Category Archives: Meditation

Om. Moo.

Apr7

Delhi

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Delhi

I had folded the piece of paper with my flight reservation exactly where the departure time was printed. And consequently missed my flight to Amritsar. Spent a night in a nice hotel, with the first bathtub I’ve seen in India, and caught a flight to Delhi the next morning. On the flight, I met a guy who does political work in India. He put me up in his state’s residential house for free that night, not far from the Prime Minister’s house. Went with “his boys” to the Indian airlines booking office and ended up getting my flight to Amritsar booked for free as well. People like meeting foreigners! While sitting around with this political guy, who was constantly on one of his two cell phones, I was engaging in one of my guilty pleasures here… watching American movies on HBO India. My friend handed me the phone and said, “Talk to the King of ____.” So, I spoke to the king for a few minutes, who was quite fun, and also according to wikipedia, one of the most elligible bachellors in the country.

Turns out flights to Amritsar leave from the Intrnational airport–9 kilometers from Domestic! I had 45 minutes to drive there, check in, go through two security checks, customs, and find the gate. I ask the taxi driver, how much to the International terminal? “As you like.” he says. So now it’s two drivers, who are trying to rush me to the airport for my flight are also trying to rip me off. Consequently, they emit an air of danger that put me on high alert. They wanted 20 American dollars for the ride. I said, “You’re joking, right?” and then after a moment said, “Whatever, just bring me to the airport” and thought I’ll deal with it when I’m safely there and in public. I arrived fine, took my backpacks, threw them 200 rupees, and took off, shaking, for the ticket counter.

Apr7

Alleppey and Cochi

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Alleppey and Cochi

The setting of the sun in Alleppey and Cochi brings a beautiful, diffuse pink light every evening that I’ve only seen very occassionally where I live. I went to two parties in Allephuzah with Jay and Bones, the young dudes of Nani Residnce where I was staying. They were funny–constant tricksters and jokers–very different from the multitudes of serious Indians I’ve been meeting. Watching Indian guys dance with each other to “Om Shanti Om!” (a dance-pop hit here) was wonderful and hilarious, and I successfully avoided actually dancing with them… the young drunk Indian man is, if you can believe it, even more persistant than the sober one.

Took the train up to Cochin and stayed just inland of the giant fishing nets. Got a palm reading from an old man by the shore who said I’d have five kids. Ha!? Took a cooking class with a sweet retired couple and learned how to make an exquisite south Indian meal of coconut thoran, vegetable rice, and tomato fry. The next day I had a perfect cheese and tomato omlette and a warm death-by-chocolate cake at an adorable cafe called Teapot.

Afterward, I walked across the peninsula to Jew Town where I took a couple of illegal pics of the synagogue. Jews came from Israel somewhere between 1000 BC and 1400 AD (they’re still not sure) and inhabited a few parts of India. In 1568, they built the synagogue I visited. There were about 2000 Jews left here, and all but 12 are not in Israel. And guess what?! I met one of the last surviving Cochin Jews! Her name is Sara Cohen, and she’s 70 or 80. A total sweetheart. Met a family of South African Jews a the shul as well and we walked around Cochi for the evening. That night, we ate at an Italian place called Upstairs (which was.. upstairs). I ordered a panacotta for desert, hoping to eat it with my second piece of death-by-chocolate cake, and sadly the panacotta melted in its hot chocolate sauce on the way home. I ate it anyway. It’s only a week since I was doing yoga four hours a day. What happened? Rickshaw drivers are constantly wanting to bring you here and there, and they’re stunned when you want to walk somewhere.

Mar29

Lotus Flowers along the Backwater

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Lotus Flowers along the Backwater

I left the ashram two days ago, and have been doing morning yoga on my own already.  In retrospect, it was everything I’d hoped it would be.  I made some great friends and picked up a yoga habit I hope will counter all that soan papdi. 

Yesterday, I took a boat ride along the backwaters of Allepy in a long wooden boat.  I lay on a comfy mat as my guide rowed through the canals and toward the open lake.  After some time, he made a groaning sound, waited a moment, and then said, “Madam, stick?  Use stick?”  He was asking me to row, and I said ok.  We glided by lines of houseboats, hordes of lillies, a few lotus flowers, and two pet eagles before reaching his house.  We approached a bank, and his daughter and another girl of 11 reached for my hand to pull me ashore.  They held my hands and led me to their house, picking exotic flowers along the way and lavishing me with them.  Their faces were both mature and innocent at the same time.  I sat on a chair while the girls put the flowers in my hair, drank a glass of chai made by the boatman’s wife, and looked out at the rice paddies.  Water buffalo and a flock of white birds flying over them.  Neighbor children with bindis on their foreheads.  Photos with the family. 

Evening brought a raucous outing with an older French couple and some silly Indian guys, smoking and drinking (well, they did while I breathed second-hand smoke and drank mineral water.  I’m a yogini now!) This morning, I slept in, did some yoga and then went for a full-body ayruvedic massage with so much oil that was absolutely exquisite.

Mar29

Standup India

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Standup India

Saturday night Sivananda Ashram has a talent show. I haven’t done standup since I’ve been in India, and I was itching to get on stage. Oh, the “stage” is also the altar to Sivananda, Vishnudevananda and several gods. It’s not your typical smoky comedy club; it’s a sort of temple with 200 yoga-teachers in training, a few swamis and sadhus, and yogis, and yours truly. And I have to say that I totally rocked the temple with a set about Indian toilets and lusty yogis that ended with a hilarious and totally inappropriate bit about “being in the present.” People were coming up to me for days afterward saying they were literally in tears from laughing so hard. It doesn’t get better than that. (I actually captured the set on my camera and will send a link when it’s up.)

Mar29

Kanyakumari, the Egde of the World

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Kanyakumari, the Egde of the World

One Friday (the day of the week dedicated to the Divine Mother) we took a bus trip to Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India. Spent a wonderful day with friends from Quebec, Brazil, and Colombia. We saw temples, the Vivekananda museum and ashram, a place where Gandhi’s ashes were held, and best of all, the convergence of three oceans. In Kanyakumari, you can look out over the ocean, and see the sun rise and set over the horizon without moving from your vantage point. Oh, we also went to a waterfall and ate this delicious flaky desert made with ghee called Soan Papdi, which you have to try. Just do it. Seriously.