand. All within a few hundred meters from the beach. One right on the beach. Major highlight was a swim in the Bay of Bengal.

Overnight Train - cruising through the Indian night with an open window to the countryside right next to my head as I lay down on one of 6 bunks (3 atop one another in my berth). Plus I made a friend whom I hung out with today - Sarah (see picture below pictured with her motos). She's here from Switzerland for 5 months to live at an ashram and get yoga teacher certified for one month and then to travel. I am jealous! We looked at temples together and hung out, but I'm wanting to move on towards Varkala in Kerala where I plan to chill out for a good chunk of time and be at the beach and read and get Ayurvedic massage, etc. It was fun to have someone to go around with, plus the kids loved her and wanted us to take their pictures just so we could show them on the screen afterwards (usually when someone approaches you to take their picture the next thing they say is "you give me money").

Madurai - Shri Meenakshi Temple

This temple was amazing! Definitely my favorite temple yet. I like it when the temples are in active use. This is a temple built in the 17th century, but built on ground that has been sacred and used religiously by Hindus for 2000 years. The main deity revered here is Shiva, but there is a significant chunk of Ganesha stuff and also goddess (Lakshmi?). The feel in this place is electric. Pilgrims coming from every direction, old dark passageways lit up by candles and smelling of incense. I'm starting to get a better grip of Hinduism, but it is so complex and has radically different traditions depending on what part of the country you are in or even what temple you are in. Two temples might be both to Shiva, but of course Shiva and most of the other gods have different avatars who are thought to offer different boons and/or threats. Non-Hindus weren't allowed in the inner sanctum, so I'm not sure which Shiva we are talking about here but I ampretty sure it is Nataranja, the dancer. This pose has one leg up in the air, crossed in front of the body, with the toe pointing down. It is thought to be from a story where Shiva, to bring in to sway 100 ascetics camped nearby in a wood, finally brought them to bear by doing a dance. His one foot on the ground is standing on a dwarf, thought to symbolize ignorance. Bear with me, or skip ahead of you don't want to hear my version of this Hindu figure. Shiva is dancing and represents the moving force of the universe; this embodies in his 5 acts: creation, preservation, destruction, embodiment, and release (of our attachment to illusion). In one hand he holds fire, for destruction. In another a drum (sound being a symbol or metaphor for that which is most essential to the universe, where it ends/begins). He also has crazy hair going out in all directions, and this is because his hair is holding Ganga (the goddess of the river - you know Ganges) in check to keep her from flooding everything (which shewanted to do in a previous tale because she was a scorned lover). Some say the lifted foot stands for the release from illusion, while stepping on ignorance (the dwarf) is that which clears the way for release (from illusion). Are you following me here?

A cool scene from the temple today. The elements: music (a guy singing Kirtan with an amazing drummer and another instrument which name escapes me), dark temple passageway lit by candles, Ganesha image with people praying. Then, I hear a horn and drumming and around the corner, in the middle of this dark temple, a cow with painted horns and with a drum saddled on it's back turns the corner with a sadhu drumming it and an orchestra of horn blowers behind him. They pass in front of me, a glorious procession in this dark temple, and out into the light; past the Ganesha image, past the musicians, and mingle in with a big crowd of pilgrims heading towards the main Shiva shrine. The light area that they head into is horizontal light streaming through collonades, because this is all happening at 7am! It was a semi-religious moment.

One thing which it seems that I just missed is the Teppam float festival. It happened yesterday here. This is a big time festival. A "tank" (man-made pond of many many acres) is filled for this festival from underground passages from the nearby river. Shiva flys out of this temple on that day and into the tank, and from what I can understand everyone goes out to the tank to pay their homage by boating around his image which is on a float in the middle. I remember reading about this a long time ago. So I'm a bit sad to miss it. But, as I am rapidly learning in India, there is simply no way to do all the cool stuff here. For example, I just learned that if I had stayed in Chennai one more day I could have received darshan (blessing) from Ammachi (ammachi.org) the world famous hugging guru. I know many of my new yorker friends would thrill at this opportunity.

