4/6/07

Farewell to India

By now you may be wondering what happened with the kids and their performance. Well I went back a couple days before the show, fine tuned the dance the best I could without speaking their language, and helped prepare for the big day. The event is called School Days. It was the anniversary of the school and opening of a new building for the boys dorm. Everyone helped prepare including the kids. They went around picking up rocks and other debris to make the land look nicer. I tried to help but they would not let me. Instead they pulled a chair out and put it in the shade near where they were working so I could sit near them. I had bought the kids nail polish. The amazing thing was before they painted their nails they made sure mine were painted. Then within about 10 minutes 50 girls and a few boys had their nails painted. Everyone went to work painting each of the kids. Somehow I had the longer line of kids wanting their nails painted. ;) Then they braided my hair, put a headband on me, put barrettes in my hair, then flowers, and then one of the girls took her gold necklace off her neck and gave it to me. She said "This goes to America". And those kids do not have a lot of stuff. One of the girls painted my palm with henna (mahindi). We spread powdered colors on the ground to make these beautiful floral arrangements.
During the show I thought I would hide backstage with the kids. But apparently they had another plan for me which I was only going to find out as it unraveled. An American couple that had donated a lot of money came to India for the ceremony. All 225 kids that were not dancing in the show lined up to create a walkway to enter the event. In came the limo with the Ambassador of the state (or some other government person), a minister, the American couple, Tom and Geetha who run the Foundation, and me. We were preceded through the walkway of all the kids. We got to cut the ropes to enter the new building and be the first to enter. The kids sat on sheets on the ground in front. Then we were seated in the chairs in the front row behind the kids. At the second round of speeches they called all of the honored guests up to the stage. I was wearing my saree and was praying I did not trip walking up the steps. Then we sat on the stage during a few long speeches. And I was not prepared. (I had to go to the bathroom.) Then they honored us by putting garlands of flowers around our necks and then a beautiful shall over our shoulders. Here comes the best part. We each had to give a speech. Since I learned how to say "Hi. How are you?" in their language Telegu, I started with that. And every single person responded "I am fine" in Telegu. We did not need a translator for that part of my speech. Being impromptu from there I went into the usual thanks for having me here. It is an honor. This is a great program… And finally I was relieved from the stage; now sweating even more since I had this thick shall on my shoulders in addition to the layers of material the saree provides.
Weaved throughout the program were the kids' dances. They all performed beautifully. I was very proud of their performance of the piece I gave them. I have a video of it to show when I do my talk on India. Right after their performance I barely got to say goodbye as I was rushed to scarf down dinner and driven to the next town to catch an overnight bus to another town to fly to Delhi to take a train the next day so there would be enough time for me to see the Taj Mahal on this trip. You can't go to India without seeing the Taj Mahal! It was sad to leave the kids and the south leaving a bit of my heart behind.
You will get an opportunity to donate to this program at my talk and slideshow on India on May 24, 7:30 pm at the Santa Barbara Central Library.
