3 weeks in...

Hi everyone. Thanks again for all the comments and emails. I'm glad some of you are enjoying my writing, and appreciate the kind words about my writing style. I'm trying to relay as much as possible, which I promised, so glad to know you're getting some entertainment.



Well, the inevitable happened this week...I got sick...as hell. After spending so much time in the internet cafe last week answering emails and writing that last blog, I realized I'd missed my lunch at the ashram, so I decided to brave a local restaurant and get some grub. I tried a place called the Tip Top Cafe, which gives a really nice view of the Ganges from it's upper deck dining spot, but the food doesn't exactly live up to its name. I don't know whether it was eating something so greasy and spicy after just having my insides completely cleaned out, but it, or at least something did a quite number on me. Luckily I had the intuition to invest in some toilet paper, because it may've been a significantly more miserable couple of days without it. I woke up Monday morning feeling quite bad, but was still was able to venture out to the post office, to mail some documents to my dad of some things still needing to be wrapped up back home. The post office was an interesting place. You walk up some stairs in the middle of the heavy bazaar, and there are 2 windows leading from a rundown concrete building with 4 men inside, 3 of whom speak no English. I asked the guy how much for a letter, and luckily he gave me an envelope and a couple stamps and told me it would be there in a week. There's not exactly priority mail, delivery confirmation, signature confirmation, etc., so we'll see if things worked out. Anyway, when I got back to my room, I was still feeling pretty gurgly down below, but thought a little lunch might help settle my stomach. I got down to the dining hall, but upon just the smell of the food, I felt the urge to either pass out or vomit, so had to run out of the place and head back to the "comfort" of my boiling hot room. Luckily there are some really nice people here, and they came and checked up on me and brought me some food and medicine. I ended up sleeping for about 20 hours straight, and don't think I ate anything for about 32 hours or so, so I was feeling pretty weak when I woke up the next morning, but managed to eat about 1 stale, day-0ld chappati, which gave me just enough energy to go to the Ayurveda doctor who I've been getting my Panchkarma treatment from. He didn't really seem to worried, and gave me some herbal anti-diarrheal medicines and told me getting my massage and continuing with treatment would make me feel better. I will admit he was quite right. Though my stomach was still raw and sensitive for the next few days, I felt pretty fine and am now completely back to normal as well as done with my Ayurvedic treatment. Reflecting back, it's hard to say whether it was worth it or not, but I feel great now, though I'm not sure it's any better than I felt beforehand, but at least I did it and got a new experience. I certainly suffered my share of humiliations, and let's just say there are few secrets between Ram, Shiva, and myself, but they were very professional guys, and I think it's good that they don't speak any English. Being sick certainly makes you appreciate being well, and waking up with that feeling of wellness is really invaluable after having suffered so much. It also really shows you that the people around you care about you. Almost everyone inquired as to how I was doing, and I had people checking up on me several times. My yoga teacher even gave me some psyillium husks and glucose powder, which he swore by. I'm not sure if they did much, but it's the thought that counts.

I've been having many strange and very vivid dreams of Tallahassee, often with a feeling that I'm about to leave for India, or have somehow already come back and am just visiting for awhile. Hard to describe, but they recur very often. Anyhow, after a couple days of feeling under the weather and having to skip my yoga classes, I was ready for a little adventure, so me Reagan, Susan, and Henry decided to wander over to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram, which is about a 3o minute hike from where we're at. If you don't know about the Maharishi, he was basically the Beatles' guru for a short time in the 60s when they were really starting to explore Eastern religion. As strange to think as it is, had the Beatles not brought these ideas over to the west and to Europe, I would most likely not be sitting here today. Though there is certainly some controversy about the Maharishi, he is definitely the reason Rishikesh is so well-known to foreigners, and probably a big reason for the surge of yoga and meditation in the west. With that said, it was rainy, and the mosquitoes were everywhere as we ventured to the abandoned ashram. One man lives there and mans the gate, and offered to let us in for 50 rupees a piece, which was fine by me (that's like $1.20). My companions were not so ready to be let in at such a high price, so some heavy haggling ensued, mostly lead by Henry, and he got him down to half price and we were let in. The place is in very poor condition, and is currently closed due to governmental rights issues. It would certainly be a huge tourist attraction and could make the city loads of money if given the opportunity and with the right investors, but for now, it is overgrown and quite unattractive. The coolest thing were all the little igloo-like pods that the inmates (yes, that's what they call people living in ashrams over here) would stay in. Very very austere living compared to what I'm currently doing, but very cool all the same, and probably kept things relatively cool with the design. We wandered around for about 45 minutes before losing interest and headed back. It is certainly not a great place to visit, but I figured I'd pay homage to the place that put Rishikesh on the map, and may be the reason for so much enlightenment in the West, so I'm glad I got to say I saw it.

