Madurai and the south of India (Kerala) ---------Next
Sep 2008----.----1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 14 |
Madurai, capital city of the Pandya kings of South India, has a long cultural heritage, dating back 2500 years. The city also achieved status as a commercial centre as early as 550 AD.
From the hotel Valli in Tanjore / Thanjavur, Muriel takes a bus further south, but it proves impossible to stay in Madurai as the hotels there are too expensive. She travels on to Kanyakumari where she books a room at the Saravana hotel.
01 September 2008 at 11:33 AM------Back
01 September 2008-----10:37 AM--------------Cape Comorin or Kanyakumari
Good night sleep in Hotel Valli but I still feel a bit lonely and the Tamil architecture does not succeed in making me forget about Mary and Abdul. I have a small discussion with the receptionist. It is a bit difficult to understand her English but I eventually grasp that she is called Immaculate and is a Christian. She gives me a small lesson in the Tamil language. Nothing to do with Hindi. I decide not to visit Tanjore Palace but to go as quick as possible to the sea. Impossible to get a room in Madurai which is very expensive and in any case the main Meenarkshi temple is being renovated. I do not feel like seeing any other temples on my own and want now to see the sea and Kanyakumari. I go to the bus station and take a first bus to Madurai. 4 hours of Bollywood and sleep. From Madurai, I get another bus to Kanyakumari. I booked a hotel, the Saravana hotel in front of the main temple and the sea. I eat a good thali with fish and eggs on a banana leaf at the station. I am getting good at eating with my hands and my friends might wonder what will happen to my eating manners when I return to UK!
Long journey. I leave at 2pm and arrive at 9pm. I listen to my little MP3 and I listen to Blue by Joni Mitchell, the Double Six and Love songs with Ella Fitzgerald, I listen to the soulful trumpet of Chet Baker... Great moment of music while discovering more palm trees and huge volcanic rocks before arriving at Cap Comorin.
A Christian Sister sits besides me and speaks. She is called Elizabeth. Beautiful open smile. Does she feel I am lonely? She invites me to her home near Kanyakumari. She is a nurse working at Madurai and living in convent. She can only visit her family every 3 years for 10 days! Amazing what people can do through faith! It is a bit difficult to exchange as her English is basic but I feel very moved by this encounter and kindness. I decline the invitation as I long to see Kanyakumari and move on to Kerala and its beaches.
The bus is 2 hours late. At last I arrived at the very end of India! It seems like the end of the world! The exact point where the Bay of Bengal meets the Indian Ocean and the Arabic sea. I find my hotel without any problem and set my alarm for 4.30am to admire the sunset! The room is gloomy, a cockroach runs in the bathroom.... Mmmm.... I know I won't stay... At 5 am it is still dark. It is raining and I wonder if I will see the sunrise. Lovely call from Vicky. Nice to know that somebody in India cares for me! The receptionist lends me a broken umbrella. I enter the Kumari Aman Temple leading to the sea. Many Indians and Hindus also came to see the sunrise. Pilgrims come here to visit the temple and bathe in the sacred waters. The Goddess Devi Kanya is an incarnation of ParvatiI. There is a small island on the left of the temple with a huge statue of Devi Kanya. I bathe my feet in the sea. A young boy comes and offers me to take me to a "special" rock to admire the sunrise. He wants to know my hotel address. Mmmmm.... I escape his company and admire the birth of the day. Afterwards I see an Indian man scolding him for approaching me while he is not an official guide. Who knows what he was plotting The sun is hiding but the sky is very dramatic and clouds and rays of light?!
I stay for a couple of hours dreaming and meditating.... These were magical moments although I haven't seen the sunset and sunrise at the same moment as is possible when the sky is clear. Around the Temple is a bazaar with shops and religious objects... It is raining again and after a visit to an Internet cafe decide to move to Kerala and Kovalam. The monsoon does not give any guarantee that the weather will improve....
