Hello Everyone!
I can't believe it's November and I have less than one month here. These past two weeks I have come to realize just how soon I will be leaving and to be quite honest, although writing this blog has helped me process the whole experience, I'm having a very difficult time writing about what has been going on around here; I'm probably thinking too much about what these months have meant all together and its difficult to pin point specifics. I'm overwhelmed. The kids however, help me to keep smiling every day.
In my fourth grade class, there is a new sort of understanding that I am leaving soon, so we have all cranked up the sweetness, and they are certainly paying more attention, trying to be in conversation with me all class long, even if it means talking about fractions or the planets' orbits around the sun. I have come to know every child on a personal level. I won't mention all eighteen of them but for example, there is Harish whose smile and sweetness warms my heart each morning. There is Vijay, the charismatic and clever one; his expressions and jokes could make anyone laugh. There is Hannah who has beautiful, curious eyes and whose silence is never awkward, it's often the most amazing sound amongst the constant commotion of my classroom. There is persuading Ajay, whose puppy faces when apologizing make me crumble like a warm cookie. And Bhavana whose voice always fills me with empathy as I see her squishing her eyes together as she struggles through her stutter. And as such, I could say something about each one; I have yet again been given the chance to love, and what better than with 18 amazing children.
Then there are the sixth graders who have confided in me many sad stories as we try to find healing in trustworthiness and community. They enjoy our Wednesday night classes very much but at the end of the class they all lower their chins, wrinkle their foreheads and a few of them come up to me and say: "Only three more classes left. Will you always remember us"? "I will, I always will". With them I am leaving a part of me, one that wishes to always be there for them as they continue striving to deal with their traumas.
Every morning after breakfast I have about a half hour to kill before school starts, so from 8:00 to 8:25 I hang out in the music room with Ragini, a passionate piano player from the 11th grade. He loves playing songs from the musicals "Wicked" and "Les Miserables". I have tried my best to sing along. He appreciates my effort and says that he doesn't mind the raspy sounds of my injured vocal cords. I suggested he learn my favorite Chopin piece, Prelude in E minor, he learned it really well, and these days he plays it and I dance...we both appreciate our mutual love for music and art. Everyday as he closes up the piano, we say "It's only 8:25 in the morning but thank you for making my day". One morning I came in, not as my usual self, I was sad; it was exactly three weeks until my flight away from India. He said: "Blue Jay, why would you be sad? You cannot possibly be sad if you think about all the great things you have taught us. And also, just because you will not be here physically does not mean you will not be here with us; you will always be here". *Tear*
Also, this week I informed the school during morning assembly about all the horrible things happening in Nicaragua. I was honest with them and told them that I was really sad and really worried but that fortunately my family and friends were all okay. It was comforting when child by child, for the rest of that day, came up to me saying that they were sorry to hear about the news in "my country" and that they would keep NicaWagua and my family in their prayers. These children, though they have many different religious backgrounds and though the school is secular, they all seem to be truly spiritual; it is a privilege to witness such spirituality in people so young.
On a less emotional note, I have finally found the adequate way to explain to the 4th graders the concept of time in terms of am and pm, grant it, we have been working on "time" for about two weeks. "Okay lets try to understand this by talking about your daily schedule. You wake up at 6 am, you get dressed, go to breakfast, then you go to school for so long; you have EIGHT total periods with lunch in between, it seems like classes go on forever. Then after school, you go for physical training and then you all shower and watch videos as you wait for dinnertime. During all those activities the clock is ticking...tick, tock, tick tock. 12 WHOLE HOURS have passed..." I then did the same for their night schedule and explain for how many hours they actually sleep. It was as if they "saw the light"... they grew two inches taller as they sat up straight, feeling like they could reach the ceiling with this new discovery, this new knowledge. I'm almost sure that moments like these are when a teacher says: "This is why I teach"; it was awesome.