We had a pretty fun treat on Saturday in our yoga class. The first 20 minutes we did a ridiculously strenous workout, but then the teacher quickly called us outside, where he had 2 buckets of water waiting and a can of salt. He had about 30 neti pots, which are basically tea-kettle shaped containers, that you stick a spout in one nostril, and let the water drain out the other to clear your sinuses. This was certainly not foreign to me as I've been doing it the last couple years, but a lot of people were not having a good time of it, and there was a lot of sneezing, gagging, and snot covering the ground. After that, the teacher demonstrated a technique where he would fill his throat with water, and then make the water drain out of his nostrils immediately. No one really seemed to be able to do it, but I had a little success by the end, and know with a little practice I could do it. These are just a couple of a number of bodily purificatory methods that yogis practice that include some very scary and intense things. Some of which we got to see. Afterwards, we each took a thin, 10" rubber hose, and attempted to shove it so far up our nostril that it came out the back of our throat, so you could wring out and widen the hole. The teacher could easily do it in both nostrils quickly and simultaneously, and I got mine at least halfway up there, which was a strange sensation, and could feel it in the back of my throat, but didn't have the balls to stick my fingers far enough back there to grab the other end. A couple girls had success though, and had people snap pictures of their successes. Ah if only the ancient yogis could see us now. Next, just to show off, the teacher took a 20 foot strip of thing cloth, and proceeded to slowly swallow it all down his gullet, up until the very tip. Then he yanked it out foot by foot, smiling all the while. Then he proceeded to chug about 1.5 litres of water very quickly, shoved a large rubber hose down his throat, and then basically controlled the flow of the water so that all of it slowly came out of the hose. He said that next week we should all be prepared to drink about the same amount of water and induce vomiting to clean out are inner workings. I've admittedly done it once before after seeing it in a yoga book, and it really wasn't so bad. It's nothing like bulimia, as you don't puke out any solid matter, and is just a way to get rid of some excess bile and mucus. Like I said, there are all kinds of other horrific methods of cleaning the body that the yogis practice. Before the asanas (postures), this was the system of purification they used to ready themselves for meditation. To be a real yogi, you have to conquer all fears of the body, and eventually death, so that you are ready to fully let go of everything to experience the cosmic bliss of surrender. Anyhow, next week should be fun...

Things have been pretty humdrum lately other than that, but I've gotten back into the swing of twice daily yogasana and meditation classes after being in the dumps for a few days, which is a very welcome change of pace. Definitely making good progress in my focus and relaxation, as well as strength, balance and flexibility, though some days are better than others. It's getting harder to organize these things into cohesive thoughts, so here are some random observations, musings and events I've been noting and experiencing:

-Everywhere you go you see pepsi, gatorade, dove, skittles, coke, etc. wrappers strung together to form a sort of tarp, which many businesses use to serve as a waterproofing mechanism to place their goods on in this heavy rainy season. Also, local people use them as makeshift ponchos, which is really pretty funny. They are also sold in sheets on the side of the road. I guess you can never really get away from the heavy advertising back home, but it's a neat form of recycling I guess, which these people don't seem to practice to much other than that. There aren't really any trash cans anywhere or any trash collection or recycling service. People just throw trash all over the streets and into the Ganges, as well as burn it, despite the "burning plastic is drastic" signs that are everywhere. In all honesty though, these people produce much less waste than we do back home, but everything that is produced is easily viewable until it is sent into the atmosphere or washed away downstream. There is also no drainage system, so every time it rains (which is always), the streets flood really badly, and you have to be very careful to not have huge puddles of mud splashed on you by the constant stream of motorcyclist and rickshaw drivers zooming by you. I guess these people don't pay many taxes around here, but I guess they also don't really seem to complain about the conditions.

