‘Title-less post’

Dear readers, it is time: All packed up and ready to GO! I’m a bit nervous to be honest. Excited, but nervous! (That’s why I couldn’t think about a good title for this post, sorry 'bout that..)

Now a long train ride ahead of us (33 to 36 hours); Pune to Kolkata -

In a map, the way would look something like this –

SO, your writer leaves ‘bag packer style’… In reality is more of like a ‘food Santa Claus’, because I’m carrying ‘food supply’ for the whole train ride; as everyone recommends to not eat/drink anything from the train (unless you want to have a 30 hour ‘toilet-train ride’ afterwards! Haha).

I eat too much, for my size is too much, I don’t understand… why I don’t grow up a little bit more?! :D

Ok! I’ve got to leave you now dear readers, I’ll write again when I reach my next destination… Wish me good luck!

Have a nice weekend and greetings from your writer,
Maria

Mountain of the gods: ‘DRUK YUL’ (Kingdom of Bhutan)

Remember what I told you last time about how you did not want to get a cold with a fever while being in India? Well, you can go ahead and also add: “Not ever wanting to go to an Indian hospital and having to get a blood test” to your ‘NEVER TO DO LIST’.

Ah! HORRIBLE. 

I don’t know where were you last Tuesday dear reader, but even if you had a bad day I hope it wasn’t as bad as going to this Indian hospital. It was the hospital version of the ‘bedded bus’ (“HELL DRIVE”) I wrote about a few months ago.

But what exactly happens if you ever end up in a place like this?

Ok. First, you would have to go into this laboratory which is full of people (sick people) waiting; and then there is this other room (not so clean… It is India after all) on the back  where they collect your blood (nurses wearing no gloves at all) with three other people right there getting their blood collected at the same time.

So, then what do you do?

If by any chance you read the OSHO Meditation Center post (“Zorba the Buddha”) from a few weeks ago; maybe you will remember that there was this ‘Dynamic Meditation’ in which, during the second stage, you are supposed to go “consciously insane”. Well, chances are that in the OSHO Center you wont achieve this, but by setting foot in an Indian hospital.. piece of cake! And this is exactly what you want to do!

[I think mentioned in the last post that I am not exactly a fan of doctors… guess it’s not so necessary to point out that with hospitals it doesn’t get any better.]

So, basically (I went a little bit crazy and..)  refused to get the blood test after taking a look at the whole scene (no way a needle was coming close to me in that place!);  but they wouldn’t let you do that unless you would get the doctor’s permission. Minutes later I was in the main lab (as a patient you are not even allowed there I think) getting the blood test in the lab’s doctor office; she probably saw me like a ‘lost kid’ and I became the ‘spoiled patient of the day’. Of course, the nurses (nurses with gloves!) were laughing at me.. Probably the ‘funniest blood test’ of the day; no lollipop afterwards though… Haha.

It was a private hospital, so then you can imagine how a public one looks… You hear stories and really it sounds completely terrifying.

Everything’s good now though. Hopefully this never repeats again! 

Unlike your ‘coward writer’ though, the four-legged hairball I told you about some time ago (“BAD HAIR everyDAY”) is quite the opposite. No tail between the legs! She’s a brave little hairball, who’s got all her vaccines now and also a home; which is good… India is no good place for most street dogs, you can see some terrible stuff. The day before yesterday we said our goodbyes which is kind of sad, but hopefully she’ll be good and healthy. A street dog friend, that I will miss.

Ok, but this post is about something else: It has been some tough 3 weeks the ones which just past; and now there are less than 3 more weeks to go here in India. But no one’s going anywhere before stepping the ‘Land of the Thunder Dragon’! And I hope you are ready, because in a few days we leave for what I reckon will be a very exciting ‘journey’.

The final destination: BHUTAN

“In the beginning there was a great sea. Legend tells that the god Vishnu swallowed up the sea and so released mother earth. But as Vishnu slept, a demon leapt upon the earth and ravished her with such force that her limbs were thrown up into the sky… and so were born the Himalayas”; the mountains of the Gods.

Bhutan, also known as Druk Yul, is one of the Himalayan kingdoms that would appear later on. Even though it is located in between huge China and huge India, when you read about this little country you feel as if you have ‘found Neverland’. Amazing!

It is a Bhuddhist country free of class and/or caste system, and people’s practices and way of living revolve around the ideas of impermanence, detachment and change. The country was actually isolated/separated from the world until 1975, when it was finally opened to tourists. Yet, now a days the tourism as well as the country’s development is controlled by the government, a democratic monarchy.

And so Bhutan has 65% of forest area and 26% of protected areas, which makes it pretty much an untouched land. It is home to the Himalayan Black Bear, the Golden Languor, Red Panda, Clouded Leopard, the great Royal Bengal Tiger, the very, VERY beautiful Snow Leopard and I’m guessing many more! They also have many Hydropower projects and actually export the electricity here to India.

