Indian Bureaucracry - the patience of a buddha

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Hey, this one's about a week late but the internet connection has been crap where i am so i'm sure you're all over it already. Anyway...

The 12 hour bus ride from Delhi to McCleoud Ganj actually took 15 hours and is best described as an experience... a particularly uncomfortable one. There were a couple of stops giving us the chance to recover slightly whilst I consumed as much lovely, hot, sweet chai (tea) as possible whilst the rest of the journey was characterised by bumps (lots of), half an hour of what felt like just going round round-abouts, going at a snail's pace up the mountain (apparently buses fall off about once a month so I'll be lenient here) and no sleep - whatsoever. At least I had a nice big meal in the restaurant I mentioned in the last entry before we left.

We were met by the Dharamsala/McCleoud (basically same place - 2 small towns on same hill, McCleoud is higher, nicer and where the Dalai Lama lives) gap rep, Niyema who was lovely and got us all tea and bread. She'd also guessed that we'd want to see His Holiness teach and booked us rooms til Sunday (1st day of teachings, they continue for 2 weeks) as well as letting all our placements know we'd be late. We grabbed some lunch at this awesome cafe called Nick's which does Tibetan/Italian food (weird i know, but the chocolate&banana pancake is very good) and has an amazing balcony with views across the whole valley - eagles swoop around too.

McCleoud Ganj seems to be like the hippy centre of the universe. You stand out not by being western/white (there are lots) but by being western and not having a copious amount of hair or dreads or lots of coloured baggy woolen clothes. Everyone's really friendly though, Bharaat and I got talking with this swedish guy in Nick's one morning who's been here for 3 months studying buddhist teachings and he was full of advice on where to get stuff at what prices though people here don't try to rip you off on the same scale as Delhi (Bharaat's been on a wool shopping spree - hats, ponchos, shawls). There are also great views from pretty much everywhere and all the buildings are colourfully painted.

Because we're working here and staying for a long time, according to oiur visas, we have to register with the local police station within 14 days of our arrival in India. Oh what fun this was. Just picture us after an overnight 15 hour bus trip (= no sleep) showing up at the police station in Dharamsala on friday lunch time. We fill out the forms and have our passports, visas and photos ready. The guy makes us wait a while then decides that actually we don't need to register whatever the Indian High Commission and our visas might say, so Niyema spends half an hour persuading the guy to just get off his arse and do it. He agrees eventually so we then wait an hour or so while the the police go for lunch. They come back and make us wait somewhere else. After about another hour we're told we have to be interviewed by the big man of the station himself, so we wait for him... The 'interview' entailed him talking to 2 of us then deciding he couldn't be bothered and just stamping it all anyway. So 3 or 4 hours later (I was virtually dead from exhaustion and boredom by this point) we emerge. Unfortunately we hadn't had the Dalai Lama's teachings yet so my inner peace wasn't at it's height.

The teaching itself was quite interesting - even if only because having to translate from french (my radio wouldn't pick up the english translation station) made it very confusing to follow! It was still amazing just to be there though. We were sat just outside the temple (inside there were no seats, people had been reserving spaces for a week) but could still see His Holiness and he walked right past us on his way there at least! The atmosphere was brilliant, everyone was totally friendly - we sat next to our swedish friend again. So I'm glad I was there even if I didn't understand much... but I did learn one thing - sitting on concrete cross-legged for over 4 hours gives the most incredibly numb arse.

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Comments

[Geir]

Hi Andy,
Hi Andy, How's the temperature now in Dharamsala ? Any discussion groups for people up in Dharamsala ? Places to meet the people of the village at per Internet ? Tibetan groups ? Geir (Gerhardt) Smith, Paris France.

[Geir]

Living in Dharamsala
How long are you staying in Dharamsala, Andy ? I spent some time there a few years ago and I know that suddenly the weather warms up around the end of March and then it heads straight into that warm inferno that India is down in the plains in April and which is therefore all the more just great.... up in McLeod Ganj. I found that the news group RFA (Radio Free Asia) which is part and parcel of Voice of America mostly, is the one discussion group that Tibetans really rely on and appreciate as the only place they can be sure Chinese-influenced writers will be scrutinized and eventually debunked and thus they trust it. There's also a group called Phayul that's got some pretty rich entries about various subjects - but is less sedate and cotrolled than RFA. I don't know if there seem to be any others around town to participate in. RFA and Phayul are here http://www.rfanews.org/tibbs/index.php http://www.phayul.com/forums/showForum.aspx?forumID=4 (the thread about "Save Buddha Dharma" that speaks about saving the Teaching from being stolen by people in France that steal the names of lamas and then publish the teaching under other names,.... is by me !). Thanks for your comments. Geir.