First Walk to Dharamkot, Rain Rhythms, Delhi Ladies, Mass Photography
Sept 10, 2003
I finally got the e-mail I had written in the morning off and it ws quite difficult as the server was on and off all day...it required a few trips back and forth to the internet place. but met Kelly there, and wasn't quite thinking where to eat lunch until he mentioned Snow Lion and so went there and had the Special Pasta I remembered so well.
Then 4 Indian ladies walked in-I just KNEW they were from Delhi and it turns out they are at the Chin Maya Tapovan Ashram for a week's spiritual retreat and had the day off today and came as tourists to McLeod and were enthralled with the place. Anyway, they couldn't decided where to eat and told me afterwards that only because they saw me, a "normal" looking white person there, they decided to try it. Then even asked me to recommend something different so they could feel like they were away from Indian food. so I recommended momos and thantuk- which, AFTER adding chili sauce , they loved. Then we began to talk and in the end all had tea and lemon curd cake for dessert. One said she is planning to come back here for a vacation and looking for a nice, quiet, clean guest house,not a fancy hotel, with attached bath and hot water and good view. and of course I recommended Kailwood and even brought them up to see. They were most impressed. One lady named Nelou, lives alone in Kailish area of Delhi (I know it is very swanky) and she is a marketing strategy consultant while her only son is studying in England. She gave me her e-mail and phone numbers and made me promise to call her when I get to Delhi and add an extra few days to my stay. She said she is renovating and if her house is ready, I can stay with her. If not, at least we must get togehter each evening for dinner and some cultural events which she will arrange. I think I'll do it-but will have to buy something to wear!! These were really fancy ladies...Luckily I was wearing my Anokhi outfit so I made a good impression. I can look pretty "scrungy" here. So it was all planned...long time at internet, meet kelly, go to Snow Lion andMeet Nelou. (Note: In the end I never went since following the incident you will read about later on, I was completely zonked by the time I got back to Delhi)
I've been resting and now will do some reading and yoga and supper and bed early after one more try at phone calls.... Ashish made chicken today so had no choice...I really prefer veg...but it turned out to be delicious...
thursday...2 PM...September 11th...2 years ago I was sitting in this exact place....hard to believe...
Anyway...last night before going to sleep...it started raining and I just sat and looked and listened and experienced the beauty of the rain in the trees...the different rhythms as it became strong and then dwindled to just a drizzle and then picked up again...the different dripping sounds from leaves, drainpipes, branches etc., the changes in light coming from between the trees...all until it
got dark and stopped and then the almost eery silence....quite beautiful.
And now i have had an amazing morning. got up happily, morning stuff, shower and out for breakfast...sat with Nathan, the Australian guy I met here and we talked for awhile...he is 29...comes from Tasmania and won't go into details, but his dream is to become a personal trainer and open his own gym. Plan is to go back in several months, get his old mining job back...and do it through a correspondence course which seems to be how it is done there...yoyu can tell that this guy has been working out...he has got some body...and that he enjoys it...his whole face lighted up when he spoke about his plans...he will study for a couple of years, then work in a gym for a couple more to get experience, and then hopefully open his own place.
Then I got dressed and walked up the backroad to Dharamkot...I remember it being quite steep and my memeory served me well! But I did it with very little trouble, but good I wore my hiking boots as the whole road, from Tushita and up, was compltely washed away and was just now covered with loose rocks and stones to make a sort of path...my ankles would have done me in in regular shoes...there is much evidence of damage from the monsoon this year...the road of to bhagsu shows signs of several recent landslides from the hills on the left of the road....and the whole of Temple road has almost been washed completely way in many places, and particially in others...the road is being worked on but it is quite difficult to navigate and even more difficult to get past in cars...
While walking up to Dhramkot, there was a sign for some Massage center and written across it in bold black handwirtten letters was "Free Palestine Now"...my first encounter with outright political stuff here (Aside of course from all the Free Tibet stuff all over the place and "we do not sell products made in china" etc)...it quite shook me to see this...
Then I got up to the tea house and decided to rest before going to Beit Chabad which was my destination today. I sat down, and saw the same cute young guy there from 2 years ago named anil, but didn't say anything, just ordered my mint tea and cinnamon bun....he looked at me for awhile then came over and said"I remember you...you were here a couple of years ago"...I was quite surpirsed since sooooooooo many people come through there, but we did speak then a couple of times...so why not....I know he wasn't just flirting...that would be silly...and had already witnessed his flirting with a couple of sexy young girls who had just gotten out of a rickshaw...and it was quite blunt and to the point....so we spoke for awhile, and then he even said "I remember your name is something like Jennie...right?" Then I was really surprise...He asked how long I would be here, was I traveling alone this time also, still no boyfriend etc., and I mentioned I would be looking around for a place to live and he said he would ask around, but that he is also planning on building a house now (showed me the exact spot on the opposite hill, not far from the pizza place, ), and if I wanted, I could rent it from him....kind of far out but will think about it....anyway...he then said there is something very special about you...your face is glowing, alive with special energies...and replied that it is this PLACE that has the special energies but he said no, not many people come through here with this look about them....it is really beautiful and makes me feel very good to sit across from you...how old are you now? 40??/ And of course I laughed.//..///...so he said 39?? and I laughed more...and so he said well, come one, you can't be much more than 40...again a laught....OK...you are 45, 48....and finally he gave up...I was really enjoying this, and sometimes it is a put on, but this guy was forreal!!!....In the end I told him I was 56 and then it was his turn to laugh...it was a pleasant encounter...and we shook hands on my leaving...
Then I headed over to Beit Chabad... You could see that a whole group of kids were in the middle of a lesson, mostly girls but some guys as well and then the Rav (called Dror) came along and just asked when I could come back to speak to him...see...last night, before falling asleep, I had this vision of me going up there and offereing my services to the kids here in counseling, reiki, healing, or just someone to talk to ifthings are rough, and thought to speak to them at Beit Chabad and see if we could do something together....so we made an appointment for 5 this afternoon...he doesn't know what I want to speak to him about...but then when i came out....all the kids were getting ready for a "last day class picture"...there were about 15 of them...and also the Rav and his kids...so I said I would take the picture for them....I wound up with ALL the cameras around me...and took pics using each camera...and of course both me and the Rav said at the same time...well, at least now we know why you arrived here today at this particular hour...!!! It was quite funny actually. So came back, and now am here, will eat lunch and then go rest for an hour or so and then head back up to Dharamkot...this is going to be a tiring day...but maybe something will get going and tomorrow I can rest. I will do my catching up tomorrow perhaps...
I finally got the e-mail I had written in the morning off and it ws quite difficult as the server was on and off all day...it required a few trips back and forth to the internet place. but met Kelly there, and wasn't quite thinking where to eat lunch until he mentioned Snow Lion and so went there and had the Special Pasta I remembered so well.
Then 4 Indian ladies walked in-I just KNEW they were from Delhi and it turns out they are at the Chin Maya Tapovan Ashram for a week's spiritual retreat and had the day off today and came as tourists to McLeod and were enthralled with the place. Anyway, they couldn't decided where to eat and told me afterwards that only because they saw me, a "normal" looking white person there, they decided to try it. Then even asked me to recommend something different so they could feel like they were away from Indian food. so I recommended momos and thantuk- which, AFTER adding chili sauce , they loved. Then we began to talk and in the end all had tea and lemon curd cake for dessert. One said she is planning to come back here for a vacation and looking for a nice, quiet, clean guest house,not a fancy hotel, with attached bath and hot water and good view. and of course I recommended Kailwood and even brought them up to see. They were most impressed. One lady named Nelou, lives alone in Kailish area of Delhi (I know it is very swanky) and she is a marketing strategy consultant while her only son is studying in England. She gave me her e-mail and phone numbers and made me promise to call her when I get to Delhi and add an extra few days to my stay. She said she is renovating and if her house is ready, I can stay with her. If not, at least we must get togehter each evening for dinner and some cultural events which she will arrange. I think I'll do it-but will have to buy something to wear!! These were really fancy ladies...Luckily I was wearing my Anokhi outfit so I made a good impression. I can look pretty "scrungy" here. So it was all planned...long time at internet, meet kelly, go to Snow Lion andMeet Nelou. (Note: In the end I never went since following the incident you will read about later on, I was completely zonked by the time I got back to Delhi)
I've been resting and now will do some reading and yoga and supper and bed early after one more try at phone calls.... Ashish made chicken today so had no choice...I really prefer veg...but it turned out to be delicious...
thursday...2 PM...September 11th...2 years ago I was sitting in this exact place....hard to believe...
Anyway...last night before going to sleep...it started raining and I just sat and looked and listened and experienced the beauty of the rain in the trees...the different rhythms as it became strong and then dwindled to just a drizzle and then picked up again...the different dripping sounds from leaves, drainpipes, branches etc., the changes in light coming from between the trees...all until it
got dark and stopped and then the almost eery silence....quite beautiful.
And now i have had an amazing morning. got up happily, morning stuff, shower and out for breakfast...sat with Nathan, the Australian guy I met here and we talked for awhile...he is 29...comes from Tasmania and won't go into details, but his dream is to become a personal trainer and open his own gym. Plan is to go back in several months, get his old mining job back...and do it through a correspondence course which seems to be how it is done there...yoyu can tell that this guy has been working out...he has got some body...and that he enjoys it...his whole face lighted up when he spoke about his plans...he will study for a couple of years, then work in a gym for a couple more to get experience, and then hopefully open his own place.
Then I got dressed and walked up the backroad to Dharamkot...I remember it being quite steep and my memeory served me well! But I did it with very little trouble, but good I wore my hiking boots as the whole road, from Tushita and up, was compltely washed away and was just now covered with loose rocks and stones to make a sort of path...my ankles would have done me in in regular shoes...there is much evidence of damage from the monsoon this year...the road of to bhagsu shows signs of several recent landslides from the hills on the left of the road....and the whole of Temple road has almost been washed completely way in many places, and particially in others...the road is being worked on but it is quite difficult to navigate and even more difficult to get past in cars...
While walking up to Dhramkot, there was a sign for some Massage center and written across it in bold black handwirtten letters was "Free Palestine Now"...my first encounter with outright political stuff here (Aside of course from all the Free Tibet stuff all over the place and "we do not sell products made in china" etc)...it quite shook me to see this...
Then I got up to the tea house and decided to rest before going to Beit Chabad which was my destination today. I sat down, and saw the same cute young guy there from 2 years ago named anil, but didn't say anything, just ordered my mint tea and cinnamon bun....he looked at me for awhile then came over and said"I remember you...you were here a couple of years ago"...I was quite surpirsed since sooooooooo many people come through there, but we did speak then a couple of times...so why not....I know he wasn't just flirting...that would be silly...and had already witnessed his flirting with a couple of sexy young girls who had just gotten out of a rickshaw...and it was quite blunt and to the point....so we spoke for awhile, and then he even said "I remember your name is something like Jennie...right?" Then I was really surprise...He asked how long I would be here, was I traveling alone this time also, still no boyfriend etc., and I mentioned I would be looking around for a place to live and he said he would ask around, but that he is also planning on building a house now (showed me the exact spot on the opposite hill, not far from the pizza place, ), and if I wanted, I could rent it from him....kind of far out but will think about it....anyway...he then said there is something very special about you...your face is glowing, alive with special energies...and replied that it is this PLACE that has the special energies but he said no, not many people come through here with this look about them....it is really beautiful and makes me feel very good to sit across from you...how old are you now? 40??/ And of course I laughed.//..///...so he said 39?? and I laughed more...and so he said well, come one, you can't be much more than 40...again a laught....OK...you are 45, 48....and finally he gave up...I was really enjoying this, and sometimes it is a put on, but this guy was forreal!!!....In the end I told him I was 56 and then it was his turn to laugh...it was a pleasant encounter...and we shook hands on my leaving...
Then I headed over to Beit Chabad... You could see that a whole group of kids were in the middle of a lesson, mostly girls but some guys as well and then the Rav (called Dror) came along and just asked when I could come back to speak to him...see...last night, before falling asleep, I had this vision of me going up there and offereing my services to the kids here in counseling, reiki, healing, or just someone to talk to ifthings are rough, and thought to speak to them at Beit Chabad and see if we could do something together....so we made an appointment for 5 this afternoon...he doesn't know what I want to speak to him about...but then when i came out....all the kids were getting ready for a "last day class picture"...there were about 15 of them...and also the Rav and his kids...so I said I would take the picture for them....I wound up with ALL the cameras around me...and took pics using each camera...and of course both me and the Rav said at the same time...well, at least now we know why you arrived here today at this particular hour...!!! It was quite funny actually. So came back, and now am here, will eat lunch and then go rest for an hour or so and then head back up to Dharamkot...this is going to be a tiring day...but maybe something will get going and tomorrow I can rest. I will do my catching up tomorrow perhaps...
posted by Jane @ 9:05 PM
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