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| Sarasvati catches a ride |
I'll be offline at least until 11
February beginning tomorrow and I'm just sort of in a gabby mood
right now.
I do have to admit that coming back to
Bodhgaya was like coming home. I spent the day with Mahendra the day
before yesterday (Sunday), discussing the school and checking out the
various shrines to Saravasti, for whom Saturday was a big puja day. I
had planned to be available; Mahendra and I had discussed this while
I was in Varanasi, but my little Indian phone is a capricious fellow,
so I didn't get Mahendra's call. As it is, the shrines were really
something and the last one we went to was in a village where a new
college was being opened.
This last note is huge. I spoke to the
founder (via Mahendra and another fellow as translators) who had
begun with a high school and had apparently gotten the paperwork
through for a business college. If I understood correctly, the
initial student body will be comprised of about 130 pupils. What I
find exciting about this is that this is the first institution of
higher education not found in a city like Patna or Gaya. And once
again, the initiative came from a private citizen, not the Bihari
government.
On this last note, I've held my
silence, though I've certainly hinted at – okay, I've actually come
out and acknowledged – the errant corruption in Bihar. At almost
every step, there is some form of pay-out to this or that official to
get something simple done. It's galling to think that the government
functionaries can only see their own gain; with every “gift”
(bribe), they rob kids of that much education and perpetuate this
culture of grift. I was speaking with a young man today who said that
the biggest issue is that people have just gotten used to this form
of “business as usual.”
In fact, it was quite eye-opening,
talking to him; I knew Bihar was big, but I wasn't aware that it is
home to 120,000,000 people. The literacy rate across the state is
around 52% and the mortality rate is so high that sixty is considered
a long life. I knew things were bad, but hearing it from a young
person who just wanted to practice his English and learn more about
the states was pretty devastating. He himself would like to go to the
U.S., but doesn't see that happening. It's frustrating that a young
man this bright is stuck so.
In fact, that's one of the telling
things about many of my friends here in Bodhgaya; they're all pretty
savvy, know very well the corruption, and yet, really feel like
making a change. Mahendra's in his thirties, I think, but Kapil and
Dinu (about whom more to follow) are in their mid-twenties. In any
event, these guys are college educated, have remained in the area and
are working to effect some kind of change.
Additionally, today I hung out in
Kapil's and Dinu's villages and met the current guru of the God Ray
foundation. I asked him what continues after death and he reminded me
of the three gunas and five tattvas that comprise/control the mental
stirrings that need to be tamed; in many ways, I think we agreed that
what is paramount in gaining and maintaining stability of awareness.
He and another guru I met in Varanasi spoke of “soul power”. As
far as I can make out, this is a term for atman and its
manifestations as/through us and that this can be tapped for further
growth and development (and perhaps siddhis, powers of attainment).
Be that as it may, I shared with guruji the words of Lama Tharchin
Rinpoche from last year, “there's not my mind, not your
mind, there's only Mind”. I wish now that I had stuck around for
his teaching but I had to get back to town to pay for my ticket(s)
for Delhi/Dharamsala.
On this last, when I told Kapil what I
had paid I thought he was going hit me! I was about to pay a total of
10,000 rupees (a bit more than $200 US) for a car and plane from
Patna to Delhi. Kapil told me that Middle Way Travel (and bookstore,
very good collection of books, by the way) overcharges ridiculously.
I'd only paid $6,000 rupees and went back and had him cancel the car
which shaved off four thousand EXCEPT he said he owed the guy a
thousand rupees as compensation. Now whether that's the case or not,
I don't know, but I got the feeling that that 1,000 rupees is for
him, primarily. The long and the short of it, is that rather than
jeopardize anything with my flight, I elected to pay him the thousand
just to ensure smooth sailing. Kapil's handling the car. For five
hundred. Lesson learned: don't go to Middle Way Travel in Bodhgaya.
Unless you want to be hosed.
If, by the way, you do want a terrfic
guide and someone who can actually arrange cheap travel for you, do
get in touch with Kapil! In addition to working as the secretary for
the LBWF, his bread and butter is travel and lodging. He arranged
(and I'm sure very much more cheaply) Leigh's departure back to
London and helped me find a cheap hotel after the Kalachakra ended
(however, when I told Deepak at Heritage I was moving elsewhere, he
put me on the phone to Sanjay who said no way and was kind enough to
just about match the cheaper hotel's rate...and I got a much nicer
room than the one I would have wound up with)! At any rate, it was
Kapil's urging that precipitated this and it all worked out quite
well.
So my remaining time in Bodhgaya is
going to be two weeks over all, but it's going to be quite short.
Tomorrow I head for checking in at Dhammabodhi for the ten day
Vipassana course and then I'll have one day to hang out before
hitting the road to Patna and catching my flight to Dehi. Once in
Delhi, I'll have a few hours to chill before heading to the Tibetan
Refugee Camp to pick up the overnight bus to Dharamsala. To be sure,
I'm looking forward to going back to Dharamsala, but I have to be
honest in that I'm really, really going to miss everyone in Bodhgaya
(“the maddest town in India” as Leigh wrote me).
