http://dharma.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/23318 Wednesday, March 30th 2005, 7:10pm

Hey y'all! How are ya? Yyyyyeah, I thought that might be the case.

Alright, well, Dharma's back in Vancouver, home sweet home. The way I feel being in Vancouver reminds me of Homer (Simpson) and his couch. Basically the idea is that where Homer has spent 'x' number of years sitting, the couch now has a permanent imprint of his butt that he can just fit right into. He likes his seat, I do not like mine.

Anyway, who cares about that... ummm.... what else can I talk about. La la la! Mmmm... well, so I'm back in Vancouver, obviously, tho a little earlier than expected. While in India I learned that my brother had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and would shortly be undergoing surgery, followed by radiation or kemo therapy. I decided to return home before that all started. So, five days later I was home, and five days after that he was in surgery, which removed some 40~50% of the tumor in the end. Since the surgery he's been healing up very well indeed, and seems quite well besides. We've gotten biopsy results telling us more about the type and grade of tumor it is - Oligodendroglioma (low grade), which basically means it's a slow-growing, non-aggressive malignant tumour. Soon the tumor that was removed will be tested to see which if any currently available chemo-therapies it is responsive to, and a course of action (treatment) will be decided on.

As for me, I haven't been doing much for the past 5 weeks since arriving back. I guess I'm adjusting or something - yeah, that sounds good. Riding my bike, playing guitar, catchin some hacky-sack action in the park, and gradually getting back in touch with friends and family, and last but certainly not least, watching tv. Now I have to see about work and a place to live. I don't relish that thought.

And as for my journal/blog entries here, well... I'll keep making them, but they'll be more spaced out. From my point of view my life here in Vancouver is generally too straight forward and uninteresting to write about. But, when anything happens that I do think is interesting, you can be fairly certain I'll mention it here.

E-mail me if you like..

dharma]]> Wed, 30 Mar 2005 22:50:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/23318 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22409 Friday, February 18th 2005, 9:30pm

I did accept the invitation, and so we hit the road in the afternoon, arriving in Delhi around 10pm.

It's an interesting deal trying to drive oneself (so to speak) out of one Indian city, across the country, and into another city. It requires many stops to "ask directions", interpret "directions", make it some distance through twisting and confusing streets, ask directions again... and so forth. Then driving on the roads is a real trip. A two lane highway turns into a two to five lane gauntlet. Cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles, etc, passing in both directions simultaneously. Flashing lights to claim right of way, honking to let someone know you're in the process of passing them so that they don't turn into you (people do not even think of shoulder checking). If you don't honk, you don't exist. Honking to warn the pedestrian 100' ahead that if they cross the road without looking, as they were just about to and often do, they're going to be dead. Passing on the right, passing on the left, two wheels on the shoulder and two on the road, weaving in and out of lanes, slamming the brakes and lurching back into our lane to avoid the bus from hell which came.... very close.... Trying to decide if that right-hand turn signal means he's going to move into the right-hand lane, or if he wants us to pass him on the right. It seriously is used for both. Hitting hidden bumps and speed breaks, and then the roof. It's all in good fun, and god's with us every step of the way.

We did make it though, and made it well. I hope the couple on the Vespa scooter that ran into our opening passenger door make it home ok too.

After a couple days in Delhi, which were pleasant enough, we took off at about 6am, and headed to Vrindaben U.P. The dense fog didn't slow the car much, and neither did any of the vehicles which emerged from it and slid by us as we sped along. Following the directions of Pupino, one of the Chezk fellows, we made out way to a nice little temple where we got a single room for Rs 15, and a room with three beds for Rs 60 total. We've been relaxing like mad here... it's really quite peaceful and quiet as towns in India go. Vridaban is the home of the ISKCON Hari Krishna movement, and they have a truely beautiful temple here with services throughout the day. I don't feel entirely comfortable with the whole ...movement, I must say. There are a number of aspects of what I see that just rub me the wrong way right now. Another instance of my very stiff mind - interesting to watch.

So we were going to spend another day or two, and then head to Agra, then through Rajasthan toward Diu, but as seems very common these days, plans have changed for me.

A serious family ...situation.. has come up, and I shall be flying back to Canada on evening of the 22nd - roughly four days. I wanted adventure and unpredictability, and I have gotten it in spades, and it's been so good for me.

dharma]]> Fri, 18 Feb 2005 12:20:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22409 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22278 Saturday, Feb 12th 2005, 9:21pm

Today was pleasant - in fact the last two days have been very pleasant. Staying at the Golden Temple has been great. There's the Golden Temple, with all of its areas and charms - the langar hall (dining hall), the residence I'm staying in which is now packed with foreigners from all over the place, the green areas surrounding grounds, the temple itself in all its facets. Then there's the city wiht various temples and what-not to see. I've really just been taking it easy, reading lots, drinking a soda here and there, going for walks, eating, reading more, playing guitar... and I would continue to do such for a few more days except....

There are these three fellows, one from Austria who's driven over-land through whatever parts of Europe, Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan, and his two companions since Iran from Chezk Republic. Oh, and the little puppy he picked up before crossing the border into India. They seem a pretty neat bunch... The fellow from Austria has his Mac laptop (very nice indeed) with him, and is daily working on his web page done in Flash - very sweetly done. They're planning to head out of Amritsar tomorrow, swing through Agra, Rajasthan, and head for Diu, right on the ocean on the North-west coast of India. And, they've invited me along if I'd like... they've room for one more! I can't think of any good reason not to, so I expect I'll accept the invitation and go for a little adventure, and then of course return to the Punjab after that.

I've met ...maybe a half-dozen people in the last day who've traveled through places like Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and so other countries I don't know how to spell. Anyway, what I've heard from them has really piqued my interest, and I can't wait to set up for another trip, this time through those very countries, and more.

Yeah, staying in this dorm type situation at the temple has been a very nice surprise. Initially I thought that I would want to get a private place quite quickly, but my attitude has changed. There's guys and girls from all over, as I mentioned, Japan, China, Canada, Spain, France, Chezk Republic, Norway, Austria... and more. Stories are swapped, tea is served, conversations go, it's great!

Anyway, I don't really know what more to say at this point. I'm feeling pretty high spirited right now which is nice. I'm making a little progress in Panjabi. I think I've pretty much got down the Gurmuki alphabet pronunciation, and now I've just go to memorize all the consonants, work in the vowels, and on and on.. and on.. :) I'm up to thirty now in counting. Need to memorize more verbs. Today I bought some good stiff card-stock paper, or whatever you'd call it, to cut up into flash cards to aid the process. I'm starting to be able to read some words with references back to my alphabet chart, and thereby correct my own pronunciation... so that's cool.

Yeah, so that's it. More adventures! Weeeeeee....

dharma]]> Sat, 12 Feb 2005 11:09:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22278 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22251 Friday, February 11th 2005, 12:42pm

Just a quick update...

Yesterday I was just getting ready to walk out the door and head for the 10 day meditation retreat when I got a phone call saying it'd been cancelled due to the teacher falling ill. So, a cup of tea later I'd switched to: going to Amritsar, home of the famous Golden Temple, the headquarters of Sikhism in the world.

I arrived in the early evening, rain coming down. Made my way to the temple and got settled in a free accomodation - a room with three beds. Only foreigners are allowed in the room(s) I'm staying in, so it's interesting. Last night my companions were a fellow from Switzerland who'd traveled overland through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and yesterday into India. He spent two months in Pakistan and looks forward to going back. Our North American media sure pumps us full of fear eh? The other fellow was from Japan, and he left this morning bound for Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey. :) A funny coincidence. The next room over had four female students from Norway who have been in India for a little over two months as part of a group of 15 students (university). The third room ...I'm not sure, an NRI (non resident Indian) young woman born and raised in Australia, a young fellow from... Germany? And an older guy I'm guessing is from China or Taiwan.

So, I'm gonna spend maybe a week here deciding what to do next. I think it'll be nice just to chill a little bit. (Is that what I'm doing?)

dharma]]> Fri, 11 Feb 2005 03:05:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22251 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22202 Tuesday, February 8th 2005, 11:58am

Ok, well, I opted for going to Hoshiarpur to visit friends, and in a couple of days I'll be heading for a 10 day vipassana course nearby.

I've been reading books like mad lately - novels and so forth. I've been going through them at a rate of one every two or three days. I guess they're a pretty effective escape, and I reckon I'm probably looking for some escape these days.

It's interesting, to me anyway... lately when I get offers to go and see a local Hindu temple, or a mosque, or go visit a secondary school, well... I'm just not interested. I feel like I've seen just about all the temples, sure it'll be literally different from the last one, but not that much different. I know what visiting a school will entail - sure it's a different one, but what difference will that make? Meeting friends of my friends is cool enough, but... we still can't communicate, and so the interactions are very repetitive - I can offer the same phrases, the same questions are asked, and when that's all over, well.. I just kick back and listen to then talk about whatever, and pick up the occasional word here or there. My attitude seems sorta lame to me, but maybe there's a gentler, valid view to it which would offer that I just need some down time from all of these things.

