Creative Commons License.
OK, so I was going to go to a wedding in Delhi, but the wedding is tomorrow and I only just got in touch with Gopesh (my friend who invited me) this evening. All trains are booked and the flights cost way too much $$$... In a way I'm really bummed, because I would have really enjoyed meeting Gopesh's family and also, I imagine that Hindi weddings in India are huge affairs. At least I'll get to meet his wife since she is comming back here with him in early Feb. Also, I will visit Delhi later in my trip as that is my departure city for Thailand.
Last night I was walking to a friends house for a Japanese party when I ran into a wedding procession. Holly crap!!! It was night time, but there were all these guys with huge lanterns on their heads (too bad I didn't have my camera.) Very loud wonderfull music, dancing in the street (totally screwing up traffic.) and very loud firecrackers!!!! Yikes... Fun though.
So I'm still in the cheap ($18/week) apt near the commune. Lots of people were here for the death day celebration (Jan 19th) and are leaving now, so I hope to find a much nicer place soon. I have an apointment with a reputable agent tomorrow. I'm currently thinking that I'll spend a month more here and then head out to Goa. I have heard that a really nice apt will cost between $100 and $200 per month! (Which I'm happy about :)
A couple people have asked via email about my dialy routine, so far it looks roughly like this:
Get up between 9:30 and 10:30 in the morning.
Head over to the "Resort" for some samosa and tea
Goto Teartha Zen Garden and read
Have lunch
I started playing with Poi (colorfull spinny things, the guy that was here with juggling clubs left so I'm taking up a new sport until I can find something to juggle :) today, so I will probably be doing that for an hour or two in the afternoon.
Kundalini
Snack
Shower and change for white robe
White robe
Get changed back into streat clothes
Dinner (maybe in the commune or maybe out.)
If something is going on at the resort (like dancing) then hang out
Usually get to bed by midnight or 1am (just like home)
I usually find some time to do some emails in the middle of all that hard work too :)
Kundalini is really good. Although I seem to be fantasizing about romance when I'm supposed to be in inner silence :)
I have another Core Alignment (massage) session tomorrow which sounds like it will be really good (will be doing deep abdomen work.)
Have been spending some time with Vardhan (used to be Ben -- of solstice fame) and his japanese GF, Hansa. Hence the japaneese party last night :) It is strange to sort of know someone for a long time but not really know them and then meet and hangout half-way around the world... Pretty cool really.
Peace and Love to you all!!!
Had a great massage today. Lots of stretches... I feel soo limber! Did Kundalini again... Lots of mind today then silence for the last 15 minutes... yum! Skipped White Robe because I have developed some sneezing (which is not allowed)... :( As soon as I got home, my nose stopped running for the first time in 3 or 4 days and no more sneezes... go figure... now there is an awsome techno dance party!!! I'm in here "cooling down" :)
Peace and Love to you all!
I'm in Pune, I've been here a little over 4 days. The first day, I arrived in the afternoon and got checked into my hotel. The first thing I did was to try and get in touch with my friend Gopesh who lives here. Unfortunately we missed eachother. We finally conntected yesterday evening and had a really nice time together. Ahh, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So I went to the Osho Meditation Resort and proceeded with the whole sign-in process, HIV test and all! Part of the process was getting signed up for a welcome day (day 2). This was good since I haven't been here in a long time, and things have changed significantly. I ended up paying admision for the day and strolling arround (un-welcomed :). Was really interesting seeing how the grounds have changed and expanded.
I am still having this experience of seeing double. Like I see how things used to be and how they are now. I keep trying to fit places together, old memories rush back when I see something I wasn't expecting... The really strange part is that today I started having a similar experience inside myself. So being aware of who I am now and who I was then and how things have changed... It feels a little clostrophobic having two of me in here ;)
So bright and early the next morning I was at the resort in my freshly purchased maroon robe (requirement for daily entrance) waiting to be welcomed. Turns out that the guy who meets us was the doctor at Medina where I lived when I was a kid. How cool is that! Asanga (the doctor) and an Indian woman gave us a bit of a tour of the grounds and then took us into a group room where we had a really good intro to the resort and Osho meditations (we did several short versions of meditations and got info about how they were created etc...)