Speaking about the kids we celebrated children's day last Friday and the presentation that the volunteers, the teachers and the housemothers put together was great. The kids truly enjoyed themselves for the whole hour and a half. They would take quick breaths between hysterically laughing and forgetting to breath from excitement during the parts that were "soooo nice" (an overused phrase around here). We did our "teacher dance" to a mix that included Thalia and Michael Jackson, yeah quite the wacky duo, but there was a whole story line about how one dance was more "appropriate" than the other, it was funny. We also put together a skit, where Snow White was actually a man and when the dwarfs thought he was dead, they acted out a typical Tamil mourning ceremony; the kids couldn't stop laughing. I also danced an up beat piece, and every time I jumped or would do some sort of stretch, with my bad wheel and all, they would all go, "wooooah", out load; it was really cute.
Mr. Raman and Mrs. Runu Roy
After the Children's day presentation, Suparna and I headed to Bangalore for my last weekend in the city. We stayed at Suparna's family's place. This time the apartment was of an older couple whose two daughters live in the United States. You can tell the parents miss them terribly. They are amazing people, they cooked us typical Indian home-style meals, and we had tea in the afternoons and conversed for hours. The gentleman was very interested in Nicaragua as I was in their Indian life. On Saturday, they drove us to a huge book fair where we bought good books for the school library at one-fourth their price. We then went to an "Indian mall" which I had yet to go to and my goodness; it's a different India in there. It's seriously just like Valley Fair (for my Cali friends) or Dadeland (For my non-Cali friends), except some women wear saris and it smells like spices. Anyways we had lunch at the food court, and the food was actually really good, Indian food can be really complex but it can also be very simple and just as good. Then the lady bought both Suparna and I really cute wooden bracelets with Indian designs on them...how sweet is that?
Mr. Raman is a very knowledgeable man who retired a few years ago after working some techy job between Boston and Bangalore for most of his life. He is totally anti-development and anti-west, while accepting the flaws of his Indian sub continent and its dirty cities. He reminded me of that character in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", the father who thought the Greeks invented everything in this world. Similarly, Mr. Raman thinks American commercialism is greedy and unnecessary and that their fatty foods pale in comparison to amazing, tasty, scrumptious Indian food, which by they way he says, takes way more time to make than any western food and must therefore be much better. He finished his comments (which his wife, referred to as lectures, haha) with a "so, derr it tis". The Roys are most definitely two of my favorite Indians.
Me Time
Although I am actually savoring every bite of spiciness these days during the three meals, occasionally, a really cute and chubby child awakens inside of me asking for a pinch of sweet. Well, the child got so pushy that I ended up climbing a 12-foot papaya tree and cutting down a papaya. I wrapped it in newspaper and patiently waited a couple days for it to ripen, promising the child in me that it would be the sweetest papaya we ever tasted. Oh, it was so sweet.
A usual sight here, past 6 pm, is bugs, tons and tons of bugs. We are in the middle of a "dry jungle plateau" sort of, which apparently is a bug paradise. Insects, some noisy and small, some large and strange, suddenly appear like ideas in the evenings. Some burn themselves in the energy-saving light bulbs we have the privilege to use when there is power, while others just, well, bug. A couple nights ago, as I was typing away on my computer, a large praying mantis came flying straight at my face. I freaked out and almost threw my computer to the floor as I tried to jump off the bed. The mantis decided to land and chill right on my pillow. After a few girly, pitchy screams, I called in another volunteer to take it outside with a cup and book. The whole time I could only think about how they chop their mate's heads off and thought that they must be just as violent with humans; I'm sure it felt very unwanted.
I started reading a new book, it's written by an Indian author, Arundhati Roy and it is titled The God of Small Things. It was acclaimed internationally and so far I'm enjoying it very much. So yeah in my short spare time, I read sometimes and sometimes I sit and stare and drink coffee and think too much...I love it; decompression at its finest.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
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From Light, To Serious, To Really Serious, To Light.
