Culture Shock and Ashram stay

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phheeewww, I finally got over health problems. You know, even if you just have stomach problems, it should not be too difficult. But if you have them in India, with hot and sticky weather it is just awful!!! We were staying in Mysore in this very nice hostel. After seeing the Maharadsha Palace, we had been to the temple on the top of the mountain the following day and we went to the Brindavan Gardens the next day. The usually film Bollywood movies there. Then we went to a restaurant and had dinner and did something we should not have done. We ordered fruits with ice cream. The ice cream was fine, but you should never order cut up fruit, not even in restaurants! And that was a mistake. All was still fine when we came back to the hostel. We got our bags ready as we were leaving the next day for Bangalore. But then during the whole night Leoni and I took turn in throwing up and having diarrhea. We felt so weak the next day, but still got to the train station and trying to keep above water with Coke. The train journey could have been fun, if you are well enough to laugh about it. But we were just holding our stomachs while people crammed at 6 or seven on benches which were supposed to be for 4 people only. They even sat on all benches above, which were actually for bags. Anyway we somehow made it to Bangalore and were welcomed by a contact of mine, which I got through my parents. It was an adorable elderly Indian lady. She took such good care of us, prepared very light food. After a good shower and a long afternoon sleep we sat together with her and a friend of hers and had a long and very funny conversation. The other lady turned out to be the wife of someone who used to be ambassador of India. We got to hear very good stories which made us laugh and forget about our stomach aches. Then we accompanied the lady home to her residence, which was of course quite exquisite. There were many pictures of the family with international politicians and celebrities. We also met her husband and talked to him for a while. It was very interesting to hear that he specialized for Arabian countries because Leoni and I met at an Arabic course back in Hamburg. Then we were walked back home by one of the servants. It was just to surreal to walk the streets of Bangalore accompanied by a body guard. We had dinner: toast and Gouda! it was heaven!!! The next day we set off for an Ashram to just calm down and relax. Good thing they have a western canteen. I will see when I trust my stomach to digest Indian food again.

Even though this has already been a cultural shock, and many things can be frustrating, I feel much better now. Indian culture seems to me to be as illogic as the Banyam tree. The Banyam tree (national tree of India) has roots on the ground but also develops roots from among its braches and sends them to the ground too. So it seems to come out from all sides. There is no above and below, there is no order, but even in this chaos life is possible. And i need to get at the bottom of it. Luckily for me, I have met very nice and dear people whoo already explained a lot to me. For example one of the elderly ladies said: in India you just have white and black - there is no grey. Instead of finding a compromise, you just crush the old thing and build something new on top. It is difficult to explain in more clearly. But people who have been here, will exactly know what I mean...

Tomorrow I will head back for Bangalore and meet my friends again. Maybe they can give me some advise for a good saree 😊

P.S. pictures will follow later, Cameras are not allowed in Ashrams...

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