Time to Un-relax!

Many short breaths... that's the opposite of a long deep breath that you take when you need to relax right? I desperately need to UN-relax! I'm back in Delhi, once again visiting my Austrian friends after 2 weeks in Pushkar, Rajasthan and I am tired of relaxing, tired of being lazy, having nothing to do! I know some people aspire to be able to relax for the rest of their lives, perhaps on a beach somewhere, wiling away the hours with a lemonade (or something stronger) in one hand and sand between their toes... I can't imagine anything more boring and unsatisfying!

I don’t know if it’s a side effect of growing up in an American society, but I have realized I have a deeply engrained desire to always be doing something. Sure, I love 'time off' just as much as the next person but there is a limit. Plus, my time off usually involves some kind of activity, hiking or jogging or exploring or at least a couple good friends...

I am now going on 6 weeks of travelling on my own which has included some exploring, studying Hindi, hiking, temples, palaces and forts, waterfalls, horses, Saris, television appearances, camels, trains and motorcycles and jeeps and busses, too many men/boys, lots and lots of reading, writing, drawing, darling little kids, swimming, drama and I finally got in a good run today for the first time! It hasn’t been enough though. My second week in Pushkar, I desperately wanted to do something productive. I went to the pool with my Hindi materials and noticed the pool hadn’t been cleaned yet. 'I should go for a swim later when they clear it' I thought and then it occurred to me, I could clean it myself. I hunted down the pole with the net on the end began the task only to discover I actually kind of enjoyed it - clearly it had been too long since I had that accomplished feeling you get from work. The staff of the Hotel, who at this point I considered friends, were pretty surprised to find me cleaning and jokingly assigned me the job for the rest of my stay :).

There were some highlights during my two weeks by the holy lake of Pushkar. A town with magnificent sunsets, an oasis surrounded by desert sands, overrun with Israeli tourists so much so that many of the signs are in Hebrew and graced with the presence of more ash covered sadhus and 'priests' performing pujas for a price than days in the Hindu calendar.

I accompanied two of the staff, Ajay and Kuldeep, along with 8 Israeli tourists on a jeep safari to their native village for a glimpse into small town life and some 'non-veg' food i.e. mutton. Pushkar, being a holy city with the only temple dedicated to Brahma, the creator god, has forbidden the consumption of meat, eggs and alcohol completely. Therefore, a mutton dinner was something fairly special - and delicious! :) My jeep did not have a windshield so with my spot in the front seat, as we flew down the road, I felt as though I was being pummeled by a thousand oven mittens - so fun! A bird swooped down and collided with one of the Israelis in the back. Kuldeep rescued the shell-shocked winged one and fed it water from his hand. We passed massive collections of hay pulled by tractors, wagons laden with vegetables pulled by donkeys and any number of wooden carts with various products pulled by men, women and children. One woman balanced an enormous basket covered in brightly colored material on her head with her Orna (headscarf) pulled down to conceal her face but flying freely behind her. I will never forget that image of a graceful, faceless rainbow with a hot air balloon hat drifting down the lane. That evening after dinner, I even got to ride one of the horses bareback for a while through the fields although the spine was quite prominent so it was, ahem, very uncomfortable! Saddles next time. :)

I hiked to all the surrounding peaks and was rewarded with wonderful views of town. I met some interesting fellow travellers - Germans, Irish and Israelis. I meet very few Americans. I attended a birthday party in the neighboring city of Ajmer and for the first time, spent time with, for lack of a better word, 'westernized' Indian girls, which was a culture just as intriguing to observe. I was introduced to a man that runs a factory that exports clothing all over the world and I designed a top that we worked on bringing to fruition, but unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time.

I must admit, I got involved in some illicit activity as well. I helped sneak some eggs into town for use in an egg-curry and effectively became an 'egg-smuggler'. I hope the authorities are not keeping tabs on this blog! ;)

All in all, I enjoyed my time in Pushkar, but as I mentioned earlier, its time for some action! Luckily, I have my dear friend Steele visiting in two weeks and we are going to delve back into Rajasthan for guaranteed adventure! :)

(Not quite) 100 things Ive learned in 100 days

· *September 9th marks day 100 in India for me and I've been gathering a list of things that India has taught me. For those of you that have been here, please do add your own bits of wisdom - I would love to hear them!