As for learning Panjabi... well, I am slowly learning more. Every once in a while I get some minor insight, and I've been doing fairly well at learning the different sounds of the Panjabi alphabet. I also know that I need to make, well, it would be helpful if I made, a more serious effort myself, you know with a daily regimen and everything. Anyway, I guess I'm not too worried about it. I'm here, I'm doing my thing, and whatever happens - at least I made it. Besides, I think I'll probably kick into a slightly higher gear here at some point. I need some flashcards. :)

Let's see, how about some miscellaneous thoughts that have been kicking around...

(As I write this the young woman working the counter at this internet cafe has been pacing around like a caged tiger for the last ... nearly hour now. Round and 'round she goes.)

The houses here in Punjab... some are large, some are small, some are very large, even by North American standards. None of them have indoor heating though, it just doesn't exist. If it's cold out - and it is - then it's cold in. I reckon evening and morning temperatures are in the 5 - 10 degree celsius range right now. People I've hung out with tend to all get on a big bed, cover themselves in one or two large blankets and watch TV or whatever. Sitting there in a chair, eating dinner, every breath visibly floating away. Even when the doors are shut, there's inevitably some unsealable ventilation built into the walls or ceiling, just as a matter of the architecture, which is kinda cool - like, you're always in touch with nature no matter what, but... There's a LOT of use of marble too - a very typical feature of houses around here. Marble floors, patios, whatever. Wall to wall. Anybody want to take a shower? Not me! Hot water, or even warm water is not a common occurrence. It's freakin cold!! And shower time is usually morning or evening right, and it's already freakin cold! I mean really, what is the deal?

Now, I can the see up side to this, that these folks are built tough, but I dunno, so far I'm still happy with the way of living I come from: soft, warm, easy.

What else.... oh, the moon: instead of the phases moving from left to right or right to left, or whatever it is in North America, they move vertically, so the moon winds up being a glowing bowl up in the sky - a curious difference. I'm still able to watch Orion, the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, and the north star though. And during the day I'm always packin (and referring to) my compass.

I know I've had lots of little things on my mind to relate, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment. I think I'll head off here after two and a half hours of internet.

As I mentioned before, I'll be out of touch until at least the 21st, so y'all take care.

dharma]]> Tue, 08 Feb 2005 04:16:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22202 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22115 Thursday, February 3rd 2005, 2:00pm

Well, as quick as things can come together, they can fall apart. Actually they can fall apart much faster than they come together.

At any rate, I spent several days at a local highschool here in Mahilpur, took on a few classes each of those days, and figured out that right now I do not have what it takes to teach classes to young folks here in India. Having come to that realization and communicated it to my host, my welcome here in connection with him has been withdrawn and tomorrow I move on.

I'm a bit bummed out by that... I was just getting excited to have an apartment to rent for a couple months to use as a base for other adventures in Punjab. Sadly the apartment in question was arranged through my host so I'll have to try to find another. Anyway, I may return to Mahilpur... it's a nice little town. I wouldn't mind spending time here. For now though I must head out so although in reality I guess I have endless options, I think I've narrowed my focus to:
a) visiting Amritsar again and staying at the Golden Temple.
b) visiting friends near Hoshiarpur and then sitting or serving a 10 day meditation course from Feb 10th - 21st.

Of those two I'm leaning toward 'b'.

We'll see what happens eh? Never can tell...

dharma]]> Thu, 03 Feb 2005 03:43:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22115 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22066 Sunday, January 30th 2005, 2:30pm

Well, I arrived in Patara pind (village) on January 18th, and departed on January 27th. There were different elements to my stay there... many were enjoyable, and some were not.

During that time I was staying with a family who took care of me as one of their own. The food I ate was all vegetarian, and much of it came from the family farm where, if I understood correctly, no pesticides or chemical fertilizers are used. Carrots, peas, spinach, the wheat the rotis were made of, the milk, yoghurt, and butter. Everything prepared fresh, hot and delicious. One element that struck me as pretty funny: The routine I experienced in the morning was to get up, brush your teeth (manditory), and head upstairs for cha (milk tea with plenty of sugar), and some combination of ladoo, jelibie, barfi, and a few other sweets I can't remember the name of. So basically, you get up, brush your teeth, and immediately pump yourself up with all kinds of crazy sugar!! Hahahahahaha... ahhhh... If only the kids in Canada could see me now. A breakfast of fresh roti, dahl yoghurt would come about an hour later.

When I first arrived in Jalandhar I got a pedal rickshaw from the train station to the 'Model Town' Gurudwara - that is, the Gurudwara near to the Model Town section of Jalandhar. I paid the wallah, and as I began to cross the street to the Gurudwara where I was hoping to stay for a couple days while setting up to get to Patara, and a fellow working at stand outside the gates hailed to me to come over and talk to him... he began by telling me that I had just arrived from Delhi - a pretty good trick, and then guessed that I'm Kimmy's friend! So this fellow turned out to be the uncle of my friend Kim who's in Delhi, and she'd called and told her family about my arrival just hours before. Needless to say I was pretty surprised. Having only stepped off the rickshaw I was immediately in the care of a family. They set about to arrange for my stay at the Gurudwara, but it never quite got to that. Instead the one contact that I did have in Jalandhar, who was expecting me, soon whisked me off to meet the family that I would stay with in Patara.

It turned out that they were in another nearby village attending a wedding party - what turned out for me to be the first of ...I think four solid days of wedding parties. By the end of that I was finished... there was yet another wedding party two days after the end of the first, but I declined to attend. The parties were ...fun, and there were many friendly people there, but they took a toll on me for sure. I was constantly declining drinks, as the family I was staying with don't drink and were very clearly in favour of my following suit. Same went for meats... then there were the requests for me to dance, which I didn't really feel up to.

I've never felt so much like an oddity and an outsider as I have here in Punjab. Sometimes when people are staring at me, and I say something - Namaste, or Sat Sri Akal Ji, they'll reply in kind and the stare will soften... and other times they simply continue to stare with no response at all. That sort of response would lead to me walking down the street intentionally not looking at anyone... it was hard, and as the days went on, it grew more difficult.

Another phenomenon is that of the talking monkey - I'm a bit like a parrot, a bit like a monkey, but I won't tear out your hair, or bite off your fingers, and unlike any other 'talking monkey' to be found over here, I'm white - so I'm like the ultimate entertainment piece. Usually that experience was limited to the wedding parties I went to, and only very mildly to when meeting the family's friends. However, again that began to mount its weight, day after day. One day a neighbour had asked me to visit his college where he's studying CAD CNC (basically computer controlled lathes). I agreed after he indicated that it would take only some two hours to go from Patara to his college and back again. In fact, we arrived back nine hours later. We spent the first part of the day visiting two Gurudwaras, his old school and professors, family member after family member in different towns, driving all over on his scooter, going to Wonderland despite my protests, and so forth. Everywhere I felt that I was the monkey to be stared at but not spoken to. At one point when he asked what was on my mind, I told him that I was cold and tired, after all we'd spoken of two hours, and this was a pretty long two hours. He apologized, and pointed out though that he didn't know he'd have to go to Wonderland. Riiiight. Finally we went to his college which turned out to be about the most enjoyable part of the day. My mood was pretty sour by then though... and the antics went on. None of the stops felt as though they were for my enjoyment or benefit, despite any ostensible outward appearance that they were. Nine hours. Needless to say I will not be going on any other adventures with him.

Then the family's guru came to town and to stay the night at their place. I won't go into the details, but I was thoroughly unimpressed, and was quite ready to depart the next morning to my next destination, Langeri pind, near the town of Mahilpur, where I am now. Yeah... it's hard for me to decide what to express and what not to express.

All of my entries are seem to me to be fairly focused. I talk about very specific, limited things, and completely leave out the rest of the world that I'm living in. When I talk of bad, there was so much good, but... I can only talk of one thing at a time. I look forward to my next visit to Patara. The family members there are wonderful, and very kind to me. I feel almost at home...

I guess that's it for now. I've spent two days doing "english classes" at a local highschool... and I'll be renting a flat soon. I'll have plenty more to tell you.

ps. Internet here in Mahilpur is particularly difficult... it may take me some time.

l8r!

dharma]]> Sun, 30 Jan 2005 05:05:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/22066 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21927 Sunday, January 23rd 2005, 10:00pm

Hey all, this is just a real quick update to say that I've been in Patara village, district of Jalandhar, state of Punjab since the evening of the 18th, and am loving it! I will be here for just a few more days before heading off for Langeri village where I'll see about settling for a while. Mmmmm.. internet access here is limited, and so I won't go on and on like I'd like to, I'll just pretty well leave it at that - more to come!