By this point I realized I had to go on a tour of the Taj Mahal as a tourist if I wanted to have a somewhat pleasant experience. From the train station in Agra my tour was supposed to pick me up. Not enough people had signed up for the tour so they sent me in a taxi. All I wanted was to go to the Taj Mahal and all he did was take me everywhere else first. He wanted me to go shopping in some store and I had to fight with him not to make me go in. Finally the big moment at the Taj Mahal, against the driver's wishes to be there so early. When buying my ticket I realized this ticket gives me a discount to all the other attractions I just paid full price for. That is probably the most I got cheated in India though. You have to go on a little bit of a hike to get to the amazing building. You walk through a big archway of a building and there it is; right in front of you in all its symmetry and pure whiteness. A manicured lawn with the reflection of the Taj in a long man made rectangle pond. That reminded me of the mall leading up to the Washington Monument in D.C.  It really is one of the seven wonders of the world. There is something magical about seeing the whole Taj Mahal from a distance. It cost over $300 million and took about 20 years to build. Afterwards they cut off all the thumbs of the artists so nothing like it could ever be built again. Not a job I would have liked to have. There is a sneak peak of the Taj Mahal above. For the full view you will have to come to my talk on May 24.
Back to Delhi late at night. Early the next morning to Rishikesh for the International Yoga Festival. It was a bit of a trip getting there. The most interesting part was the storytelling from the cab driver. He told us about how there are groups like gangs that each have specified times and spots for bathing/purifying in the river. One day one gang tried to bathe during another gang's time. That ended up in a fight with some murders. But they did not stress as they were all relieved from their sins because of their belief they were purified once they bathed in this river.
I went from sweating to death in the south to needing to wear all the clothes I brought with me in Rishikesh. To my surprise one of my favorite teachers, Desiree Rumbaugh, was teaching at this festival. And to my greater satisfaction she even remembered my name! Of course I signed up for all her classes. Then I got the opportunity to try different styles and types of classes. I ended up doing a lot of meditation, or napping. I'm not sure which one I did more of when I sat down and closed my eyes.
While I was there, we celebrated Holi, the Festival of Colors. Within the safety of the ashram, we threw colored powder all over everyone, played loud symbols, and danced around. Afterwards everyone went in a procession led by the Pujya Swamiji through the streets of this small area of town. Then down to our nightly Aarti celebration. This was a small community ceremony versus the big production Varanasi puts on. It is filled with showing reverence to a particular god through song, cramming on the steps by the river with blankets over our shoulders, throwing petals into a fire to symbolize getting rid of the bad stuff, and passing around a torch. And for some reason on this day one of the boys living in the Ashram was dressed up like a fancy woman with lots of jewels.
One of the craziest things I did on this whole trip, besides going to India, was waking up for a 62 minute chant that started at 4 am. After reading Eat, Pray, Love and how Liz woke up everyday at 3 am for an hour and a half of chanting, I was inspired to try it. It was a much more elevating experience than any meditation I have ever done. I actually felt this energy moving upwards in my body.
Finally I had a full day in Delhi, the city I passed through many times. Coincidentally I was able to meet up with a friend from home. We wandered around seeing some sites and shopping. I tried to prepare him as best I could for the trip. Yet still when he got home all he could say about India was that it was challenging.
I took a leisurely final day in India having accomplished all I wanted to, but one thing; To see the movie Guru. Normally when you ask someone about a movie they sum it up in one or two sentences. Maybe a cultural difference, but this Indian friend told me line by line what happened in the movie. Of course he stopped about halfway through after he saw my fifth yawn. So I was fortunate to know exactly what happens in the first half of the movie and guess what was happening in the last half. Here's my two sentence summary: It is a rags to riches story about a poor rural boy who becomes one of the richest men in India. Of course it combines a love story, life challenges, music, and dancing. I am not sure if it was the actual movie or the fact that I was sad to leave this culture that I had grown so close to, but I was sobbing the entire movie. I have already played the peaceful soundtrack in yoga class.
Farewell India!