So Dinu has gone somewhat under the
wire here. Kapil, Mahendra, and Dinu are the LBWF. Dinu is attending
university, though currently he's on sabbatical and is also a
terrific resource for travel and lodging. Most of all, he's pretty
brilliant. Between all these guys, there's no lack of intellectual
clout. Leigh, Kapil and I were hanging out at a chai stall one night
with Dinu and a friend of theirs who was accompanied with a fellow I
took to be Tibetan but found out was Japanese and the next thing Dinu
is speaking Japanese. More recently, my jaw dropped when I listened
to him hold his own in a Chinese conversation. Well, it is what he's
studying, after all. But the key thing is that he doesn't make a big
thing out of it.
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| Dinu, the Great! |
I should also add that he's got the
cutest niece! She's a little over a year and one more kid I'd love to
take back to the states with me. It was also through Dinu that I met
Gautam who did the translation honors between guruji and myself. I'll
be frank; if you do go to Bodhgaya, do contact Mahendra, Kapil or
Dinu. Really. Mostly for supporting the foundation and the school,
and certainly for any travel arrangements you might want to make
(much better than getting bilked by Middle Way...) and at the very
least, if you just want to say hi for me.
I've posted Mahendra's and Kapil's contact
information already for the foundation and the school but oddly
haven't for Dinu. I'll correct that here:
He has two email addresses: dinusinha@yahoo.co.in or dinusujata@gmail.com (he wrote this with a space, but gmail doesn't recognize spaces, so alternatively try, dinu_sujata@gmail.com).
Also, while hanging out in Kapil's
village, I watched the dissolution of the Saravasti shrine I'd seen
Saturday. I post pictures here because, sadly, I didn't have my
camera with me. I also got my formal initation into being Indian.
Today, I got slapped with green pigment
this time, but figured I'd save the photo op for others. The night
photos, by the way, are from the top of Kapil's house. I swear, I
would love to live in one of these villages.
As Gautam said, it's very peaceful and
people are satisfied with very little. He asked me what I thought
India needed to do to be stronger and I simply said, invest in the
kids, invest in the future, their future. Gautam also said
that gatherings like the satsang with guruji were important and I
agreed that spirituality is a huge component of Indian culture and
life, but part of me really wanted to go all Krishnamurti on him and
ask him if the spiritual traditions haven't also been used for
keeping people in the same impoverished state. Naturally, I decided
against that. I'm not Krishnamurti and I am a guest. But sometimes I
question myself on whether spiritual practice is as valuable as
hands-on working for education, healthcare, and improving standards
of living.
I bridle when I hear rinpoches tell
people that building a school or a hospital is valuable, but
practicing dharma is more important. Seriously, I could slap some of
these guys. So working to ease the misery of the world through
providing education, access to healthcare and/or any number of social
services isn't dharma? Yeah, the Slap Palace is open for business...
Lastly, here are two shots of the
Ganges at dawn (and then my camera's batteries died...pffft.)
Here are some shots off Kapil's rooftop at night.
But wait, there's more (or...I'm not done yet, not by a damn sight...)
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| Tibet Om Cafe |
For the most part, the restaurants in
Bodhgaya are all right. I don't get terribly excited by them, but a
lot of the stalls are amazing and in the villages, you may find two
or three women frying up samosas for a rupee a piece and I'll telly
you what: it's damn good food.
But in Bodhgaya, there is a restaurant
that is dear to my heart: The Tibet Om Cafe. The ingredients are
actually fresh, the people are friendly and the vibe is just
extremely chill. After being out in the hustle (and I do mean
“hustle” in all senses of the word) of Bodhgaya, Om Cafe is a
wonderful oasis. You can sit inside, which I usually do because it
tends to be quieter inside (although on a sunny day, you may find it
too dark, but I still like it) and hunker down to some ting-mo,
thuk-pa or momos. Man, I've never had ting-mo with peanut butter and
honey, but I recommend it for a snack for sure.
There's a lot more to choose from, too.
I can't remember (and I'm too lazy to
look) if I mentioned Bona Cafe in Varanasi. While my room at Hare
Rama Guesthouse was passable (the toilet seat that kept sliding
around because it was only provisionally attached by two double-sided
adhesive pads was a sign I should have maybe gone elsewhere),
upstairs on the top floor was another oasis. Bona Cafe is a cafe
owned and run by, well, Bona, a wonderful, gentle soul from Korea who
has created a little bit of heaven atop a mediocre hotel.
The Bona Donkas were phenomenal;
basically a kind of large vegetable pancake smothered in an amazing
sauce served with rice, side salad and I've drawn a complete blank on
what else. The kimchee is awesome and she has a set breakfast to
start your day with right. Oh, the salads: yes, they're safe. I think
everything is practically cleaned in mineral water and for that
matter, I know the ice cubes are mineral water. But more than just
the food, she's set up a great ambience with some wonderful music,
usually pretty low-key jazz, lots of world beat and some classical.