- This festival they've been having basically seems to be over, so the city is a lot less crowded with pedestrians, although the amount of rickshaws (taxis) are completely out of control now, and I get hounded constantly by about 50 different drivers the second I step out of the ashram gates. Apparently this festival/pilgrimmage is only around 5 years old. I guess some famous holy man said it was a noble thing to do to go pay homage to this Shiva shrine here, so tons of kids use it as an excuse to go with their friends and have a good time for a couple of weeks. The locals are certainly not a fan at all of all the extra people, but I'm sure the merchants welcome the business. Anyway, it's nice to have the town more navigable now and I think I'll be willing to venture a little farther away and explore more of the outskirts to see what's out there.

- Some of the local people are starting to recognize me, and a couple have asked me when I would shave and recommended some places to go. I am sticking by my resolution to not trim my sparse whiskers, though I have a nice moustache/goatee combo coming along, which are red-colored interestingly enough. It'll probably be a few years before I can match the magnificence of my younger brother's beard, but I'll keep striving. There are certainly some amazing beards and hairdos around here from the wandering ascetics that they've been working on for probably 50 years or more. Something to shoot for I guess.

- There is a lot of business competition here, with many shops and stands selling exactly the same items right next door to each other. There's not a whole lot of variety of produce here, and I have seen nothing but mangoes, apples, cucumbers, citrus, and bananas. I've had a couple glasses of fresh-squeezed citrus juice, which don't seem to be made in the most sanitary conditions, but they're good and a quick pick me up when roaming the streets. Have also bought some apples, which honestly aren't very good, but make for a good breakfast if I don't feel like eating the yellow rice goo or porridge they usually serve us.

- Every Monday and Friday we have a kirtan after dinner, which I think is traditionally supposed to be call and response-type devotional chanting, but we have a pretty mixed bags. Instruments are passed around, including cymbals, a mrindingam (indian hand drum), and some sort of makeshift tambourines, and everyone else just claps along to the rhythm, while an Indian ashram worker or yoga teacher sings his repetitive chant to set the mood and get everyone in the groove. Also, from time to time, the guests will get up and sing, which is a nice treat (sometimes). Things can get a little humdrum, so it's a real treat when Gambir (one of the ashram workers) gets up and does his amazing dances. Gambir is quite a funny fellow. He owns exactly 3 t-shirts, which he wears every day. One has the McDonald's arches, and on the back says "Marijana: over 1 billion served". Another says simply "professional beer drinker". And another says "lose weight now, ask me how". This guy basically speaks no English, so it's hard to know what's going through his mind when he picked these out to be his 3 workshirts. He is also known effectively as "chappati man", as, literally every 2 minutes during mealtimes, he comes by and tries to push chappatis on you like there's no tomorrow. Anyway, I was feeling pretty feisty on Friday night, and inspired by his moves, I decided to get up and join him and danced up quite a storm. I got a quite a reaction from the ashram workers and the other inmates, and I think one girl even got a video of it, which she said she'll share with me eventually, so who knows, maybe you'll get to see it. I seem to have a newfound respect among the employees after that, so I'm glad to have done it.

- The wildlife here still never ceases to amaze me. The other day, after purchasing some apples, a monkey sidled behind me and tried to snatch them out of my hands. Luckily due to my kung-fu reflexes, he didn't stand a chance, but I certainly kept a wary eye the rest of the way home. Also, I left a bit of trash outside my room as I didn't want any ants coming in, and a group of monkeys got into the hallway and tore it all to shreds. I even saw one monkey in a tree wearing a big plastic bag like a dress. Definitely gotta be careful of these cheeky bastards. There's also a little problem with a couple stray cats who I see around occassionally. Henry told me that he was bitten on an exposed toe while he was out having tea after dinner by one stray cat, and another day, a cat ran into the meditation hall in the middle of the teachers lecture and caused a bit of commotion. I guess there is certainly not a whole lot for them to eat around here, so it's best to be careful. I'm also starting to see why the Hindus worship cows so much. Aside from provided the much needed milk, cows also, basically, just don't care about anything. They will lay in the middle of the most crowded and noisiest streets without moving an inch and sleep lazily through all the chaos. It certainly plays with the go-with-the-flow attitude of yoga, and with the concept of not getting your passions aroused by anything.

I guess that's all for now folks. This internet cafe I'm using is absolutely sweltering, and the power has gone off 3 times already. Luckily this thing has an autosave feature which it activates every few seconds. Also, there has been an angry hornet that insists on terrorizing me constantly. Just know that a lot of blood and sweat go into these blogs, so I hope you enjoy them. All in all, things are still going very well for me. Just committed to 15 more days at the ashram, so after that, we shall see. Love you guys. Take care and peace be with you.

Adam