India Travel Summer 2017

This weekend we went to Kerala - a beach town a 2-6 hour drive, depending on unexplained variables. The ocean, browner and fiercer than any I'd seen before - splashed just a short walk from our rooms. The 9 of us has a couple of days to be together, make choices en mass, enjoy sand in our toes and beds, and take in lots of roadside views. Friday night we settled in and had a delicious dinner and hung out at the beach, but I crashed pretty hard. Saturday we visited a temple for Puja at 7:30 am with what Steve refers to as a "monster priest." It was pretty incredible, two men dressed in headgear and body paint blessing hoards of people - potentially many tourists, we saw loads of signs for "tourist homes" and most folks were dressed very nicely It was right on th e water, which was incorporated into the ritual. We stayed to see people weighed on scale to determine how much food they would give as a gift to the people for prasad , an...

To me, if one is peacefully tuned into the rhythms of nature, any type of art will be sensational and revealing. But, to mere mortals existing in the realm of monkey mind and constant differentiation, it helps to have some introduction to the structure of the music. This morning we had a lecture on South Indian Classical Music, which was really more of an interactive concert; "a bridge between what you know and what happens on stage." Gathered around on colorful blankets in the same room that we had orientation, four experienced musicians sat before us and earnestly began to unravel some mysteries of the entire world we'd just become immersed in. It really came at a perfect time because, after having seen a couple of concerts and taking about a week of lessons, there was some mystery that could have turned into unfounded mythology, or go completely unobserved. Some take aways that were helpful to me, but PLZ check my handiwork and excuse my inevitable misunderstan...

Yesterday, my dad was pestering me about not sharing enough sensory information about Mysore - the sights are clear, but what about sound, smell?? I thought about why that was, and - sound aside for the time being - I realized that I am often confronted with an unfamiliar or decontextualized smell - at the hostel, in the streets, a temple, a concert etc. At first it feels like something I could know, that I've smelled before, so I lean into it a little bit, taking a deeper breath in. There's some word I could maybe cling to - sweet, sour, smokey, citrus - but often even that morphs in on itself and I'm left with a strong urge to qualify. Is this good or bad? And then someone cries "I love that smell!" or fondly "Ah, India" or aghast "What IS that?" or again fondly "Ahh, cleanser" and my mind clings to it. If no one is around to force my hand in this choice, it tends to be done according to my mood or energy levels. The more tired I...

The days seem to be getting away from me faster than I can write about them! In a big way this is welcomed - I am so absorbed minute to minute that when I have free time it's filled with meditating or reading or walking around the hostel and VIIS grounds. There's a lot of beauty here, beauty that's neighbored by the noise of dust and dirt accumulated with trash and stray animals. Heart-wrenching yet profound is the resilience of beings. And curious is the space and time that India occupies - a growing leader in energy and commerce, and a rapidly shifting and highly imperfect organization of social structures. I hope to slowly chip away at my understanding of these things in the context of peace and sustainability work. View from the roof of our hostel As I write this I'm sitting in the SVYM library surrounded by (on this desk alone) books titled "Flowers and Gardens" and "The Hindu Speaks on Scientific Facts," "Atlas of Human Anatomy...

Our schedule said Monday was orientation videos and introductions, so I geared up for a morning of respectful boredom. I was very pleasantly surprised. As we walked to the administration buildings, we passed a herd of goats and a roaming cow. Then, peeking out from above a tall wall were the tops of domes that Steve pointed out as "places we could meditate but not practice...". A dome enthusiast and lover of human silence, I gave thumbs up. We walked through a gate and into a lush garden that hugged the gap between two buildings. As we got closer, Sindhu - the program coordinator - greeted us, along side a number of smiling staffers carrying jasmine flower necklaces, saffron for our foreheads, and orange sugar to eat for a sweet welcome. Each one of us was greeted in earnest with these treats, and then escorted inside one of the buildings. In the lobby of the Vivekananda Institute for Indian Studies (VIIS) is a large and multifaceted mural, painted by a graduate of one of t...

This evening I talked with my parents for the first time since we landed - which is different than the nearly daily we'd been talking before leaving. Granted I was tired from the long and full day, but I was beginning to feel myself unable to communicate much more than the bare bones of my experience. "We went shopping and then lunch and then a concert..." It all seems rather banal, but I think it anchors me in some experience of linear time that escapes my reality when I'm just moving from one activity to the next. Yesterday we drove from Bangalore to Mysore, which took nearly 4 hours. I had the joy and challenge of sitting in the front seat of the car. A joy because I get to see the surroundings unobstructed. A challenge because I have to see all of the things we almost run into... But everything on the road seems to swim with the same current, ripples made by friendly horn honks like tapping on the shoulder of an old friend. The backs of the trucks say ...