While waiting for the train in Chennai last night I bought a cheap sarong for the beach and got it stitched at the tailor for wear (.25$ for tailoring, $2 for sarong). It was fun to have the tailor guy have to show me how it works, etc. In this, somewhat more conservative, part of India this traditional garb is still somewhat common among men.And finally. For some reason I was moved to get a haircut, and I did it traditional Indian style. Above the ears, etc. And a shave. There's something about me and developing country barbers, because the last two barbers I have been two have been here and Thailand. I think I like the massage they throw in at the end. But look really clean-cut and boyish. I'll attach a pic (sideways) taken by Sarah.

I'm off to catch a train again (I know, I know, I need to slow down, but as some famous actress put it "I'm dancing as fast as I can!".

Love to all,

John

ps (and hi to Sarah when you read this-thanks for the company!)

Day #5 - the SOUTH

2008-01-22T20:29:00.000+05:30

Greetings from the southern end of the (sub) continent. Today was a big travel day. First a cab to the airport, then a plane to Chennai (Madras), then a local train (kind of like a subway but really more like a train) to the big train station, bought tickets for tomorrow night overnight sleeper train trip to Madurai (Shri Meenakshi temple – don't make me spell that again), then a local bus to the regional bus station, and a regional bus to here, Mammalapuram.

Ahh, Mammalapuram (Mahabilapuram) – if you haven't figured it out most Indian cities have at least two names. A relic of trying to erase the relics of imperialism. Or maybe the extra names are the relics of imperialism. Hmmm. Anyways, Mammalapuram is a town that makes me both shiver and cringe. I shiver with the joy of seeing the full moon shimering on the water over the Bay of Bengal (see below), having the ocean a block from my 300 R/night room (40 R/dollar – do the math), lots of tasty restaurants, bike rentals, and real coffee. I cringe because it has that slightly familiar feel. One of the "spots" along the backpacker trail. The shops, the vendors, the types of goods, the ubiquitous european/australian/american/israeli/japanese fire dancer entertaining the crowd of adoring tourists, though he/she is in fact a tourist him/her self. Like its own little culture that goes all around the world to spawn itself, to find habitat. OK, maybe I'm being a bit dramatic, but you get the picture. Also, I must admit that I blew $25 on a bunch of clothes from a very sweet merchant named Sina. He is altering my new linen pants as I write this. I am very excited. I was out of clean clothes, and needed something different to wear anyways. Only one pair of pajamas makes a boy's life rather dull after a week of them. So I got MORE pajamas – I'm sure you all know my style by now. Did I say they were linen? This is a very exciting detail. I got two shirts and two pants. This means no shopping for awhile so I don't have to carry too much weight around. I still want to buy some silk and other things, so...

My thoughts on southern India are this: they are nicer here. Maybe it's just a city/country thing, but that doesn't account for how nice people were in Chennai (6 million people). Maybe it's that I was taking the local transportation there which a) meant that I needed more help, and b) endeared me to people. One smiling guy said "why are you riding on this bus with all of us?" I told him I wanted to save money. Partly true, bus was only 5 rupees. But also... one of the things I like about traveling is the chance to be an outsider. I am always a white person in a sea of white people. Today (until I got here to Mammalapuram), I was a white person in a sea of brown people. Sometimes I get that in NYC. On certain rare nights, I can be the only white person in the train if I stay on the 2/3 past Eastern Parkway. But this has a more immersive feel.

I've been wanting to photograph stuff, but haven't really gotten the nerve to do it. On the local bus in Chennai I really really wanted to photograph this one girl. She had long black hair in braids and with flowers and bells in it, multiple nose and ear rings, a beautiful gupta (hard to explain, like a sari), and a fading but noticeable henna print on her hands. I think she was on her way home from school. It was just really cool. But I didn't. So you'll have to live with that description. I walked with an american guy for a few minutes to the train station and he said to me "I've been here for 4 months and I still see something that blows me away every single day." So you'll have to settle for this bus station vendor - note the sign "outdoor catering undertaken". I love that!