Last week, although short, was marked by interesting and exciting events. Starting Tuesday night, we all celebrated the festival of Diwali that for me was a sneak peek of Christmas and definitely got me excited for this year's birthday of Jesus. Off course last Tuesday had nothing to do with Jesus but just like at home, the children were given tons of firecrackers, which we then blasted in the open fields of rural India. It was great too see all the children's faces lit up... literally and figuratively. Though for the first time ever I was the annoying adult saying "Oh my gosh, please be careful...CAREFUL!!! Not so close to other people! NO, NO don't throw firecrackers at each other's feet! POINT IT THAT WAY"! But I do think that I, along with the other adults here, saved a few kids from lighting up their pants that night.
Back inside the classroom, DJ (the director from New York who I went on the Mysore trip with) was teaching the 11th graders a "self actualization" class, which represented very clearly the ASTEP mission of using artistic expression to empower young minds. Anyways, he held the last of these classes on Wednesday night and invited the volunteers to participate since he was leaving back to the States on Thursday. The class was wonderful and it was clear that throughout the course of it they had learned how to formulate concrete ideas about who they are, what they want to achieve and how they can achieve it. For the last class, we all (volunteers and the 15 eleventh graders) spoke about our life goals and the virtues we wished to practice in order to realize them. It was moving to listen to the goals these 17-year old kids are striving for; they are driven and committed to continue their education beyond their years as a Shanti Bhavan child. The entire hour I could only think about the possible futures of these kids. It was overwhelming to listen to them say they want to become engineers at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), or economists at an American University, keeping in mind that if it wasn't for this school, their goals would have been switching back and forth between being a quarry laborer or a street sweeper in order to feed themselves enough food to survive.
Towards the end of the class, DJ led us in what he referred to as a "circle of acknowledgement". All the volunteers sat in a small inner circle facing out, and the 15 eleventh graders sat in the outer circle facing us. We were asked to close our eyes and then DJ began to speak to our students: "Lets tell these loving souls that we appreciate them, that they are wonderful selfless people who came half way across the world to dedicate their time and their love to you. Lets thank them, because with their help you will one day be one of them, helping others in need," that did it; for the first time in 4 months I broke into tears. We then stood up and slowly walked clockwise as the eleventh graders showered us with thank yous and compliments; everyone in that room was glowing with gratitude. As they spoke they looked into our eyes and their words were beautiful, sure, but their eyes even more, as they transparently yelled out "I appreciate what you are doing for me." At the end we all hugged and everyone left the room with a beaming smile on their face.
When I decided to volunteer at this school, I never expected such gratefulness; I didn't see "thank yous" as an entitlement; I saw the chance at a personal challenge of striving to become a better person by giving myself to a cause that was bigger than me. But I must admit that it felt nice to be appreciated like that, through those kids I heard God saying, 'this is exactly where I want you to be'-- something I have been in search of. At the same time, it reassured me that the work I'm doing is indeed for a cause much greater than my own.
Speaking about God, I thought I would take this chance to mention the heartbreaking persecutions towards Christians happening here in India. The story about the nun who was raped and killed for her religious beliefs is terrible. It's a shame to think that crimes like these have happened all throughout human existence and they continue to mark history. When we got the news here about all of the bombs being blasted in catholic churches throughout India, I didn't get scared; I knew nothing was going to happen to me. Even though they are happening even in Bangalore, they just seem to be light years away from Shanti Bhavan, where every morning all the children, teachers and staff pray the words: "...May the teachings of all the great world religions direct our thoughts and actions..." Because is it not true that in the end all religions try to inculcate righteousness as they seek to understand the unknowns of our human existence? It's a shame that human nature drives people to hate our differences instead of respecting them. Anyways, for those of you who were wondering if I would be directly affected by any of this, it has not come near me, but I truly appreciate your concern and know, that I share with you a sorrow for those who have been affected.
