Misadventuresome!

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Merry Christmas AND Namaste!



I have been mentally writing and preparing this blog for a few days now, unsure of exactly how to document the last 3 weeks of my life here in India and uncertain as to whether I want to include absolutely everything, given the diversity of my audience (which includes parents and grandparents!) but I have decided to just lay it all out, in large part because a lot of it was incredibly entertaining but also because my travelling in Africa a few years ago was really challenging and difficult and I didn't always want to let on just how challenging and difficult and it led to me holding back a lot when I should have been honest, and I really don't want that to happen again, so enough with the rambling – here it is!





The first bit of time here in Gokarna (the beach side holy town that has retained much of its charm and holiness due to the fact that the British were never here, nor were the Portugese or Dutch, and so it has remained fully Indian throughout all these years) was full of some really good introspection. I came here to heal my body but ended up healing my mind and soul as well, a little bit. Delhi was surprisingly a lot tougher emotionally than I had anticipated, which I think I mentioned in the last blog, so I felt really good about giving myself time to breathe here and relax and just wiggle back into my head a little bit, taking lots of time to float in the water, daydream in my hammock, and walk on the beach. Of course I was not a hermit (while I wish sometimes I could be one of those happy hermits, meditating all day long (and while totally acknowledging how vipassanna was a very valuable experience for me) I am facing up to the fact that I am most definitely not!), I met lots of amazing people (who I will get to shortly) who I have spent lots of amazing hours with, but I did take a lot of time to think and be alone and do some work on myself. In particular, I had a palm reading by the old Panamanian Swami that was very enlightening. It was quite similar to the palm reading I had done in Jaipur last time I was here, which should lend credibility to the palm reading industry, especially since this one I was not paying for! But the Swami said something that really resonated with me, and that was that I was very detached from my relationships.



Detachment is like the Holy Grail in Eastern spirituality and philosophy. Everyone wants detachment, to not have to depend on external things, places or people in order to find peace and fulfillment. Ideally, one should lead a life free of attachments in order to gain enlightenment and live purely and totally freely. Being told that I was a detached person by nature was therefore pretty bittersweet for me. It helped bring awareness to the fact that yes, I can flit through life meeting this friend and that boyfriend, all relationships that for one reason or another will end, and I will be ok in the because I am not super, intensely, unbelievably attached to them. But at the same time, I do not exist in a vacuum. Yes, I have those friendships that have stood the test of time (and without which I could not possibly be the person I am today, so for that I am so grateful), but I also have had friendships end that I thought would be those time-tested, lifelong relationships that I would have until I was senile in a rocking chair. And while I may be ok with these friendships ending and have no lasting damage or scars, I realize now that maybe the other people were hurt by the relationships ending, and for that I am truly sorry, because again every relationship I have had, no matter how fleeting, has helped me in some way. I am realizing now that I can be sometimes flighty when it comes to people's feelings, not realizing that not everyone feels how I do, and I sincerely apologize if anyone who is reading this has ever been hurt by careless words I may have said or careless actions I may have done. I am not excusing myself, and will be much more conscious in the future of how what I do affects other peoples' feelings, but I am offering up remorse for anyone who wants it.



Anyways, that soul-searching out of the way, and self-realization occurring on a continuous basis, I was able to meet some amazing young men who I mentioned in my last blog. One of them in particular has turned into a very special friend. Pashupatti grew up in India, the son of a Swedish musician and Italian yoga teacher, attending school in Almora, a small town in the Himalayas, with a bunch of other local children. Because of this, he speaks Hindi fluently (and how I rage with jealousy every time he does!) as well as English and Italian and I have spent many happy hours listening to him talk to Pradeep, his childhood friend from here in India, in Hindi, and talk to Gioele, his childhood friend from Italy, in Italian. These 3 guys have been my entertainment and social life for the last few weeks, and we've had some really amazing times together that have mostly involved a lot of eating, and me being treated to meals, which I thought was very sweet until after them paying for one meal I heard them say something in Italian which apparently translates to “investment”, which I thought was very Italian and hilarious! Nevertheless, I have had tons of fun with them, helping them check items off of their “To-Do in Gokarna” list, like hike to an old Banyan tree in the forest, swim to a barnacle-encrusted island a kilometre out in the sea, and eat really good local breakfasts



Other misadventures of late included falling out of my hammock last night (and no, last night was not the bhang lassi night!) and over my balcony which is about 7 or 8 feet off the ground, but I am fine! As always, due to my incredibly clumsy nature, the universe has ensured that nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises happened to me and for that I am really lucky. I have given my neighbours a few laughs as well as a few grey hairs! Apparently I made quite a sight, falling over a balcony in full sari and landing on my feet like some sort of agile cat, which I am not, but if that's how I look so much the better!



