Sanga Chatwam (May We Be One)

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Tonight at post-port I decided to tell some of my story from India. Post-port obviously takes place following a port and it is a time during which the shipboard community can go to share some of their stories and experiences from each port. Now I should have warned the audience that I am a terrible storyteller ahead of time so they could be prepared. I decided to get up and talk about my meditation retreat experience because it was so different from everyone else’s. While they saw a crazy India (don’t worry I saw that too), I found peace and relaxation within a country of 1.3 billion and counting. I really wanted to convey what an awesome and unique experience I had, but I think I should just stick to writing it. Maybe if I keep getting up and trying, I will get better. Oh wait, Ni (my Art of Living instructor) told me that there was no such thing as trying, that you either do it or you don’t. Maybe I will continue doing it; it can’t hurt anything but my character and other’s opinions of me. I mean I don’t think that it was a complete and utter failure, but I don’t think that I inspired anyone to want to participate in the Art of Living.

From post-port and the general energy of the ship, I got the impression that there was not a single person that did not like India, in fact, I would venture to say that probably 90% loved it and said it was their favorite port. However, while many of us are sure we loved India, we still have not processed it or know exactly what we thought of it. There were so many things we saw and experienced that were tragic, unhealthy, and just plain sad, while at the same time there was so much happiness and beauty. One girl at post-port pointed out that all Indian women decorate their bodies on a daily basis and they dress in the finest silk sarees (Indian spelling) they can afford everyday, they pray and light candles, and just celebrate everyday life. She said that she wants to take this from India and celebrate everyday of her life as well because we never know what is around the next corner. I think this was a great observation that she made and it is something we should all think about. Why do we wait to light that candle or wear that dress? Why must it be a special occasion to get flowers? This is not a topic we discussed in great detail during the Art of Living, but we were told to celebrate life, so why not? Why not do things that make us happy and feel good on an everyday basis?

Okay, so I am still really processing India, but I have come to some conclusions. I have decided that this day, I’m not really sure why, is the beginning of my journey. I know this sounds crazy 6 days after India, 6 countries in the voyage, 3 study abroad programs and 3 years of college later, but I am finally figuring out what I want to take from this and bring home with me, and no, it is not presents for you. Maybe if you are all nice to me I’ll bring you something. I think it so important for people to really see what the world is like, really see these places first hand. I am finding more and more that the information we read in newspapers, though true in some respects, is not a reliable source to get an understanding of what is really going on in a country and what the country/culture is really about; for a lot of these places you are seeing such a small part of what is really going on and how it is affecting the lives of people in these countries. I hope that through some of my blogs I am able to convey other sides to these countries, the more positive sides, and make you want to venture to them yourselves.

We started out the first day sweating our way by bus to Mamallapuram to see some temples or four. I have absolutely no idea which temples we went to, go ahead and yell at me, but they all looked the same and did not really speak to me. I know terrible to say, but it just wasn’t something that jumped out, grabbed me by the brain and said “remember me” and that’s okay because there really was so much more that did. One thing that did stand out to me about these temple visits was what a strange and fascinating experience it was to take our shoes off in the middle of a bustling city and walk around barefoot for a few minutes. I think most of us wouldn’t even take our shoes off and walk around the Gardens Mall for two minutes never mind 30 minutes in the middle of a crazy Indian city. I am not sure why this sticks out so much, but I do feel like this is something that will stay with me. It felt wrong, but at the same time felt right and normal, if that makes any sense.

Later in the evening we reached DakshinaChitra (yes, they are supposed to be stuck together), a cultural center and art complex displaying traditional arts and crafts from the Southern India regions. This is where we stayed and this is where we took our Art of Living course even though DakshinaChitra is not affiliated with Art of Living. We were greeted at the door by two women, one who placed a dot of oil on our foreheads and the other who shook or misted some red dust onto the oil spot. I spent a lot of my time in India with some sort of red dot on my forehead and this was probably my best one. I have since learned that the reason people in India always have this dot on their heads is based on their understanding of the seven Chakras. These are energy centers along the spine located at major branches of the human nervous system, beginning at the base of the spinal column and moving upward to the crown of the head. The brow chakra “Ajna” or the third eye chakra involves balancing the higher and lower selves and trusting inner guidance as well as brings clarity on an intuitive level. After our little welcome reception we got settled in our comfortable dorm style rooms, or so we thought until we laid down on the bed and realized they were harder than rocks. Pope, think back to the time in Switzerland when you ran and jumped onto that bed and instead of having a nice, soft, bouncy landing, you felt like you landed on a wooden table; this was similar to that experience, though maybe a little more wood-like. Half the group got some air-conditioning and Western toilets, while the rest of us had no air-conditioning and some holes in the ground, but it was okay, obviously I survived.