On a different and much lighter note, (I realize this post has jumped around from light to serious, to really serious, to light...unintentionally but hence the title) Halloween last Friday was a blast! The volunteers organized a carnival in which all 206 students, some of the teachers and the housemothers all participated. We had an opening performance of the 4th and 5th graders dancing "Thriller". I danced in front of them as their point of reference in case they forgot steps; they did an awesome job though. We were all dressed up as zombies and throughout the whole 2 minutes, their hands were stiff like claws and their teeth all shinned in the sun as if they were ready to bite the audience...it added to the spookiness of the day =). We then had costume relay races, spoon races, and musical chairs, rapping the mummy, pin the tail, apple bobbing, face panting, tag of war, hot potato, fortune telling, raffle tickets...fewph...nope that's not all. When the sun fell we had a neon light DANCE PARTY! Before that day, all the kids had painted masks with glow in the dark paint that DJ brought for them from New York. He also brought a black light so we decorated an empty room with scary designs on neon colored paper and everything glowed in the dark. When the kids came in like three grades at a time, they were in absolute astonishment; we have candid pictures of their jaws dropped and their eyes wide open as they entered the room. The best part was that because the room was dark and all you could see were the masks and decorations, everyone let go of any insecurities or inhibitions and we all JUST DANCED! Oh my gosh it was paradise =). At the end of it all, we got huge hugs and every other child would say: "Thank you for making this one of the best days of my life". Awww, it was very rewarding to know they had enjoyed themselves so much.
The five of us ended up with our feet soaked in a bucket of hot water and we were all in bed by 10 pm, quite a difference from the October 31sts I've celebrated in the recent past. I guess Halloween is actually supposed to be to entertain children and shouldn't be just another excuse to dress up in an outrageous costume and drink; something I am indeed guilty of. I'm glad I got this chance to celebrate it for its fundamental purpose.
Finally, talking about celebrations: YESSSS, GO OBAMA!!! Don't worry, I don't intend to get into politics now because I could go on for pages but I'll end with this...Why the celebration for this Democratic victory? Because in the words of the new President of the United States: "America cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy."
*******************************
This weekend, a German company that I'm sure you've heard of before, Bosche, will come visit Shanti Bhavan as they are in search of a school to sponsor. This would be a very significant break for the school, since Bosche is a powerful company and could provide the amount of money needed to run this school successfully, saving it from its current financial crunch. Please keep Shanti-Bhavan in your prayers.
With love.
Until soon.
Back inside the classroom, DJ (the director from New York who I went on the Mysore trip with) was teaching the 11th graders a "self actualization" class, which represented very clearly the ASTEP mission of using artistic expression to empower young minds. Anyways, he held the last of these classes on Wednesday night and invited the volunteers to participate since he was leaving back to the States on Thursday. The class was wonderful and it was clear that throughout the course of it they had learned how to formulate concrete ideas about who they are, what they want to achieve and how they can achieve it. For the last class, we all (volunteers and the 15 eleventh graders) spoke about our life goals and the virtues we wished to practice in order to realize them. It was moving to listen to the goals these 17-year old kids are striving for; they are driven and committed to continue their education beyond their years as a Shanti Bhavan child. The entire hour I could only think about the possible futures of these kids. It was overwhelming to listen to them say they want to become engineers at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), or economists at an American University, keeping in mind that if it wasn't for this school, their goals would have been switching back and forth between being a quarry laborer or a street sweeper in order to feed themselves enough food to survive.
Towards the end of the class, DJ led us in what he referred to as a "circle of acknowledgement". All the volunteers sat in a small inner circle facing out, and the 15 eleventh graders sat in the outer circle facing us. We were asked to close our eyes and then DJ began to speak to our students: "Lets tell these loving souls that we appreciate them, that they are wonderful selfless people who came half way across the world to dedicate their time and their love to you. Lets thank them, because with their help you will one day be one of them, helping others in need," that did it; for the first time in 4 months I broke into tears. We then stood up and slowly walked clockwise as the eleventh graders showered us with thank yous and compliments; everyone in that room was glowing with gratitude. As they spoke they looked into our eyes and their words were beautiful, sure, but their eyes even more, as they transparently yelled out "I appreciate what you are doing for me." At the end we all hugged and everyone left the room with a beaming smile on their face.
