A Most Excellent Weekend

Tiruvannamalai

After two weeks of being in this most amazing of countries, and noisy of city's a select few of us on my course this weekend decided to take a 3 hour trip to the holy town of Tiruvannamalai. It boast's one of the three largest temples in India.

So after the Saturday morning lecture from Sri Desikachar we hopped on a bus and began the journey out of the bustling humming city to the solace of the Indian countryside. As large buildings and spreading slum gave way to larger and larger patches of undeveloped ground the air became a pleasure to breathe. It was honesty like tasting water for the first time in two weeks. It was so green and lush and such a pleasure to look upon.

The flat paddy fields soon sprouted large promonitories upon which the odd temple or fort was built, quite how they were done I will never know. Finally after three and a half hours and slight deafness (bus driver took much pride in his newly fitted air horn) we arrived at our destination. It was a little daunting as we drove through the town with people literally painted blue and pink traffic everywhere the only word to really describe it all is "pandemonium".

Finally we managed to find a place further away from the main town as the whole area is dominated by the holy mountain "Arunchala" which is said to be the head and body of Lord Siva.

After checking into our respective guest house's and having some lunch we made our way to the temple. In this area there are a lot of westerner's seeking to "find themselves". We came across a lot of them dressed in the way of the holy men in orange robes or with turbans and dhoti's on. It looked a little odd to me, I could'nt work it out but hey each to their own I guess.

We all took rickshaws to the temple that swiftly wound their way through the throng of devotees, pilgrims and tourists, completely ignorant of what we were about to embark upon.

To describe this place simply would not do it any justice.

We hung out for about 5 hours and met a little boy called Sasi. His mum had died his Dad had left him and moved to Chennai with a new wife and he lived with his grandmother who is a cleaner in the temple in a shop doorway. He spoke perfect english at the age of 5. Everyone else who saw us being shown around by him laughed as they were amazed at how eloquent his english was. The devotee's found it very amusing and we had the opportunity to talk to a few. One guy who's name I forget came to the town to walk around the mountain (14Km) 48 times as a pilgrimage he ended up staying and has now in 6 years walked round the mountain 1060 time's.

Next day we hiked the holy mountain (in bare feet) and checked out a few of the caves that some yogi's had retreated to and supposedly attained enlightenment. Upon entering one cave I saw that it was full of sweaty europeans seated in the meditation position. I exited swiftly not being able to work out the wierdness of that experience there and then.

We descended the mountain after some reflection, enjoyment of the fresh air and lack of mosquitoes. Upon reaching the foot of the mountain (in bare feet) I discovered that one of my flip flops had fallen out of my bag, so I and Dana who is in the picture sitting on a rock went back up to find it (in bare feet) we got all the way to the top but alas no flip flop, so again we descended (in bare feet). After climbing the holy mountain twice sitting in a cafe with sore feet I pondered the significance of the loss of one shoe on Shiva's holy mountain, still I'm a little flumoxed.

So that was our short stay in Tiruvannamalai. If ever you want to experience India go there, it is a magical place.

On my two weeks after the course I will be editing my write ups and hopefully post many many more photos for you's lot, so keep checkin.

So finally after about 4 attempts and probably the same amount of hours I manage to get some pics on to show you. I have asked myself whether ro not it is really worth sitting in front of a computer for that long just to get a few little pics, but hey ya'll wanna see what I've been seein right?

Well it's been over a week now since I arrived here in India but it feels like longer. The course is really intense, but in a good way. We start at 7 AM and carry right through to 6ish, within the day we cover many aspects of the Yoga philosophy and it is all fascinating, there's not one aspect of the day that doesn't deserve total attention.

We have a Vedic chanting class before lunch with a truly amazing teacher called Jyotsna. She is the human embodiment of fun, so much so that she makes you feel as if you're back in primary school you know, when the teachers used to make learning like play. Whenever she enters the classroom people start smiling. It may have something to do with her subject matter, which seems, upon scrathing the vast surface, to be a most powerful tool in the art of healing. I've never known an activity to have such a profound but immediate effect on it's practitioners (once you get over the initial feeling of feeling like a muppet, which last's all of a minute). As soon as we start smiles and laughter abound.

I still wake in the mornings and wonder where I am for a few seconds but then I realise what I'm here for and why and I smile. Even in the first week of the course the learing curve has been exponential. Not so much at an intellectual level more on the experiential. I feels so good to be finally gaining insight into those matters and aspects of which I have been (it seems) so blindly fumbling in the dark with. To gain more clarity on the level of learning and through concentration or focus clarity on the level of percieving the world without those misapprehensions, or conditional/habitual thought processes which limit us in so many ways.