OK, so anyways, the real reason I shot down here for a night was not the nightlife, the flame-jugglers, or the beach. The real reason is World Heritage Pallava ruins. The Pallava were one of the more successful southern Hindu regimes. They have ruins throughout the state of Tamil Nadu. The south, interestingly, has its own distinct history from the north. Mostly they remained unconquered by the ebb and flow of various central asian and asian conquerors that flowed back and forth across the north. They also remained largely Hindu the whole time. There were some epic showdowns, some intense violent periods, etc., with the north; but there were mostly doing their own thing down here. And now it's the seat of Dravidian culture and language in India. Yup, a different language. For this one reason I am thankful for the British, the reason being that people here still speak english. I am reading more and more about the history of this country, and am getting more and more fascinated, so be prepared to hear more. I'm still in the digestion phase. Lots of info coming in, less coming out (at least about that stuff).

That's it for now, gotta pick up my clothes.

John

PS my first Dhosa tonight. Of the masala variety. yumm.
PPS still getting used to the way everyone here in the south nods their head left and right, not up and down. It's very disconcerting, like talking to a bobbly-head.
PPPS I hope to write later about the wonders of Indian bureaucracy. These guys have taken this to a whole new level.
PPPPS Props to the Indian cricket team, who beat world champion Australia IN Australia. The whole country is going bonkers. The next game in the 4 game series (rather "test") is soon, in Adelaide. India is down 2-1 but hopes are high.
PPPPPS It's friggin hot here.
P>>>>S - somebody at the park tell Franklyn that I am thinking of him, or give him this link. I think he should come here to visit.
PPPPPPPPS Thanks to everyone who has written. I really enjoy hearing from you, even if I'm not writing you all back. Keep 'em coming!

2008-01-21T20:33:00.000+05:30

Well, we just got back from the Taj. What can I say, it was really cool. And it was also fun to learn about the women's tourism world from my travelling partners Beth and Sumitra. Beth is the author of "Wanderlust and Lipstick" (www.wanderlustandlipstick.com) as mentioned previously, and she had a meeting with Sumitra who started an Indian tourism company for women called WOW (Women on Wanderlust - www.wowsumitra.com). They were nice enough to let me tag along, and I got to take a picture that could end up on the cover of Beth's book - so that is exciting.

The Taj is truly worth of it's place as one of the seven wonders. I was skeptical, I have to admit. It just never seemed that cool in the art books. But in person, it is amazing. The massiveness is one thing, but the detail work is another. Look at the script pictured above. This stuff is all over it! And also these nice little floral designs. The thing I will remember most is that up right next to it the floor is all time smoothed marble. Really really smooth. You have to take off your shoes to even go up there. It is closed Fridays because it still functions as a mosque (the mosque is actually a side structure, the Taj is a tomb for the builder's wife which most of you probably know). Sumitra told me today that Shah Jahan (yup, same guy as yesterday's story who was usurped by his son and built the throne room with a flowing stream of hot perfumed water) was said to have cut the hands off of all the artisans who worked on it so they couldn't replicate it somewhere else. It makes me feel less sorry for him being usurped and all. A side note - the other interesting story about Aurungzaeb the usurping son is that he is credited by some with the downfall of the Moghul empire. He was so worried his children would do to him what he did to Shah Jahan that he kept them uneducated, and thus when he grew old there was noone to take charge.

What else... traffic traffic traffic. This town has traffic even a New Yorker wouldn't ask to trade for. Driving seems to be thought of as a contact sport. Lanes designations are optional. Usually as the driver your goal is to try to ride the center divider of a 2 lane highway to block people from passing on one side and to easily maneuver around the people, cyclists, motorcyclists, herds of cows, camels pulling huge carts, buses, tractors, pedal rickshaws, autoricksaws (taxi-motos that have three wheels), etc. When you come up behind one of those things your goal is to honk honk honk ("here I come") and they get out of your way and you zoom along past them. The bigger trucks all actually have signs painted on the back that say "Blow Horn". By the way, I was serious about the camels. And the cows, they not only go parallel to traffic, they cut right across it. I have already more than once been in a huge traffic jam which was caused by or had as a part of its mix a pack of cattle being herded through the middle of it by a 9 year old boy.

