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Published: March 4th 2010
I see there are 22 people, plus partners sometimes, who read, or at least are invited to read this blog. I thought it would be fun for you to get to know each other a little, and find out who you are exactly, that I would inflict this burden upon.
Let's go chronologically, from people I've known the longest, which means that Louise, you are up.
Born a year after me, I've known her all her life. Louise is a fiery vegan Leo woman, looks after Aids patients in a hospice. Used to be quite the party animal. Kind of girl I would hit on if I met her in a bar. Actually....ah, that was a long time ago, I was drunk, and I think she's forgiven me.
Janet is the next in line, the only relative to have visited me in past 30 years. A great mum of 2 boys and a live wire, I had a sore throat after her visit from so much gabbing and laughter. Turned my back in the pub for a minute, and a half dozen locals were telling her their life stories. When I was 17, she was 13, and we hitched around Eastern Canada, she holding off my hormonally charged teenage advances ( My God Sam you were a horny little creep!) Another attractive lady and my friend.
Brother Joe, the baby for a long time, only 6 years between us. Was already famous, just for being my brother, but got himself into the Samaya Hall of Fame when he had a little affair with my girlfriend. Kind of thing I would do. Actually had lots of women in common over the years. Makes sense I guess Although haven't seen each other for 11 years, email is proving easier for us than letters or phone calls ever were. Love him like a brother-and more.
Say hello to Steve. We traveled overland to India together in 1977, and when my money was gone I spent his-and smoked his Afghani pollen. Lose touch for years at a time, but again, internet to the rescue, and saw him regularly when I lived in Scotland. One of the good guys. His partner, wife maybe? is Vicki, earth mother type, accupuncturist, now into investigating family trees. ( I looked mine up-found out I was the sap) or if you groaned at that one--looked up my family tree, found some of my family still living in it.
Always up for a laugh, very pleased to consider them real friends.
Setu, love of my life, well, for a chunk of it anyway, my first love, that's it! In the fashion business in Marbella, always glamourously beautiful as only French girls know how. Feel fortunate and blessed to still have her in my life. She sees to it that my friend Shravekar keeps a roof over his head, and has plenty of time for his botanical experiments and horticultural studies. A shining example of the results of a Public school background, a good and funny man.
Azad my man, write me sometime! Azad never writes, and I live in the hope that some day he will write me first, not just respond to one of my biannual emails. Should have dropped him years ago, but I've always been in love with him, from paint crew on the ranch-we were the coolest- to California and working together there after being ejected from the womb of Oregon, broke and on the streets of San Francisco. Formerly a struggling actor in Montreal, now a struggling script writer, will always be one of my most loved friends.
I've known Manartha since Medina commune days. 1982. Later in Pune after a common girl friend-she wasn''t common, you know what I mean- we became buddies, became regular chess opponents, and shared the odd spliff while listening to football on the BBC world service on Saturday nights. Thanks to him I'm a Chelsea supporter. Another relationship where we don't see each other often, but we know what's happening. Knows secrets about me that no one else will ever know. Has me by the balls, in other words!
Prasad is my birding friend, and probably the person I communicate most with while I'm over here. No one else can really comprehend the agony and the joy that this obsessive hobby entails. Even more obsessive than I am- he may even have pills for it- Prasad lives with his sweetie Leena ( The long suffering Leena some would say) on Mull, where not a blade of grass is born or a bird or moth make a move, without his recording it on his blog. A hermit and proud of it, without the internet he would have no friends at all. One of my all time best buddies, I love him a lot.
Adarsha! Yo Dude! Bonded with each other and about 500 magic mushrooms in 1996, this ex-lover of Narayani's is my best friend (What is this? High school?) and my main man. Cool guitarist, nature lover and beer drinker, manages two foreign holidays a year while seeming to never have any source of income. Only serious problem is a congenital eye defect, where he imagines bald spots on the back of my head. Otherwise, very cool dude. Love him so much I took his name and became a member of the Forest clan. Try explaining that to people. Keeping him grounded is the delectable Darshita, who puts up with my pawing and outrageous flirting (secretly enjoys and craves it!) Her boyfriend sleeps easy knowing that if anything nasty should befall him, the body won't be cold before I'm in there with my own brand of comfort for the grieving widow.
Nick can usually be found propping up a bar in an exotic locale, from Osho Leela in Dorset to the hillls of the Blue Mhong in Laos, or Crank's Ridge in the Himalayas. Another good example of the type of boy the public schools can turn out, Nick refuses to grow old gracefully, and annually falls in love with innocent 22 year olds. A fellow traveler and great conversationalist. A friend.
