Cows

In the Canada if you see cows they are safely behind fences and in barns. In India cows are as much a part of daily life as the trees and the roads. The farmers release them in the morning and they wander about, grazing on the garbadge piles that litter the sides of the streets, and in the evening the cows wander back to their farms. the farmers save money on cow food and the city get's its own garbadge disposal system.

Cows are not just in the neighbourhoods, but also on the highways. They sit in big clumps in the centre of the road and we all have to make room for them. In India cows are sacred so if you kill or hurt one of them you're in big trouble.

Of course sometimes cows and humans have a little trouble sharing space. The other day I saw a woman collecting garbadge in a bag (some people live off scavanging garbadge and selling it to factories and such for recycling) when a cow started eating from her pile. She hit the cow's flank with a reed until it walked away. And again just the other night we had gone out for sweet lemon juice and the worker at a fruitstand was slapping a cow away from his wares.

But normally the cows and the humans get along just fine, walking down roads together without any incident.

Six Months

Today is my six month India anniversary! I've been writing a lot about the country, because I'm sure that's what you're interested in, but I should also mention that this has been a very spiritual experience for me. I don't know how much of what I've learnt and felt I can retain when I return to Canada, but hopefully I'll be able to take some of this home.

First of all when you write a book about the purpose of life, you're bound to figure out what that is. As it states in the book there are really two parts to the purpose of life, a sort of general framework that can be applied to all human beings, and then each individual's personal expression of that purpose. I won't say I know what my personal purpose in life is, but my ideas are solidifying.

Also, those who know me informally probably know that I've had a big thing for Pepsi and pop in general for about as long as I can remember. I even have a Pepsi t-shirt back in Canada. Well now it's been two months and twenty days since I've had a carbonated beverage and I don't even want one anymore. I fully acknowledge the supremacy of water. There are a lot of factors that made me quit, kindling that's been piling up for a lot of years, and I have to thank Sohayl for being a part of that. However to certain people who said I was 'addicted' to it, I must point out that I stopped drinking it cold turkey, and there were no sweaty withdrawl symptoms. I'd call it less of an addiction and more of an obsession.

Anyways, we'll continue with your regular scheduled program, "Snapshot of India" in the next post.

In the Land of Freedom

One interesting thing about India is that men are allowed to urinate in public. All they need to do is find a wall. I often find myself hastily jerking my head away when I see some guy standing on the side of the road.

Privacy is a very different matter in India. The other day I was at the Bahai House late at night, and myself and another woman were sleeping on couches in one of the side rooms. The lights were out; we were silently, peacefully snoozing away when a woman came in and started talking at full volume and jangling her keys about. And she didn’t see that we were sleeping, apologize and leave; no she just started a loud conversation with the other woman and soon someone else joined them.

Sohayl always calls India the land of freedom because no one will stop you from doing just about anything.

Appendectomy

Arastu had an appendectomy a few days ago. The poor guy was rushed to the hospital on his fifteenth birthday. The surgery went fine, and he’s now recovering, but he’s sore, tired and very bored. Both Sohayl and Nicole are also tired, but they have amazing reserves of fortitude. Happily I’ve been able to repay just a little of their kindness to me by watching the kids while they’re running around worrying about Arastu and our meals. Microwaves and ovens aren’t common in India so we can’t exactly have freezer pizzas for supper.

In other news the two volunteers left early.

Nepal - Day 9

The next day was our last day in Kathmandu. The transportation was back on to bid us farewell so we bussed to the bus station and bought tickets for seven o’clock that night. We decided to kill some time buying souvenirs in the narrow streets of the market. Neha bought some clothing and jewellery for her family and I bought a kukri – a small Nepali knife. And don’t worry it wasn’t actually sharp, but more of a display piece.

After shopping we went to the Bahai Centre, packed, said our farewells and then went to the bus station.

The second bus was far nicer than the first and even played a Nepali movie for part of the trip. The driver was a speed demon and sent us ripping down the narrow winding mountain paths. It’s a strange and exhilarating site to see your bus looming towards the edge of road, when nothing but a black void is beyond it. We passed through the same magnificent mountain scenery but this time it lay shrouded in darkness, pierced here and there by the lights of houses. It looked a bit like a second night sky, though mankind’s stars can’t compare with God’s.

It’s a fascinating site to see little outposts of light in the darkness, a little brick porch lit by a single yellow bulb, go zooming by into the night. A freeze frame of someone’s life. Each of those tiny lights is a home, peopled and important to those people, but nothing more than a pinprick to me. They looked incredibly tiny, insignificant and forlorn. I began to feel a sense of the expansiveness of the earth. And I was grateful, thinking that it was better to be this streak of light, better to be in this zooming bus, than in one of those tiny houses. How many times have I looked at planes soaring through the sky and wished I were going wherever they were going?