01 September 2008-----10:48 AM--------------Meeting Amjad Khan in Kanyakumari internet cafe
I type a few emails in Kanyakumari very quickly. The young Amjad warns me that there will be shortly a power cut.... The monsoon rains are too heavy! Kanyakumari gets the rains from both sides, the Arabic sea and the Bay of Bengale. He gives me a chai while watching endless Bollywood films on TV. Amjad is a handsome Indian young man with long tender eyes. As he predicted, the electricity stops and we discuss. I am the only customer for the only computer. Amjad is 23, Muslim, a student of mathematics, and works in the shop to regain focus after some personal upset which has prevented him from finishing his degree. He tells me all about Bollywood and its actors. All Indians seem to adore this genre! It is certainly very funny and the choreography and dancers are excellent.
Amjad tells me his difficulties as a Muslim. He cannot grow a beard for fear of Hindu reactions. He holds Gandhi as partially responsible for the partition. It is the first time that I hear an Indian openly criticizing the Father of India and not presenting him as a saintly man but as a shrewd man. I understand that being part of a minority in a very traditionalist and religious country like India is not easy for Muslims. Amjad comes from a police officers cast. He tells me about Indian corruption invading all the society including the police! To get any job you must pay ..... if you cannot, you cannot work! So many graduates and post-graduates cannot find jobs... He tells me about the temptation to go and live abroad after the completion of exams and how sad it is for India to lose its highly trained students. But can you blame Indians for wishing to escape corruption and lead an easier life?! It is certainly a difficult decision when you realise how family life is essential to Indians.
Amjad tells me about marriages, arranged marriages... between casts and even subcasts. When parents chose a spouse for you, it is important to think twice.... as it is no question of divorce in India (it only happens in big cities). But how could you make the right choice if you have very little experience of human and sexual relationships? Arranged marriage seem a real lottery. Relationships before marriage are prohibited and if they exist, you cannot walk hand in hand in the street or your would be ostracized by society. It is how an excess of control leads to hypocrisy, affairs, pornography and prostitutions!
Drugs and alcohol are also badly judged by Indian society although alcohol is legal in India.... Again Indians drink but secretly: rum and whiskey! Hashish is also very popular though forbidden. For a foreigner, it is better to avoid touching or buying this stuff as you could be jailed and Indian jails are not fun places to be!
I can feel some bitterness and disillusionment in this young man. Religion seems such a source of worries and fights... Casts and arranged marriages too.... I am really happy and so lucky to have been born in France!
01 September 2008-----11:33 AM--------------A stranger at the bus stop and his dramatic story!
That's it! I decide to go to Kovalam and to find a beautiful Kerala beach where I can swim. Kovalam is on the Arabic sea, only 80 kilometers from Kanyakumari. I am told that the bus for Kerala will come at 2pm. I love travelling in buses. It is pretty safe and you see so much scenery.
My bus doesn't come and a smiling Indian man helps me to recognize the local buses and the others..... While waiting, my new friend tells me about his misfortune in Mumbai-Bombay. While he was on holiday travelling in a sleeper compartment, his trouser backpocket was cut open with a knife and a thief disappeared with his wallet letting him rupeeless. He had just called a friend and was waiting to go to the ATM where the money would reach his account. Bombay does not seem very safe. He told me it was the most horrible and poorest city in India. Poor chap. To get some rest from a nightshift job, he wanted some nice holidays in India and ended up being robbed by his own Indian compatriots.... My little waist bag just broke and I think that I must buy one as soon as I arrive in Kerala! It makes me think I am really right to travel in AC compartments.
The bus is still not working and I ask him about his life. He works in Bengalore. Computer engineer. 26 years old. Not married. We speak about women, their conditions etc.... I ask him if he would like his wife to work and to my surprise he tells me that he would really like his wife to work at least as long as she has no children. He tells me the story of his friend who just lost his wife. This friend was only married for 4 months when his wife committed suicide by hanging herself. Just a little note telling she had lost the happiness to go on living. A normal call to the husband at 2pm, and at 9 pm he found her dead in their flat... My bus friend tells me that this drama is not unusual in India and that many wives suffer from loneliness and commit suicide. The husband was leaving early in the morning and coming back after 9pm. His friend who is from Assam found a job in Bengalore. His new wife did not have the company of his own mother and family, as is usual, and was just cut off from the rest of the world in a small village near Bengalore. After the horror of discovering his wife's suicide, the husband was sued for ill treatment by the wife's father. There is now an enquiry about this case. There was no bad treatment, only solitude... but Indians do not know about depression and these kinds of situations did not exist in the past, as people did not leave family to work in other parts of India. As there was no dowry and the note did not accuse the husband, it is very likely that the poor widower would be left alone to his sadness. I feel so sorry for these sacrificed women and their sad fate.... When it is not solitude leading to depression and suicide, it can also be kitchen crimes for dowries and there have been a lot of cases when husbands have just killed their wives and burned them alive in the kitchen to get some money. I suddenly hate the salvar kumis, the saris, the submission of Indian women, their dependence leading to suicide or unhappiness.... I feel very very happy and blessed to have been born in a French family in Paris and to have received an education allowing me to be independent and to choose my way of living..