2/22/07

Two More Weeks

 

Hello All!  It will be two more weeks until I return.  I was bumped to the next day's flight.  Thus I will return on March 7.  For anyone I gave dates to for plans during the first few days I return, please postpone them to the following day.

Now I would like to share with you a few of India's environmental and economic savers:

• The Family Car:  Fit your entire family on one motorcycle.  Seats parents and three small children.  If you want to be even more environmental and economical, have more time, and have more energy you can do the same thing on a bicycle.
• Solar Clothes Drying:  Just lay your wet clothes out on the grass to dry.
• Power Cut:  Shut the power down to an entire rural town during the hottest time of the day.

After eating in Pondicherry and enjoying some rnr at the beach in Mamallapuram, I travelled to the middle of nowhere to volunteer.  The program Foundation for Children In Need is based around a town called Porumamilla.  Even though nobody has heard of it, it was not too hard to get to.  First I took a five hour train ride where apparently I bought myself a seat in the luggage compartment.  Luckily the nice people underneath me allowed me to sit next to them instead.  I think the ticket salesperson thought I am younger than I am.  Then Tom and Geetha who run the program picked me up and drove me an hour and a half to their nice house.  From there I stayed at an elderly home, but went to a kids' school during the day.

It seemed to me there are four main facets to their work. 

1. The school for poor kids and orphans.  The schooling, books, food, and housing for about 100 of the kids are fully paid for by supporters of the Foundation.  These are kids who may not have had a chance to choose their profession.  Many arrive at school without having eaten breakfast.  If you watch the attitude of some of the poor kids on the streets in other towns and these kids, you will see these kids are as bright and full of life as any with a good life.  This program gives them a chance for happiness and an easier life.  They are preparing them for India and the world by teaching them their local language, Hindi, and English.
2. The home for the aged.  It is extremely rare in India for seniors to be put into a retirement home instead of staying in the house with their kids.  But some families are too poor to help their parents or some seniors have no family.  I have volunteered in senior homes many times and always felt uncomfortable and left depressed.  This place was filled with laughter.  One morning I woke up to hear this extremely loud laughing as if there was a comedy show.  It was just Sister Lucia, a nun who runs the place, laughing with the seniors during the morning prayers.  These seniors were also more agile than I am used to seeing.  My guess would be because they have done heavy physical work all their life.  Everyone works together to prepare the food, do the gardening, and keep the place clean.  Sister Lucia says she might as well make their last years of life the best they can be.
3. Medical Camps.  The neighboring villages are poor and uneducated.  Geetha is actually a Dr. Geetha.   She visits those villages as much as she can giving free medical examinations and medicines as well as educating them on more hygienic health standards.
4. Sponsorship:  Besides sponsoring each kid in the school, they sponsor older kids and adults to further their education.   They will even help with living expenses.   They try to find a suitable career path where each person will find success.

Coincidentally the day I arrived the kids were preparing dances to perform at a big school event.  And of course they asked me to teach the kids a dance.   I replied, "No problem.  Just give me any pop song and two hours, and I will choreograph a dance."  Well, being passed from one person to the next, and each person speaking less English, the message did not get communicated.   I was sitting a room full of about 50 kids and ten teachers and they asked me to start to teach them the dance.   Once I figured out the magic word to use was "compose."  I thought they would understand.  They pointed to the middle of the floor and said to compose it now.  The kids were anxious to learn from me.  And there were 120 eyes peering at me and I thought there was no way I would be able to choreograph with all these people staring at me for two hours.   Nor did I think that was a good use of their time.  Yet there was no way to communicate how I needed to work.  So I found out they had a song I am familiar with and pulled an old skill out of my hat; choreographing, or composing, on the spot.   And somehow I got ten girls who don’t speak English to learn a whole dance in a new style within two days.

Every morning I woke up early to teach the seniors yoga or rather laugh for an hour.  Normally older senior classes last maximum 45 minutes and do not involve more than five minutes of standing at a time.   I think this group could have stood the whole hour but instead I used the chair to get them working harder.  After the class every single one of the women would come up and thank me and put their hands over mine.

One evening I went with Geetha to a medical camp.  The village had about ten homes and I am not sure all of them were inhabited.   I got to walk around, see their homes, and a little on how they live.   They were drying peppers on the roof.  Once they are dry they just push them over the side onto the ground.  They affixed a little platform onto their bicycle where they transport the peppers.   They have a few farming items, but nowhere near enough to live off of.  Some of the people had tonsillitis possibly from eating bad ice cream.   Some had parasites possibly from the way they use water that you do not want me to detail or just bad plumbing.   Others had fevers and colds from the weather change.

In the midst of seeing all these patients the kids walked over with a six year old girl crying hysterically.  She had fallen and hit her head on a rock.   She had a big bleeding cut on her head in between the mess of her hair.  Geetha went right to work in helping her.  The girl was lucky the doctor was there when it happened.   They may not have known how to care for the wound so it would not get infected.  This whole time there were no adults consoling the kids; just a bunch standing around staring.   I found out the mother went to Kuwait to work as a maid because the money is much better there.   We were not sure where the father was.   Geetha gave all the care instructions to her 15 year old sister.

