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although this body is physically in thailand.....chang mai in the mellow, mountainous north....i will write a bit of india. i know the photos have both peaked the curiosity and satisfied the senses. the camera repair may prove to have been a band-aid as yesterday the screen read "system error". please take a moment for a silent prayer!!!!
hmmm....lets see.....a quandry i find myself in. how does one back-blog with accuracy, with details, with clarity??? i can simply make up some juicy stories and you would never know, after all a story is a story and once the day passes...it never really happened anyway!!
firstly, if anyone is looking for a profound yet funny, historical yet autobiographical, detailed yet poetic lengthy read i highly recommend "shantaram". over 900 pages of captivating words telling the tale of an escaped australian convict and his newly created life in the mumbai, india underworld.
i leave pune sometime in april after a 10 day liver cleanse with a 3 month supply of "delicious" tasting ayurvedic medicine to compliment the process. the plan is/was to fly to delhi and immediately make my way to the rail station to catch a train to varanasi. the flight is a blink of an eye and the train is an overnight journey of 13 hours. if i was to train the whole thing it would be 20 something hours or maybe 30 something firstly to delhi. indeed, flying it is. i am on the plane and all is well. nearing landing i hear "we will be arriving new delhi in 20 minutes, blah, blah, blah and the current ground temperature is 42* (celcius) (i think i need to go to spelling school) i have been in the 20's and i have been in the 30's but 42...that sounds unbearably hot. i inquire with my neighbor who does some technical calculations on his phone then he shows the conversion to me, it reads 105*. does that really say 105*?? i am melting already and still i sit quite comfortably on an air conditioned plane. the hottest day i recall was in the summer of '98 driving sweet pea through california and my tire exploded-it was 99*. ok...what to do...this is what happens when one travels in india during the HOT season.
i make it to the train station with about 2 hours to spare. get cozy on a bench and begin to read. the man next to me, who was seemingly well educated and in the upper classes, strikes up a conversation which at first i wasnt in the mood to entertain then ok.....lets see what we can offer each other. he asks the usual, "where are you going", "are you travelling alone", "are you married"- this is where it starts to get interesting. often, there is a shift after the local person digests that this woman, at her age, is unwed. she must be lonely without a man to care for and afraid to grow old without someone to care for her. we began to discuss relationships and the institution of marriage. he revealed to me that he is having a sexual relationship with another woman unbeknownst to his beloved wife and he fully and completely believes in lifetime partnership without ever separating. i share briefly why i support separation when the flow of the hearts vibration shifts and my questions regarding the committment for a lifetime. we discussed further his marriage and his affair in relation to my viewpoints and he said he learned something. we then began to talk about how traditionally in india men and woman dont display public affection yet man and man walk hand in hand as common practice. i told him that in the west, when man and man are holding hands it usually means they are in a homosexual relationship. he claimed to not know what this means and asked me to explain in details how man and man & woman and woman can please each other. i tell him to explore for details on the internet or at the library. he explains how he doesnt really have the space to do that so i muster up all my maturity and begin these teachings. he is asking many detailed questions and in a short time i no longer trust his innocence and simply cant comfortably navigate this communication. he also reaches this point of gross uncomfortability and simultaneously we begin to rise at which point he preceedes to tell me that he created the whole "affair" only to see how i would respond.....hmmmm...true or not true??
i get on my train which is sleeper non a/c. i have the top side bed, they are comfortable enough, which lays under two fans yet windowless. it is an open square (no curtains for privacy) with a bed below mine looking at six other beds...three on each side facing each other. can you picture it....i am in the north looking at the east/west. the other folks in my little corner of the world are extremely pleasant. one man speaks decent english and he serves as a translator for our inquiries into each others lives. there is a sweet couple from varanasi who although are quite traditional in their family values also seem to understand with great humor and be most intrigued by my independence. we laugh and tell stories of their, especially momma, over-protection of their grown children and their bewilderment of how my parents can sleep at night. i tell them that i am not positive that they do!!
i experience a few moments of deep appreciation for this arranged marriage which has brought them a loving and close extended family (they just left their grandson of 2 years and called him several times from the train) and an opportunity to grow deeply in surrender to committment from youth to the elder years. i observe momma serving her husband dinner from her "tiffin boxes", which are stainless steel "tupperware", as he grossly chews and drops food all over his shirt while she cleans him as he continues eating. she allows him to finish before she even begins eating. later at night i see him abruptly shove her awake as they have both fallen asleep on the lower bed and command her, all wrapped in her sari, to crawl up into the cramped space of the middle bed and in the morning when they are both back on the lower bed (during the day, the middle is dropped down and used as the back rest for the lower bed which becomes the day bench) he lays down for more sleep leaving her enough space for her tiffin boxes!! is this love?? does she ever feel lonely, afraid, misused or is the constant companionship and security enough for her heart to feel rich in love??
there are vendors in the train all day and into the night yelping "chai, chai, chai ...... "coffee", "coffee", "coffee" and various other culinary treats which i cant always decipher. actually, i believe treats is not the operative word here. even at 4:00 am or 7:00am, at the first station of the morning, a hot sweet cup of masala chai is comforting and mandatory on an indian train....while the swirl and twirl of people, colors, bags/boxes, smells of human waste, creaking and crackling, more train and platform vendors and porters with their red shirts hustling/bustling heavy luggage on their scarved wrapped heads begin our day!!
i arrived at a guest house in varansai.....went for breakfast and my first brief walk along the holy and sacred ganges river. came home for a nap. opened the balcony door for a fresh breeze and took a few things out of my pack so i could reach my towel for a cool shower. after a while, i awoke to the sound of water running from the bathroom. i definately didnt leave the shower running and get into bed. hmm.....a dripping water theme....i looked around and saw small muddy footprints coming from the bathroom and heading towards the balcony.....my eyes followed and in sheer amazement i saw a family of large brown monkeys sitting quite contently on the balcony opening and eating one by one (minus the paper) the individually wrapped 90 day supply of ayurvedic medicine dosages.
that would create thirst in anyone!!
at least their livers are now cleansed...........
to be continued 😊😊
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mom
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u r just something else
hi baby daughter, thanks again for the wonderful travel blog and of course the many laughs that go with it. that line about sleeping at night was the best. However lucky for you, I dont sleep well anyway. Love and miss you