That afternoon we were welcomed with some giant coconuts and straws to enjoy the coconut water and some nice snacks. We then had our first meeting with Ni and began what will hopefully be a long-lasting friendship with a wonderful lady. So did you know that opposites are complementary? Or that by complaining about something, you are not taking responsibility for it? Or that if you are happy you will spread happiness everywhere you go? These are some of the topics we discussed in the Art of Living course. We also need to accept people and situations as they are and not see intention in other people’s mistakes, among many more. As I look back on this 3-day “learn about myself” course, I can’t help but think about all the great times we had and the awesome people I really got to know on this trip. So I guess I learned about more than just myself. We did a great deal of meditating and reflecting which was focused primarily on ourselves, but we also did a lot of dancing, silly activities that helped us get to know one another on a more personal level, and a lot of discussing and reflecting as a group. I will never forget the huge dance parties we had to Indian music, the process of reliving nervousness and overcoming shyness, and the clapping competition I had with Taylor. For the clapping competition what you did was find a partner and while one partner did everything in their power to clap their hands repeatedly, the other partner did everything in their power to stop the other person from clapping their hands. It essentially ended up a chaotic room full of people running around, clapping their hands, and laughing hysterically.

On the more serious meditative side of things we learned a few breathing exercises and meditation techniques that I am supposed to be practicing everyday, but of course I am not. I haven’t found it in my power to go to bed early and wake up early to do my exercises. I know excuses, excuses. We did this one exercise the first day and I don’t know what to call it other than the “so-hum breathing technique.” This is a technique that all the drug abusers out there can look to picking up in the future. It is a much healthier way to reach the same end product. This breathing technique has the ability to take one from a normal state to a completely hallucinatory drug overdose state. I had never experienced anything quite like this. Ni played a tape for us and told us to sit comfortably on our mats and breathe in on the word “so” and out on the “hum.” So the tape starts and it is a man’s voice begins with three long “ahooooommmmms” and then moves on to the “so” and the “hum.” First he does a series of 20 long ones (trust me this would be better if I could say it out loud for you, but you will have to wait till I come home) that would be “sooooooo huuuuumm” then he moves on to the medium level that would be more like “sooo huumm” for forty times, and finally on to the short ones that are just “so hum, so hum, so hum” so fast you are practically spasming to keep up with the breathing. And this whole process repeats three times. After the first full set you pretty much lose control over your body. You know when your foot falls asleep, that is exactly what your entire, face, nose, everything, body feels like. So I was sitting on the flooring swaying around, hallucinating about food (I realized later that I was having vivid dreams about food, ha) through the whole process. Then when the process was finally over, the voice told us that we could lie down and after that I think I was out for a good half hour. Like magic, when I woke up my mind was completely clear for a few minutes; I found out later that this was a mind cleansing activity. So as uncomfortable as it was, it really was a special experience. At the end some people in the room did not respond when we were told to wake up or after several times of poking them, but then Ni would walk over and in her soothing voice tell them to turn to their right side and bam they were on their right side. Really the whole experience was really interesting.

We did the Art of Living for three days and when I was finished with it, I didn’t want to go. I realized that I was going to need Ni’s soothing voice and infinite words of wisdom if I was going to stay this relaxed and calm (hence not calm or relaxed any longer). The good thing is that I have her email and she can tell me what to do from now on in difficult situations, plus I have a few books written by Guru G (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) that can give me advice on some subjects. I was really hoping this course would teach me how to make this a bigger part of my life, but I guess I just have to face the fact that 3 days is not going to cut it. Maybe I’ll have to spend 3 or 4 months meditating in India like Elizabeth Gilbert in “Eat, Pray, Love.”

