howdy

Ha HA!!
Today is the 9th, yes?
What a time warp. Still adjusting. I haven’t been inspired to write. Just not inspired. Don’t know why. Possibly because I don’t feel like qualifying my experience, i just want to be here. I don’t feel like labelling it, catagorizing it or analyzing it in any way. Do you know what I mean?
Having mom here is wonderful. It’s like bringing home with me. Jetlag is finally dissipating for both of us. We both got bit by a mosquito when we were in Delhi, and then I proceeded to have psychosomatic malaria symptoms all night, convinced that I could feel the buggy malaria sickness from that one mosquito bite instantly coursing through my veins. But I haven’t had a night like that since, and mom says she is sleeping fine. No symptoms. Makes me wonder about my first trip when i was sure I had malaria, especially after I took the malaria antidote and all my symptoms magically cleared up. Could it have been my imagination? The whole thing? Is my imagination so powerful?
So anyhow, I’ll keep you posted on the malaria front if any symptoms begin to present.
It is different this time, this trip, compared to last. The first trip to India was full of wonderment and first impression. Now, it is all just a familiar, a sort of “coming home” of sorts. So there is so much less to write about. Really. It’s a little...depressing. Not really depressing, just different. It is still wonderful, but in a calmer more friendly way.
Before, I was all stories about elephants and snake charmers and other novelties. It is fun experiencing everything fresh and new through my mother’s eyes though. Last night we went to the Ganga Aarti at Parmarth Niketan ashram. This is the fire ceremony and devotional singing that goes on every night on the steps of the ashram Ganga-side (Ganga is the Ganges river, of course, the sacred river that runs through India. In Rishikesh, the Ganga is still relatively clean as there are very few communities upstream from us between us and where the river sprouts out of the ground up in the Himalayas. The river is widely used, and of course, the further down you go, the more “used” it gets, but its sacredness is never diminished in the eyes of the Hindu people, no matter how dirty the water becomes, in Varanasi and other locales. The belief is still that a bath in the river will cleanse you, wash you clean of all your “sins” so that you may be blessed and begin life anew. So there is a little history on mother Ganga). So here, the river is relatively clean. I would easily swim in her, although one must be careful, in places the current is strong and the water deep. I have even drunk her waters, when asked to, during certain ceremonies with sincere holy men. I figured it was worth the risk, since it was so meaningful to them, and meaningful to me not to offend them. I never fell ill from this practice (knock on wood, and not that I am recommending it). Call me superstitious but I figured that the sacredness of the water must trump any fatal bacteria that may lurk therein (within reason, you won’t see me scooping up handfuls of the Ganga in Varanasi).
So Ma loved the Ganga Aarti. With all its varied people from all over India and all over the world, the young “monks” in training and all of the ritual and ceremony. There was much hand clapping and swaying, singing and even dancing on the steps leading down to the river. The river is so close here, in fact, that there was only one step between us and her holy wetness. This fall actually, in September, the river came up and flooded from the heavy rains of the monsoon. The last time the water came that high was 25 years ago. “Very dangerous” my friends here tell me. No kidding. I watched it on youtube. There was footage of the river and how it came up so high it swept away the 10foot high statue of Shiva that stands on a platform in the river, just in front of where the Aarti singing was last night on the steps of Parmarth Niketan. The river came up so high it washed the statue right away!! And within 2 days they had it replaced with another. The flood also washed the roads out on the way to Rishikesh, cutting it off from the rest of India. The Shiva statue was replaced before the roads were restored. Priorities, right?
Also in that flood, my favourite Nepali breakfast cafe got wiped out. It was just a little too much in an inauspicious spot i guess. The neighboring Ganga Beach Cafe survived, Nepali restaurant: not. I spoke with the owner of Ganga Beach cafe. He said the water came up and washed right through the neighbours restaurant. But the Ganga Beach was saved. It was crazy he said. And i nodded in amazement. If you could see the distance the river would have to rise to come up that high... well, it is nothing short of incredible. Such volume of water, i can barely imagine. And huge waves too, he said. I am glad that Ganga Beach didn’t get wiped out. They make the BEST lemon nanas there. This is something i introduced to my mom and she loves it now. Try it at home. Its fresh lemon juice, fresh mint and honey or sugar (or maple syrup) blended with ice into a refreshing slushy. Its amazing on a hot day. Oh, i guess you’ll have to wait until next summer to really enjoy this one.
Yesterday we went looking for money. To the bank machine. But the usual bank machine, the one that is closest to us here, was out of cash. Just plain out of rupees. Where does that happen except in India? Kinda makes you nervous, cause no place takes visa or debit here. If the bank machines didn’t spit out cash, what would we do? What if something happened to the economy or the global banking system went down and you couldn’t just swipe a card or go to the ATM and withdraw cash? It could happen you know. It could. So anyhow, we didn’t have to worry about that this time, we just hopped in a rickshaw and popped downtown rishikesh, found another bank machine and PRESTO! 15,000 rupees in your pocket. This is the daily maximum you can withdraw at the ATM. Thats about $400canadian. Doesn’t matter if your ATM limit at home is 2 grand, in india its four hundred. So if you need more, you have to make several trips over consecutive days. Fun hey.
So today we are heading out to continue our search of ayurvedic doctors. We interviewed two already yesterday. Mom is looking for a good ayurvedic panchakarma program to put herself into. Panchakarma is a series of ayurvedic cleansing techniques to detoxify the body. You can go on a 2 week program, or 3 or 4 or more. Today I will take her out to the other side of town to my doctor. He sees patients out of this dingy, run-down little shack on the side of the road, looks like a bombed out bomb shelter, but he is a superb doctor. I was seeing him last time i was here, my Reiki teacher introduced me to him. He is really good. He takes your pulse and then tells you all about yourself. All about your ailments and tendencies and weaknesses. Some things you know already and he hits it bang on, and other things are sometimes new information that you might not have known, then he gives you herbs or lifestyle recommendations based on your condition and disposition. And in the case of my mother, he will put her on a full cleansing program that will involve massages, herbs, different concoctions, not to mention enemas and other delightful techniques i won’t get into here. So that is where we are off to today. He has a squeakier cleaner clinic where he actually does the panchakarma treatments so don’t worry. I’m not sending my mom off to some quack doctor in a dingy bomb shelter. haha
The weather is fine, the music is sweet. Its a totally different experience travelling with someone. I like it. Its not better or worse, just different. There are many many perks and delights, but it does insulate you more. When you travel alone, you are out there, on your own, interacting with all that you meet, talking, making friends and out there. When you travel with someone you know, you can get all of your social needs met with that one person, you don’t need anyone else so much, and you tend you kind of just hang out with yourselves more, its easy and familiar.
The morning yoga classes at 6am are just amazing. So much breath, so much prana. It brightens you from the inside out. And clears out the cobwebs. With so much more focus on the overall practice of yoga, not just this emphasis on asanas that we have in the west. In the west we are obsessed with asanas, as if performing a perfect triangle pose will bring us enlightment on the spot. No, here, it is so much more holistic in approach. You can see those who just want asana, asana, asana in the class are a little impatient and hungry.
There is another class at 4pm but it is an optional class to take, not a mandatory class. The food is amazingly good. Veg, rice, dahl and chapati but its a different dahl everyday, and a different veg too of course, and so healthy. Made with lots of love.
Alright well, i better get off this thing so we can hit the road.
Love to one and all of you.
And peace.