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