After three days of meditation we were let loose on the city of Chennai. Maybe this was the best way to do it because we had a calm base from which to take on this Indian city. The next morning I headed out with 7 friends in search of something in this city that Lonely Planet deemed “doesn’t demand too much of your time.” Despite the fact that was described as “muggy, polluted, hot as hell and difficult to get around,” Chennai still managed to show me a great time. By the way, getting around was most of the fun. Have you ever ridden in a rickshaw? If not, you should! At first I thought “Oh great, dear Lord please let everyone I love know that I love them because I may not see tomorrow.” But here we are and obviously I got to see tomorrow and about 30 seconds into my rickshaw ride I started wondering why we didn’t all drive these go cart-like vehicles. The most intense part of the whole process was bargaining with about 30 drivers for one to take us to City Center (the mall in the middle of the city). Our driver (Johnny) had a notebook that tourists, previous Semester at Sea students, and locals have written in about how great he was and I’ll tell you he fit every description that was in that book. He took us to a great restaurant for lunch, waited for us for three hours with no complaints, and got us where we needed to be when we needed to be there. We started out the morning with a tour of the University of Madras, followed by lunch, saree shopping, and a Bollywood movie. We went to the university because we wanted to find a shirt or a sweatshirt that said “University of Madras,” but after about an hour of walking around the campus, we decided they didn’t exist. After that we took a nice long ride across town to a cute local place for lunch, which was delicious. As we were riding, we decided that rickshaws would make a great video game and we pretended we were in one because every road we turned on got a little more difficult to maneuver through. The first road was about a 6-lane interstate, so all we had to deal with was cars, then we turned on to a smaller road where there were some bicyclists, then the next road got a little skinner and there were a lot of people walking around, and finally level 4 consisted of a market, people, bicycle, cars, and other rickshaws all on a tiny skinny street. We passed all the levels!

Driving in India is a topic entirely of its own. At first I though it was the most chaotic thing I had ever seen. One minute we were swerving through traffic, the next we were passing on the right (they drive on the left), which would be in oncoming traffic, but it didn’t faze anyone else, so why should it faze us. On top of that it seems as though they are just constantly honking their horns for fun or to be annoying, but I figured out later it was just to let other cars, rickshaws, motorbikes, bicycles, and peoples, know that they were there and not to get in their way, which turned out to be very effective. By the way did I mention that there are no lines marking lanes? There is one line down the middle of the road to mark each side of the traffic, but even that is regularly ignored. So what do you guys think would happen if I just felt like driving wherever I wanted and if I got pulled over I just told the cop that its how they do it in India? Still on the topic of driving in India, entire families ride on motorbikes, sometimes you see the 3-year-old children in the drivers seat and sometimes they are squashed between the mom and the dad, sometimes there are families of four or five riding down the street. Also for the lovely ladies in their silk sarees riding along, all of the bikes are equipped with a “side saddle platform” for their feet. Yes, all the women ride these crazy motorbikes in their brilliantly colored silk sarees facing sideways. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I would like getting around India in this fashion. Another interesting thing to note is that Indian people eat with their hands most of the time. We did this a little bit on our Art of Living retreat, but after that we reverted back to forks. So far we have seen that Westerners eat with forks and knives, Ghanaians eat with their hands along with Indians, and all these Asian countries eat with chopsticks. I dare you to have your next dinner party themed Indian. Serve your friends and family delectable Indian curry on a banana leaf and leave them to figure out what to do. It will take you back your childhood years when you just thought it was funny and silly. But Mom and Dad, even the grownups do it in India. Better watch out for me at Christmas dinner!

Okay there are two things you can do in Chennai, India if you would like to escape the heat. You can go saree shopping or you can hit up a Bollywood film. Both will last you about 3 hours while only one will provide you refuge from the masses of people that exist in India. That would be the Bollywood film. These are huge in India and honestly with the lack of anything interesting in our movie theaters I think it is about time they came over to the U.S. We caught the last 45 minutes of one called “All the Best.” This movie was entirely in Tamil (the language of the province of Tamil Nadu where Chennai is located), but we still spent the entire 45 minutes cracking up. The Bollywood movies are normally about 3 hours long with an intermission at the hour and half point and since our saree shopping went so long we only caught the last 45 minutes. Luckily one of the girls I was with found a copy in Vietnam with English subtitles so now I can find out if what I thought was going on was actually going on. These movies are energetic, colorful, comical, and so different from anything we would see in the movies at home. It was great and now I cannot wait for our movie night.

Okay the other thing you can do to escape the heat in India is saree shopping. We had the special opportunity of meeting one of Ni’s (remember my Art of Living instructor) friends to help us through this process. I was imagining a small hole in the wall store, where they would show us maybe 40 fabrics we could choose from and then they would make some sarees, but, boy, was I wrong. They have saree department stores in India. Yes, it is a Bloomingdales full of beautiful silks ready to be made into sarees. There were the ready-mades, the premium silks, the washable silks, silks for wedding sarees, vintage fabrics, etc.; there were four floors of fabric. Oh, plus a basement. I have never seen so much fabric in my life. If we had places like this we were never buy anything already made, that is so primitive and boring. I would pick my fabric and make my own thing out of it, and then I would pick the fabric for my bed, for my curtains, for my couch, chairs, etc. The list would be endless and the fabrics really were endless. Remember how I said that you could go to a Bollywood film for 3 hours, well you can easily spend 3 hours browsing a silk store, more if you have the time. Thank goodness for Ni’s friend and her son (Vi, they all have names that are too difficult for us to say, so they give us the shortened version, just like I tell foreigners my name is Kris) or we would have been a lost cause. Anyways finally we all picked out our fabrics and then we took them down the street to have them made into traditional Indian sarees; I actually decided not to have mine made, I just kept the fabric (I thought I would probably only wear the saree once or twice in my life so I want to use the fabric for something a little more practical that will be seen more than twice in my life).