The rest of the trip was uneventful and similar to the ride up. I made it back safe and sound with sixth months of India to look forward too.

Nepal - Day 8

The next day the transportation was down again so we walked once more to the embassy. More forms, more fees. They told us to come back at 4:30 and by then it was about 11:00. We had a lot of time to kill but I eagerly dragged Neha and Surendra to an oasis that I had spotted.

Sushi! It was very expensive for Nepal, but my first sushi in five months was delicious.

We wandered about in boredom, stopping to rest at a pond, or to buy snacks. Finally 4:30 hit, and I got my Visa at last, ensuring another six months in India.

We walked back quickly, because Neha and I had a dinner arranged with Chris Anderson. Chris is a Canadian Bahai and friend of my family, so when he heard that I was in Kathmandu he kindly invited Neha and I out to supper. We had a nice meal and Chris was an excellent and interesting conversationalist.

Nepal - Day 7

On the seventh day the transportation was on again! We determined to bus to SwayamBhu a temple whose main attraction was a staircase of three hundred twenty five steps. I was filled with all sorts of anticipatory thoughts of Asian temples on the top of massive staircases – a sort of classic archetype of the Asian stories I had read. I was ready to climb all day long to feel the same ache in my legs as my martial artist heroes.

Well apparently three hundred twenty-five steps is really not a big deal. On the first part the stairs were fairly shallow and only at the end did they rise steeply. We reached the top barely breathing hard. The view from the top was nice but it was somewhat spoilt by all the tourist salesmen.







We bussed back and socialized and played games for the rest of the day.

Nepal - Day 6

On the sixth day there was still no transportation and we had exhausted our list of nearby tourist attractions. So instead we opted to see a movie in the theatres, just to kill the time. It was the first cinema I had been to in five months, and was pretty standard fare. We saw The Incredible Hulk, their only English movie. It was fairly run-of-the-mill, though it did have Edward Norton in it.

That evening there was a Bahai Feast at the Centre. Some of the youth sang a welcome song to us, which was very sweet, and another girl did a traditional Nepalese dance. There were some Canadians from Vancouver there and we had a nice conversation. The rest of the night was just socializing and finally bed.

Nepal - Day 5

The next day was Monday so we set out on the hour and half long trek to the Indian Embassy. I’m sure I don’t have to describe the visa process of long lines and confusing forms. The only interesting thing was listening to the conversations of the various people from all over the world who were applying for their visas. Finally we finished and the man behind the counter told us to come back in three days.

We had lunch at a little café and then began the long walk back. Eating at interesting little cafes and restaurants is one of the fun parts of traveling and I had really missed that in Lucknow, where you just can’t trust many of the restaurants. But I got my fill in Nepal.

The walk back was three hours long because we took some detours. We bought umbrellas to ward of the burning sun, and passed through some interesting markets, and another square famous for its temples and ancient buildings. One of the buildings was the house of the Living Goddess. I don’t know the details, only what I was told but apparently this young girl is, as her title would suggest, worshipped like a goddess for a certain number of years. Her house was an old-fashioned brick and wood compound but because I’m a foreigner we couldn’t go in.

The rest of the day was just spent relaxing and talking.

Nepal - Day 4

The fourth day we went on an even longer walk to a famous Buddhist Stupa. On the way there a protest came marching down the street led by a line of policemen in riot gear and followed by students, some waving red flags and shouting. A little further on there was a burning tire in the middle of the road and a student standing near by with another red flag. I thought of the red banner of the Parisian barricades, but of course it was nothing so turbulent as that.





At last we reached the Stupa, which was centred in a square of tall, narrow buildings. The Stupa consisted of several levels of white stone, surmounted by a dome, surmounted by a conical tower with eyes drawn on it. From the top of this tower prayer flags were draped down to the bottom. The white stonewall surrounding this structure was lined with niches in which were set prayer wheels. These are cylindrical pieces of metal on an axel, which you spin with your hand, and which have sacred Hindu verses written on them.





The square surrounded the temple was well maintained and contained arts and crafts stalls, cafes, and a few more temples. One was a vibrantly painted Buddhist temple, which we walked through.





After we had done a circuit of the square it began to grow hot so we went to find ourselves a café. To my delight there was a ham sandwich on the menu. When you haven’t had a ham sandwich in five months, it begins to seem like a delicacy. I was quite excited, but alas equally disappointed. The sandwich was literally just two pieces of bread with some friend ham between and I had to salvage it with ketchup and a few pieces of lettuce that were on my plate.

We began walking home and it was very hot. I don’t generally burn very much, even in hot climates, but I was salmon pink after that little trek.