Another very distinctive aspect about Bhutan is their philosophy of “Gross National Happiness (GDH)”. Unlike pretty much the rest of the countries in this world, which have put the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in a pedestal, in Bhutan they embrace the idea that “true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other”. The fourth king, fourth ‘Druk Gyalpo’, emphasized the importance of Gross National Happiness over the one of Gross Domestic product and said “that the rich are not always happy, while the happy generally consider themselves rich”.

Equitable and equal socio-economic development; preservation and promotion of cultural and spiritual heritage; conservation of the environment and a good governance are the four pillars which are “interwoven, complimentary and consistent”, and make up the GDH.

…Coming from a country where they have no problem with putting a bullet in your head just for a simple mobile phone; this is it! Perfection.

NOW…THE ADVENTURE

It has been 2 months already since planning this trip. To be honest I thought going there wouldn’t be possible, because of the whole government-controlled tourism thing, but it did work out in the end. It is not as complicated as it might sound. 

In Bhutan you are actually just allowed to travel with a guide/travel agency; so they will prepare an itinerary for you (you just let them know your ‘interests’) and then during the trip your guides will take you everywhere, which is pretty much the perfect thing if travelling on your own (…like me :D ).. The travel agency which I found is a Bhutanese-local one and the people will help you with practically everything! It is like another ‘human being species’… Incredible.  

Ok, but this is THE PLAN(ARE YOU READY?)

The flight to Bhutan leaves this Sunday the 2nd from Kolkata (on the other side of India), SO it all starts with crossing India: West to East!

But how do we cross India? Haha! …By train!

Yes. A 33-36 hour train ride! Leaving on Thursday afternoon and arriving Saturday morning.

(A friend from the office said it is a really nice train ride, because you are able to basically see West–East India on the way. I haven’t had the chance to get to know much of it, so I thought it was the ideal opportunity. Hopefully it is a good experience!)

After a day of ‘recharging batteries’ in Kolkata, we take the plane early Sunday in the morning “on the wings of the dragon” – Drukair; the only airline flying to Bhutan.

And in Bhutan we go to Paro, Timphu and Punakha; located in Western Bhutan. It will be a nature/spiritual tour, with a lot of hiking and monasteries visiting.

Friday the 7th we return (this time in an airplane!). Bhutan-Kolkata; Kolkata-Delhi; Delhi-Pune! …With completely EMPTY POCKETS haha!

Then, 1 week later - BYE, BYE INDIA! For the first time in a long, long time ‘your writer’ really feels like needing: HOME! I must confess, I really do.

But before this, we hike all the way up to here (picture below)! To ‘TIGERS NEST’.

 

Ok, dearest readers! I will be writing before the train ride and when arriving to Kolkata (and if I have internet I will also while in Bhutan) to keep you up with this trip! And I’ll do my best to give you all the insights and every possible detail from this great, little country.

“How often we make our history the story of the great conquerors, the man of violence? Alexander, Napoleon, Hitler… That’s what we teach children in their history books, isn’t it? But here is one man who sits under a tree thinking; and changes the world… But this is an Indian story.”

(Buddha)

‘Saludos’ from your writer y hasta la próxima!

PEACE

Maria

 

  

“Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon”

August 1942: Cristóbal Colón departs West with its three ships/caravels- 'La Niña, La Pinta and La Santa María; under the orders of the Catholic King and Queen of Spain, aiming a shorter route to India in search of the spices, gold and pearls of the ‘mysterious subcontinent’. After a long and tiring journey, in October of that same year, Colón spots in the horizon what he had been dreaming all along: “Land”.

For his surprise though, he had not reached the ‘mysterious subcontinent', but instead: ‘The Americas’! From then on, the Spanish start claiming the lands as “theirs”; including 'your writer’s’ country: Guatemala…

Because if Cristobal Colón would have found India, his first scene would have probably been something like this: 

I mean who wants this?

OR this?

When you can have this:

Haha… many would probably disagree!

Unfortunately, for Guatemala an earthquake didn’t bring good news last week; and if I’m not wrong another one just happened in México. Uhhh, the world’s getting angry… the Mayas are playing with us - 2012! I’m just kidding. I’m just not in a good ‘state’ right now neither, because India has also managed to ‘creep the hell out of me’ in the past few days…

It was Diwali festival, the ‘festival of lights’, here in India this week. Unfortunately “happy Diwali” was “UNhappy Diwali” for me, as I had to change a 2 day trip to Mumbai for 5 days in bed and doctor visiting.

One thing you do NOT want to get when you are in India: A cold with a fever. Specially when you are ‘home alone’ and late at night! Yes. Two nights ago I had a night I don’t want to ever repeat. Never. Ever, again.