This was a great experience and Tom and Geetha do a wonderful service to their community.  If I did not go anywhere else in India I would have nothing bad to say about my experiences.   They give people opportunities who never even knew these opportunities existed.  At the school I could not take five steps without a swarm of at least ten kids around me.   At the elderly home, every senior I passed would run over to say "Namaskar" and give me a big smile. The setting was on a flat plain with hills in the background.   Finally I was away from the beeping of the autos, the yelling in the streets, and the pollution that coats your clothes after one day outdoors.   Although, I did miss the modern utility of electricity that stays on for more than an hour a day.   There you can see the sky, the sunset, and the sunrise.

If you would like more information or to donate money to the Foundation of Children in Need, you can visit http://www.fcnindia.org/ .  If you sponsor a child, they will remember your name and be able to recite it to any visitor.

I hope you are all well and I am looking forward to seeing those of you in Santa Barbara in just a couple weeks.

Best wishes,

Tali

1/31/07

Hello From India

Helloo!!

I am becoming more and more Indian everyday.  I can now ride on the back of a motorcycle without holding on, I sweat curry, and I am not afraid to cross the street.  At this point I have realized my true vacation will begin when I return to quiet, clean, beautiful Santa Barbara.  Nevertheless I am making an attempt at a vacation here in Pondicherry.  I finally peeled away from Chennai since my teacher is on vacation.  Pondicherry was once owned by the French and is still influenced by them.  Great food!  I have not seen so many white people since I left U.S.  I lucked out and got the last room available in the hotel on the beach, the family room for only $10.  It is the size of a dance studio with six beds and two huge balconies.  In this town I am majoring in meditating in my little palace and eating.

Since I do not have a lot of travel stories, I will share a cultural learning and yoga learning.  Also I attached some pictures.  The water pictures are the ghats in Varanasi.  The temple is a Buddhist temple.  I should be easy to spot in the dance photos, the only white person.

The following is what I have learned from my tour book and conversation.  Over 2000 years ago a system was developed dividing Hindus into four main hereditary groups.  The first group were the Brahmans; teachers, priests, and scholars.  They were the only ones allowed to read from the Vedas, the main Hindu scripts.  They were also the king's advisors, but not the kings.  The kings, as well as warriors were called Kshatriyas.  Then the businessmen, Vaishyas.  And workers, Shudras who filled the majority of the population.  Since democracy has rolled in, majority rules.  The number of seats in office or schools for people in your caste depends on the population of your caste. Thus Brahmans who were once the most educated only get 1 in 100 seats in a medical school or in office.  Supposedly most of the Kshatriyas were killed off in wars, but I met one.  He is named Pari, after a king who gave away anything anyone asked including his life.

The story of Patanjali is that he fell (pat) from the heavens into the open palms (anjali) of a woman.  Those hands could be strong enough to support the world yet soft enough to be comfortable to sit on.  Thus yoga postures should embody a duality of sthira (steady, stable, and motionless) and sukham (comfortable, ease filled).  This comes from the yoga sutra: sthira sukham asanam.  Whether or not these stories are true, take the idea into your practice to have the strength to support your body and a softness or comfort within each pose.  Find a balance between the two dualities.  Some say that once you get strong enough in a pose you could be in shavasana in that pose.  When the body is set in correct alignment the pose should become easier.  Build your framework and then relax within it.

Stay well!  Best wishes,

Tali

                                                1/4/07

Happy New Years

Hello and Happy New Years!!

I have become completely absorbed in life in Chennai.  Somehow I went
quickly from a relaxed traveler to a busy resident.  During the first week
in Chennai I went to Ayurvedic treatment and classes and my yoga classes.
Errands in the afternoons and eating by myself.  Yet the next week
everything turned around socially leaving me no free time at all.

The 21 day Ayurvedic treatments have been quite an experience.  Without ever
having a professional massage or spa treatment I had no idea what to
expect.  This doctor, Dr. Ganesh, B.A.M.S. (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine
and Surgery), was highly recommended by the other yoga students so at least
I wasn't nervous.  He took me to the room with the massage table and gave me
a little cloth to wear.  I asked for a few more.  For all the details you'll
have to get my book if I ever write one.  It was definitely one of those
comical movie scenes where they are trying to get me dressed or rather
undressed properly.  Then Dr. Ganesh said I am more like an Indian woman than an
American one.  