Tomorrow I fly down to the south, to Chennai, where things are supposed to be a bit mellower. The plan as it stands now is to strike out fairly quickly for ex-french colony town Pondicherry on the ocean. Croissants, mmmm.

Adios,

John

P.S. Oh, the Gandhi quote (thanks for the spellcheck Mom):

"Perhaps never before has there been so much speculation about the future as there is today. Will our world always be one of violence? Will there always be poverty, starvation, misery? Will we have a firmer and wide belief in religion, or will the world be godless? If there is to be a great change in society, how will that change be wrought? By war, or revolution? Or will it come peacefully?

Different men give different answers to these questions, each man drawing the plan of tomorrow's world as he hopes and wishes it to be. I answer not only out of belief but out of conviction. The world of tomorrow will be, must be, a society based on non-violence. That is the first law; out of it all other blessings will follow." - M.K. Gandhi

PPS sorry the charger's lost Jim and the san diego-ans. It looked like we gave it a good shot.

2008-01-20T18:01:00.000+05:30

OK, my second day and I'm writing already! I know, it's crazy. I think this just helps me digest some of what is going on. I had a really cool ghandi quote that I was trying to transcribe from my camera, but my batteries died so you are going to have to wait. But, today was a good day.

First, more Mughal architecture. The Red Fort, built by Shah Jahan and lived in by his son usurping son Aurungzaeb (I hope I got that spelling right). More formal gardens, and water works. There was a beatiful throne area for receiving peasants, etc, and then an even more sumptuous one for the dignitaries. That second one had a stream of water flowing through it running perhaps several kilometres long on very subtle grading. Kind of cool. The part through the throne room carried hot perfumed water from the royal baths. These guys knew how to live! I also figured out a few more things about the Mughals. The first one was Bubar, and he was the one thought to be descended from Genghis. Genghis was Mongolian, and so Mughal became the name for them. Bubar had a son Akbar who became one of the greatest Muslim kings this part of India ever saw - patron of the arts, etc. Bubar, Akbar - does this sound familiar to anyone? And elephants too?? Anyways, Red Fort has alot of potential, but it's 19th and 20th century military uses saw alot of the details stolen or removed, and sadly the hot perfumed water no longer runs. They are slowly doing a piece here, a chunk there, but...

Next, a walk through the old city. This picture is from Chandni Chowk, an old crazy marketplace area with all these winding side streets and vendors of all types. I had very yummy little rice dish with lamb, special sauce, and fresh onions on it for 10 R. ($.25) outside my the gigantic mosque (more later). Also, perhaps against the wishes of my family, I went to a big Jain temple (Digambara Temple) where they have a bird hospital (I did think about avian flu, but...). The Jains believe that all life is sacred, and so they put their faith into action by taking in injured pigeons, parrots, parakeets, you name it and trying to nurse them back to health. Martin I thought of you. More on Jainism later - when I actually understand what it is. It is related to Hinduism, but I'm starting to realize that Hinduism basically absorbs other religions over and over again and makes them it's own. An interesting thing I read today - some think that the word Hindu comes from the times of Alexander when they decided that everybody who lived on the far side of the Shindu river were alike one another, and so called them Sindus, but through transliteration to the Greek the S was lost. I am trying to do some back reading on Hinduism. I think I'm starting to get a big picture perspective. I am not quite ready to write about it yet. From the temple I went through the market (see picture) and to the Jama Masid, a HUGE mosque that can house 25,000 worshippers at a time. I couldn't go in right away because they were doing prayers, but when they were finished they let me and other non-Muslims in. It's pretty cool. In the big courtyard where all the prayer happens they've painted white lines to create "lanes" where you put down your rug to pray. This mosque was built by Shah Jahan as well, finished in 1658.