When I decided to volunteer at this school, I never expected such gratefulness; I didn't see "thank yous" as an entitlement; I saw the chance at a personal challenge of striving to become a better person by giving myself to a cause that was bigger than me. But I must admit that it felt nice to be appreciated like that, through those kids I heard God saying, 'this is exactly where I want you to be'-- something I have been in search of. At the same time, it reassured me that the work I'm doing is indeed for a cause much greater than my own.
Speaking about God, I thought I would take this chance to mention the heartbreaking persecutions towards Christians happening here in India. The story about the nun who was raped and killed for her religious beliefs is terrible. It's a shame to think that crimes like these have happened all throughout human existence and they continue to mark history. When we got the news here about all of the bombs being blasted in catholic churches throughout India, I didn't get scared; I knew nothing was going to happen to me. Even though they are happening even in Bangalore, they just seem to be light years away from Shanti Bhavan, where every morning all the children, teachers and staff pray the words: "...May the teachings of all the great world religions direct our thoughts and actions..." Because is it not true that in the end all religions try to inculcate righteousness as they seek to understand the unknowns of our human existence? It's a shame that human nature drives people to hate our differences instead of respecting them. Anyways, for those of you who were wondering if I would be directly affected by any of this, it has not come near me, but I truly appreciate your concern and know, that I share with you a sorrow for those who have been affected.
On a different and much lighter note, (I realize this post has jumped around from light to serious, to really serious, to light...unintentionally but hence the title) Halloween last Friday was a blast! The volunteers organized a carnival in which all 206 students, some of the teachers and the housemothers all participated. We had an opening performance of the 4th and 5th graders dancing "Thriller". I danced in front of them as their point of reference in case they forgot steps; they did an awesome job though. We were all dressed up as zombies and throughout the whole 2 minutes, their hands were stiff like claws and their teeth all shinned in the sun as if they were ready to bite the audience...it added to the spookiness of the day =). We then had costume relay races, spoon races, and musical chairs, rapping the mummy, pin the tail, apple bobbing, face panting, tag of war, hot potato, fortune telling, raffle tickets...fewph...nope that's not all. When the sun fell we had a neon light DANCE PARTY! Before that day, all the kids had painted masks with glow in the dark paint that DJ brought for them from New York. He also brought a black light so we decorated an empty room with scary designs on neon colored paper and everything glowed in the dark. When the kids came in like three grades at a time, they were in absolute astonishment; we have candid pictures of their jaws dropped and their eyes wide open as they entered the room. The best part was that because the room was dark and all you could see were the masks and decorations, everyone let go of any insecurities or inhibitions and we all JUST DANCED! Oh my gosh it was paradise =). At the end of it all, we got huge hugs and every other child would say: "Thank you for making this one of the best days of my life". Awww, it was very rewarding to know they had enjoyed themselves so much.
The five of us ended up with our feet soaked in a bucket of hot water and we were all in bed by 10 pm, quite a difference from the October 31sts I've celebrated in the recent past. I guess Halloween is actually supposed to be to entertain children and shouldn't be just another excuse to dress up in an outrageous costume and drink; something I am indeed guilty of. I'm glad I got this chance to celebrate it for its fundamental purpose.
Finally, talking about celebrations: YESSSS, GO OBAMA!!! Don't worry, I don't intend to get into politics now because I could go on for pages but I'll end with this...Why the celebration for this Democratic victory? Because in the words of the new President of the United States: "America cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy."
*******************************
This weekend, a German company that I'm sure you've heard of before, Bosche, will come visit Shanti Bhavan as they are in search of a school to sponsor. This would be a very significant break for the school, since Bosche is a powerful company and could provide the amount of money needed to run this school successfully, saving it from its current financial crunch. Please keep Shanti-Bhavan in your prayers.
With love.
Until soon.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Elephants, Tibetan Monks, and a Palace of Lights
Friday afternoon, after hassling for a few hours to get everything done, from finishing up the Diwali projects with my 4th graders, to making sure my ipod was charged for the next kid to borrow it for the weekend, we finally headed towards the Bangalore bus stop to catch a bus to Mysore. The group this time: Elsa the girl from Malaga, DJ, my new great friend, 40 years old, New York theater director/writer/dancer, gay, an amazing soul...and I. Not kidding, this was the least planned trip I have ever set out for in my entire life...not a good thing to do in India of all places but then again it is actually difficult to plan in advance here with the many layers of fraudulence and nonsense one has to get through almost always over rupees... but the weekend turned out to be safe and really wonderful.