(I'll be replying to yer emails asap too.)

Take care,

dharma]]> Sun, 23 Jan 2005 11:26:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21927 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21767 Monday, January 17th 2005, 10:15pm

What is on the menu indeed...

Well, tomorrow I head for Punjab, or the Punjab, or is it Panjab? I dunno... anyway, let's forget about that and talk about food instead!

I've eaten at restaraunts all over, countless dhabbas - roadside food stops for truckers, all sorts of little food vendors on the street selling chopped and fried potatoes garnished with shredded mouli (radish), samosas, mutton, and so on... I've eaten dhal (lentils), sabji (mixed vege curry), paneer (cheese), roti, pratha, yoghurt, on and on - all the standard fair. I've had plenty of fried eggs and omlets, chow mein, pancakes. I remember one particular vege biryani (like fried rice) that I got on a train... I noticed some little bug cooked into it, set the bug aside and kept eating, found another and set it aside as well, eating a bit more... it went like that until along came a young fellow asking for money, and when none was forthcoming he asked for my food. I handed it over.

I've eaten from plates of chopped fresh veges: tomato, cucumber, radish, carrots, cabbage - both when staying with friends in village settings, restaraunts, and when Kurt bought a bunch of stuff from the market and chopped it up - add some salt and plenty of lime and 'ooh la la' it is fine. Those plates of fresh veges always cause me a little hesitation... I've been warned against them time and time again, but do I listen? Just the other day here in Delhi I bought a bunch of grapes. I hung them in bags of water and iodine for 30 minutes before digging in. That seemed like a smart thing.

I drink water from establishments quite infrequently - only when advised from trusted sources that a particular place treats their water adequately. In Nagpur I gradually came to trust the pipe coming out of the ground - municipal water, for being sufficiently chlorinated. Derek had been drinking it for months and seemed fine... I buy most of my water in one litre plastic containers for Rs 10 - 15, about 30 cents Canadian. I had been refilling a bottle with local water and dumping iodine in it in the beginning, but after seeing so many instances of sickening sludges of 'streams' and rivers in every town city I've been, garbage and feces everywhere around it, I've become less fond of the prospect of the local water tables - iodine or not. I drink a variety of sodas from the bottle - Limca, Slice, Pepsi, Coke... I've had plenty of chai milk coffee from all over - train stations, street vendors, some pretty grubby looking scenes. Once a thermos of chai came with little pupas/larva/maggots seated around the rim, and probably steamed nicely. I removed them, thought to myself 'I am in India after all, relax.' and drank. I drink lassis (yoghurt drinks) whenever I feel ok about spending the money. I've had milk drinks, milk shakes with ice-cream... ice-cream bars too. I'll eat ice-cream any chance I get! :)

Let's see... what else have I done wrong. Mutton, chicken, buffalo. Ooh... the fresh sugar cane was a dream...
Whisky, rum, beer... they call whisky soda water "wine" and down it like water. 'Would you like some wine?' Right! 'Just one more pack.'

Fruit... plenty of oranges, bananas, papaya, pineapple... no mango tho, it hasn't been the season. :-/

I'd go on further, but I gotta head back to the ranch, pack, eat candies, read my book (thanks Kurt, I'm lovin it!), and get to sleep. It's 11:00pm and I've got a train at 7:20am.

Peace out y'all!

dharma]]> Mon, 17 Jan 2005 12:29:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21767 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21764 Friday, January 14th 2005, Evening time.

Where am I at? Well, I'm back on my own now, arrived today in Delhi back from my Rajasthan tour. I have grabbed a ticket to Jalandhar for Tuesday the 18th, and so I expect to connect there with some extended family, and onward.

Being back in Delhi again is interesting in that it illuminates for me how I continue to change slowly in my ... approach, or style of reactions, to India, to the pressures of a place like Delhi/Pahargange, things like that.

My brother was asking if I've been spending much time with Indians - hanging out and getting to know, that is. I guess it's not easy in a lot of circumstances that I've been in thus far to connect with the native population in a very useful way... the context of interactions is usually me as a white tourist to sell to, take advantage of, ask for money/pens/candy, or view from afar in passing, and vice versa. It's an interesting thing to notice. I expect that that will change a bit once I'm settled in a small village where tourists are not a top priority.

The tour of Rajasthan was good... 1 day Pushkar, 1 day Jodhpur, 1 day Ranakpur, 2 days Udaipur, 2 days Jaipur, 1 day Gorakhpur, 1 day Agra, and then back to Delhi! I wound up paying Rs 1300 for "insurance" for the car, Rs 800 as a part of the driver's tip, and then food, rooms, and attractions. The forts and temples wind up taking a lot of cash... 120 here, 240 there, 200, 50, 75, the Taj Mahal for 750 (Indians pay 10 I think). By the end we were dropping places. Fort after fort, temple after temple... granted they're all different, but they wind up not seeming that different. Same goes for the mosques. And as the bills mount, the enthusiasm to look at another does the opposite.

Anyway, that adventure's finished, and now it's on to other things.

dharma]]> Fri, 14 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21764 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21561 Saturday January 8th, 2004, 6:10pm

Well, my two companions I had left Purhiran on the morning of the 2nd, took a Rs 19 bus to Jalandhar, then a Rs 35 bus from there to Amritsar, getting there in the mid-afternoon. That was a good experience, just realizing that I've got what it takes to navigate the local bus scenes and get from place to place cheaply. It adds confidence. We spent the rest of the 2nd and 3rd checking out the Golden Temple, Jallianwalabagh where the British had opened fire on a peaceful gathering of 1500 Indians back in 1919, and the Wagah India/Pakistan border crossing - that was a pretty entertaining experience. Lots of Indians and lots of foreigners... a pretty big show. There's basically a big set of concrete bleachers, like a tiny stadium, then the border gate, then a mirrored set of bleachers on the Pakistan side. Both sets of bleachers fill with people who break into strong patriotic chants, wave national flags, and so forth. The border guards crank on the the rockin music, the crowds go nuts, just lovin it, and after a while the ceremony starts. There's some serious high kicking, fast marching to and fro, interactions between the Indian and Pakistani guards, and in the end their flags are lowered in unison... my description is quite lacking for sure, like just about everything over here - you've got to taste it to understand.

Joel Kurt had a plan to leave Amritsar for Delhi on the morning of the 4th, and from there they had a tour of Rajasthan already arranged - via a car and driver. I was thinking that I'd stay a few more days in Amritsar, at the Golden Temple itself - we'd been staying at a 'guest house', and then probably head for Jalandhar and Patara, then to Langeri village where I expect I'll wind up spending a number of months. But, the night before leaving they suggested that I join them for their 10 day Rajasthan tour, and so I went with them to the station in the morning, managed to get a ticket general ticket and upgrade it on the platform (another confidence boosting experience), and off I went to Delhi! See? Things not happening as planned...

The morning of the 5th we piled into our little car (like a geo metro), and busted out of Delhi bound for Pushkar. We arrived in the afternoon, wandered through the markets, across the land, and climbed a very long set of steps up to a temple that I'd visited some ~17 years ago. I could hardly make it to the top, and kept thinking about my dad I doing the same walk so long ago. I'd been feeling pretty sick and unable to eat anything all day, but happily by the next morning I was back in form, and we headed out, bound this time for Jodhpur. Again we arrived in the afternoon, found a good hotel, suggested by our driver, and immediately went off to visit the Mehrangarh Fort - a stunning fort (read: castle) to be sure! It's sitting on top of a mesa-like chunk of rock, more or less in the middle of the city, high above everything else. And its size... it's really, really large. And it's beautiful... amazing architecture, stone work, what can I say. The morning of the 6th we checked out a couple more sites of the city: the Jaswant Thade, which is a large, beautiful, and peaceful white marble shrine built in memory of Maharaja Jaswant II, and then the beautiful-from-afar-but-lame-to-visit Royal Palace. Done with that we headed out of town and toward Ranakpur - which is made up of a very large Jain temple complex, again, all done in white marble. Very beautiful... a really tremendous monument. The detailing of the high roofs, the pillars, the idols and statues... everything. Ranakpur is rather remotely set... there's really no town or city anywhere around it, so if you're going you either have to go from whatever the closest town/cities might be, or you have to stay at one of the hotel/resort places situated 2 - 7KM outside of it. We did that... and it was sweet. It was the nicest place, esthetically, that I've stayed at yet in India. Set it in a quiet little valley surrounded by crumbling sage and scrub brush covered hills and mountains. Parrots and birds of all sorts, lizards, monkeys all over in the surrounding trees... and the place we actually stayed at was really nicely laid out, and had the best showering facilities any of us have come across in India. If only it hadn't been so damn cold at night! It would have been sweet to hang out outside in more comfort. Oh, and I could see the stars! It was the best sky since Washington state. So, this morning we visited Ranakpur, and then took off up twisting roads through beautiful mountains, at once both desertish - rocky and dry, and lush with trees, greenery, and water holes. Apparently there are some leopards living in that area... maybe 8 or so. :) Nice healthy population. Anyway, we arrived this afternoon here in Udaipur, got a hotel and dumped out bags, and headed out to check out town. It seems to be a pretty hilly town... with several "lakes" which are mostly dry with grasses growing everywhere. All of the hotels (or nearly all) advertise nightly screenings of Octopussy - you know, the James Bond flick... which evidently was filmed here. So, we found a nice hotel/restaurant, headed up to the roof, and had some grub. I ate a banana pancake (a banana wrapped in a crepe), and had a rose shake with ice-cream to finish it off - delicious! From our very high vantage point we could see a procession of elephants, camels, and musicians heading away from the palace in the middle of the 'lake' toward another structure some ways away. We decided to find our way down there, and wandered out to where the procession had stopped. It turned out that it was a daily affair. Monied tourists staying at the palace - I guess it's a hotel too, like in Jodhpur, get taken out for a ride and a welcoming and informing talk on the history of the area. Anyway, it was a nice walk and we got some pictures... and now we've come back into town and found this internet joint.

