Florida

Last Wednesday I made the decision to leave India a few weeks earlier than planned to be with my family and help support my grandmother, who had become suddenly and seriously ill. Over the next couple days I traveled from the mountains near Dharamsala back to Delhi, Chennai and eventually on to my grandparents' home in Florida. Within a day of returning, I was struck down by a brutal fever (for the record, not malaria). I turned out to be more of a burden than a help to anyone and I felt terrible. Luckily that has passed and I feel fine now.
Thanks for all the wishes, thoughts and prayers for my grandmother. I am happy to report that she is in good spirits, building up an appetite, and ready to come home from the hospital, hopefully tomorrow.

Sunrise this morning.

Amritsar

The Golden Temple

Luang Prabang to Bangkok to Amritsar

Life is sure moving quickly. I can't keep up with writing about, blogging and otherwise documenting the amazing experiences of the past few weeks. Laos was so lovely, I wish I had another two weeks or more there. I was quite sad to leave Luang Prabang and of course also Tyler, my magnificent travel buddy. I uploaded a few pictures from laos to albums here http://picasaweb.google.com/lbrandt/Laos02?feat=directlink and here http://picasaweb.google.com/lbrandt/KuangSiWaterfallCookingClass?feat=directlink, and there are more laos pictures to come. The second link is from a visit to kuang si waterfall, a lao BBQ dinner, and then my laos cooking class, which was super interesting and inspirational. I know I need to add captions.. if you look at the cooking class pictures, watch out for the one of some bright orange eggs. Turns out that is what chicken eggs look like before they are laid by the mother chicken and have a chance to develop shells.
After Laos I had a whirlwind 24 hours in bangkok and then on to Delhi and today Amritsar. So far loving Amritsar. It feels like another planet. The energy and vibrancy on the streets here is like nothing I've felt in the past few weeks- actually like nothing I've felt ever. Riding in a bicycle rickshaw from the train station into town, sun shining down, so many people in the streets, packed into vehicles, all shouting, laughing, smiling, waving. So much happy chaos. I'm struck by how unusually friendly and curious everyone is here. Next up - going to visit the Golden Temple for sunset.

Sabadee

Luang Prabang is very lovely. Woke up the last two days before dawn to the sound of monks chanting and drums beating. Spent the day yesterday exploring the city's wats and markets. The markets are particularly delightful and interesting: a pile of snails pulsing with life, live owls tied to rocks, pairs of songbirds packaged in a tiny bamboo parcel (for releasing at the wat for good luck), frogs, snakes, crabs and fish - all alive.

I finally have a new camera after my old one developed a fatal lens error on the beach in Chennai. So here are some pictures from our first day in Luang Prabang.

KK

Made it safely to Kota Kinabalu. Just had a wonderful evening meal at the night market. Super-fresh seafood. I pointed at a red snapper that had just been pulled out of the sea and they grilled it up and served with rice and chilly-soy-lime sauce (which, strangely, they call sambar.. can't get away from sambar). Also sampled some delightful seaweed- little green pods that burst like fish eggs. Walking through the market after dinner I observed people eating the most unusual looking bowls of fruit and goo. I thought that would be worth trying as well... I wound up with a bowl of food called ABC Special: pineapple, papaya, lychees, sweet corn, a mashed up avacado, at least 5 different types of tapioca, macaroni, shaved ice and condensed milk. It arrived in a dish like one that would be used for an ice cream sunday and I was instructed to mix everything together. It was tasty. Tomorrow I'm going to hit up one of the local islands just outside of the city, then hopefully set off to climb mt. kinabalu on Saturday.

Here is the link for Sadhguru's talk in Bellevue on March 24:
http://www.ishafoundation.org/component/option,com_program/program_id,1785/task,details/

Sadhguru in Seattle March 24

Hello! It's been a long time since my last blog update. Wanted to let seattle friends know about a great event coming up- my guru is giving a talk in Bellevue on March 24. If you have any interest or curiosity about yoga or meditation I would highly recommend! Sadhguru is charismatic, funny and of course incredibly insightful- I assure the evening will be a pleasure. Let me know if you attend! I will post details soon (having difficulty posting the link from this computer).