We arrived at the bus station and asked where we could catch the bus to Mysore; buses towards this city run frequently, every 20 minutes. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then a short lived but annoying nightmare began. We started to look for bus # 18, when it started pouring rain like I have not seen before here in India and there were people practically caring each other and pushing left and right with barely any room to move. We finally found the bus scheduled to leave at 8:40 pm, we were soaked wet off course and there was commotion going on about how there were five buses heading back from Mysore but they were stuck in a traffic jam so the wait would be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half (very typical in India). This explanation took about 40 minutes to obtain since no one, not even the creepy, mean men in the kaki uniforms pretending to know everything, knew what exactly was going on, and still no bus. By that time, I was about to cry as my feet squished out water from my closed toe shoes at my every step and I held on to my bags in complete paranoia, knowing my baby AKA my laptop, was in my backpack. I finally screamed out: "NO more, lets get a cheap hotel and head to Mysore tomorrow". We did and as we stepped into the budget hotel I breathed in deeply and said "Oh thank you Jesus"...yes, out load.
The next morning we ended up taking the train instead which took the same amount of time as the bus would have but it is much more comfortable and this already taking into consideration the crazy experience I had riding the train to Hampi. Nonetheless, Mysore is only two and half hours away and it ended up being very simple and quite enjoyable. We arrived in Mysore with a perfect amount of time to see the main sights of the city and enjoy a stroll around the palace area before heading back to the hotel. We first went up to Chamundi Hill on which they say resides the presiding deity of Mysore and its royal family, Goddess Chamundeshwari. There is yet another beautiful temple to see there dating back to the year 1128 A.D.; this temple is much more taken care of and cleaner than others I've seen. The view from the hill was beautiful; you could see the large Mysore palace, which is the main palace and here and there, a few of the 29 other palaces that were built in this city for the Maharaja's family.
Then our rickshaw driver took us to a typical Mysore Herbal and Oil shop. Mysore is known as the sandalwood city, since it is a large producer of sandalwood. They use almost every part of the Sandalwood tree including the oil that they extract from the inner, soft part of the stem. The oil shop was amazing; they had all sorts of oils that smelled so pure and wonderful. My personal favorite, Subba oil from the flower of the same name; off course it has a hint of vanilla in it =). It was great to learn about the Indian oils that they use for aromatherapy, reflexology, meditation and body massages all very popular here in India.
We then visited the Mysore palace, which I am not kidding, stands next to Versailles not in size but indeed in grandeur. The imposing facade has seven beautiful arches and the palace is built around an open courtyard. It has the most amazing "marriage hall" which I would refer to more as like a ballroom. I definitely busted out my ballroom skills with my new friend DJ =). The octagonal, painted pavilion has a colorful stained glass ceiling and the predominant theme in the glass as well as in the mosaic floor is the peacock.
Another notable sight in the palace is the golden throne, which consists of a main seat, a staircase and an umbrella, all golden. It has a Sanskrit inscription that reads: "Oh, King Krishna, Lord of the earth, you are resplendent with the blessing of goddess Chamundeshwari. You are the full moon of the autumn to the milky ocean of the Yadu race. This golden umbrella, which you have inherited from your illustrious ancestors, evokes the awe of the whole world". The history of the throne dates back to the 12th century.
Sunday night we actually got to see the castle all lit up since the entire building is actually lined with rows of bulbs following the contours of the structure. A total of 100,000 bulbs light up the palace every Sunday for one hour, it was so beautiful, it was fairy tale like.
