The Art of Living

3/7/09
23:44

Well friends and foes, you may have noticed that I was kind of freaking out on Thursday when I arrived in India.  If you didn’t notice…I was freaking out.  Thus far, my tweakage was unwarranted.  I may feel otherwise had I not been on a SAS trip, but India has been quite pleasant and introspective for me and I’ve enjoyed it.

I set foot on Indian land at 11:30 am on Thursday, Day 1, and hopped right on a bus.  Traffic here is definitely different than anything I’ve seen before.  They drive on the opposite side of the street and there are motorbikes, rickshaws (tiny, three-wheeled cabs similar to golf-carts) and cows weaving in and out of the nonexistent lanes.  Craziness.

The bus made three stops in the city of Mamallapuram, while on the way to Dakshina Chitra village where we would be staying for the next three days.  The first stop was at a beautiful, religious monument carved out of stone, depicting the ancient tale of how the Ganges River was formed.  Next we stopped at the Five Rathas, which are stone-cut shrines shaped like chariots or animals that the gods rode.  Our final stop was at the Shore Temple, which is also a rock-cut temple that is right near the shoreline.  Each site was gorgeous.  I am still amazed and astonished by someone’s ability to carve such beauty into stone, especially thousands of years ago.  One mistake and it’s all over…there’s no eraser in rock. 

At about four we arrived at Dakshina Chitra village.  The brochure describes it as “a non-profit, community service project of the Madra Craft Foundation for the promotion and preservation of the cultures of the diverse people of India with emphasis on Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.”  It was a very interesting place, indeed. 

Upon entering we were each ‘dotted’ with red dye on our third eye.  Then we were led through the arts center, past all the artisans and the crafts they were selling and to our living quarters.  There were five rooms of four girls in the building I stayed in. I roomed with 3 other girls: Disha, Charlotte, and Katherine.  They were great roomies, all very nice. 

Each room was pretty sparse, just 4 beds and ceiling fans (quite necessary in India) and a bathroom. My room, however, did not have a bathroom so my roommates and I had to use the communal bathroom.  Ah the communal bathroom, more accurately described as a squatting hole, a urinal, and a bucket of water to shower with.  Living the life.  Ironically, the 7 guys on the trip had actual toilets in their rooms as well as air conditioning.  Bastards.

After getting settled into our rooms we had snacks and juice.  The snacks were simosas, which are like deep-fried potatoes and veggies and orange juice.  Very tasty.  The OJ was the best OJ I’ve ever had.  I think they literally squeezed the juice from an orange right into the glass, no additives, just straight-up orange juice.  Once we scarfed down our snickie snacks, everyone headed over to the yoga studio for our first session.  The classes were taught by an older women named Veda and held in a beautiful brick building with a high conical ceiling and lined with windows to increase airflow.  I loved seeing the light of day change while in that building.  We often were able to see dawn to day and dusk to night. 

The first class was an hour and a half long and we learned some breathing techniques and postures from the teachings of Shri Shri Ravi Shakar (forgive my spelling in this entry).  The first technique had three stages that should be repeated 6 to 8 times and was called Pranayama.  The second breathing technique was Bhastrika and should be done three times with 15 to 20 repetitions.  Then Veda gave us each pen and paper to answer three questions:

-What are you looking for in life?
-What are your worries?
-What do you hope to get through this class?

Once we answered these individually, we were let out of class and went to dinner.  It was a traditional Indian-style sit-down dinner.  The food was delicious.  It was all vegetarian and utensils were limited so I ate with my hands as Indians typically do.  Only the right hand, though.  I forgot about that part until I looked over at Veda, who was sitting next to me.  I watched her for most of dinner and copied what she did.  She noticed and she smiled silently. 

Dinner consisted of chapatti bread and several vegetables sauces and pastes, fried cauliflower, spicy rice, and sweet rice soup with raisins and nuts for dessert.  Everyone in the group was very quick to try the food, despite constant warnings about the prevalence of Traveler’s Diarrhea (TD) for visitors to India. I vowed not to get TD.  I mean can you imagine…TD and a squatting hole.  I don’t even want to think about it.  Well luckily no one got sick at all.  I knew we wouldn’t.  It’s all about the power of the mind. 

After dinner, we went outside to listen to an Indian story-teller, who has traveled with the Semester at Sea program before.  Her name was V.R. Devika.  She told us creation stories, love stories, and tales of the Hindu gods.  Everyone’s favorite Hindu god to hear about was Ganesha, the god with an elephant’s head and son of Shiva and Parvati.  As the story goes…

Parvati wanted to bathe while Shiva was out of the house and she wanted total privacy so she created a little boy out of the dust particles on her hand.  She told the little boy to guard the door and make sure no one came in while she was bathing.  Then she took a bath.  Soon Shiva came home and the little boy said, “You can’t go in the house, Parvati is bathing.”  Shiva was very angry because it was his house and he demanded the boy to let him pass.  The boy told him that he had to honor his promise to Parvati and refused to let Shiva by.  So Shiva cut off the little boy’s head and barged into his house.  At this point Parvati and just finished bathing and she came out of the house to find her mangled creation.  She was devastated.  “How could you do this?” she asked Shiva. “I made that little boy, I loved him, he was my creation.”  In order to appease his distraught love, Shiva sent out a servant to fetch a head to replace the one he just decapitated.  Shiva’s servant went out and found a sleeping elephant and chopped off his head and returned.  And that is how Ganesha got the body of a man and the head of an elephant.

Devika was a great story teller and we kept asking for just one more.  Story-telling is a lost art in America.  Bring it back.  After story time, we all headed back to our rooms to get ready for bed.  My skin was layered with sweat, dirt, bug spray, and sunscreen, but I wasn’t into the whole shower with a bucket of standing water option so I just washed my face, brushed my teeth and hopped into bed.  Or hopped into ‘wooden block’ as we called it.  The mattresses were not all that forgiving and creaked with every move.  Also there weren’t nets over the windows, which needed to be open in order for the heat to be bearable so we each had to douse ourselves with mosquito repellant before bed.  Common occurrence.  I stayed awake for most of the night and was already awake at 6 o’clock when the alarm went off. 
 
More to follow…