So, this is day 4 of 9... tomorrow we stay here, a two day stop, then it's off to Jaipur for two more days, then... somewhere, then Agra where the Taj Mahal is, and then back to Delhi for me. At that point I'll be planning to head back to Panjab. We'll see eh?

I'm thinking of all of you... and again, thanks for the emails! This is the first time since January 1st that I've been able to access the internet, so please be understanding of slow, or no, personal responses to your emails. It just takes so much time to write, and keeping you all informed pretty much takes the time I have. I do love reading them tho!

ps. in case you're wondering - I was high up in NE India when that earthquake tsunami business all went down, so I was far away from it.

take care,

dharma]]> Sat, 08 Jan 2005 09:20:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21561 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21370 Monday, December 27th 2004, 9:20pm

Well my illness continued as before, and on the 25th, while sitting at one of the adjacent terminals in this web cafe, showed its finest form with me passing out. I had felt something kinda heavy coming on, so I turned off the monitor, and just rested on the computer table to ride out whatever it was... the next thing I knew I was dreaming - all very nice, and the next I was being shaken awake by the shopkeeper who wondered if there was something wrong - 'yes, something wrong' I told him. :) These two Vancouverites I'm traveling to Punjab with showed up a short time later while I was resting in an easy chair. I had already sussed out a doctor the day before, and once I had my strength back I made a bee-line for his office, some ~100' away. He listened to my story of the illness, etc, etc, and told me to come back that evening. I did, and he gave me a relatively full inspection (nothin south of the border mind you) and declared it to be a chest infection. He prescribed 3 days worth of medication and I've been getting better ever since. Tonight I had a bowl of raita and a garlic naan - the biggest meal I've had in 5 days or so, and I've had two more decent nights of sleep.

Now I've got to head back to the hotel, get packed, go to sleep, and at 7am I'll be waiting out on the road to meet up with the two Van guys. We'll head for the bus station to meet our other two companions, and we'll all bust out for Punjab!

OMG... 9 nights in Delhi... waaaaay too much.

dharma]]> Mon, 27 Dec 2004 11:09:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21370 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21277 Thursday, Dec. 23rd 2004, 8:13pm

Yesterday I met up with the woman who'd been my Panjabi teacher out at UBC ~2 years ago, and her husband from the Punjab who will be moving to Canada in the next few months. Also I met two friends of hers from Vancouver who are also traveling around India. We'll all travel to Punjab by deluxe bus on the 28th.

We went for lunch and so-forth, all very nice, except that my health has been on the decline. A couple of days previous 'the runs' had started in, and by yesterday morning my skin was starting to feel sensitive. I had a very small lunch, and by the night was starting to shiver. Last night was one of those ...nightmarish long lucid nights. I hit the sack around 9pm, and tossed and turned, little dreams(?) replaying themselves incessantly while I tried to find a comfortable way to sleep. At about 1am my neighbour decided to do his/her laundry... and once that finished I went back to my fitful and sweaty slumber until about 5am when someone downstairs decided to bring out their anvil and forge a sword or something - that's what it sounded like anyway. After that quit I managed to sleep until about 8:45am. I got up, my skin still sensitive and a new phlemy cough having developed, and walked over to the two Canadians' place 35mins away in Janpath. We spent a few hours wandering around, eventually hopping a rickshaw back to Pahargange where I'm staying. We were headed down the bazaar toward my hotel when we stopped in at this very internet cafe. They waited outside while I checked on CD burning costs - they started at Rs 20 for the CD and Rs 80 for the service, but quickly folded when I offer 20/40. When I emerged my two companions were having a conversation with a Sikh fellow who was offering Rs 1000 each for two of us to participate in a commercial, apparently for Air India. In the end we decided to go for it. I would just accompany, and they would do the bit. The fellow said he'd include lunch, tea/coffee, and the ride to the shoot and back again.

We took off and eventually wound up on a southern campus affiliated with the Delhi University. We spent about 4 hours sitting around waiting while things slowly geared up, sipping chai and wishing time would speed up slightly. It turned out not to be a commercial, but a short commedy bit directed by none other than the legendary Jaspal Bhatti. For those of you who know nothing of the Indian film industry, this would be sort of like the Oliver Stone or Stephen Spielberg of Indian commedy. It was in fact a bit that will be about two or three minutes long, and will air at about 10:30pm, Dec 31st, on Aaj Tak news channel's 'What If' humour segment. It was a spoof about what it would be like if Bihar state's chief minister Lalu Prasad became the president of America. He's evidently got a reputation for being a somewhat unorthadox public figure, often dressing strangely and so on. I took lots of pictures...

In the end I got as close as a camera check up with the rest of the cast, but they really weren't fond of having three white people, it was a bit too crowded... or maybe I didn't look quite right, anyway, I just hung out taking pictures and shivering. The other guys did get their Rs 1000, out of which they insisted on giving me Rs 500 for my company and for the apparent fact that they would have expected similar treatment if I had been chosen in favor of one of them. And, we got our rides back to our respective areas of town. A pretty interesting experience all round, and an unexpected adventure!

So, I'm feeling pretty rough... chills, shivering, a growly stomach with almost zero appetite, and this cough/sore throat. Hopefuly things will improve soon eh? I dunno.

Alright, take care all!

dharma]]> Thu, 23 Dec 2004 10:37:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21277 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21224 Tuesday, December 21st 2004, 7:10pm

Happy birthday my dear pa! Much love to you!

Well, yeah... here I am chillin in Delhi. But I won't talk about that right now.

The day before I left Bodhi Gaya I took a nice long bike ride... ~5Km outside of the town gate, riding parallel to a wide, wide river, to a little village where there's a high-tension powerline that crosses the river - with a tower right in the middle of that river. There I went down and crossed the dry riverbed, staying to the left of the tower, and spotting a well used spot on the other bank headed there. I passed numerous locals on the way, and finally ascended the opposite bank and came to a road. I made the mistake of taking that paved road running parallel to the river again, back in the general direction I'd come from. After a short while I stopped and asked an older fellow if I was going the right direction. 'Namaste ji, main Jaagdishpur jarrahaan houn', I said, and having gotten a positive acknowledgement, I pointed in the direction I was riding, 'Jaagdishpur?'. 'Naheen', he replied, and gestured back the way I'd come, and then off to the right. After a minute or two of this sort of conversation, me trying to get a better sense of exactly what he meant, I searched around and coming up with a useful stone, drew a map in the dirt. 'X' marked us, then a road back to the village on the river bank, an 'O', and then at the village added a road heading off perpendicular to the right. 'Haan, Jaagdishpur.' Yes, he said, this was it. Another fellow who'd come along by then agreed. In fact, he was heading that way so I could go with him. But he was walking, so after a couple minutes of walking beside him I confirmed again with gestures my course, and took off. I hung a right onto a bumpy and undulating dirt 'road', and checking with folks from time to time, eventually wound up in Jaagdishpur. I confirmed the general direction to the tea stand and the Mandala School, and headed for the latter. As I'd been told to expect, I saw two classes of children seated out in the sun, beyond a sparse area of trees. I hopped off the bike and made my way toward them. One of the teachers greeted me, and after a short conversation I was seated in front of the class. I asked 'Sanjit koan hai?' ...silence. Nobody moved. The teacher then asked for Sanjit to identify himself, and a young fellow got to his feet. I gestured him to come forward, asking 'Ap pita ji Prem Kumar hai na?' Yes, Prem is his dad... so I handed him a picture I'd been given to deliver. He took it, sat back down, and the teacher proceeded to explain to the kids that I'm a good friend of Prem, and so on. After a short while the teacher walked me over to the tea stand I'd been told to leave the bike at, explained, and I parked the bike. I then took my leave of the teacher, agreeing to drop in again on my way out, and headed off toward the mountain ridge stretching to the left and right before me, and the Mahakala cave which was my destination.