And finally, to the Ghandi Smriti. This is why I wanted to put the Ghandi quote. The Smriti (sim-reety?) is on the site where Ghandijee was killed and where he lived his last 144 days. It was controversial at the time, because it was not in the poor Hindu area as he had in the past. He said his Muslim friends felt safer visiting him here, as well as it being more convenient for dignitaries who wished to discuss matters of state. This second picture is the room in which he spent the last days. I like the picture because it shows how austere he wanted things to be. He felt that simple accomodations brought him a sense of clarity and peace. It was in this room that he did most of his "receiving" of various Hindu, Muslim, and western leaders. There is kind of a wacky but interesting "multimedia" museum there as well which was neat but a bit overwhelming - too many long films. My favorite interactive thing was the "pillar of castelessness" where the people in the room have to old hands to close a circuit which lights the pillar up. If they break hands, the pillar goes dark again. It's a very peaceful location. You can follow a set of concrete footsteps across the grounds a few hundred yards and kind of relive his last steps, up to the location where he was shot (it was a Hindu extremist, he kneeled down as if to pay his respects, and shot him several times with a pistol concealed between his hands in the prayer position. Ghandi had had several attacks or threats made on him leading up to this point and, over the past few days had been talking about the possibility of his death. Some of his words .... I'm not sure when he said this, but... "History is replete with instances of men who by dying with courage and compassion on their lips converted the hearts of their violent opponents."

OK, that's it. I'm starting to like Delhi more. What a mess of contradictions. On my way home today I stepped off the ultra modern subway (one person told me it and NYC are the only two metros in the world open 24/7) with escalators and spotless floors and trains (built in 2005) and into border-town looking street with bike taxis and giant potholes and dirt and dust. I think my little Tibetan colony may be in the path of "progress". With this new subway, I'm sure property values in housing-poor Delhi are getting all tweaked. They say the government plans to bulldoze little Majnu-Ta-Killa, though plans are currently on hold. It would be a shame. I like the feeling that all the monks and Tibetan people bring. Across the street I saw a huge housing development under construction, it must be over 50 acres in size.

Tomorrow to Agra for Taj Mahal। I'll probably get back to late to write. I'm going with the Lipstick and Wanderlust woman, but only to share the car because she has a business meeting there for her India book "Wanderlust and Lipstick : India?"

अदिओस,

John

india #2 - first day in Delhi

2008-01-19T20:57:00.001+05:30

I made it!

I slept for almost 14 hours last night, woke up in my Tibetan guesthouse, had a yummy breakfast including a banana pancake and that ever-so-reassuring taste of Nescafe. Nescafe makes me think of the developing world.

Today I hired a car for the day for about $12 - a major splurge. I didn't know how else I was going to get oriented. I went to the Ghandi museum - highlights included some good quotes and photos, his walking stick and some rather gory blood stained robes that he was wearing on the day he was assasinated. There were a bunch of schoolchildren funneling through. I really want to go to Rajghat which is where he was cremated.

After that, a jump back to the Moghul dynasties (India experts be warned - I am a fumbling amateur at Indian history and religion though I am absorbing fast). I saw Humayun's tomb, a tomb with large formal gardens surrounding it that supposedly inspired the future builders of the Taj Mahal. I liked the gardens alot. My colleagues will be happy to know I am observing Indian landscaping practices closely. No air blowers here - just long brooms made from natural fibers to sweep up those leaves. And I got some great pollarding shots. A tree made into a shrub in one clean cut. I am hoping I can attach a photo I took today of this beautiful tomb. If not here, it'll have to go on the blog (more about that later). The best I can make out at this point is a crazy succession of muslim leaders with differing viewpoints on morality, religion, etc. fought it out for many many years from about 12-13th century until about the 18th-19th century. Some of them
from Afghanistan, some of them from the East (one supposedly descended from Genghis Khan himself!). They built a series of famous structures, one of the later ones being the Taj Mahal. I also saw Isa Khan's tomb. An earlier structure in the same line of structures.