So, since I came back from the field around a month and 1/2 ago I got a ‘warning’ that if I had a fever I should immediately go to the doctor; basically because it was a place where there have been cases of malaria, I got ‘quite some few’ mosquito bites; and you should take your precautions with this disease.

The problem with malaria is that it is difficult to detect, as you get symptoms as if you were having a normal cold; but then the issue is that if it is not this ‘normal cold’, it can go ahead and put you in a comma or even worse. And who wants to play with that? The period of incubation is from a few days to several months, to even a year! Meaning that I am basically condemned going to a doctor every time I get a fever for a whole year. How fun is that!

It is good though that I got this ‘warning’, because I am the ‘doctor avoider # 1’…I really hate going to the doctor, you have no idea.

Whatever, after the ‘nightmare night’ my temperature was lowered. Next day I went to the doctor and everything was ok. Got medicine and now it seems as if everything’s alright; still looking like a ‘zombie' though, but the fever was gone pretty fast at least.

…Oh this little devils-

But this is a short post, with the purpose of letting you know the answer to the ‘clue’ I gave you during the last post. It was pretty easy c’mon!

So the question was- What happens when you ‘mix’ a kingdom, a thunder and a dragon?

Of course you get the “Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon”; beautiful Bhutan! “Earth’s last Shangri La”, that’s where we’ll be heading soon, just before having to leave India!  

But I’ll be writing more about this in a few days, because now I’ll be trying to not sneeze or cough my lungs out of my system!

Have a nice weekend dear readers and take care.

‘till next time,

your writer

Maria

Clue

Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlet…

Fun board game/nice memories; but today’s “Clue” does not involve a ‘wrench’, a ‘candlestick’, a ‘revolver’ or a ‘rope’.  

Dear reader, by the end of the post before the last (‘BADHAIR everyDAY’) I told you I had a surprise for you, right? Well, I won’t exactly tell you what this surprise is all about just yet; but I will give you the ‘pieces of the puzzle’, so you get an idea of what’s about to come.

If you ever wondered why ‘your writer’ decided to come to India (I was asked this question a few times before coming here) there were many different factors that played a role and then lead to making this decision. There was one ‘factor’ though, THE ONE, which I consider as the inspiration that really started this whole adventure.

So –

Here you go, the ‘clue’:  

What exactly do you get when you ‘mix’

• A kingdom
• A thunder and…
• A dragon  

Google makes it too easy to figure it out… but, whatever.

Hasta la próxima!
Greetings from ‘your writer’,  
Maria

Zorba the Buddha

“OSHO

Never born

Never died

Only visited this planet between Dec 11 1931 – Jan 19 1990”

[This post was written yesterday (taking as a reference the date of ‘publishing’; which is today); so when I mention “today” it means “yesterday” and when I mention “yesterday” it means “the day before yesterday” (sorry for interrupting and confusing you dear reader… You are now allowed to continue!)]

Wow. If I had to describe today’s experience; the best word for it would possibly be: “Wow”. The question though, pretty much relies in what lies behind this “wow” verbal/written expression/description...

Today was a “day off”-day [a “day off” in between quotes, because it is Thursday and in reality I had agreed with my internship organization supervisor that… I would “work from home”. But… BUT… Hhm… Haha! Let’s just say that, that certainly did not happen! (I managed to do everything yesterday, don’t think I’m that irresponsible.)].

The so called “work from home” was practically translated into a whole day visit to OSHO Ashram; also known as OSHO International Meditation Resort.

Who is OSHO?

Funny thing is that I really have no idea of who OSHO really is! In the Ashram they do not really talk specifically about him or his life. Apart from that I just know that I read a book of his approx. 4 years ago, Intelligence, and from that I learnt that he was this sort of ‘spiritual guide’.

Right this moment I am searching online for his ‘biography’ and I get the following: “1,500 pages of Osho’s own words in chronological order, about his past lives, his life from 1931 to 1990, his own death and what would happen after”.

 
I think he just did that to tease us! Because who’s mean enough to include his/her “past and future lives” in his/her autobiography just to make 1,500 pages out of it? I’m guessing we leave Osho’s biography for ‘another time’ (in this context you can go ahead and consider ‘another time’, simply as a synonym for ‘never’).

What do you do at OSHO Ashram?

As its ‘AKA-name’ states, you basically go there to meditate. There are various meditation activities you can chose from; starting at 6:00 and finishing at 21:00.

Osho’s meditation is a bit different though. He had this idea of ‘Zorba the Buddha’, ‘Zorba’ meaning (in Greek) that one who ‘celebrates’ and ‘lives each day’ and ‘Buddha’ meaning (in Sanskrit) that one who lives ‘enlightened or awakened’.

From this idea he created the ‘active meditations’ in which you basically move and release energy; to then be calm, quiet and still.

WHAT HAPPENS once you are INSIDE the Ashram?