The Mahakala cave is a small cave, say about large enough for 4 people to sit cross legged in, where the Buddha is said to have meditated in seclusion for 6 years prior to his enlightenment. It's a beautiful area... clean, arrid but with a nice smattering of trees, and this long, striking mountain ridge leaning forward as though balancing against the wind. I avoided the main footpath and headed up through the rocks, ravines, and trees. As I got closer to the monastery which is now built around the cave I hit the main trail again, and moved upward steadfastly through the series of men, women, and children asking for money, pens, and candy. A set of monks came down past me handing out candies all the way. I discovered that they'd bought them at the snack stand at the top... a good relationship I guess.

The cave door is about half my height, and inside it was warm and still... or not still, I'm not sure. The cave ceiling is fairly rounded, and very dark - black. There is an alter there with a statue of the Buddha, portraying him in the rather imaciated form which he is said to have been in, due to his extreme fasting during those years. Candles and incense match the tone... I sat there for a few minutes, observing the sweat pouring off me, and watched my mind run around while I sat looking for stillness, for whatever's there in that space where the Buddha sat for so many years.

Having had my fun, and taken a few pictures, I left the cave, and declining the offers for a guide, headed higher up the ridge, back and forth through the rocks and shrubs, past some goats, prayer flags, and eventually reached the top. I spent the next hour and a half walking back and forth along the top of the ridge. There are beautiful views from that ridge, sweeping down one side - where I'd come from, and down the opposite. The land all around is basically flat, so the view goes as far as the haze will allow. There are also remains, ruins, of six stupas along the top of the ridge, and having walked to them all I sat beside one and had lunch. A tibetan bread, cheese, and tomato sandwich, some cookies, and plenty of water.

It was a very nice little day trip. After coming down I did visit the teacher again, his class was just disbanding as I approached. He showed me their school building which they use in the hot summer, and told me about the funding difficulties which he worries will force its closure in the next year. It was apparently started in 1998 thanks to a donation from the Netherlands, and according to a log book I saw, numerous foreigners have added their bit to it. Still though, the proposed kitchen area is left with only half finished walls, and the second floor of the school is mostly non-existant. Add to that the problems with drought which are apparently plaguing the village, and for the teacher it feels like the future is bleak. He feels that education is their salvation, but it's a catch-22 scenario. Nothing special there.

Having visited Prem's home and the surrounding village, and seen the ~30' well, dry as a bone, I rode back with the teacher to the village on the bank of the river, where it turned out he lives. I declined his invitation to dinner in favor of heading back to Bodhi Gaya in the light, and bid him good-bye - yes, I promise to write... and I'll consider his idea of trying to fund-raise for the school once I'm back in Canada.

The next afternoon I caught a train from Gaya, and 23 hours later (8 hours late thanks to fog in the morning time) arrived in Delhi. More adjustment... more learning about how to flat out ignore all of the people trying to start conversations. Just keep doing what I'm doing, going where I'm going, like I don't hear them at all. And on occasion when I am engaged, I'm learning not to offer anything at all. It's a mildly entertaining experience.

My first night I stayed in a very nice hotel with cable tv (I watched Robin Hood, The Last Mohican, and some sci-fi), hot showers anytime I wanted in my decently clean bathroom, and a comfortable clean bed - Rs 250. Having had my fill of the good life, I've moved to a relative dive - in fact "relative" may not matter, but with cold water into a bucket (buckets of hot water available for Rs 10), no tv, a rather dark, dank room, and a rather questionable bed, how can I argue with Rs 100? That's five days for the price of two! Ten for four! Twenty for eight! Twenty!! I put the pillow under my ankles so that my feet can hang comfortably off the end of the bed. I think that'll work just fine.

The market here is a pretty crazy place, but I must say there are tons of very cheap things. Beautiful bed covers, beautiful bags, all sorts of crafts, incense, beautiful clothes. I went along shopping with a woman from Switzerland that I'd traveled from Bodhi Gaya with. If I had the money and desire to ship tons of stuff, it would be heaven. Maybe I'll do a little shopping before I leave India. We'll see... requests?

I expect to travel north to the Punjab, by bus, on December 28th. Hmmmm... I think I need dinner.

dharma]]> Tue, 21 Dec 2004 10:22:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21224 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21132 Wednesday, Dec. 15th 2004, 4:13pm

So, here I am in Bodhi Gaya... the place that Siddhartha Gautama, "the Buddha", attained enlightenment some 2500 years ago.

This morning as I walked from my residence here toward my breakfast place, I passed through a residential area... homes made of mud, children doing their things, naked, clothed, dirty. Mothers fathers grandparents making food, washing their clothes... people working, chickens, goats, mamma dogs with their pups. Small streams of water running here and there, black with... the smell of urine feces here and there - after all, this is where these people do that too. I came to a slightly larger stream, black as well, with a bank covered in garbage. Ever been to a municipal dump? As I crossed over it I saw ahead a fellow... in his late teens or twenties? His back was to me, as he moved along the top of a brick fence, one of his legs lamely flapping against his body. He looked so much like a monkey walking high on a narrow fence, except... As I passed him he'd seated himself on the top of the fence, back to me, and relieved himself. I continued walking on, along side the sickly stream, and its bank of garbage, the water permeating the soil, making the path damp, and becoming the water table that we all use here. Yesterday I, for the first time, took my garbage - a nice bag full, and tossed it over by the bus stop, where a dog took command of it, lest any other dog or pig or goat or person should try make a move on it. This is what happens here, all over. There is no "dump". There is no garbage collection, save for the hotel worker who takes your garbage and does the same thing with it. The animals eat whatever they can of it, and the rest sits there, or gets set on fire each morning. On the up side there are some people, children otherwise, who go around scavenging through this scene, picking out plastic bottles, metal, etc, and take them to a recycling collection place where they get paid as per the weight of material brought. I had a hard time doing that. I wonder what happens to the batteries I throw away. I'm going to buy rechargeables.

I'll spare you all the details of the children, men, and women, some with bodies in tact, others not, who ask for money or food as I walk... anywhere.

This is a beautiful and spiritual place though... I suppose it epitomizes the extremes that can be found in India. The day before last, the drummer I walked across a dry river, and over to a temple where the Buddha was given rice milk, and another where he was given grass to make a seat out of. These things made it possible for him to come to this spot, to sit down, and to discover the truth. On our way back we saw what appeared to be a funeral pyre being made out in the dry sand of the river bottom. We walked parallel to the bridge, half way between it and the gathering, and when we were in line with it we stopped to observe. The fire was lit, and after some time a fellow walked out toward us and invited us to come closer. They offered that we could take pictures, if we wanted, if we had cameras. We did, and we stood, and sat, and talked with the family members. Their brother, their uncle... 60 - 65 years old. The fire burning hot, smoke blowing past us. I could see.

I would cry right now, but I'm in an internet cafe and won't allow myself. It's hard... I want to do something, a lot of people want to do something, but it can be very difficult to see how to be effective.

Changing the subject, my dad asked if I've had opportunities to play the guitar I brought. I have been playing my guitar some... in Nagpur I played it while
sitting around Derek's place, and a neighbouring father small daughter knocked on the door. The little girl had been listening outside, but wanted to see, so I played 2 or 3 songs for them. Also, Viren and his mother, father, and a cousin wanted to hear some songs so I played a few. An indian fellow on the train from Nagpur to Patna wanted to hear something so I played a section of Long Black Veil, but it was so noisy it was quite lame, so I cut it short. Now in Bodhi Gaya, I've been getting to know a few people from the UK, one of who is a drummer in a "tribal-rock-pop" band called "me and me mates". He's also staying at Mohammad's place, and last night we were up until 1:30am playing various tunes, Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and others. I'm regretting not bringing my Bob Marley song book... as I keep getting requests for Bob... The night before I was hanging out with Umesh (Mohammad's nephew) who is working at Mohammad's house, and we were reading through a few songs, to understand what they're about, and then I'd play through them. So yup, gettin in some strumming action. :)

Also, I'd like to share some examples of what it's costing to live here from day to day.

In Nagpur: Dec 3rd
===============
64 - doxy (malaria pills)
60 - dental floss
11 - papaya oranges
45 - thali (lunch) chai
3.5 - local phone calls
40 - internet (2 hours)
28 - coconut crunch biscuits cadbury chocolate bar
===============
251.5 Rs = $5.70 USD

In Bodhi Gaya: Dec 14th
==================
130 - rent
36 - breakfast
25 - oranges pomegranate
12 - 1 ltr water
60 - internet (2hr)
15 - biscuits candies
20 - coke mango drink
10 - tibetan yellow noodles
4 - roasted corn on the cob
68 - dinner
==================
380 Rs = $8.60 USD.