01 September 2008-----12:17 PM--------------Paradise, coconuts and beach in Kerala!
At last I am in Kerala. After 3 buses and 4 hours travelling, I arrived in the most beautiful place I have seen in India. Palm trees and luxurious vegetation everywhere. The air is cool. A rickshaw offers to take me to a cheap hotel and I trust in chance. I am right and I arrive at a nice guest house, the Sundya house, just near the beach, a bit hidden from the other hotels. As it is low season, I managed to get a low price for my room. It ranks with the Lytton hotel in Kolkata as the most beautiful room I have had. Large bed with mandala patterns. Lovely mosaics on the floor and flowers on the curtains. It is impeccably clean. I have a large TV, a mosquito net, a terrace and a table. Suni, the owner, is nice and cheerful. I know I am in a safe place. I pay my rickshaw who asks me if I like Indian men from Kerala with a big smile. He tells me he is only 23 and I have never been offered sex in such a way! Indians can have very funny ideas about Western girls! Anyway he is cool and does not insist...
The small hotel is so quiet. Immediately I feel at home and realise how tiring those last 3 months in busy cities have been. Even my time in Munger ashram was extremely noisy and tiring. Normally in an ashram you expect a return to nature and simple life, but Munger was not this type and was certainly the most noisy place of all my trip with its night trains, barking dogs, holy songs played all night and sannyasins waking late at night.... But here it is heaven. I go for the beach just before sunset. A vision of paradise. A small bay surrounded by palm trees like on postcards.... I speak to the lifeguard. He tells me about the danger of the sea at monsoon time. It is Sunday night. Indians are resting and paddling in the waters. It is fresh and nice. I am hungry as I haven't eaten the whole day. I go for the restaurant on the beach. Cool atmosphere with candles and soft lights. I have a fish in a coconut milk sauce. With rice indeed. I am very lucky to love rice because I have been on rice for 3 months! Delicious. I am trying to put weight back on with nutritious and fresh food. My digestion is getting better since I left the ashram. More vegetables, fruits and less heat are probably better for my health.
02 September 2008------Back
02 September 2008-----6:53 AM--------------My first day in Kovalam
Kovalam is a very touristic place .... So many guest houses and handicraft shops. Far too many. Not for me. A tropical version of the Costa Brava! I do not feel very at ease in the role of a tourist and do not feel I will stay longer than 3 days especially since swimming is limited because of the monsoon season.
I managed to escape the beach restaurants and their overpriced fish. Instead I went up the beach and explored the upper road leading to the town. I find a minuscule local restaurant up the hill: dosais or Kerala pancakes, coconut sauce, fresh onion omelettes, dhal, chai...No comfort. Simplicity of a hut. I love it.
Swimming in the sea is pretty dangerous because of the monsoon and the heavy rains. I have to paddle and play with the waves. It is good fun and good sport. Lifeguards are attentive and wouldn't let anybody go further than 50 meters into the ocean. I am told that in 2 months it will be possible to swim for kilometres without any danger.... Xmas is apparently the right time to go to Kerala but you must be prepared to pay the high price for hotels and restaurants!
In the evening I went to a small restaurant. The owner showed me his fish so that I could choose my diner! It is all very costly in Kovalam because of the tourism and I won't stay long in spite of the beauty of the scenery. Too spoilt. It is now very likely that my friend Vicky won't be able to join me in Kerala and I have decided to change my plans. My next direction will be the Sivananda ashram of Kerala, only 1h30 from here. Two buses and a rickshaw. An ayruvedic practitioner working near the restaurant approached me while I was waiting for my meal.... It would be good to try the famous ayurvedic massages of Kerala!