Later that night after the Bollywood film, Vi came to the mall and picked us up and took up to a great local place for dinner. It was Northern Indian food, which was just as delicious as Southern India food. My favorite is their substitutions for bread, they have gnon (spelling?), roti, and paratha, and once you try these you will never want to go back to regular bread. Their spices are amazing too! We enjoyed an entire dinner each using just one hand/arm because we had just gotten henna and we had to let it dry. So I’m sure that was a sight for some of the people serving us and I know that Vi got a kick out of us. After dinner we stopped for some soft serve ice cream on the way back to the ship. All and all it was a great day in Chennai; I got to do a lot of what I wanted to do, I saw a lot of the city, and I made a great Indian friend in the process. So lets go back to what Lonely Planet had to say and I would agree that you may not need tons of time to explore the city, but definitely do not rush, keep an open mind, and you never know what great treasures you will find within a city that at first glance may not appeal to all of the senses (although the experience will include all of the senses).

My final day in Chennai, I partook in two Semester at Sea trips. The first one in the morning was to the Sri Sayee Vivekananda Vidyalaya Matriculation Higher Secondary School (now that is a name if I have ever seen one). This school serves the educational need of the economically disadvantaged population of the area. Out of 770 students, 235 students receive scholarships, 47 receive textbooks and notebooks free of cost, and 11 children receive full scholarships. The school has a co-ed system from kindergarten through 12th grade and English is the medium of instruction. When we got there in the morning, we got off the bus one by one, a woman placed another dot on our foreheads and then a student (probably 6-8 years old) greeted us with a rose and took us to the classroom where we convened to figure out what we were going to do and put our things down. First we watch their all school assembly, which was not all that different from our assemblies at Benjamin. After the assembly we were free to move around to the different classroom and interact with the kids. For the most part we went to the classroom, introduced ourselves, drew a map of the U.S. and showed them where we were from, sang songs, and played games with them. In one class every single student wanted my autograph which was difficult because I couldn’t write my name 35 times repeatedly on a piece a paper, besides I am not famous or important in any way, shape or form. But it was still fun, I think the kids had a good time with us/I know the kids had a good time and it was great to see that there are good projects out there making a difference in the world and in the lives of children. After we mingled for a while we were brought a performance area, where we saw a magic act, some karate, and some traditional dance. It was all awesome, but karate is just unbelievable to me; these kids were breaking three or four bricks with their bare hands (there karate teacher is the champion of Southern India). Something that was interesting to learn was that not only do the kids learn dance and karate, but they also integrate yoga and other forms of meditation into the P.E. classes. I think they have started to do this a little at home, but still this is a school that many would see and consider far behind those of the Western world and in some respects they may be ahead of us.

After my great visit to the school, I went on an FDP to a hospital in Chennai. The FDP was called traditional medicine and based on the description I thought I was going to learn a lot about Ayuvedic medicine, but really it was just more informational on the workings of the hospital. It was still an experience to see this hospital, but the trip was not exactly what I was hoping. They talked a lot about the holistic approach to medicine, which was interesting, but not really anything beyond what I already knew of the subject. After this trip we headed back to the ship just in time for “on ship time” and then my time in India was up. The time in port just flies by; we pack a lot of stuff into a very short amount of time and sometimes it just takes a while to process exactly what we did and the experience that we had. India was definitely an indescribable experience (I know it seems like I described it in 7 pages here, but I don’t think I have even scratched the surface). It is place I plan on going back to and it is a place you need to go for yourself and experience for yourself because I cannot pass on the smells or the tastes, or the sights exactly as they are in India. It has really been a treat getting to go to this country. It is place where you need to keep an open mind and prepare yourself for a different experience, but it will be a great one if you do that. Before we got to India, they told us “If you love India, it will love you back, but if you hate India, it will hate you back twice as much” and at this point I can see how that could be true. And finally of course never forget that the present moment is inevitable.

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