Rewinding a bit though, Sunday we took a car over to Dubare, an elephant camp =). When we arrived we took a short boat ride to Elephant Island and as we pulled over to the tree root that served as the "dock" there were three elephants taking their bath in the river, it was so amazing. We then signed up to take a 10-minute elephant ride and Chandra, which I later renamed Pongo (because it looked like a Pongo, every sweet animal to me looks like a Pongo) gave us a sweet ride around the island. I just imagined "Las Isletas" which by the way are much more beautiful than this place by far, but with ELEPHANTS, that would attract more tourists to our lovely islands that unfortunately are barren of elephant and fish.
On our way back we stopped by the Tibetan, Namdrolin Monastery. As I explained in the last post, it was a village of Tibetan monks, from little 5-year old monks to 80-year old monks. The place was so holy and clean and peaceful. There were like five separate buildings, all Tibetan style buildings, and inside sat these monks in meditation. In one building they were singing hymns of prayer in Sanskrit and others were playing particular instruments, huge bongs and long, long trumpets I wish I new the name of. In another one of the buildings, the main one, there were no monks praying but there were three enormous golden statues of 60 feet in height, one of lord Buddha and the others of two Gurus. In a plaque next to the statues it says that they are made of copper plated with gold and inside the statues, are scriptures, relics of great beings, small clay mould stupas, and small statues, which symbolize the body, speech and mind of the buddhas. It was an astonishing sight, like nothing I have ever seen before. I honestly felt like I went to Tibet for two hours, it was a different world.
One of the walls read:
"In the Buddhist tradition, circumambulating religious objects like stupas, temples, etc. clockwise with faith, generates a positive energy bringing about happiness & peace of mind. Abandon all evil doings, practice virtue well, and master your own mind, this the Buddha's teaching- Lord Buddha."
The weekend in Mysore ended up being amazing and I was not expecting to see everything I saw; I am so grateful that my last trip here in India was to these places.
The way back was off course stressful and a bit scary. We were not able to get all the way back to Shanti Bhavan on Monday night because of Diwali celebrations. No one wanted to take us so "in land" so we had to stay in Hosur. Finally, in an hour or so we will head back to Shanti Bhavan. Luckily the children are not celebrating Diwali until today, so we didn't miss much. However, since I do not have my card reader with me, I will have to post pictures this coming weekend.
Thank you for reading about my experience.
Hugs and smiles.
We arrived at the bus station and asked where we could catch the bus to Mysore; buses towards this city run frequently, every 20 minutes. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then a short lived but annoying nightmare began. We started to look for bus # 18, when it started pouring rain like I have not seen before here in India and there were people practically caring each other and pushing left and right with barely any room to move. We finally found the bus scheduled to leave at 8:40 pm, we were soaked wet off course and there was commotion going on about how there were five buses heading back from Mysore but they were stuck in a traffic jam so the wait would be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half (very typical in India). This explanation took about 40 minutes to obtain since no one, not even the creepy, mean men in the kaki uniforms pretending to know everything, knew what exactly was going on, and still no bus. By that time, I was about to cry as my feet squished out water from my closed toe shoes at my every step and I held on to my bags in complete paranoia, knowing my baby AKA my laptop, was in my backpack. I finally screamed out: "NO more, lets get a cheap hotel and head to Mysore tomorrow". We did and as we stepped into the budget hotel I breathed in deeply and said "Oh thank you Jesus"...yes, out load.
The next morning we ended up taking the train instead which took the same amount of time as the bus would have but it is much more comfortable and this already taking into consideration the crazy experience I had riding the train to Hampi. Nonetheless, Mysore is only two and half hours away and it ended up being very simple and quite enjoyable. We arrived in Mysore with a perfect amount of time to see the main sights of the city and enjoy a stroll around the palace area before heading back to the hotel. We first went up to Chamundi Hill on which they say resides the presiding deity of Mysore and its royal family, Goddess Chamundeshwari. There is yet another beautiful temple to see there dating back to the year 1128 A.D.; this temple is much more taken care of and cleaner than others I've seen. The view from the hill was beautiful; you could see the large Mysore palace, which is the main palace and here and there, a few of the 29 other palaces that were built in this city for the Maharaja's family.