· On a dark road, avoid even darker spots on the ground

· I will never get used to the smell of urine

· Always carry Toilet Paper

· Squat-toilets aren’t always better than no toilet

· Always carry an extra plastic bag (thanks Tina)

· Always carry mosquito spray/afterbite

· Always carry a flashlight/torch

· I can never have enough masala chai

· Never plan on electricity

· Never expect anything to depart/arrive on time

· I love riding in auto-rickshaws and hate riding in cycle-rickshaws (and will not ride in the wagons pulled around in Mt. Abu)

· Monkeys, cows, dogs, and goats are cheeky animals, it’s the pigs that behave

· There is nothing like Indian hospitality

· Words like different, same, little etc must be repeated to have meaning

· Staring is not impolite, it is in fact, a way of life

· Traveling as a single woman means that I haven’t been able to find a husband in my own country and came to India to find one

· When in doubt, take your shoes off

· Trash put in the ever-so-rare bin will end up tossed in the street anyway (and I still can't bring myself to put it there myself)

· Red on the ground is either blood or snowcone

· Coconut and ginger go well with (almost) everything

· Hindi is a very difficult language – but I love the challenge

· Bless India

· Bless India for giving Tibetans sanctuary

· Bless Tibetans

· Bless the Dalai Lama

· Yes means, yes, I don’t know, I don’t understand, maybe, you’re welcome and We found your item but we are not going to tell you where it is…

· There are actually times when I am not in the mood to be in a photo

· I’m finally getting retribution for all of the ‘snaps’ I’ve taken of locals

· Stickers are a good thing to have on you for local kids

Something as simple as a red dot can gain entrance into some of the most private circles

· Apparently, I love playing dress up as much as I did at age 5

· We should all celebrate brother/sister day

· I am destined to carry a layer of India around as long as I am in the country

· To me, ‘dirty’ is relative, however clean is not

· One can never be alone in this country unless locked in your hotel room and even then, more than likely, bugs are there to keep you company

· I believe I have seen more than enough Hindu temples for the rest of my life

· Poverty and poor are two very different things

· The human spirit can endure much more than the mind can comprehend

· My horn honking/buzzing/jingle-jangling tolerance is a bell curve

· The aggregate of little things is what’s important, frustrating, what teaches, defines, builds up and breaks down – what is India

Farewell to Bundi

I’ve finally left Bundi, the time-warp town that held me fast for nearly 3 weeks. Although I did a lot, I also feel like I did a whole lot of nothing. The last several days I found myself sleeping in and spending most of the day indoors, reading and writing, rather than outdoors exploring like usual. I started to feel under the weather, loss of appetite, loss of energy and motivation etc and I deciphered the message; I'd overstayed in Bundi. Certainly not in the eyes of the locals whom Id befriended nor by my Indian family who by this time I regularly took my meals with, I was given the honor of chiming the bells at evening prayer at the home altar and attended midnight prayer sessions in town, hiked to favorite viewpoints at 6am, cooked with and they even set up a home cinema so that we could watch the latest Bollywood hit that id mentioned I wanted to see. They called me Beti (daughter) and Didi (any elder female family member) and as much as the intimate family experience was more than I could have hoped for and extremely culturally educational, I was feeling that old familiar tug more and more. I was getting a little too entrenched and for all I knew my ‘mother’ had started scouring the land for suitable marriage prospects – I am 27 and single, something unheard of in a proper Indian household.
The events in Bundi by no means deserve to be summarized but to save you from an entry as long as the list of Hindu Gods, I shall try.

Festivals
I attended the Mela (just like a state fair only less rides, less games and stall after stall of junk) with some of the family. Hordes of men roamed the aisles - they were quite protective of me and commented on the constant “Hallo! Hallo!”s – Its always like that, I tell them.

The Teej festival lasted 2 days culminating each night with a parade past my front door. Floats with figures, live and not of various Hindu myths rolled by followed by men pushing loud spluttering generators on wooden carts. Elephants, camels, marching bands, and dancers were flanked by strings of young boys carrying neon tube lights – these were high-tech parades! Horses carried men of importance wielding swords and onlookers tossed flower petals and gave out drinking water. I seemed to create my own spectacle just bobbing to the music!