Essentially what we are being taught here is healing through yoga, not yoga as many people in the west percieve it. As an opportunity to stretch and look beautiful in a pose and maybe feel good also, but as a scientific healing aid to those who are need care. Through the many aspect's such as asana (posture's) breathing excersises, concentration, chanting etc people come to know themselves a little better, they come to realise how distracted they are when they are unable to sit still for a minute with their eyes shut and focus on only one thing. Try it it's not easy. Slowly through this practice people become more able to know themselves, and thus know the world outside of themselves with more clarity. It's like driving your car down the motorway and along the way all these things like insects and dust slowly accumulate on the windscreen, after a while your view of the road is altered but you'll carry on with out wiping the screen even though these things that are clouding your vision could potentially be dangerous to you and others.

So as you can guess I'm loving it here. In fact a group of us have left the noisy, metropolis for the weekend and are sunning oursleves and swimming on the beach a little further down the coast in a beautiful temple town called Mamallapuram (I delivered your letter Emmy). It is a cool place and so nice to swim in the Indian ocean. Yesterday I had and Ayurvedic full body massage for the sum total of 350Rs a bit less than 4 quid, I might even have another one today just coz I can. But it's back up to the big smoke this evening for another week of accelerated learning.

Just for your info, the photo taken with the woman in the red saree was taken yesterday, the picture of the water was the view from my hotel room, and the other was in Chennai, people sleep a lot here and anywhere, you'll even spot them lying literally in the middle of a busy road catchin a few zzzz's.

Till next time

Love

Duncs

Chennai (Madras)

Well then where should I start?

The flight was smooth with no unforseen eventualities, and upon exiting the airport was hit by a wall of humidity as is familiar to most airports in hot countries, something to do with 10 hours of air con me thinks. The strong smell of coal being burned was heavy in the air too, although now I think I am used to it. I then took a cab to my hotel. It is a large complex in the city centre, with a pool which is a god send because it "aint half hot mum".

The room given to me is nice, however there is historical evidence of a great battle once forged between man and beast in the form of a gruesome mural on the wall next to my bed in my room. The artist has used an interesting medium of smeared mosquito's to get across the plight of the battle goers. That night I learned what it was to be at war(Dan sorry mate but you're mosquito net is made for a hobbit).

So the next morning after no sleep and some nice bites I arose at 5:30 am after declaring a temporary cease fire with the mosquito kingdom. An amazing breakfast was to follow of thin bread called dosa and various chutneys and sauces one imparticular is the lovely coconut chutney that is a little hot but not too much first thing in the morning. The food is something special here and think I have picked up eating with the right hand with out making too much mess. The Tamils here have a quirky gesture of gently rocking the head from side to side as they talk it, is very endearing.

I attended a lecture on Saturday morning at the KYM with Desikachar. It was lovely to see the person of whom I have read so much and hear what he has to say in person. He has a very gentle demeanour and a great sense of humour not unlike that of the father from the "Kumars". Following that I consented to letting a rickshaw driver show me some sites, at first he seemed genuine it was only after he had taken me from place to place that I realised what he was trying to do. The long and short of it was that I got fleeced for my naiveity and looming jetlagged mind, however it was not that bad when I worked out exactly how much I was made to spen and it did'nt amount to more that about 12 pounds, but still that is a lot here, so lesson learned early which I have Murugan the rickshaw driver to thank for (which I will in person next time I see him).

At the KYM i met a few people with whom I will be on the course with for the next 4 weeks and so we all met for dinner last night at my hotel as the food is excellent.Also there is a lady here called Hilary McCrae who lives in Hove, I was aware that she practiced in the same tradition but had no idea that she would be here too.

So my course starts tomorrow and I will update you to let you all know how it fares. I will also upload some photo's so you can see a selection of the site's I have been to. I will tell you about my day being a tourist this morning along with the photo's to do them proper justice.

So until then take care my freinds and loved ones.

Love

Duncs

Thursday 1st Feb 2007

The day before I leave and I'm running around trying to sort out the last few things that need doing, like travellers cheques, tidying the house for the lovely couple who are renting my room, and taking malaria pills (YUK!!!) and other stuff too.

I'm full of anticipation and excitement for my looming sojourn. If the beggining of my teaching course last weekend in London is anything to go by then it will be a most fascinating adventure.

And so it is that I leave the snowy realms of the south east of England to journey to the Indian sub-continent where (I've been told) I will encounter a miasma of colours, smells and culture rather different from that of our own. See you all on the flipside.

Love

Duncs