My plan has been to move out of the hotel as soon as possible so as to reduce my burn rate :) and so that I can be closer to the commune.... Arg... so there it is, great pains are made to point out that this is no longer a commune/ashram but rather a meditation resort. But I still have my double vision :) It kinda interesting. I guess it doesn't help that the Ricksaw (taxi) drivers still call it the Ashram. In many ways this feels like a resort and not a commune/ashram, there is a whole recreational facility and guest house. The workshops, classes, trainings etc are really clearly offered in a central location. However, there is also the meditation part of the equation which still feels like an ashram to me. In the evening many folks come together for a meditation called "White Robe". I still feel a strong communal energy at this time... Everyone changes from there (requisite maroon) clothes to the similarly requisite white robes. Sounds kinda like an Illuminaty (sp?) event or something... Heh... Not knowing much about the Illuminaty I couldn't say how much resembelance there is, but my guess is not very much.. heh...
Ahem, back to my plans to get out of the hotel and into cheaper accomodations. I met up with an old sannyasin who had a room to rent and we aggreed to meet the following morning.
Day 2 1/2 (Jan 12th), we met outside the main gate and agreed (I thought) to go see the room at 4pm. I spent a lot of time being pretty mellow and a little time juggling with a really funny Itallian guy! At 4pm I was at the gate, but Santosh was not... We ended up meeting on the way to the White Robe meditation in the evening and got things sorted. I was to go by his office the next morning.
Jan 13th, Major cold (or is this allergies?) today. I spent the day in bed then went out for dinner with Gopesh in the evening. Also spoke with Santosh and postponed our appointment.
Which brings us today. This has been my first really productive day. Met with Santosh and checked out the apt. It is very basic, but is cheap and I only have to commit to 1 week (I'm still planning on going to Delhi for Gopesh's brothers wedding on the 22nd so will probably be away from Pune for a week or so.) The apt is walking distance to the resort and 90% less than my hotel!!! I checked out of the hotel and moved all my stuff to the apt. Then came to the Ashram and signed up for a massage tomorrow. Then I did Kundalini meditation (for those of you who don't know you can read all about it on the resort website above... it's basically a very mellow movement/dance based meditation.) The last 15 minutes were really lovely for me. Very mellow, very present. After the meditation I had some dinner, and then got ready for White Robe. Went to White Robe and then found the resorts Internet Cafe so I could send this update. :)
Oh did I mention that the food here is really good? It is... And because things are very hygenic, you can eat raw fruits and veg.... yay!!!
I met two really nice women from Canada at the hotel my second day in Mumbai. They are both studying Occupational Therapy and are here on their way to a placement in the boonies in southern India. We spent the day together today figuring out how to deal with our respective train journeys at VT station (I think we won a world record for how many times you can be bounced between two queues).
After sorting our tickets, we went in search of a big market called Mortha (sp?). As we got near this little guy attached himself to us and wouldn't take no for an answer. "I work in the market" he kept saying. We kept asking him to leave us alone and he would go off sulking and then as soon as we would turn our backs, there he would be! Yikes, eventually we asked someone for help. Our "savior" said two or three words to the little guy and "poof", he vanished... amazing, I want to know what was said!!! That was a cool trick.
We walked through an amazing fruit market. Too bad we can't eat raw stuff, it smelled so good. We found an alley that had tons of sari stalls. And then a building that was filled with people selling dresses.
Tamiza wanted to get a couple more outfits for the placement so we went through the whole bartering processing with 3 or 4 different vendors. They appear to ascribe to the following marketing strategy: Overwhealm the heck out of people and they will make bad/hasty decisions. Amazing.... Dress after dress after dress being thrown down (esp ones that didn't meet the requirements...) At the 3rd or 4th stall this sweedish guy shows up looks at a couple dresses and proceeds with the most amazing bargaining process. I really thought a fight was going to break out at the end... It was good for us, because we got nearly as good of a deal without having to fight very hard :)
The three of us went out for a very hot Indian meal at my current favorite Indian restaurant ever :) Apoorva in the Fort area of Mumbai.
...
I left for Pune the following day (10th Jan)
I wasn't expecting to have as much culture shock as I do (been there done that syndrome :) Today is better than yesterday. Just went out and found the tourist info office on foot which was a good experience. I was planning on hanging out in Mumbai for a music festival (big sitar competition) that was supposed to be today and tomorrow. Turns out that it was rescheduled. So not sure if I'll stay until the 11th as planned or try and get to Pune sooner.
I'm off to the train station to sort out trains to Pune (not sure how far in advance tickets need to be purchased.)
I have arrived in Mumbai! Got to my hotel and slept for 12 hours... Yikes... More later, I must get some food :)
I'm leaving home today. I have a one night stay with my sister in Oxford and then I get on a plane to India tomorrow morning.
I've made a reasonable start on a timeline and a bunch of entries and photos for my time in England which I'll post in the next few days.