Finally, I went to the Indian national museum. This is alot to absorb so I may not write about it for now. Beautiful textiles (including a current exhibit on peichwara - clothe hangings with inlaid threads of gold and silver) from a certain sect of Hinduism (more on that later), small Indian paintings, and sculpture, a rather entertaining armor and weapons section. I met a guy from New York there - of course we have friends in common. He is in town for a film about homosexuality and Islam that he was producer of. It was showing tonight as part of a human rights film festival. I wanted to go but it was on the other side of town and I am still too intimidated and overwhelmed to make a nighttime venture. So...

My guest house is nice. It's in a Tibetan settlement just north of the old city. When the Chinese invaded Tibet India was a major location for Tibetans seeking asylum. They settled them in little communities all over the place. They apparently have no citizenship rights and it can be tough to make a living. My little place is like a warren. There is a big road right next to it but you would never now once you venture back into the narrow streets where people are selling Tibetan crafts and Textiles, music, you name it. Anything Tibetan. And monks galore. I've had some nice chats with a woman here who retired about 20 years ago and began working at the Tibetan monastery in Bloomington, IN (my ancestral state). She travels here yearly on monastery business. I liked what she said about HH's teachings (HH is His Holiness the Dalai Lama) - that he wants the monks not to be good, but to be happy, and in that quest for happiness they find goodness. I
also had a nice chat with a woman from Seattle who writes travel books for women "Wanderlust and Lipstick" was her first title. We may try and to go Agra together on Monday to check out the Taj Mahal. It was fun but intimidating asking her about the writer's life.

So tomorrow into Old Delhi. More traffic, cool bazaars, and another major Moghul building - this one called the Red Fort. Also maybe Rajghat Ghandi's cremation place. It is reassuring, but also somewhat sad, to him so revered even in age of extreme religious violence between Hindus and Muslims. That is so NOT what he was teaching. I also like that he gets nicknames - "Bapu" and "Ghandijee" being my favorites.

More later.

Love,

John

PS try this link - it's kind of an experiment but it might be easier with the pictures... I have a feeling I'm gonna get a bunch of bouncebacks with this email...

http://john-monsoondiary.blogspot.com/

greetings from Abu Dhabi - entry #1

2008-01-18T10:00:00.001+05:30

Hi All,

You're on this list because I thought you might be interested in hearing how things are going here on the other side of the world. I'm not there yet - just off the plane in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. What a funny airport. Smoky, crowded, and very modern in its own way. The passageway to the men's bathroom splits into the bathroom and into a little travel mosque for prayer. Also somewhat disconcerting was the presence of all these american businessmen on the flight with me. Where there's oil... The guy who sat next to me was from San Diego and - though i was too shy to ask directly about it - I couldn't help but notice that inside his briefcase were all his business cards naming his employer Blackwater. Yup, the same.

So, in general, I'm going to check in every few days and tell you how things are going. It's a way for me to journal, and also to feel connected to folks back home. I'll probably throw some pictures up too every once in awhile. Feel free to read, delete, pass on to others, ignore, whatever. And if you want me to add people send me their email addresses. And if you want off tell me too and I will gladly oblige. Next stop Delhi! Wow, and this feels bustling here and I'm not even out of the airport.

A little fact about Abu Dhabi I found on the internet yesterday. It is one of the wealthiest cities in the world! I read that the average net worth of each of it's 420,000 citizens is about 17 million $US (could be uae dollars which would be about a third of that, but still). They are trying to be the next Dubai it seems.

OK, I'm going to sign off. It's crowded for internet access here at the airport.

Love to all,

John

3 Days to go!

2008-01-14T21:26:00.000+05:30

Well, I am just a few days away from saying bon voyage to this group of folks - the Prospect Park Landscape Management Crew - and heading off to India for the next month or so. This is just a trial to see if this blog thing works or if I'm going to do my old faithful email... Bags are in the process of bein packed, prescriptions filled, bills paid, plans laid. It seems that the Murphy's Law is in full effect here: I leave here with a cold or flu, my dog sick, and my ankle recovering from a severe sprain. But what would travel be without a few challenges, right?

I'll keep you posted...