The treatment started with an oil head massage.  All I could think about
was how knotted my hair was getting and how hard it would be to wash out.
Then came the oil massage which was ok.  Next was the extremely hot mud pack
with special herbs being patted all over the body.  He touches you with it
so fast it won't burn, but it does hurt.  Then he put extremely hot mud all
over me.  With my body caked with mud and oil we took a little walk down the
hall to the steam bath.  This steam bath is a box you sit in with your head
sticking out.  Yes I took wonderful pictures.  The first day was quite
torturous, yet I woke up the next day so much more beautiful.  My face had
completely broken out from some combination of heat, spicy, food, pollution,
and stress.  After the first day of treatment 75% of my face had cleared
up.  My skin and hair were softer, my face had a new glow to it, and my eyes
were opened wider.  By the third day of treatment, with a couple adjustments
to suit my temperament, I was loving the treatments.  Once a week he pours
this oil over your head and chants.  While it is happening you slightly feel
as if you are in a different state of mind.  Afterwards you notice the
clarity of mind you have gained.  

Everything this doctor teaches me is so fascinating.  He really has a holistic approach to medicine and has taught me a lot.  One of his lessons is at the end of this email.

Part of my errands in the afternoon were running around buying and getting
stitched traditional local clothing.  You can buy some ready made/fits all
sizes clothes.  While a lot of the women here have a little more meat
on them than me, they seem to make the pants ten times my size.  Whenever I try them on they act like it looks great.  Finally I got one of them to laugh as I was
joking I look like humpty dumpty.  Although I don't think she knows who
humpty dumpty is.  With all this effort I started to wear my new costume.
Yet the glamour quickly wore off when I felt like I was carrying
around ten extra pounds of clothing and sitting in the steam bath all day.  And the stares
from the men didn't stop.  Instead of wondering what a white girl was doing
in Chennai, they were probably wondering what a white girl was doing dressed
like an Indian woman.

At my final stitching stop mid afternoon I heard loud music blasting next
door.  What a surprise, I happened upon a dance studio.  They invited me out
with them that night and next thing I knew I was the lead role in a couple
dances for their performance in a week.  This performance happened to be the
Miss South India Pageant which was nationally televised.  After a couple
days, the dancers working with a different choreographer invited me to do a
show on New Years.  With that and my hotel having me model for their
brochure I felt like I was making it big in India.  Or they were all just
amused by the white girl wearing Indian clothes.

Now let me take you to the Miss South India Pageant.  The actual pageant was
a small part of the night.  The bigger part was the entertainment and the
ploy to the stars.  They gave out all sorts of awards throughout the
evening.  I can't speak the language so I don't know what they were all
for.  Then they had these movie/tv stars that can't dance well be the lead
roles for the other dances I wasn't in.  And I guess the whole pageant was
rigged by the contestants giving the biggest bribes to the judges.  I had
one small dance piece early in the show and then a huge one at the end.
With all the risky lifts, at the end of the first piece the guy next to me
accidentally slapped my hand during a simple turn and broke my finger.
Somehow nobody understood the need for ice until my dance partner for the
last piece, Ganesh, sent a friend to get ice.  They don't keep emergency
medical kits in each building in India like we are required to in U.S.  Me
being extra prepared payed off.  I created a splint out of a tissue, plastic
fork, and duct tape.  Ganesh and I practiced the last piece holding my wrist
instead of hand and I was ready to go.  The show must go on!  Yet this show
was running on Indian time.  You see they were finishing constructing the
set while we were doing our tech run.  They never swept the saw dust off the
stage.  The show started an hour late.  After every little bit they added
loud confetti fireworks to the stage.  And still never swept the stage.  The
MC would announce what was next.  Then you would see a man backstage motion
for her to come over.  She would come back out and make a new announcement
of what was next as if she never made the previous announcement.  Good thing
it wasn't a live recording.  And they spelt "height" without the "e".  It
was already 11 pm at night and they decided to drop the last piece.  So
anti-climatic!