This is pretty much where the “Wow” word explanation begins…

Well, you get there early in the morning for registering and to assist to an “introductory morning-meeting” where they give you an overview of some of the meditations you can practice in the place.

In this case I got there and there was an Australian man… or “Australian ‘Gandalf’” (you know, because he really looked like Lord of The Rings’ Gandalf! Same white beard, just younger and his hair was down to the shoulders rather than the waist), who was our ‘guide’ with 2 other Indian girl/woman. They showed us some of the different meditations you might run up with later on.

There was this ‘Dynamic Meditation’ in which there are 5 stages in 1 hour (in stage 2, it is normal if you start thinking that they have actually cheated you and put you in a ‘crazy people’s’ place! No kidding! Haha, you might even get a bit scared for a moment!) :

• Stage 1 ‘Chaotic breathing’: You breathe very fast and deep.
• Stage 2 ‘Explode’: You are supposed to go “consciously insane”.
• Stage 3 ‘Mantra shouting’: You lift your arms up in the air and start jumping and saying “Hoo, hoo, hoo…”
• Stage 4 ‘Freeze’: With the sound of a drum, you stop in whatever position you find yourself in and just stay still.
• Stage 5 ‘Celebrate’: You dance to the background music.

* Stage 6 (the additional stage ‘your writer’ went through after witnessing the previous stages) ‘WTF’? (Sorry the use of this expression but, it is really what came to my mind): You can’t help wandering if whatever just happened was a joke or something like that! :D

And this is nothing. There is another, called ‘OSHO No-Mind’ in which they make you walk around the room ‘wobbling’/‘speaking whatever comes to mind’ (to calm your mind’s dialogue) for 30 minutes; and afterwards other 30 minutes of silent sitting.

We were 9 persons in this meditation’s group and seriously… No words! I met this South American, and when the first 30 minutes started, we really couldn’t stop laughing! It was so funny, looking at the whole scene… Jokes about ‘Chewbacca’ came along the way. It was like they’ve put you in another dimension! 

[Don’t get me wrong, it is very interesting though; and definitely worth trying! Funny experiences… Why not?]

But after this whole “introductory-meeting” you are free to choose participating in whatever meditations you like most.

One was really great. I very, very much enjoyed it: “Nadabrahma Meditation”. It takes place at the “Chuang Tzu” building (Osho’s home).

You go inside: Floor made out of white marble, the entrance full of books placed in glass cabinets; you continue straight, turn left and there is this room full of mirrors until you get to the room where the meditation takes place:

• Stage 1 ‘Humming’: Sitting down (meditation position), you do the ‘humming sound’ for 30 minutes.
• Stage 2 ‘Let energy go out to the universe’: You are no longer humming, but instead you are quiet doing a slight/slow arm movement to let your inner energy go out, for 7 and ½ minutes.
• Stage 3 ‘Let energy get in from the universe’: Same as stage 2, but now you let the universe’s energy come into your inner self.
• Stage 4 ‘Still’: For the last 15 minutes you stay sitting quiet and still.

* Stage 5 (you want to repeat it all over again :D). It’s just great.

Are there any rules in the Ashram?

If there’s something you will find in this place are rules, really. The amount of rules is quite amazing. To mention a few:

1. You have to wear a (funny looking!) maroon robe during the day time and a white one during night time.
2. You are not allowed to cough/sneeze during meditations.
3. You are not allowed to wear perfumes (or smell bad!:D).
4. You are not allowed to take pictures (I grabbed the ‘Chuang Tzu’ one from the internet, in case you were wondering).
5. You have to wear white socks when inside the ‘Chuang Tzu’ building.
6. You are not allowed to have HIV/AIDS! They have you tested during the registration (I know… I found it kind of strange, and was wondering what exactly happened ‘behind those walls’! Some weird kind of ‘cult’ going on there or something ...But nothing of that sort; so no worries! :D)
7. You are not allowed to use your phone, except in designated areas.

And many more!

 

To sum it all up: It was quite an unforgettable experience (planning to go back this weekend). You find and meet people from everywhere and learn many new things; you stick with the ones you enjoy and ‘let be’ the ones you don’t. If you ever have the chance, go for it! Opens your mind.

[I really enjoyed looking at a couple of German grandparents doing these meditation things! It was kind of funny! :D]

Believe it or not, (a “fun fact” from ‘your writer’): I was introduced to meditation when I was around 14 years old; never this ‘moving’ type though, but just sitting down silently, without moving. It may sound silly, but it is quite useful for life in general. It really is. In reality,you don’t need to go anywhere to try it out; so if you’re interested, just go ahead.

Ok dear reader, today I leave you again; this time with what has been for many years one of my favorite quotes:

“You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not even wait; just learn to become quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

Franz Kafka

Hasta la próxima

PEACE
Your writer,
Maria