On Krishna’s Birthday, after having fasted the whole day (because his mother was in labor), I joined Rupa, my ‘mother’ and her sister in a midnight puja (prayer) celebration. I watched our shadows from the street light glide down the road, mine with my skirt falling mid-calf with two Sari shapes on either side like shadow guards. I was truly lucky to be there. We made the rounds to many of the temples in town, I was the only foreigner there and I crowded in with the rest to pat homage cardboard cutouts of blue babies and brightly painted Gods on beds of fake and real flowers and neon lights. Sometimes deafening music thudded throughout to accentuate the otherworldly intensity of the faithful. All eyes were on me each time that it was my turn at the altar and to be honest, I felt a bit of a fraud. How brightly did the neon ‘non-believer’ sign flash above my head? Hopefully not enough to detract from the Gods themselves. Nevertheless, in order not to embarrass my family and even more the outsider intruding on their ancient rituals, I paid honor to the people, not their Gods and gave thanks for the experience.

Frustrations

One day, I ventured to hike to the only cenotaph in sight that I had not yet been to. Earlier hikes, to the closer ones had been marred by boys following me and invading my ‘alone-time’. This one, I was assured was unreachable, the path had been overgrown. Great! Perfect for an adventure and hopefully, a way to find some time for myself. I plunged into the woods, winding through thorny bushes, slowly climbing and when I finally reached the top, I was so excited! I felt like Indiana Jones uncovering a long lost temple and most importantly, I would finally be alone! I had my ipod and an amazing view of town and a beautiful historical structure all to myself… for all of about 2 minutes when I heard a rowdy group of men approaching.

Noooo! I quickly ran over my options – should I hide? I had no idea how long they would be there so I sat with my back against the far side and hoped they would take in the view and be on their way. Suddenly their shouting died and I knew Id been discovered even before I heard “You are?” from behind me. I ignored them despite having turned my ipod off and what followed was 2 hours of me being stubborn and wanting to wait them out and them following me around to each new position (I got up and moved about 6 times) and not caring that I just wanted peace and quiet (this I have learned to say in Hindi). Then they started tossing pebbles and lit matches. Up until this point, I had a debate going on in my mind about why it bothered me so much that they sat around me, stared at me and talked about me in a language that I didn’t understand. I challenged myself to find my own peace, ignore the men and our cultural differences. Now, I gave them a good glare and told them “Shame on you!” again in Hindi and before one last move, I approached and railed them in English, telling them to behave themselves and leave me alone and stop acting like dogs! To which I received a head wobble and the affirmative “huh”, Hindi for yes. “You’re dogs?? Well Jow then!” (Jow being the term used to shoo away street dogs). Finally, I gave up and retreated down the clear path. They had won… again, grrr.

Falls

A local friend of mine had been asking me every day to visit Bhimlet Waterfall with him until I finally capitulated one afternoon. It was a 45 min motorcycle ride, not including the stop for chai to show off his tourist. The 28m falls were beautiful and I managed to lose my flip-flop over the falls in an unintended offering to Krishna whose temple stood at the bottom. Distraught that I hadn’t reacted more efficiently and even more that I had lost my favorite flip, I stared over the edge know it had to float, but fearing it was stuck in a crag. Krishna refused my offering and about 5 long minutes later, it appeared beneath the falls. I had to get in and swim to rescue it and in the end, I think that was meant to be. After drying off a bit, my friend took me to ancient rock paintings in a completely unprotected cave that some say are 20,000 years old!? On the return, I got to drive – my first driving experience in Indian roads and a real motorcycle at that! I loved it except when cows lumbered in front of me almost in spite of my horn honking – Moooove! I exclaimed and giggled at my cheesy joke that clearly didn’t translate. Night fell and J.P took over. I tell you what. Riding on the back of a motorcycle on Indian roads, pitch black, any number of obstacles ahead, many number of potholes ahead and someone like JP who was either trying to impress or scare me or both by turning his lights off and swerving carelessly across the road while singing songs like “Come Mr. tally man, tally me banana” loud enough to tempt the monkeys must be one of the most frightening experiences! I pride myself on not being easily scared and I admit I felt my blood clot with thrilling fear and then flashed back to my own motorcycle accident…

Besides teaching the entire family how to salsa dance (not that successfully) and learning Rajasthani dance in return, these were the highlights of an eventful stay in Bundi. It was a difficult goodbye but I’ve promised to try to make the wedding as Lucky’s only sister.

I spent a day in Chittorgargh to see Asia’s largest fort and met a nice man, a descendant of the Rajput dynasty that runs 2 hotels there, one being the family palace, who let me stay all day in the gardens while I waited for my 1am bus and even gave me a room to relax in for a couple hours. One long bus journey and one broken down bus brought me to this charming little hilltop resort town on a nice little lake and with a set of Jain temples so intricately carved that it is said the artisans were paid for the amount of dust that they created. I will stay here for a few days and should be in Pushkar by Friday!