I don't eat three meals every day, mostly a 'breakfast/lunch' and dinner. I don't drink sodas every day. Every week or so I buy some AA batteries for 45 Rs ($1.00 USD). You can get the picture. My train ticket to Delhi is ~385 Rs, or roughly $8.75 USD.

Anyway, that's all I've got to say for now. I've been sitting here for nearly 2 hours and it's now dark. I'll do something more useful tomorrow.

Take care all,

Dharma]]> Wed, 15 Dec 2004 07:44:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21132 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21038 Wednesday December 8th, 2004, 6:58pm

Headin out!

This will just be a quick update. I may have more time tomorrow to flush it out.

I'm expecting to receive a "2nd class sleeper" ticket tonight that will leave Nagpur either tomorrow or the next day, and will take me up quite near to Bodhi Gaya in NE India. There I'm planning to stay until I head to Delhi around December 18/19th. It's been quite an experience trying to get a train ticket. Crowded and hot stations with signs I can't read, and many people who can speak very limited english, and of course I can speak almost no Hindi or Marati at all. Thanks to the various friends I've made here in Nagpur though, things have been getting done, and I'm learning slowly about the system.

Yesterday Kelly I went with Varin to Nagpur University's Zoology department where he gave a talk relating to the sort of work he's doing now. Kelly also gave a short talk relating to working with NGOs to contribute to local communities gain real-world experience in their fields. Before the main presentation all three of us were presented with bouquets, and after we went to a lab room where we had tea biscuits and had an opportunity to relate to the students, both men women, on a personal level. That was really something! I'll talk more about it later.

Then both last night this morning we were invited to a Hindu wedding, and were able to check out the various ceremonies and have some great food. Lots to do and see.

Anyway, I really have to get to a washroom before I pee my pants, and Kelly I want to head back to the ranch to connect with Derek.

All the best to y'all, and thanks for the emails comments, I enjoy reading all of them!

dharma]]> Wed, 08 Dec 2004 08:48:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/21038 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/20959
Last night I was chillin at my favorite dinner place, having just finished eating, and waiting for a local friend to show up when there was a small commotion in the street, nothing new there. But I looked, as I do since everything ordinary here is interesting to me, and there was a fair amount of what I thought must be smoke from a car or something. A *lot* of smoke actually, and I turned more and looked back down the street to where the car would have come from - LOTS of smoke, the whole street as far as I could see was filled with it. I wondered if maybe some building had caught fire or something, and the smoke began to fill the outdoor patio I was sitting at. I looked back at the employees standing around, and one of them explained to me: it's for mosquitoes, to go away. Another 10 seconds and this noxious vapor enveloped us completely. Other people were covering their eyes mouths, and I could tell this was some nasty stuff... there was some burning sensation around my eyes, throat... I got up to go somewhere and the staff invited me to go down inside the restaraunt, which I did, just barely managing to be able to see the steps to decend. It was really that dense, like being in a fog bank! Inside was better, but not exempt from the fumes. After a few minutes more my friend Verin showed up and he confirmed the story I'd been told. See, apparently there's a significant outbreak of malaria dengue fever right now, what with the environmental conditions being just right at the moment. Great, that's just super... and here's me with no anti-malarial anything.

So, today I went to a local chemist and asked if he's got doxycycline, which he did, and so I purchased some. In Canada I could have gotten 210 100mg tablets (1 per day) for $150 CAD, or 5,559 Rs (rupees). Here the same amount would cost 840 Rs, or $22.66 CAD. Hmmmm...

The chemist (pharmacist) suggested that I not get two months worth, which is what I was going to do, and instead just get 16, and after that check with my doctor to see if it should still be a concern, in which case get more. Anyway, I think I'll stock up a bit more... but ....I dunno, do I just take it every day regardless of anything, or do I wait for smoke bombs in the streets to alert me to the immediate danger of malaria wherever I happen to be?

Besides that, yesterday I went to Reliance Web World. It's a company that apparently provides cellular services around India, and I was told would be able to burn CDs for me. There are actually quite a few places around that can do such a thing. I'd been quoted 40 Rs for such service but that place had been running Win98 and the system didn't have drivers for my USB memory stick. A second place had quoted 70 Rs, and I had declined simply because I wasn't feeling pressed to get it done. Just as a matter of observation, both were absolute dives in comparison, although on an individual basis they're fine places to hang out and do email. Anyway, I decided to give these folks a try. I went inside their very clean and modern looking office and was soon directed upstairs, where I discovered they have a video conference room, and a computer room for surfing the web, playing Counter Strike, doing email, etc. They had some 20+ terminals almost every one was currently being used by young guys playing Counter Strike. They were indeed able to burn CDs off of my memory reader, for a cost of only 60 Rs ($1.61 CAD). While I hung out there I struck up a conversation with one of the employees that was doing that work for me, being that back home I work in a very related field, and I'm also a huge fan of CS. He explained that RWW is the only company in India that has a fiber network, and all of their offices are linked up and running at a very high speed. He was in his second year of an engineering degree from Nagpur university, a campus which I have visited, and so for that reason he was able to get a job there at RWW. A young woman who'd been helping me initially had completed her degree in... what was it, computer science or something similar. All this time I was basking in the ultra-clean, air conditioned, and very modern environment, sipping delicious sweet coffee which kept coming around on a platter. :-) Heaven! After I was done getting the CDs burned, the fellow offered me free time to surf the web, and thus I was able to send off a slew of pictures to various family members. It was a very good experience, and I shall definately visit their office again. There are some 20 or so scattered around India, and the rates are very resonable, falling somewhere between 35 60 Rs per hour for surfing or CS - and that includes all the little coffees a person can drink! Ok, enough about that.

Getting to their office required me overcoming some amount of resistance to trying to *find* their office, you know, taking a taxi to a region of town known as Dharampeth. About as vague general as "kits" or "downtown". And how much should I pay the rickshaw? 50 Rs the driver said... a bit high I replied, 40 he said... 30 I replied, 40 he said... ok, it's alright, thanks anyway I said and began walking away. I would just walk for a bit, what do I care, but it didn't come to that. 'Hey, hey, ok, ok, 30.' So off we go... at some point I think he started asking me if this area was where I wanted to get dropped but I'm not really sure as I couldn't understand a word he said. I just repeated the name of the area, and we went on... eventually he pulled over, and indicated this was it. Ok, 30 Rs, and now I'm in the middle of this mayhem of a shopping area, with crazy intersections, etc. Where do I go now. So I bought some oranges and asked the vendor in my best attempt at understandable broken english if he knew of this place I was looking for, and if so, where it was. He indicated that two "squares" down thataway would be where I want to go. I did find the place, but this is how the experience is for me. I don't know where I am, I don't know how much anything costs, I don't know how far away anything is or in which direction, and so forth.

Having completed my business I started walking back. I at least knew the general E/W/N/S direction to head. After a short while a fellow pulled over on his scooter to ask me where I was from and so-forth, a very common experience here, and after finding out where (more or less) I was going, offered to give me a lift. This brought up a very current issue of trust... who is this guy, what does he want, and would I not sooner just say no and be left alone? Say no and be left alone... Anyway, I've got to cut this short cause I'm supposed to give Verin a call and we'll go off to some part of the city together. But this issue of engaging or ignoring, accepting or declining... is something I'd like to touch on more later. People around here seem absolutely thrilled just to be able to 'talk' to a white person here, or shake their hand or anything... so yeah, offers and interactions abound. I should say that my last statement is a bit of an overboard. In fact all people people in Nagpur are not "absolutely thrilled" to shake my hand, etc, but that's often how it feels.

Dharma]]> Fri, 03 Dec 2004 05:35:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/20959 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/20866 Monday November 29, 2004, 2:19pm

Derek had a rare day off yesterday, so we went off to adventure around the city. We started by heading for a man-made lake, or tank or... I dunno, we never got to it. Derek's been there before though, and apparently it's the place that everyone was taking their Ganesh statues recently and dumping them in the water, according to the traditional celebration that was taking place at the time. On our way I spotted a little altar down a lane and suggested that we go have a look. I'm a big fan of lanes alleys, and this one proved to be a fine example, and as even in Vancouver, offered an interesting look into the local community life that one doesn't often get from the front. Anyway, just as we got to the end of a long straight stretch and were going to hang a left, some older gents harkened us over to find out where we were from, etc. We entertained them by answering some questions in response to almost unintelligible questions - they spoke less than a half-dozen english words, and we speak about the same of Hindi. As it turned out one of them had been drinking, and was quite hammered. Through a series of non-communications he indicated that he wanted to know where we were going, and through more non-communications we indicated god only knows what. After 5 - 10 minutes of this sort of thing a large crowd had gathered: some ~20 kids, teens, men women... Well it felt like a large crowd in the confines of the rather small lane we were in. You see, here in Nagpur there are apparently almost NO non-indians ever, and so we become a very huge source of curiosity. Things were getting a little out of hand so we decided we'd best graciously bid them all adieu, and take off. Easier said than done, we wound up being followed and... harrassed, pestered, I dunno what the term would be, but suffice it to say that most of the crowd went with us including the drunkard. Crowds beget crowds. We got back on the main road, but after another 10 minutes of walking it became clear that things were not going to improve on their own. The drunk fellow would ride his bike 100' ahead and stop and wait and when we caught up would go on and on about something we couldn't understand at all. Doctor something, hands over eyes something, 'no no' something, don't go something, dead body something, an indication to follow him the way we were already going... and of course all the kids were still all around us, and more people would come over to see what the commotion was.