Nepal - Day 3

Because we had arrived in Kathmandu late, due to traffic jams, we had missed the opportunity that Friday to go to the Embassy, and therefore we would have to wait until Monday.

On Saturday we woke up, and I had the coldest shower of my entire life. Anyone who’s ever jumped in a cold lake knows that it becomes hard to breath for the first few moments, and the shower was almost like that.

After breakfast we met Surendra, a young man who was going to be our guide throughout the trip. Neha, Surendra and I became good friends and had a lot of fun over the next seven days.



Because of the political issues the transportation in Kathmandu was shut down and we began to do what we spent most of our time doing – walking. The first walk was only about half an hour.

Our first tourist destination was a temple complex known as Pashupatinath. It was a series of different Hindu shrines and temples on either side of a river and encompassing a hill. Bahai architecture is all excellently well kept, but there is a different kind of beauty to these very old temples where the tree roots have grown into the stone. We crossed a bridge over the river and wandered around the shrines, which had a Chinese/Tibetan influence not seen in India. People sold Lays Chips and pop alongside stone idols and cripples with shorn limbs reached out, begging for coin.







Along the river there were these doors in the cliff and this was the second place in Kathmandu I was tempted to move into.



There was a large stone staircase leading up the hill, and at one point there was this little hole in the wall. You’re supposed to stand on the opposite side of the stair case, close you eyes, put your hands together and straight our before you, and then walk forward, and if your hands go into the hole it means your wish will come true.





There were a lot of monkeys wandering around, and at one point one of them grabbed an old lady’s bag and began trying to pull it from her. The other monkeys came around and screeched at her angrily. She managed to get the bag away, and we made sure to kind of walk in a circle around her until we reached the end of the staircase.

One of the major tourist sightes of Pashupatinath is apparently the cremation that goes on there. They wrap the bodies in white linen and then surround them with wood. As we walked towards the cremation grounds, we passed a stonewall and suddenly saw one of these wrapped bodies lying there. Neha and I both froze for a second and then glanced at each other. Stumbling across a dead body, even one wrapped up, when you don’t expect to see one, is a rather startling experience. We passed near the burning body, from which a great plume of black smoke was billowing, and I saw the feet of the dead man, sticking out from the wooden logs.

After this we returned to the Bahai Centre and rested for a short while. Then we were off again for another walk to another temple. We stopped briefly at a Hindu temple with obvious Chinese influence, witnessed in the pagoda like structure. It also contained some very nice woodcarvings.







We stopped for a moment and then carried on to our destination, Patandurbarchauk, a square filled with several temples. Here I began to see some foreigners, and there was a steady crowd surrounding the structures. I couldn’t go into any of them because I’m not Hindu, but it was still an interesting site. I don't have any pictures of this square because my camera battery ran out. Sorry!

Brick apartments surrounded the square, and someone had had the good idea to put a café in one of them with a roof top terrace. We climbed to the top and had a little snack. Actually that was probably one of the nicest moments of the trip. The view was spectacular, including not only the temples, but also the sea of brick buildings and beyond them the mountains disappearing into the mist. The weather was cool with a slight breeze. The terrace was made of warm orange stone and lined with bright flowers. We had a wonderful conversation and decent food.

Finally we returned home and spent the rest of the day relaxing.

Nepal - Day 2

I have never been more surprised or delighted to wake up in a specific place. I opened my eyes, looked out the window and found our bus driving through the most incredible scenery. On our right, mountains covered in rich, exotic foliage drove up and faded into mist. On our left the road was skirted by an abrupt fall into a river. On the other side of the river the mountains soared upwards, and were covered in agricultural terraces. Little huts dotted both side of the mountain and the mist hung over all.

It’s hard to do the scene justice in writing, and because we were on the wrong side of the bus I couldn’t take the pictures I wanted. It was a grand, sweeping vista and augmented by all the Asian movies I’ve seen which take place in similar scenes. I had to remind myself, “Yes, you are in one of those places! You’re in Asia.”



The road we were on continuously climbed up into the mists and mountains until everything on the left side was a grey void, and it seemed as though we were hugging the edge of existence. There was some kind of traffic jam and were delayed for some time. I began reading and when I looked up again we were in Kathmandu.



It’s hard to say how Kathmandu is different from Lucknow unless you've been to both. Lucknow is flat while Kathmandu is hilly. The streets in the latter city are narrower, the buildings seem taller and more squished together, but both cities are fairly similar. Of course Kathmandu is a capital, so it contains many more tourist sites and to my delight more international food.

We arrived in Kathmandu in a time of political disquietude. Nepal has been moving towards republicanism for the last couple years and we got to Kathmandu four days after the King officially quit his palace. The government was holding meetings and the students were in protest over bus fare. When our bus arrived in Kathmandu it was soon swallowed up in a traffic jam caused by a student demonstrations. We sat for a while, and then our bus turned around and tried a different route. It drove into a little muddy street and began loading and offloading cargo.