Sheila is one of the loves of my life, and considering she's about 95 ( Doesn't look it!) and my mother-in-law, that's pretty impressive. Always supportive and there for me, has to put up with the hugs and tickles my own mum would be getting if she lived closer. A very elegant and fun lady. XXXXX
David is Narayani's brother, Adarsha's friend, and therefore an automatic addition to the tribe. Would be my buddy even if he didn't know those two. Lives in Oz where his creative side-radio shows, singing, guitar, songwriting, would see him starve to death, so like me, and many other sensitive types, makes a living flinging paint at walls. A brother.
Yatro is someone I've known slightly for a very long time, and when I moved into the town she was living in, got to know her slightly better, but still, not very much. Sharp sense of humour, good friends with the girlfriend, I like her a lot.
Kirsty and Clem, sometimes known as Clem and Kirsty, are a couple of world travelers who have decided to take a 20 year break and raise three girls, in a way that can only make envious those of us who had more traditional upbringings. Youth hostel managers in Scotland the last 10 years or so, we became friends in our common rebellion against idiotic bureaucracies. I'm old enough to be their father, but they don't seem to hold that against me. Good people.
Joanna is another friend I met in the wilds of Scotland, managing a Skye hostel on her own, and pretending not to be posh. Narayani's friend to start with, I soon claimed her as my own, and never see enough of her. Soon to live in Bristol, and I hope we do lots together.
I don't know Abhar so well, but she was the first person I told that I was single, when that event happened. Read into that what you will. Seems to be forever searching for a place to stop, told me she stopped reading this blog, I was putting her off going to India. Come back Abhar, you're really missing some good stuff here.! See you soon.
Julieann. Ably assisted me recently in ending 15 years of monogamy, during a beautiful weekend in Dorset. A Manchester girl , makes jewellery and sells it and other new age, hippie stuff at festivals and her own boutique in Bournemouth. I'll always be grateful to her for letting me fall in love with her and her blue wig, and just as easily letting her go. We've been staying in touch, I hope it continues.
Janice was the first woman I really noticed at a festival last year, and eventually we met and became friends. My first experience of a "Cuddling Date", which once I learned to ignore the occasional erection, are a fantastic way of being with someone you really like. Lives at Osho Leela, watch for her on telly during the London Marathon later this year.
I had an instant YES to Payal, some psychic connection is there, felt she was to be some kind of teacher for me, and I don't usually go off on those spacey esoteric pathways. Lots of relating horizontally. looking forward to a friendship blooming, and whatever else that knowing this pixie-like being will bring. Another connection from Osho Leela.
Met Suvarna-sometimes Rachel- during a Veeresh Om Meditation, and we did the sexy dance to end all sexy dances. Turns out we were in similar places in our lives, and pure luck, or lack of it, stopped us from ending up in the sack together, which may have been just as well, as in story-book fashion, she then met a guy online, fell in love and is now shacked up with him in Bristol. Looking forward to getting to know her.
Will probably always be grateful to Raj for having a little affair with my girlfriend and shaking up our lives. Another good guitarist friend, understands the Mighty Boosh and loves it as I do, and willingly shares morphine tablets he finds lying around. Lots of laughter, good connection there. Actually hated him for a bit, but couldn't sustain it for long. Say hi sometime Raj, are you out there?
Lalita, who are you? I see you subscribed yourself- yes folks, some of you actually CHOSE to be a part of this madness. I think I may have met you at Osho Leela. Now I am really looking forward to meeting you. Thanks for being here for me.
Saving the best for the last, Narayani is the girlfriend. Love of my life, life partner, ball and chain, whatever. She's the one. The reason I'm on my own over here now, and the main reason I'll be coming back. Her gutsy decision to end our monogamous relationship ( My words, not hers) has sent us on a roller coaster of emotion and new experiences, long may the ride continue. Good in bed too! Mmmmm...
Hey, that's you. I have a few other friends, and know a lot more people, but you few are the ones I'm on this blogging journey with. Others may be tuning in from time to time, I have no way of knowing. But it's you 22 chosen ones that are on my list. I hope you're enjoying it a little, I sure as hell am.
What do you have in common? Most of you are women, at least the recent friends. All of you are interesting people, doing interesting things. But the one thing that I can see as I look down this list, something that makes you special to me, a very obvious and simple fact. I Love You.
You can all feel special now.
Talk amongst yourselves, take a break, I'm not done yet.
I'll be back. See you back in India.
Swami Veet Samaya, not about to become a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka.
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vicki
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lovingly defined
Well... i feel throughly defined (you forgot... sometime writer!) !! And you feel free to come by for a mother earth hug (no hanky panky mind) , an acu session or a journey into your ancestral past. Or maybe we could just hang oot. Safe but thrilling travels to you. xxxxxxx