This morning I'm writing from the airport in Singapore as I am en route to Malaysian Borneo. The last few weeks in southern india have been terrific. Received an ancient mantra from a yogi in a cavernous room in the nilgiri mountains, watched the sunrise over the waters of three seas at the very tip of the indian subcontinent, gorged on tender coconut and fresh fish while drifting on a houseboat through the keralan backwaters, received a blessing from an elephant at hindu temple built in the 11th century, trekked through tea, coconut and cardamom plantations, engaged in a two hour conversation with a renowned ayurvedic doctor, and yesterday observed some colorful holi festivities. I'm taking just a two week leave from India but already missing it! Also looking forward to adventures in Borneo and Laos. So far I can say the singapore airport Tiger airways terminal is fantastic. Free internet, free drinking water and it is very clean. They are even giving out free candy... amazing. Love from the road!

Marriage & Meditation

Wow, what a great couple of weeks the past few have been! For one thing, I had an amazing, transformative experience at Isha Yoga Center in the end of January. I took a three day yoga/meditation course there and had the most incredible experience. Since then I've been practicing the technique I learned there twice a day each day. My practice time may even exceed lunchtime as my favorite time of the day! :)

The week after returning from Isha was especially great because Deb, a friend and fellow Chennai-based AJWS volunteer, stayed at my place while she was attending a mediation course at Sivananda. We had great conversations about spirituality, yoga and judiasm every morning over coffee and fruit salad before we both headed off to work at our respective NGOs.

Knowing that I'm going to be leaving Chennai soon I've been savoring all my experiences here even more than usual. I've been so grateful for the absolute wonderful group of colleagues and friends who have greeted me so warmly here. Leaving this place for my next adventure is going to be truly bittersweet.

This past weekend in Chennai was my last, and it was definitely a good one. Balaji, a friend from Seattle invited me to his sister's marriage. Wow! 2000 people and three solid days of ceremonies. So many symbols, rituals, flowers, blessings, gifts, people, drums, cameras, and delicious foods. It was a lot of fun. I wore a sari and that was fun too.
A picture of the bride and groom:


A picture of Balaji:

Compassion

At a lot of ashrams in India, short little books on various life and spirituality topics are available from the ashram bookshop. These 20 page packets are great little reads. I wanted to share something I read about compassion and helping others that made a lot of sense to me. This one is from "A Guru Always Takes You for a Ride" by Sadhguru.

"Many times, human beings, once they reach a certain level of attainment, have an urge to be overly compassionate. Misplaced compassion always comes from your ego; you want to be the most compassionate person on the planet. Wherever anybody need anything - reach out. This is not coming from any kind of understanding, wisdom, or awareness... This problem is there among people - they want to be the most compassionate. True compassion is not about giving or taking. Ture compassion is just doing what is needed. You ave no preferences of your own; simply doing what is needed is compassion. Your revving yourself up into a huge amount of emotion and and reaching out to somebody is not compassion. This is just self-satisfaction, devious ways to fulfill yourself. Compassion is possible, genuine compassion is possible, when there is nothing to fulfill in you, you are just doing what is needed."

25 Things

It seems like there is an explosion of 25-things lists so I thought I’d go with that. Here are 25 things about my experience in Chennai so far.

1. Tender coconut
2. The 8PM rush at the neighborhood shrine: people, song and incense spilling out into the street
3. “Had your breakfast?” (morning greeting)
4. “Sit down”
5. “What did you pay for this?”
6. Yoga class commands: Relax! Stretch! Breathe! Focus! Concentrate!
7. Drinking from vessels without lip contact
8. Stares
9. Techniques auto drivers employ to solicit more money than the agreed sum
10. Girls with flowers in their hair
11. Bindi stickers
12. Bangles
13. The mysterious fluctuating availability status of various menu items over the course of a day
14. Household shrines
15. Creation, Maintenance and Destruction
16. “Is it not so?”
17. Billboards and placards advertising shops that no longer exist, or do not exist yet
18. The entire office staff sharing one email account
19. Nescafe, sugar and boiled milk
20. Locking the bathroom door closed when no one is in there
21. Hand washing after eating
22. Poop, crows and trash
23. Straight men embracing
24. Chai wallah, fruit-and-vegitable wallah, real-estate wallah, knife-sharpening wallah, tailoring wallah, ironing wallah, ear-wax-removal wallah, cotton-candy wallah, sugarcane-juice wallah, handyman wallah, fortune-teller wallah, spoken-english wallah, SAP-C++-JAVA-.NET-Oracle-CAD-training wallah
25.

