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Published: February 9th 2008
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Meditation pod 11
This is the meditation pod 2 doors down from where John Lennon actually meditated I am back again in Delhi after another lovely week in Rishikesh. Things continued in the same vein for another week- the panchakarma continued, with more massages and then some oil based hosepipe action which i am no stranger too.. I felt better and better as the days went on- what with that, the daily yoga, the 10 hours a night sleeping.. it was bliss.
The guest house was brilliant and totally made the trip really. I got really friendly with Nao, the japanese girl who was also doing the same yoga class. We had a routine where I would meet her for chai first thing before yoga and then we would set off down the hill to class and then both got on with our respective days. Every night we would meet again, back at the guest house and tell each other what we had been up to.
Sunday night the guest house manager Dhanni and his pal/cousin - who knows - Sunnu - asked if we wanted to go to the movies.. of COURSE we did. Me and Nao hopped on the back of the motorbike and headed off into the freezing night to the local cinema.
Me and Nao
Me and Nao have final lunch, me in fully cleansed mode It was freezing, below zero for sure - and whipping along on the back of a scooter in that temperature, zipping in and out of indian traffic (like whacky races in the dark), with Sunnu turning round every 2 mins to talk to me... oh my, it was exhiliarting all right. The roads are tarmac at points, but quickly veer between semi normal, to potholed dirt tracks and back again, all on the same "main road"- and scooters arent exactly famed for their suspension. Sunnu was wearing a puffa jacket, and to silence my internal screams I pressed my face full power into his back and just held on as tight as posible til we got there. Thank god my Mum doesnt read this.
The cinema though, despite the crazy journey, was excellent. Me and Nao were the only two girls there, and the boys sat at either side of us which i thought was pretty gallant of them. Rama Rama - it as a comedy - and the byline on the posters outside was "It's funny"- which had me laughing before I even sat down. No pic 'n' mix, and the like, but a pretty good array of samosas, other fried snacks, soft drinks and popcorn were on offer - but as I was in full cleanse mode I couldnt have anything. Was great though - the film itself is in Hindi, with the odd english sentence thrown in -but the facial expressions and the general slapstick comedy made it sort of understandable. The audience were amazing too. This was basically a not very good film, ie the stars were not famous, but there were jeers, and screams of laughter and general merrirment all the way through - it was a total laugh. People use their mobiles, completely ignore the Non Smoking signs, and have a good night out it seems to me. After an hour the curtain came down and there was an Intermission...memories of childhood came flooding back... and then the everyone poured out for a legal fag outside on the pavement. The second hour was pretty much the same as the first. It was a great experience and I am not really sure what happened at the end - someone got the girl of course.
Another excellent day trip, Nao and I went to explore the infamous Beatles ashram - where the fab four descended in 1968 for a bit of transcendental meditation. I have no idea what that is, but George Harrison was apparently really into it and persuaded the others to go along. Whilst there they wrote the White Album and most of Abbey Road (my favourite beatles album).. and generally chilled out, but then got pissed off with the Maharishi (the guru who ran the place) because he made at pass at Mia Farrow.. good gosh, the scandal. And so many celebs in one place I thought (even Donovan was there as well...). Anyway, I know all this because the day after our visit , the newspapers were full of news that the famous Maharishi actually died that day... how spooky. Little did we know when we were sitting in the meditation pod practising our Ommmmmmmmmmmssss and pretending to be John and Cynthia (this was before Yoko stole him), that the big man has passed on... it was a really cool place though. Cant quite imagine what rishikesh was like back then (40 years ago), but it is so friendly now, it makes sense that the locals have been receiving weirdo visitors for a long time. Sadly we had been tipped off that number 11 was where John hung out so that was where we focussed our attentions - but when we returned home Avi (israeli who I have now found out has a taste for opium of a free evening...) told us it was actually number 9 we were looking for. They were identical though - maybe Ringo stayed in 11.
Panchakarma officially finished on Thursday and I swear I felt brilliant. I had a lovely day around town, and then when I came home my yoga teacher Louise and her boyfriend were having a bit of a row and drinking beer and smoking (this is my yoga teacher remember) so I ended the 2 week cleanse with a binge of 3 beers and some fags... and it was great really.. I never promised to become a saint.
So here I am, killing time really until my flight to Kathmandu tomorrow morning. Have no energy to fight my way through Delhi today, and have scheduled three days at the end of my trip in April to do some last minute souvenir shopping, so am just cafe cruising and taking it easy. The flight I bought is scheduled for 0645 on Sunday, and it is one of the old fashioned flight tickets.. (when is the last time you saw one of them!).. but mysteriously it doesnt correspond with any flight schedules that are on the internet. Am trying not to let this worry me. My visa doesnt actually expire until 15th Feb, so i have time to get another flight if it all goes wrong.
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