Interesting thought; Ganesh is some sort of elephant god that is known for
removing obstacles.  The guy who hit my hand on stage accidentally hit my
other hand the next day.  Luckily that was just a bruise.  His name is
Suraj, which means sunrise.  Dr. Ganesh said we should change his name to
Chandra, meaning moon, and then he would stop hitting me.

Luckily I know I am not jinxed with dancing in India because I made it
through the New Years show without any problems.  Yet one of the female
dancers sprained her foot three days beforehand and another dropped out.
That left two female dancers and 7 male dancers.  I think we ended up having
an overall message of it being fun for women to have a harem of men.  This
place we performed was about 9 hours away at a fancy hotel in Coimbatore.
We went on an overnight bus which felt more like a moonbounce with a bunch
of kids jumping in it.  If you recall from my last email, the traffic goes
any which way gets you there fastest and they communicate by honking.  Our
bus driver had a special honk, "dum da da dum dum...dum dum."  We all had
some great nights of sleeping...after we got home.

There may be a couple more dance shows while in Chennai and still more
studies.  It seems everywhere I turn someone has a story and a message for
me.  The dancers have been so inspiring.  With the scarcity of amenities
they have compared to American standards, they dance harder, learn faster,
and take more risks.  I like to call them careless and carefree.  They put
their whole body and everything they have in them into each moment of dance.

Now to my interesting Ayurvedic lesson.  Dr. Ganesh was invited to speak for
the top alopathic Indian doctors.  He related over 5000 year old Ayurvedic
principles to modern science on how auto-immune disorders and cancer
develop.  Cancer develops when the immune system is disturbed.  The
body gets confused and does not communicate to itself to stop the growth of these
cancer cells.  Besides sleep, lifestyle, mental state, and stress, Ayurveda
says the immune system is greatly affected by food, agni, and sex.

In Ayurveda they investigate how humans differ and the make up of their
natural state.  People should gauge food, lifestyle, sleep patterns...
according to their individual natural state.  Thus you should eat foods that
suit you and avoid ones that don't.  You can figure this out on your own
through sheer observance.

Agni is related to digestion.  Poor digestion is often where disease
starts.  Things to notice are if you pass a motion every morning, how often
you feel hungry, if you eat regularly, and how you feel after eating.  A tea
that helps all types of digestion is ginger tea with lemon or agni
tea.  I have the agni tea at the doctor's office everyday and love it.
 I'll be bringing home however much I can fit into my suitcase.

Now the topic you have all been waiting for me to explain:  sex.  The
digested food you eat travels in your plasma to nourish all tissues, organs,
and systems in your body.  Next these nutrients go to your blood, muscles,
fat, bone, marrow and nerves, reproductive tissues or sexual energy, and
finally your immune system.  Each stage of this process takes a day. Can you
imagine it takes 8 days for your food to fully affect your immune system?
Now what would happen if you zapped 50% of that sexual energy with sex?  You
would have 50% less energy supporting your immune system.  Now can you
imagine if you are having sex everyday how much you could be weakening your
immune system?  Thus Ayurveda recommends having sexual intercourse or
masterbating only once every two weeks.

Dr. Ganesh has already been able to prove with modern science how agni
affects the immune system.  He has done this combining his center, Pathway
Health Center <http://pathwayhospital.org/>, and Sri Ventakesa Oasadalaya, a
non-profit charitable organization treating poor people through Ayurveda and
yoga.  He would like to conduct modern technology research on how sex
affects cancer and auto-immune disorders, but he needs 3 or 4 million
dollars funding for that.  If you would like to donate you can do it through
Dr. Ganesh directly (drbganesh@sify.com), or wait until I get home and send
the money through me.  He has also offered to come to Santa Barbara to do
treatments for 21 days and donate the proceeds to cancer research.  When I
return I will start Ayurvedic consultations on diet and lifestyle.

Wishing you all the best in the New Year!!

Love,
Tali