Pongal O Pongal

Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated throughout Tamil Nadu. The traditional Pongal food is sweet pongal, made by boiling milk, adding rice and dahl, jaggery (sugar cane), ghee (clarified butter), rasins, cashews, cardamom. It seems like everybody I talked to has a different idea of how long pongal is supposed to last. I ended up celebrating for four days which resulted in my consuming of a lot of sweet pongal.

Making Pongal


Getting ready for pongal puja


Pongal Puja


Getting ready to eat pongal


A god dressed up for pongal


A cow dressed up for pongal


More pongal puja, at the home of my friend's relatives.

Happy New Year!

After visiting SEWA in Ahmedabad, I met up with a fellow volunteer for 3 days of sightseeing in Rajasthan. We started in Udaipur, continued on to visit a mountain fort and temple between Udaipur and Johdpur, and then I traveled to Jaipur on my own for the last day. Here are a couple photos:
The Lake Palace in Udaipur, now a Taj hotel (we did not stay here).

Kumbalgarh Fort - the journey there was as marvelous as the fort itself!


Ranakpur Temple, a 15th century marble Jain temple.


I know I know - I can't resist the food pictures! This one is of my extremely large and tasty Rajasthani Thaali.

I returned from my trip from to the north in time to celebrate the new year in Chennai with an evening of Bharatanatyam dance (traditional Tamil Nadu style) and a visit to my favorite South Indian restaurant, the Murugan Idli House, where a delicious New Years dinner for two ended up costing us the equivalent of $4.

Many people are asking me about the cost of living so I thought I'd write about that topic a little. The dollar goes a long way here. In general I find that most things cost anywhere between one-tenth to one-fifth of the price of a comparable product in the States. My observation is that agricultural products and goods and services that are labor-intensive cost more like one-tenth. Some examples: a good lunch in a nice, air-conditioned restaurant costs about 60 Rupees or $1.25. A small cup of chai or coffee is around 5 Rupees ($.10). My morning trip to the fruit stand, yielding two pomegranates, two guavas, one papaya, and 10 small bananas, cost 80 Rupees ($1.75). Rent for a "posh" two bedroom western-style flat is around 15,000 Rupees per month ($300). The only things I've found with roughly equivalent cost are: 1)dried pasta 2)cocktails at a fancy hotel bar (both are purchased almost exclusively by foreigners).

A few words also about what I've learned people earn: a well-paid domestic worker working every day 4 hours per day may earn 1000 Rupees ($20) per month (note this is far less than one-tenth the US equivalent wage). The college-educated coordinators at my NGO earn 10,000 Rupees ($200) per month. It is not surprising that many Indians see Westerners and assume that their big backpacks are stuffed full of cash. When discussing this assumption with some colleagues, they were genuinely shocked to learn that there are poor people and homeless people in America.

It's hard not to want to help people here by giving handouts when American dollars go such a long way. But is it appropriate to do so? My observation is that giving handouts has a number of adverse effects:
-perpetuates a mentality of dependence
-handouts actually reinforce social inequality because they are distributed unequally
-encourages parents to use their children for begging
-handouts may allow the giver to feel good and move on, while doing little to truly alleviate suffering.

I'm interested to hear others' views since this is a topic I've been thinking about quite a lot.

Ahmedabad

This week I joined the staff of my NGO on an exposure visit to Ahmedabad. We're visiting an extremely innovative and impressive NGO called SEWA (pronounced seva), Self Employed Women's Association. SEWA goal is to organize female workers in the informal sector. I was amazed to learn that only about 7% of the Indian labor force works in the formal sector, which includes government and private industry. The rest of Indians work in the informal sector which includes everything from domestic workers, to street-vendors, handcraft-makers, midwives, agricultural laborers, auto-rickshaw drivers and the like. SEWA's goal is to promote the self-sufficiency and self-reliance of female workers in this sector and much of their work uses a market-based entrepreneurial approach. For example, SEWA will organize agricultural laborers into a cooperative, which will buy the product from the farmers and sell directly to traders in the market thereby cutting out middlemen and supporting higher prices for the agricultural laborers themselves. SEWA also operates a highly successful bank and insurance company, both of which develop financial products to meet the needs of poor, working women.