Then our rickshaw driver took us to a typical Mysore Herbal and Oil shop. Mysore is known as the sandalwood city, since it is a large producer of sandalwood. They use almost every part of the Sandalwood tree including the oil that they extract from the inner, soft part of the stem. The oil shop was amazing; they had all sorts of oils that smelled so pure and wonderful. My personal favorite, Subba oil from the flower of the same name; off course it has a hint of vanilla in it =). It was great to learn about the Indian oils that they use for aromatherapy, reflexology, meditation and body massages all very popular here in India.
We then visited the Mysore palace, which I am not kidding, stands next to Versailles not in size but indeed in grandeur. The imposing facade has seven beautiful arches and the palace is built around an open courtyard. It has the most amazing "marriage hall" which I would refer to more as like a ballroom. I definitely busted out my ballroom skills with my new friend DJ =). The octagonal, painted pavilion has a colorful stained glass ceiling and the predominant theme in the glass as well as in the mosaic floor is the peacock.
Another notable sight in the palace is the golden throne, which consists of a main seat, a staircase and an umbrella, all golden. It has a Sanskrit inscription that reads: "Oh, King Krishna, Lord of the earth, you are resplendent with the blessing of goddess Chamundeshwari. You are the full moon of the autumn to the milky ocean of the Yadu race. This golden umbrella, which you have inherited from your illustrious ancestors, evokes the awe of the whole world". The history of the throne dates back to the 12th century.
Sunday night we actually got to see the castle all lit up since the entire building is actually lined with rows of bulbs following the contours of the structure. A total of 100,000 bulbs light up the palace every Sunday for one hour, it was so beautiful, it was fairy tale like.
Rewinding a bit though, Sunday we took a car over to Dubare, an elephant camp =). When we arrived we took a short boat ride to Elephant Island and as we pulled over to the tree root that served as the "dock" there were three elephants taking their bath in the river, it was so amazing. We then signed up to take a 10-minute elephant ride and Chandra, which I later renamed Pongo (because it looked like a Pongo, every sweet animal to me looks like a Pongo) gave us a sweet ride around the island. I just imagined "Las Isletas" which by the way are much more beautiful than this place by far, but with ELEPHANTS, that would attract more tourists to our lovely islands that unfortunately are barren of elephant and fish.
On our way back we stopped by the Tibetan, Namdrolin Monastery. As I explained in the last post, it was a village of Tibetan monks, from little 5-year old monks to 80-year old monks. The place was so holy and clean and peaceful. There were like five separate buildings, all Tibetan style buildings, and inside sat these monks in meditation. In one building they were singing hymns of prayer in Sanskrit and others were playing particular instruments, huge bongs and long, long trumpets I wish I new the name of. In another one of the buildings, the main one, there were no monks praying but there were three enormous golden statues of 60 feet in height, one of lord Buddha and the others of two Gurus. In a plaque next to the statues it says that they are made of copper plated with gold and inside the statues, are scriptures, relics of great beings, small clay mould stupas, and small statues, which symbolize the body, speech and mind of the buddhas. It was an astonishing sight, like nothing I have ever seen before. I honestly felt like I went to Tibet for two hours, it was a different world.
One of the walls read:
"In the Buddhist tradition, circumambulating religious objects like stupas, temples, etc. clockwise with faith, generates a positive energy bringing about happiness & peace of mind. Abandon all evil doings, practice virtue well, and master your own mind, this the Buddha's teaching- Lord Buddha."
The weekend in Mysore ended up being amazing and I was not expecting to see everything I saw; I am so grateful that my last trip here in India was to these places.
The way back was off course stressful and a bit scary. We were not able to get all the way back to Shanti Bhavan on Monday night because of Diwali celebrations. No one wanted to take us so "in land" so we had to stay in Hosur. Finally, in an hour or so we will head back to Shanti Bhavan. Luckily the children are not celebrating Diwali until today, so we didn't miss much. However, since I do not have my card reader with me, I will have to post pictures this coming weekend.
Thank you for reading about my experience.
Hugs and smiles.
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