Although she surprised the heck out of me one evening when I came in
(for dessert: a warm pudding with fruit! MMMMMMMM!) and listened to
the “Pulp Fiction” soundtrack from beginning to end!
Other places of note; in Varanasi, do
check out the Brown Bread and for Bodhgaya, while they're pricy, if
you do want to eat at a restaurant, head for Saffron at the Hotel
Heritage and Fusion. Actually, Saffron's not that pricey, but Fusion
definitely is. Sai International is pretty good, too. I like it
mostly for the peace and quiet it offers while I'm surfing the web
(wi-fi is 30 rupees for the whole day); it's over off to the side of
the Kalachakra grounds. If you head toward the Vietnamese temple and
bang a right, you'll eventually come to Sai International (just pass
Kusum Guesthouse). The food's passable, but it's the people that make
it work. In fact, I have to say that for all the rascals, touts and
con artists you might run into, there's nothing quite like Indian
hospitality.
The beauty of it is meeting people who
are genuinely interested in where you're from and they want to know
what you think of their land. I've been invited into many a home
while I'm here and the conversations have been warm and lovely. Sure,
you may get burned by this or that rickshaw driver, you might get
hosed by this or that travel agent, but if you can keep your sense of
humor about you, these are small prices to pay for the very genuine
warmth of the people you'll likely meet who do want to know you.
Oh, yeah, on Indian cuisine: the stalls
are great. Trust me on this. Fresh chappati, chaat, samosas, and just
about anything you could possibly want, right off the stove or out of
the pot. And no, I've not gotten “Delhi belly”. I'm willing to
bet that what Viki said a while ago might have an element of truth to
it; the roadside joints are constantly in use, constantly being
scrubbed down and cleaned. My friends tend to shy away from the
restaurants because the kitchens are scary. I've seen two kitchens
and I can attest to that. Still doesn't keep me from eating in 'em,
but there you have it.
“Yes, but have you drunk the water?”
Yep. I have. So far, so good. Though to be sure, I've been pretty
cautious. I tend not to drink a lot of it and to not touch the metal
glasses water is usually served in. For the most part, I stick to
bottled and I have my Lifesaver bottle that has a sophisticated
filter system; so sophisticated, in fact, that you could probably use
stagnant pond water and it would be okay. I just fill the bottle up
with tap water and pretty much use it for water to brush with and the
odd sip here and there if I don't have bottled water around.
Oh. And how much is a bottle of water?
Average is between 20 and 30 rupees. It's infuriating, though that
the average Indian lives on about $1,100 a year. In Bodhgaya, one of
my young friends was telling me that a days wage comes to about sixty
rupees... a little more than a buck. “We have water, but people
can't afford it, we have agriculture but still people starve....”
This is what I think about when I sit back and eat a meal or buy a
bottle of water...or a Coke (between 30 and 40 rupees). As this same
friend of mine said, “you'll appreciate what you have and how great
your country is when you go back”.
I really, really hope that there is an
“Indian Spring” at some point. This same young man was really
interested in hearing about Occupy Wall Street and its spin-offs and
I told him that I didn't see why this can't come to India. He said
the hardest part is that people are complacent and so acclimated to
the way things are that he didn't see much change in the air.
Again, folks, if you're at all
interested in making a small dent in the issue, consider helping out
a little. Get in touch with Mahendra/Kapil/Dinu or for that matter,
check out Seva or any of the other, larger organizations that focus
on fighting poverty in third world and developing nations or that
work for building schools or bolstering education in these same
countries.
I was walking into town and watched a
little girl squat and pee in the middle of a cracked earth, garbage
strewn area a few meters from the road. What struck me is that it
didn't strike me as odd. I'd gotten pretty use to this kind of sight
early on; but on reflection, I asked myself “is it right?” I
heard a thousand replies to the effect that, “well, she's probably
used to it”, “hey, it's not your country/culture”, “oh, look,
come on; it's India, for chrissakes”. On further reflection,
the question didn't go away and is more emphatic: is it right that a
little kid should be used to voiding herself in the midst of filth
(garbage, dog feces, cow shit, etc.)?
You start to notice that while
everyone's a bit dusty around here (I'm hard pressed to think of a
more dust-ridden area; maybe Rajasthan), it could be argued that the
better off are the least dusty and the worse off far more so. I'm not
sure what to make of this all, but you have to ask “is it right?”
I posted earlier about the lepers, the disabled, the poliotic, the
beggars, and there's nothing romantic about this, there's nothing
here that should be valorized or taken complacently as part of the
landscape. It's amazing that the politicians, the civic leaders don't
stop in their tracks and start to work as if their collective hair is
on fire.
I'm under the impression not many
people ask “is it right?”