I of course was very interested in the insurance products offered. (If you don't also love insurance, you can skip this paragraph) SEWA Insurance has about 120 agents which they call Aagewans, or barefoot agents (barefoot because the agents go directly to the customers' homes and communities, where shoes are removed, on average the agents visit the household 3 times to explain benefits before the policy is purchased). They offer several insurance schemes, all are packages covering many household needs. The products are available to SEWA members (women only), who can choose to extend coverage to their husbands and children. The most popular (91%) is the lowest premium/lowest limit combination: 400 rupees premium per year ($8) covers the woman, husband and one child for the following limits (in dollars): life- 10,000 rupees ($200) for wife and husband; health - 2,000 rupees ($40) for each family member, House - 10,000 rupees ($200), Accidental death - 40,000 rupees ($1000) for wife and husband. SEWA Insurance has over 103,000 women as policyholders. They have a staff of only 75 plus the 120 agents. SEWA has found that this type of micro-insurance scheme provides essential economic support to poor, working families. In addition to helping those with claims, insurance plays a important role in the communities SEWA serves because it encourages women to begin planning for the future, rather than simply living day to day.



In other news, tonight is Christmas Eve. So strange it is to be in a land where Christmas is a non-event. There are Christians here but Christianity itself is not highly visible, and certainly not visible in the way of an American Christmas. Actually, there are three Christians who traveled in our group of 17 to Gujarat. I was surprised that this trip was planned for Christmas week but no one else commented. I spoke with the 3 Christian ladies about being away from their families for Christmas and they were sad about it but each felt it was their duty to participate in the exposure visit. As someone accustomed to being a member of a minority religion as well, I empathized with them and helped them locate a church in Ahmedabad where they could attend services for Christmas eve. The gratefulness they expressed for this small gesture absolutely made my day.

Yoga

This morning I attended my first yoga class in India. It took a while to find the right yoga center but now I think I have it. All credit for finding the center goes to my clever and resourceful friend Debbie (and long-lost near relative), who pointed out that the ashram we plan to visit has a branch center practically in my backyard. Actually, I'm finding that this is a trend - things I desire that seem very far away are actually very close at hand. I was recently wishing there were a western-style coffee house in my neighborhood and BAM - my neighbor points out just such a coffee house on an evening walk. I needed to fill a prescription and asked a colleague where a chemist is located, expecting a trek across town. Turns out there is one at the end of the block that I walk past all the time. I think what's happening is that I expect a coffee shop or a drug store to look like a coffee shop or a drug store from home, but instead they look really different here.

Back to yoga. Class this morning was at 6AM. It was still dark out as we made our way over to the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre, located 1 block from the beach in an open-air gazebo-like structure. In the front of the gazebo, there was a puja area with pictures of various Hindu gods. The pictures themselves were draped in flowers as is the style here and there were candles burning. There were also pictures on the wall representing most of the world's religions. Instead of sticky mats people rolled out straw mats for their practice, although I did see one woman with a sticky mat on top of her straw mat. I think I might do that next time as I found the straw mat a bit pokey. Aside from a friendly German man who works for the center, we were the only western-looking people there.

Overall the class followed a pretty familiar routine. Class started off with Ohms and then breathing exercises. We spent quite a lot of time focusing on breathing and I found the breathing exercises pretty challenging. It was terrific to be able to hear the birds chirping and feel the sea air on my skin. By the time I opened my eyes after the breathing routines, the sun had started to rise and the lush greenery surrounding the center was becoming visible. Next we moved into sun salutations, followed by leg lifts, headstand, shoulderstand, fish, backbends balance postures and shavasana. Class followed a pretty mellow pace and lasted about an hour and a half.

After yoga, we walked back along the beach, buying fresh young coconut along the way. The vendor used his machete to cut off the top of the coconut and handed it back to us with straws. For breakfast we made a fruit salad from papaya, pineapple and bananas purchased the night before. I felt ready to greet the day.

Happy Birthday Mom!

In addition to being my mom's birthday, today was also Tamil Nadu's Hanukkah, Karthigai Deepam. (It's not actually anything like Hanukkah, except being a festival of lights.) In the evening there were special celebrations in honor of the Hindu lord Shiva -- the temples were lit up with thousands of small oil lamps and people also lit lanterns in front of their homes. It was really beautiful. I celebrated with my colleague Chitra's family and went to temple with them. Afterwards her kids set off a ton of fireworks which of course made me extremely nervous. Luckily we all made it through.