The Italians left today, and we spent it renting motorcycles, real ones, which in retrospect was a silly decision on the day that they had to catch a train (but as far as I know they are well on their way back to Delhi). We rented them along with some Australian friends of ours and had one thing after another go wrong. First, one of them kept stalling and was undriveable. So we piled 3 people on each of the other 2 bikes and kept going (the destination was Yana, a holy site in the forest, that is this really cool enormous rock formation in the middle of all this dense and gorgeous vegetation). After visiting Yana we got back on the bikes to retrieve the broken one and make a game plan for getting back to Gokarna in time to catch the train. Unfortunately one of the bikes has some weird quirk and the gears are not in the right place, so when Pashu kicked the bike into first gear to go up a huge hill, it went into a different gear (I'm talking about this like I know something about bikes – I do not) and we started rolling down the hill backwards, uncontrollably. This is not a fun thing. To be on a fairly big motorcycle that is rolling backwards down a huge hill and cannot be stopped is actually quite alarming, and again it is only by the grace of the universe that we all emerged again, unscathed, without too many scrapes or bruises and that the bike did not suffer much damage, either, although we took a pretty big spill and the bike miraculously did not fall on us. So the next hour saw us alternately hiking and being driven (2 people per bike, this time) back to the broken bike, which our Australian friend Nick coasted about 8 km downhill like a champ. We managed to eventually get all 3 bikes on the road again but darkness had fallen by this point and one of the bikes turned out to have no functioning headlights, so the other 2 bikes had to sandwich the 3^rd one so it could see where it was going, which worked fine until bike number 3 ran out of petrol. Pashu and I then rode ahead to the nearest petrol station, filled up my empty 1-litre water bottle with gasoline, and rode back to the stopped bike to fill it up. This is a normal day in India. For serious.



All is well that ends well, as usual, and I am right now snuggled up in bed with incense burning in the corner and laughter on my lips over the fact that December, my “quiet month of introspection and relaxation”, has turned into what it has been – lessons in not having expectations and in patience are always welcome with me though and this has definitely been one of them! I will miss my 3 friends immensely but know with full confidence that they were brought to me for a reason and how lucky I am to have had them for the last few weeks, while I look forward with anticipation for the arrival of my MOM in one week's time! I can't wait to have someone to share the long train journeys with and to see India with fresh eyes again!



A MOST Merry Christmas and so much love to everyone back home! I am so blessed and grateful at this time of year to have you all bringing me so much happiness, joy, and life lessons when I need them! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your loved ones, and so many blessings for the new year to come (although I am hoping to blog again before New Year's!).



XOXOXOXOXO love!!



p.s. - the funny story about Israelis: It's pretty common to see them in India, totally stoned and going wild, fresh out of their 3 or 4 year military service. Apparently some go so far away from the holy path of Judaism that there is actually a house in Goa that has rabbis living at it who go around and collect all the wayward Israeli kids who have strayed so badly that they need to be re-brainwashed into being good Jewish kids again. I was wondering why I saw Orthodox Jews on the beach the other week; now I know why!

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Photos

Gokarna Sun
What I see every night

Drum Circle!
I can't get away from them!

Bike Day!
Before anything went wrong!

Yana
Cave exploration - this is a holy site so you have to take your shoes off, which makes exploring bat-shit-covered caves REALLY fun!

Prohibited Items
Thank God I left all my chickens at home!

Hampi
Back in time, to Hampi! Amazing temple carvings

Obviously
I cannot get away from goats!

Hampi views
The day I hiked to the temple on the mountain and cried, which I mentioned in the last blog!

Temple
Hampi again!

Blessings
You give the elephant 10 Rupees and in return it blesses you. This elephant makes a LOT of money!

Comments

[Lisa]

Shannon your experiences are amazing and I\'m glad you chose to share them with us. Remind me when your\'re home to share one with you.(your mom was with me) As I read them I feel like I\'m there with you; you have an amazing gift in your ability to write! Love Lisa

[Uncle Rob]

Wow Shannon
Hey Shannon, glad to hear you're having fun....both your mind and body which I gather are completely seperate?? Thanks for the details of your acid trip....lasting memories for sure. Sorry to hear about your misadventures on the......ahem......scooters (motorcycles.......really?)....I don't suppose those scooters had brakes?.....hmmmm...they might of come in handy to avoid rolling in any undesired direction....most notably backwards. I hope Chris arrived safely and that the two of you are having fun.