We decided at that point to turn around and head for home as things only seemed to be getting more crazy, and we really just wanted to be left alone. After walking back home for 10 minutes much of the crowd had drifted away, tho there were still some waiting further ahead, and behind and slowly keeping up. Some kids approached again and indicated that there were a couple of men that were going to follow us home, and another kid, a young girl, who seemed to be saying that her uncle would like us to visit his house, and we should head over there. We finally hopped into a motor-rickshaw in order to outrun them all, which we did.

They had all been friendly enough, but... as I said later, a swarm of friendly people is still a swarm.

After a while we hopped out of the rickshaw and continued on our way. We headed to a very busy shopping area... many long streets of shops spilling out onto the road, and tons of people milling around doing their thing. We made our way down to the end of the 'shopping area' to where there were some key-cutters, and got a couple spare keys cut for Derek. (They turned out not to work.) Then we went off wandering around and seeing the sights. I spotted a large stadium, and upon seeing that the gate was open, suggested that we go in and check in out. Derek was a little wary I think, what with the success of my earlier bright idea, but this turned out to be much more pleasant, and offered some great views of the surrounding areas from the top of the bleachers. Down below on the field were groups playing football (soccer), cricket, and a few people jogging around. Having had our fun there we went on to a tasty dinner, a shopping mall, and then caught another rickshaw home. All good.

Now I'm starting to wonder what to do next. Derek is leaving Nagpur soon to meet his g/f in Mumbai (Bombay), and then they're going to want some time alone, so I've got to come up with something to do until ~Dec 20 when I plan to hit Delhi again to meet my old Punjabi teacher who's invited me to a week-long Sikh wedding to take place there in Delhi, and then head north to the Punjab with her after that.

We'll see... hmmmm... India... what to do...

dharma]]> Mon, 29 Nov 2004 04:19:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/20866 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/20336 November 1st, 2004, 7:30pm

Last night was Halloween...

We didn't have any trick or treaters around here, we're a little too far removed for that. What we had instead was ~20 minutes or so of enchanting howling from the local coyotes. It was the first time I'd heard them since being here, and it was quite something. They were yipping, howling, barking, with their sounds echoing through the otherwise still forest. Dad had just gone to bed, and I was adding some wood to the fire so that I might continue with my reading playing guitar. I left that and stepped outside to listen... The moon clouds were visible up through the trees, and I listened, trying to judge how far away they might be, and wondering why this was the first time I'd heard them. I thought of the european settlers back in the day, and considered how they might have felt hearing such incantations. For me there was wonder, fear, awe... I decided that they were likely not moving as such, but staying put wherever they were. It sounded like they were within a thousand feet, not too far, but I really couldn't tell. Beyond "C" "L"'s cabin anyway... After a couple minues I began to recognize different voices in the choir, characteristics of that particular call, and that one, and that one. Soon enough they were silent, and I went back in to the comfort of the couch, there in the midst of the forest, surrounded by glass walls, and warm.

A time of transition is upon us... in the next couple days we'll close up camp for the season, and head north. This has been an interesting time for sure. A great chance for my dad I to spend a good long time together... and a great chance to be immersed in beautiful nature.

So... onward...]]> Mon, 01 Nov 2004 22:35:00 EST http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/20336 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/20253
Ok, I may add some more to this later on, but right now I'm at the Deming library, and just want to let folks know where things stand.

I now have purchased a ticket with Japan Airlines to leave from Vancouver ~11:20am Nov 23rd, spend a night in Tokyo, and arrive in Delhi at ~4:30pm. The ticket's valid for a year, so we'll see how things go. Now I'm just waiting to get my Indian visa...

Meanwhile I've got myself a nice, compact sleeping bag, and am busy compiling my travel list packing my backpack to test how things fit, and what I'll bring.

The plan currently is that we'll (dad I) leave WA bound for Vancouver on the 3rd, and I'll spend the next two+ weeks in Van taking care of whatever's left to take care of, and ...you know, relaxing, getting tense, whatever.

Mmmmmm... that's all I can think to say right now.

:) dharma]]> Thu, 28 Oct 2004 14:56:00 EDT http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/20253 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/19924 October 13th, 2004, 7:37pm

Well, it's been an awfuly long time since my last pitiful update, and this one's not going to be too much better for detail.

Things are wrapping up here on the homestead, I expect to be leaving here bound for Vancouver around the first week of November. I then plan to have a plane ticket for India, and will likely leave for Delhi around the 23rd of November. We'll see how things go from there. I will be aiming to spend 11+ months in India assuming I can handle it mentally, physically, and financially. I expect that most of that time will be spent in the Punjab, though I've got a friend who's living in Nagpur right now so I'll certainly have to stop in there, and my plans will be quite flexible besides.

As for the time down here... well, we haven't built a house yet, or even begun building the house proper. We have done a lot of related work though, and made decent progress. It's been hard for me to readjust from my expectations of what I was going to be doing down here, to the reality. A good lesson in having a rigid mind. I've decided it would have been better, and will be better in the future - say travling in India, if I can be more flexible... less stuck on my own short-sighted ideas of how it's going to be, or what's going to happen. I'll just have to watch for myself being like that.

Ok, well, it looks like my time here is up, so I'm going to close this update now. I will... 'try' to update a little more often than once a month!

ps. You may notice that one of my prior updates now has several words that are underlined links... click on them for some pictures if you like. I have more, but... we'll see how soon I get them linked in.]]> Wed, 13 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EDT http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/19924 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/19489 September 17th, 2004, 9:07pm

Ok, a real quick update, cause I'm always *really* short on Internet time, not to mention computer time. (I have previously composed most of my updates off-line and then posted them when I had a chance to get on-line.)

My (our) new phone# is 360-592-5089. At the moment we don't have an answering service, so you just have to let it ring ring, and if we can hear it, we'll come a 'runnin. The most likely two times to find us near the phone are 9:30am - 10:30am, and after 6pm, tho we're often around at other times so whatever. :)

I've been really wanting to get time to write a decent update, or any update for that matter, but it's been difficult. There are a number of things that I'd like to go on about at length, but only a couple that I'm willing to touch on now, since I know that I don't have long to write on this occasion.

The first is a short bit that I came across while reading "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman.

###############################################
One describes a tale best by telling the tale. You see? The way one describes a story, to onself or to the world, is by telling the story. It is a balancing act and it is a dream. The more accurate the map, the more it resembles the territory. The most accurate map possible would be the territory, and thus would be perfectly accurate and perfectly useless.
The tale is the map that is the territory.
You must remember this.

- from the Notebooks of Mr. Ibis
###############################################

The second thing is to relate an idea that came up during a conversation between my dad I yesterday, where he was saying how much he was enjoying having the time to hang out and be in my company. I was a little surprised by that, and said so, explaining that lately I have felt myself to be "about as tolerant as a brick... coming through your window." Since then we've had a couple interesting follow-up conversations about that idea... anyway, I found that amusing and wanted to share it.

Ok, well that's it for time, gotta go! Love, peace, all that good stuff to all of you...

dharma]]> Fri, 17 Sep 2004 00:07:00 EDT http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/19489 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/19159 Thursday, September 2nd, 5:00pm

The past week has been... I don't know, whatever it's been. There's been sun, and rain.

This morning I finished reading Zorba - what a fine book, I love the language and images, and exploration of what it is to be alive human, and to face life, and death.

Don I inventoried the large beams that dad had gotten from some 'junk' pile down that had been down beside an old logging/milling area in the harbour area. They're beautiful beams. So we measured and tagged them, from 5' through to 20' and wrote them down in such a way that dad will be able to strategize about how to best make use of them. That will also allow us to begin digging the beds for the concrete footings on which the house will stand. Dad has gone off to town to see about getting stove pipe for the wood-stove we brought up to the kitchen area yesterday, get a battery charger for our soon-to-be generator/charger/battery electric system, and a few other errands.

The wood-stove will allow us to dry out after the rains get us wet, and the electric-system-to-come will allow us electric lights, the ability to power a computer, recharge camera and cordless drill batteries, and so forth.