Neha and I were a little concerned at this point. It was 10:00 AM and we were supposed to have arrived by 7:00 AM. We waited patiently, but were debating getting off the bus and striking out on foot. Luckily God sent a taxi into the little street we were on. We got in and drove to the Bahai Centre where we were going to stay.



The Bahai Centre is one of the nicer buildings in Kathmandu, designed by an American architect and kept in the pristine condition that most Bahai owned structures seem to be in.

It was in a fairly nice part of town with narrow streets and three story houses. I was severely tempted to move into the top floor of that orange house across the street.



Neha and I were welcomed and then showed to our room which had its own bathroom and a small kitchen. It was very nice.



After we settled in a bit we went walking to find some lunch and a phone to call my host family. Our lunch consisted of mo-mo’s, a Nepalese/Chinese dish which is very similar to a wonton.

We then went back to the Centre, and got some proper sleep. While we were there, there was a Ruhi Book 6 campaign going on so there were many youth at the Centre. We ate dinner there and talked with the youth before going to bed.

Nepal - Day 1

We woke up early on the 19th of June to pack and eat breakfast. By ‘we’ I mean myself and Neha, an eighteen-year-old Nepalese girl who had agreed to accompany me. We’re both Bahai’s and met in the general course of community activities. Neha has taken several years of traditional Indian dance and is also an excellent singer.

By 7:00 AM we reached the taxi stand. The ‘taxi’ was a large white car, which had extra seats in the trunk. There were two people in the front, four of us in the middle and two more people in the back. Neha and I got the window seats and spent the next five or six hours with wind blasting us in the face as we stared out over the Indian countryside.



The Indian countryside is primarily flat, and vibrantly green. The roads are lined with trees and inhabited by cars, trucks, cows, horse-drawn wagons and motorcycles. Little side roads of brick or dirt stretch off across mustard and wheat fields, leading to little villages of straw and brick. There’s something very fascinating about seeing the people in these fields, or trundling along the road, and knowing that they live lives so extremely different from my own. What does the tiny boy herding the humongous water buffalos dream of?

We reached the Indian-Nepali border at around 1:00 PM. The countryside here was even flatter, and a strong wind blew the dust of the road into our eyes. We went through the process of securing myself a Nepalese Visa - a long line of filling in forms and ledgers. There was no problem from that end, and soon we were walking into Nepal.



We caught a rickshaw into the town where we were to catch a bus. As we were riding along we caught site of blue mountains in the distance and both of us joyfully exclaimed, “Mountains!” After five months of flat India I hadn’t even realized how much I missed mountains, and Neha was in a similar boat. The line from the first Lord of the Rings movie went through my head, “I want to see mountains again Gandalf!” I understood that!

We arrived in town, purchased bus tickets and then looked around for some lunch. The restaurants looked dubious at best so we decided on a junk food lunch of biscuits, juice and the Nepali equivalent of Mr. Noodles. We found a little patch of grass in a field and had a very pleasant and relaxing meal.

At 4:00 PM we boarded our bus. I can’t say what the first three hours were like because I was reading The Count of Monte Cristo. But after three hours it had grown too dark to read and I looked up to find the fields replaced by forest. It was a familiar scene, the road winding through a canyon of trees, and immediately made me think of Vancouver Island.



It was a long journey and seemed to take place in fits. I would begin sleeping when the driver would turn the radio on, or we would stop at some lonely little gas station, a single lit oasis in a dark and unknown country. Finally I seemed to get some real sleep because I woke up in an entirely different setting.

The Problem with Posting

Heya!

I am alive and I do intend to put the Nepal photos up, hopefully this weekend. I was going to do it yesterday after work but the power cut. That happens all the time here but it really allows you to appreciate the power.

I was also waiting a while because I was hopeing the young man who was our guide in Nepal would upload his photos so I could use them in the blog. However it doesn't look like it's happening.

I'll try to get to the office tomorrow (my Saturday) and upload it but who knows whether the power will cut, or I'll be attacked by a cow or something. You never know in India!

Another One Bites the Dust

Sorry about the Nepal Posts. They're coming, I swear.

In other news Kara is leaving India today. She's heading back to Haifa for three days and then going to New York where she'll be studying at Columbia University. Best of luck to her!

Two guys from England have come here to work at the office for a brief stint. They'll only be here in the afternoon and I think they're leaving next month, but the more the merrier. I met one of them, a man named Arjun who is studying at Cambridge to be a doctor. Very nice and intelligent man. The second who I'll meet later is a fourteen year old, and I think a relative of Arjun's.