Routine

It's been extra-ordinary four weeks since I arrived in India. Last week Chennai experienced massive flooding due to monsoon. As a result I was house-bound with intermittent power supply but plenty of good company.

Now I am beginning to settle into a bit of a routine. I know where to buy corn flakes, soy milk and dried pasta, I have a favorite restaurant ("hotel"), and I know how to direct autos so they take me home. These things may sound trivial but they took a long time to figure out! There have been lots of pleasant discoveries. There is a terrific beach for morning walks less than a kilometer from where I am staying - a peaceful pedestrian street along the sea that fills up with walkers (human and bovine) around 7AM.


Everywhere in the city extremely comfortable lightweight cotton clothing can be found at very low prices. There's an ironing wallah (man ironing behind a stand on the street) a few doors down from my office who irons my clothes for 3 rupees (6 cents) per garment. There is tea each afternoon that is milky and sweet and sometimes arrives with a piping hot samosa. My office is very near one of India's preeminent dance schools, just gearing up for the winter concert series. It is a good life!

Ashtalakshmi Temple

Morning temple visit in the rain.

Adjustments

Today was a interesting day. It had it's nice shiny moments but overall, challenging. Day started off with a trip to Airtel, my mobile service provider (you may guess where this is going...). Airtel has been sending me automated voice and text messages saying that they need me to submit my identification documents or they will disconnect my service. Already I submitted these documents when I purchased the SIM card but apparently there is some issue. I try calling customer care, but each time I try "all lines are currently busy". So I go into the Airtel office in Besant Nagar with copies of my passport, visa and passport photo duplicates. I take a number to talk with someone and wait about an hour before my number comes up. Finally the number is called. I'm thinking this is going to be simple. Problem is, I purchased the SIM card at a different Airtel office and apparently the systems don't talk (in India? IT prowess!). The customer service rep who is helping me is clearly stressed out. But even thought I have a Tamil speaker with me, she prefers not to talk to either of us. She is looking blankly at the computer and fidgeting with a rubber band, the pen, her hands, picking at an adhesive. We sit there like this for another hour before she finally manages to get ahold of the other store on the phone. We learn that the documents are there but have not submitted them yet. The store confirms they will submit the documents today. Meanwhile, I've already received another threatening text message from Airtel this afternoon. I think there's about a 90 percent chance my phone will be disconnected.

After the Airtel experience I return to the office, where a staff meeting is taking place. The meeting is in Tamil so I can't really participate. I don't have any work that I can do independently at the moment, and I do not have nearly enough work to in general. I'm racking my brain to figure out something productive to do. Not a whole lot is coming to mind. I read up on another Indian NGO that we're going to visit in December, read the news and do some chatting. I am very disturbed that I don't have enough to show for my time.

In the later afternoon I attend a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new office of my NGO. We travel there on a divided highway and I spot a cow sitting in the median looking pretty blissful among the traffic chaos. The ribbon cutting was quite interesting and I really enjoyed meeting the community members in this area, which is a fishing village directly on the shore.

On the drive back from the ribbon cutting, we run over a dog. This was terrible. I still feel sick from it. I've never hit an animal in a car and I had a very strong emotional reaction. The whole thing was easily preventable - two dogs walking across the street in plain sight. The driver just did not slow down. Nobody else in our packed let on that they were particularly bothered by this.

I came home feeling dirty from the beach and the hot day, looking forward to an evening shower. Turned the faucet - no water.

Not that I'm complaining (even though it may sound like it). I'm happy to be here.

Soap Making

I snapped this shot while observing a soap making workshop. I love all the color the women wear and all the lush greenery in Chennai. Everyone is generally pretty curious about me - my skin, where I come from, why I'm here, if I have any kids - and overwhelmingly hospitable. If I drink any more coffee or chai I might just float away.

Address

I have an address! If you would like it please let me know. Deleted from the blog for security.

I have a phone!

Today I got a new mobile. If you want to contact me from the States, dial 011-91-9940213224. I've noticed that Indians always answer their phone no matter what is going on around them - a meeting, a presentation (where they are the presenter), a one-on-one conversation. I don't think this is my style - so if I don't answer, please try me again. I don't have voicemail on this line.

I am finally aware enough of my surroundings to be able to spot my location on a map:

View Larger Map

I stumbled upon this temple on an evening walk on the beach: