amritsar

the city of amritsar is in the punjab, in the northwest corner of india. punjabis are a proud people who travel all over the world, and many thing that people think of as indian are more specifically punjabi. a lot of the food, bhangra music, and especially the image of a turbaned man. most punjabis are of the sikh religion, which was created as a response to hinduism and islam, and tried to incorporate elements of both while also integrating principles of equality. the founders of sikhism were early proponents of equality, supporting the rights of women, untouchables and other minorities long before anyone in the West thought of it. they believe in one god, but also in karma and reincarnation, and they don't think we need a priest or intermediary to reach god. religious sikhs don’t cut there hair and wear turbans, so all the turbaned indian taxi drivers are punjabi sikhs. in general, sikhs are not tolerated in pakistan (most left for india at partition), but have generally gotten along very well in india. (there was a period where some militant sikhs wanted a separate country for themselves, called Khalistan (you can still see that written on the back of some taxis in the US), and there was an incident where prime minister indira ghandi, nehru’s daughter, sent in troops to quash an uprising in a heavy-handed way, and was subsequently assassinated by some of her sikh bodyguards.) despite that one incident, they are a proud and happy part of india’s pluralistic society.
we were only in amritsar for a couple days, but we saw some amazing sights. foremost is the golden temple, the most important sikh temple, built in the middle of an artificial lake, and covered in pure gold. it reflects off the water beautifully, and some say it is the 2nd loveliest building in india. we went inside and it was so powerful spiritually, they are constantly chanting from their books and playing music, and sikhs pilgrimage there from all over the world. it really was incredible in there, just sitting and taking in the religious devotion.
the next place we saw was the Mata (mother’s) Temple, built to a 20th century woman who was revered as a spiritual presence until her death just a few years ago. the temple is incredible, like nothing we’ve seen in india. it’s built to resemble a womb, you enter and there are a series of caves and tunnels and waterways to walk through. some passageways are so small you have to duck, maybe even crawl through, then they open into larger wombs, er, rooms. the walls are covered with pictures of deities and millions of tiny mirrors, and by the time you get out, you really feel like you’ve been rebirthed. apparently women go there from all over india to pray for children.
and finally we took a ride a few kilometers to the pakistani border, the only open border between the 2 countries, to watch the nightly border-closing ceremony. it felt like a sporting event; there were stands filled with supporters (on both sides), and patriotic chanting (hindustan zindabad! Jai Hind!). the border guards march up to each other, stand face to face, and scowl mightily at their counterparts on the other side.
you can see the border closing ceremony here.