We spent a lot of the past week or so doing various things... cutting down a couple more small trees, clearing leveling the building site, staking out different proposed building-footprints that dad would come up with, and then conversing with "C" "L" about how that fits or doesn't fit with their land and vision, and revising and coming up with alternatives. At one point dad unveiled to me a great and creative design that he's had in his mind for a long time, and it really kicked in my enthusiasm. An interesting design, with two rectangles that cross eachother like a "+" sign, four high sloping beams running from the ground, free through the living area, a high open ceiling, and looking up from the living-room to the top of the ceiling, the house would be topped by a beautiful geodesic dome with windows allowing light in. The living-room area would be open and warm and in open view of the kitchen area, and with extensions of open-ness toward the other four extremities, the south-facing of which is an enclosed 'glass porch'. The one thing I'd like to see is him building for himself, and having the freedom to create the vision that he sees. The result would be fantastic I'm sure. This situation will not allow for that though, at least not in a complete way. Each basic element has to be run through "C" "L" to be given the green light, and they don't have any reason - that is, experience through which - to have confidence or faith in his abilities. As well they have their own reasons to want things done in... certain styles, or within certain constraints. That's been disappointing to me.

The current 'plan' is a compromise of sorts. We've laid out stakes and run line from stake to stake to show the perimeter/walls of the structure, and we've placed pieces of cardboard, appropriately sized, to simulate where the fireplace, couch(es) and chairs, and kitchen counter would go, and that's been fun and has renewed my enthusiasm a lot. Even within the constraints, I see his vision spilling out and I sense elegance style, a cozy open feel. So... that's nice.

We also got the solar water heater set up and working - at least version 1 of it. Man, on a sunny day the water that comes out of it is too hot to put my hand in, so I need to cut it with cold before bathing. On the other hand, today is cloudy with rain from time to time, and the water is... luke warm at best. I think I'll wait for another sunny day to get clean.

Yesterday Don Dad I took some of the day off to drive out toward Mt. Baker. We wanted to go high up, past the ski area, to a place known either as Inspiration Point, or Artist's Point. It wasn't to be though, the road crews were up there doing repairs, and the wait before getting to drive through was 45 minutes to an hour so we turned back. We tried a couple of other roads though, and wound up going high up, some 9 miles of an old forestry road to a lookout point which was pretty grand. (1,2,3)

Don will leave tomorrow, and plans to be back in about two weeks. Dad thinks we'll start by building the center portion of the house, then string a tarp over top of that, and use that sheltered and flat area to continue building walls roof trusses and simply set them aside, then once we're ready we'll rustle up some folks and arrange and fasten pieces together in a matter of a day or two. We'll see how things go...

* mouse-proofed my trailer stove
* baby gardener snakes toads
* good meals in our kitchen
* not all bad... not all good...]]> Thu, 02 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EDT http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/19159 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/19076 August 26th, 2004, 9:52pm

Today I woke up at about 12:30pm or so... My dad I had headed for Vancouver Tuesday morning, hoping to get some appointments and errands done, and be back down to our place here by a reasonable time in the evening. The trip takes about two hours each way if things go in a decent way. On this occasion they didn't.

Yeah... so we got to the border, North-bound at the truck crossing, and happened to get a fellow who my dad had dealt with on another occasion. See, there have been some issues to be considered and dealt with in regard to where my dad "lives" (Canada or US), where the vehicle is registered (same), and also weighing in there somewhere was the nationality of the driver's license being used. So, the fellow asked some questions, wasn't particularly satisfied with the answers, asked some more questions, and because things weren't resolving too quickly, directed us to park the vehicle over yon. Over the next... oh, hour and a half or so he asked a lot more questions and eventually called an RCMP officer to come explain some related laws and regulations. The RCMP fellow came, explained, removed the (California) license plates (leaving the truck uninsured and undrivable), and had the truck towed to Surrey. The tow-truck fellow, Chris, had been doing that line of work for 17 years, he told us. He likes it a fair amount, and makes a decent living. I asked what he liked about it and he told me he likes pulling cars out of ditches, sometimes they're flipped over so he has to flip them back - all that sort of stuff. He likes meeting people. He said that he's met guys from the Canucks, the Grizzlies (before they moved to ...Memphis or wherever), football players, and people from all over the world. He seemed to focus on those aspects of the job - meeting helping people. The worst part, he said, accidents where people have died. Right.

So, we spent the rest of that day getting the truck road-legal again. I spent the night at my mom's place, and my dad stayed at my brother his wife's place. Props to mom Yvonne for the fine soup delicious blackberry peach pie - that really hit the spot! :) Oh, and I picked up the camera that my bro had offered me - awesome...

We spent Wednesday doing our errands, making up for cancelled appointments of the day before, and having more work done on the truck, getting it all inspected and insured. The red tape we had to wade through was really amazing. Anyway... we wound up pulling out of Vancouver, bound for the US border, last night at ~11:00pm. The border was a breeze this time, as I had felt it probably would be - what with us having already gone through just about everything I figured god or the universe could reasonably throw at us in two days. The ride home was actually pretty enjoyable... Mom had made me a nice mocha, and it was raining - at times very lightly, and at times like a mild monsoon. I drove, and we got free popcorn at the gas station we filled up at after crossing the border, and by the time we were driving down the last 10 miles or so, we both agreed that we were feeling a lot better than we had the two days previous. "Quiet" was the way dad had described it I think, and that had sounded about right to me. We arrived back at the ranch (as I call it) at about 1:00am, and like I started out saying, I slept nearly 12 hours.

Today we saw a great big owl fly by our shelter area and land on a branch, so I jumped out there with my new camera, and spent some ~15 minutes creeping up to it until I was but a mere arm's length away, taking pictures all the way. As soon as I get a memory-card reader and somewhere to put pictures, I'll try to link them into my journal. We also finished cleaning up the trimmed branches from the two trees we'd felled on Monday. Oh yeah, I haven't had a chance to write about any of that. Oh well. :) For the record though, we wound up having to fell two fir trees in order to facilitate the building that we're going to be doing. "C" did the cutting - very daring of him as it can be a rather deadly affair, and I walked down the largest of them and measured it at 76.5 feet, and counted the rings at 25 years of age.

Well my dad has just shown up and is interested to check his email and so forth, so the timing's pretty good, I'll sign off. Take care everybody!

* Don's birthday, and fantastic birthday desert]]> Sat, 28 Aug 2004 22:48:00 EDT http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/19076 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333 http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/19075 August 19th, 2004, Night-time

Having had a good sleep, complete with some pretty bizzarre dreams and a couple trips out under the stars at various points, I wandered up to the cabin, made some tea, eggs and toast, and sat down with my book (Zorba). That's a nice way to ease into the day.

We already knew that we had to caravan into town today in order to leave "L"'s van at some hotel that the airporter will drop her at, so the plan was set. Running water out at the tent is a major priority, so Dad I made a big list of things we 'need' from town: 1"x4"x10' wood, 300' of 1/2" pvc pipe all the necessary connectors, hose clamps so forth, sink... and as long as we're there, laundry, a couple books I want to pick up, some more 'personal' food for me, 100' of rope, tarps, another fire extinguisher... uhh... well the list is downstairs, but you can see why we make one. Especially when going into town basically writes off the day so far as making significant progress doing anything around here.

So, into town we go... I got to drive their Wesfalia style van, very nice... experimented with the cruise control along the way to keep myself amused, and made our first caravan stop: the laundromat. There we made our plan to meet again there at 13:15. I would do laundry, go to the bookstore, and get food at Terra Organica. He would take care of as much of that other stuff as he could, and we'd finish it off together after that.

Alright, laundry in, and I walked the two blocks to Village Books. I knew I wanted to get a particular book of poetry (a gift for a friend), a little do-it-yourself plumbing booklet, which I only wanted because I need to be able to search for more booklets from that old and hard to find "Do It!" series, and to check out guitar books - I'm wanting to get into classical picking. Well... as it will sometimes do, time flew, and soon (or not so soon as it was) I was walking out with my picks:

Poetry: You Can Never Speak Up Too Often For The Love Of All Things by Paul R. Fleischman
Plumbing: Fix Your Plumbing by... Chronicle Books, I guess.
Music: Rise Up Singing: The Group Singing Songbook edited by Peter Blood Annie Patterson.

Now that last one looks like a real gem. It's got an introduction by Pete Seeger, and has a feel of something genuine. I played through The Rose, So Long (It's Been Good to Know Yuh) - which Utah Phillips sings sometimes when he's at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, and a few others I can't remember right now. Words, chords, and sources to 1200 songs!! Wow...

Ok, anyway, my dad's up here tonight since "C" "L" are out of town, and he's in bed beside me, so again, I have to knock off with my key-clattering for now. I'll add a little more tomorrow if I can.

G'nite! ...I think I'll go watch the stars for a few minutes.

* bats flying in the porch
* water line run
* brother has offered a camera!

(ps. those point form notes above are things I'd hoped to expand on later...)]]> Thu, 19 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EDT http://dharma.tigblog.org/post/19075 49.25 -123.1333333 49.25 -123.1333333