long time no post

greetings, loyal readers. it's been a while since i've posted, although i have almost 4000 words written, ready to go up. partially it's because internet access has been a little more difficult as i get settled in mumbai, part of it is that i've been very busy here.
i have arrived at my volunteer post here in Mumbai, India's cultural and financial capital. it's a big city, long and narrow, and so in some ways is reminiscent of new york. it's modern and cosmopolitan; people wear jeans and t-shirts, and are doing all kinds of interesting work. and the film industry is here, i've seen 2 shoots going on already. at some point i'll look into getting involved; i hear that they hire westerners to play small roles in soap operas and that there is voice over work available. i could be an extra, but i've done that in the states, it's a lot of sitting around, hurry up and wait, for very little money here. but it's fun to run into a shoot.
i've found an apartment, more on that later, have a new mobile phone number, and am starting to get to know the city and even meet some people.
but first, some ketchup:
we finished our time in kashmir, probably staying a couple days too long, just enough for some of it to start to become wearisome. the seemingly nonstop visits from trinket salesmen on boats, who not only come onto your houseboat uninvited and sit in the living room until you show up, but also ride up next to you when you are out, watching the sunset or going somewhere, and hang on to your boat, and throw jewelry or pipes or papier maché boxes on your boat. they’re hard to get rid of.. apparently only the 30th “no” means no to them. yes, that got old. and while the food was great, after a while we longed for some variety.
but don’t get me wrong, dal lake was so peaceful and beautiful, we loved our sunset cruises, and we did get some nice souvenirs, including a couple magic boxes for my niece and nephew. they’re magic because they have a trick to opening them, which i shall not reveal here.
and YES i went water skiing on dal lake! haven’t been in like 20 years, but i used to do it all the time in high school. my friend joe shostak drove a boat for the miami airport hilton and whenever they didn’t have customers, he could take out his friends. i used to love water skiing, so on our first big boat trip, we passed by the “bathing boats”, which have little powerboats taking people skiing. they have a big wooden board that floats, kind of like water skiing lite, where you just stand and hold on and don’t even get wet. it was a hoot seeing indian tourists in their saris skiing around the lake. but they also told me they had regular skis, and i said heck yes, and they pulled them out for me. they told me it’s an extra 50 rupees every time i fell (because the boat had to circle around and start over), so that was some incentive. i fell the first time (swallowed some nasty lake water), but the second time we tried i was up and not going down again. it was incredibly fun, i never thought i’d be doing that here but it was amazing. heather’s got a video i’ll link to shortly. later that day, we were boating around in some of the local residential neighborhoods, the locals just throw their garbage into the lake, so those areas were nasty. we even saw a big decaying goat or something floating in the water, and i thought back to the lake water i inadvertently swallowed while waterskiing. no wonder i got a little sick there!
the day before we were going to leave there was an incident in Srinigar. Kashmir as we all know is a troubled region, the flashpoint for 2 of the wars between india and pakistan, and the location of tensions in 2002 that almost led to another war between the 2 nuclear states. it’s a very long story, but the short version is that when pakistan was partitioned away from india, creating a muslim state next to the hindu-majority but democratic and pluralistic india, both sides wanted kashmir. and although it was and is predominately muslim, the maharaja was hindu. he stalled in 1947, pakistan invaded, and then he asked india for help. most kashmiris want some kind of independence. whenever there is trouble, either from pakistan directly, or from pakistan-supported kashmiri militants, the indian army overreacts and thereby does not endear itself to the people. they want less of an army presence, but then again, the army is protecting the borders and they would be overrun if not for that protection.
it’s true that there is a huge indian army presence in all of kashmir, not just the city of srinigar. on the drive up there were checkpoints (where we had to register as foreign travelers), and lots of little bunkers protected by razor wire and manned by a soldier with a machine gun. there were jeeps on the roads with roof mounted machine guns, and dozens of army trucks with personnel and equipment. to tell you the truth, i was happy to see them, i felt like they were keeping kashmir safe, but i’m sure their presence irks some locals, and they don’t always act (or react) as one would like.
anyway, there was a good example the day before we left. in a popular town square (the one where we were to have found a car out of town the next day), there was a shooting. militants, muslim separatists who oppose indian rule, shot a couple army officers in the street. everyone in the crowded plaza ran, some got trampled, and then the indian army got angry and beat up some locals, just because they were there. they closed the plaza and it was all over the news. we were supposed to go there the next day to catch a car out of the valley! i don’t know if any tourists were there at the time, but that was a little close for comfort. our host, the wonderful Yusef Peer, always went with us into town, joking that if anything happened he would know which way to run. i guess it wasn’t a joke though. we weren’t scared of anything else happening, and we were leaving anyway, but we hired a private car to drive us down. it was a little more money, but safety first, right? it took about 7 hours to drive down to jammu, the nearest train station, where we bought a ticket for the night train to amritsar, only 4 or 5 hours away. we arrived at 2 in the morning, and walked across the street to the Grand Hotel, where we woke up the attendant (who was sleeping on the floor near the front door), and crashed, hard.

"My shangri-la beneath the summer moon, I will return again" --- from Kashmir by Led Zeppelin

A week in Kashmir, and my heart is filled with peace. This stunning valley is the most serene place i've ever been, and the only place in India where that word truly applies. We are staying on a houseboat on the sprawling Dal Lake, a beautiful, mirror-flat, winding lake, green with lotus leafs, and for the most part pristine. Our houseboat is spectacular and the food amazingly terrific. it is run by Yusef, the brother of Baba, our hotelier in Dharamsala, and their father was a cook for Doctors without Borders. Yusef (like his brother) couldn't be more sweet, and he's a fantastic cook, having learned from his father. We actually had roast chicken and potatoes and spinach last night, and it was real, fresh and delicious. first meat i've had here; it reminded me of the chicken dinner i had in belize for the (faux) millennial new year, when we met the chicken that day and ate it the same night.
to get anywhere, you get on a little rowboat called a shikara, they have cushions and canopies and radios powered by car batteries. they just row you around the lake. sunsets are spectacular. and there are other shop-boats, that row by you and sell you juice or water or cookies. or saffron, or paper-mache items, or jewelry. the boat rides are incredibly peaceful and lovely.

Kashmir is totally muslim, and they say it feels more like iran or afghanistan than most of india. for the last 20 years there has been "trouble", as they like to call it, but it's peaceful now, more or less, and the plus is that it hasn't been developed in the last 20 years the way that the rest of touristed india has been. so it still has an old world feel, with 150 year old wooden buildings and a less crowded feeling, even on land. and i enjoy greeting people with "salaam aleichem" almost as much as with "namaste".
I'll write more later on Kashmir, including impressions of all the mosques, and some differences between hindu and muslim culture, as i've seen them. and i'll post pictures, and maybe even a surprise video of me water-skiing on dal lake, insha'allah (god willing).

last day in dharamsala

okay, it's been hard to decide what to do next, and to leave this place. it's been very comfortable (although the town is starting to feel very small, same walks by the same shops and sights every day), there's so much coffee in town, and the inertia is hitting us hard. maybe there's more inertia at higher altitudes, i don't know.
but i think we're set to leave tomorrow. another couple days of crazy travel, with paradise waiting at the end (if the fates allow...).
we're going to take a public bus up to Jammu, a 5 hour, relatively flat ride, from what i'm told, then we take a shared cab up to Srinigar in Kashmir. We've got leads on 2 houseboats. one is farooq, brother of bashir, whom we met here in dharamsala. he owns a shop here, i started talking to him, and he's got a houseboat on dal lake. he called his brother and they're ready for us, they even have flowers for our room because they know we're on our honeymoon. and as a backup, baba, our hotel manager from the Ladies' Venture, has family with a houseboat up there too, and i've got his number. (it's great having a phone here.) i think baba's place will be cheaper than farooq's, but farooq's is still relatively inexpensive and relatively more luxurious, so we'll probably start there. plus his brother bash was so nice, i know they'll make us feel like family. these houseboats stays are very homey, eating with the family, which sounds very nice.
kashmir is pretty much 100% muslim, they say it feels like iran or afghanistan as far as that goes, which i'm very much looking forward to. all the kashmiris i've met so far have been super sweet and hospitable. plus, ramadan starts tomorrow, which is a great time to go, festival time, with feasts after sunset every night. should be a very different experience, another adventure. i've always wanted to go to kashmir and finally it's safe to do so.
we're going to enjoy one last day here in dharamsala and then head up, stay there about a week, and then figure out how to get back down, and make our way to mumbai to start my work there.
by the way, the dogs here have been quite a challenge. dharamsala is where i was bit by a rabid dog 14 years ago, and while i'm skittish about dogs everywhere in india, especially so here. the first night we were out late they were running around wildly, there are so many street dogs, it really freaked me out. i think i may have hid behind heather once or twice (not exactly throwing her to the wolves but instinctually not far off). plus the streets are steep and narrow, especially if there's a car or motorcycle passing, so there's sometimes no place to hide from them. but a group of european veterinarians just arrived here to spay and neuter the dogs and take care of the sick ones, and the dogs do look a little healthier than last time. i cringe when i see tourists bending down to pet them, but it's been okay, and i guess it's helping me deal with the fear a bit.
okay that's all for now. see you in the kashmir valley! i'll take pix there, for sure...

what's that bright yellow thing in the sky?

the sun came out today, all the grey clouds cleared up. we hiked up to dharamkot, the next town up, with a visit to the Tushita meditation center, where i did a 10 day meditation retreat 14 years ago. it's so cool seeing a place after so long, i remembered it, but it hardly feels like the same me, but then it does.
it's so hard to leave here, but i think we're going in a day or so. up to the vale of kashmir, and its capital city of srinigar, to stay on a houseboat on dal lake. it's supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in the world...

chillin' in d'sala

we're still in dharamsala, relaxing here, eating good food, sleeping a lot, recharging our batteries. it's still monsoony up here, and since we're so high up, the clouds lie low like fog, and it rains a little bit each day. not raining now though.
just posted a buncha new pix at facebook. no captions yet, they are forthcoming. these should all be public links, friend or not.
kids, a chicken and a bat
Udaipur
Jaisalmer Fort
camels and more
and a slug

enjoy!!

An Oasis in the Sky

We’re now in Dharamsala, in the Dhauladhar range of the Himalaya, at an elevation of 1770 meters (5800 feet). Dharamsala, being in the mountains, has different neighborhoods at different elevations, and we’re actually a little bit above the Indian town of Dharamsala, in McCloud Ganj, named after the Englishman who settled it as a British garrison in the 1850s. (When westerners say Dharamsala, they really mean the Mccloud Ganj neighborhood.) It was a tiny village until 1960 when the Dalai Lama took refuge here after the devastating Chinese crackdown on Tibet. There are more Tibetans (and Westerners) here than Indians, and the town has a quiet, friendly, comfortable feel. There are cafés and movie houses (where they show Western movies on DVD on televisions, some big-screen, for a tiny entrance fee; I might go see The Reader today) and Tibetan handicraft shops and fantastic little restaurants. There are also great bookstores and libraries and centers for Tibetan refugees with museums and information about their plight. And while Indians are certainly religious, there’s a certain quiet spirituality to the Tibetans here (most are monks or nuns, refugees from the Chinese persecution of their religion). Their smiles are beautiful and quick to appear, and they are perfectly honest and fair, which is a nice change from some of the other places where the locals try to squeeze every last rupee out of you and charge ridiculous tourist prices to Westerners. Travelers tend to stay here in Dharamsala for a long time, sometimes months, and study yoga or languages (Tibetan or Hindi) or take meditation workshops or Ayurvedic (traditional Indian medicine) retreats. We’re going to chill out here for a week or 10 days, do some hiking, read, drink coffee, and relax.
Nearby are the villages of Bhagsu and Dharamkot, short 2km hikes away. They used to be tiny villages with nothing there, but now many Westerners, especially Israelis, like to go there, so they’ve been developed a bit with guest houses and restaurants. We’re going to hike there to check them out, but we’ll probably stay here in McCloud Ganj.
I was also here during my first trip to India, in the fall of 1995, 14 shortlong years ago. When we were in Pushkar a couple weeks ago, another place I visited back then, it was mostly unrecognizable, much bigger. I recognized the main market street but otherwise I couldn’t find my old guest house or anything.
Here in Dharamsala, there have been incredible changes in the last 14 years as well. So many new buildings, however here I was able to orient myself quickly and find my way around. Some places from back then are still here, like the Chocolate Log, which serves real coffee and cakes in a sunny courtyard. And we found the guest house I stayed in last time, the Ladies Venture. I told them I had returned after 14 years and they were tickled by that. (This is also where I was bit by the stray dog last time I was here, and had to hike down to the Tibetan hospital for rabies shots, but that didn’t spoil my opinion of the place.) It’s now run by a young man from Kashmir, who not only checks you in but makes your chai and cooks any meals you have in the place, because the Tibetan sisters who own it are getting on in years, but it still has the same peaceful feel (in fact one of the hotel rules is to keep a peaceful (shanti) demeanor, and they reserve the right to refuse service to anyone giving off bad vibes). So we’ll stay here for a while. I might take a Hindi lesson or two.
It’s raining now outside, beautiful cleansing rain, while I write this in our room at the Ladies Venture. It’s also much cooler here in the mountains. I have a conference call with American Jewish World Service and Dreamcatchers, the organization in Mumbai for whom I plan to volunteer. It looks like I’ll be helping them set up social networking systems so that the street children of Mumbai can communicate with one another, express themselves, and envision a better future. Oh yes, I have an Indian phone now, from the US you can dial 011-91-987-166-6539 (international code, country code, and 10-digit number).