02 September 2008-----7:15 AM--------------Second day on the beach...
I am awoken by the temple bells...7am.... I decide to go for the puja (Hindu prayer). The lovely lady of the Sundya home gives me a tea. Her own mother is absolutely charming and though she cannot speak English and I cannot speak Mahayalam, a language derived from Tamil language and spoken by more than 35 millions Indians, we manage to communicate quite well. We speak with the eyes and our smiles. They show me the fish they are preparing and invite me for lunch at 1am. So so lovely and nice! I feel like part of the family! Kerala people can be truly nice!
I first go to the Durga temple at the corner of the house. There are 3 small temples including Ganesh, Shiva and the Great Durga, the smoothing Mother of India. The priest gives me a small leaf with the bindi paste and flowers. Indians are praying and walking around the temple. It seems to be the custom. I have my red spot on the forehead and walk in my white salvar kumis. Inside each temple lays a deity dressed with golden and silvery materials. The incense is strong and mantras are played. It is all very atmospheric but it doesn't do a lot for me. My conception of spirituality is entirely different and all those representations of Gods do not mean anything to me. Quite the opposite. They put me off real spirituality but I understand that a lot of Indians are helped in their religious practices by devoting themselves to such or such God or Goddess. Images provide support for a lot of Hindus. We're very far from the Muslim religion which does not allow any representation of God/Allah!
The other local Temple, dedicated to Shiva, is on the beach. Only few minutes from the Durga Temple. The priest invites me to a special puja tomorrow. It is Ganesh festivities. Ganesh is the elephant God, symbolising knowledge, power and opulence. 51 rupees for the puja. Big money for India. I don't think it will do anything for me..... but I find Ganesh very nice! The temples are not full anyway.... Priests give puja morning and evening. My hotel owner tells me how he enjoys having his shower in the morning and then going to the temple as it brings him good luck and protection. I very much doubt of the protection of Durga or shiva but the very fact that he believes in their beneficial influences is probably making him stronger in some kind of way.
It is now time to explore the harbour and to leave the touristic area and its beaches. I walk, meet two lovely children going to take the bus for school. They look so English, all in blue with traditional uniforms. England left some distinctive marks in the country! The little girl explains to me in very good English that she speaks 5 languages including Hindi and English! She wants to become a doctor! I wish her well! She shows me the way to the harbour and I walk down for a few kilometers. Children come to me and ask for money.... So common in India! From the cliffs I enjoy the sumptuous scenery and I watch fishermen pulling a huge net in the sea. A very traditional way of fishing without a boat.
I arrive at a huge mosque over the sea. So many boats of so many different colours. So much joy for the eyes. These boats, the palm trees, the very blue sky and indigo sea fill me with happiness. It is 8.30 am and already too hot. I go and meet some fishermen. Too late to go on a boat. They leave at 4am and at 3pm.... They want to give me a ride but for the enormous amount of 1000 rupees! Better not to grill on the ocean and to ruin myself! I rather treat me for an ayurvedic massage tonight!
At one end of the harbour is the mosque and at the other end is the Church. Muslims and Christians do not mix and they tell me there is no problem between them. Religion is so important everywhere in India!. Another world.... Always this feeling of being back in time....
I take a rickshaw back to the lighthouse. The sun is burning. I come back to Sundya Home through the two beaches, feet in water.... Cooling and wonderful. All the handicraft shops try to catch me. I am happy to leave tomorrow. I will phone the ashram to make sure I can stay with them. I check few ayurvedic clinics and finally go for the one next to my hotel. I like speaking to the people and the staff seem serious and well trained. I will get my full body massage at 4pm. It will help me to forget about my blues and my friends. The priest Innati I met yesterday gives me a call. We'll meet at the internet cafe. People have time. It is the low season. I will go and meet Innati tonight after my massage. His English is perfect and I am looking forward to asking him questions about the Indian religious soul and God.
02 September 2008-----7:48 AM--------------I will practice yoga in the Sivananda Ashram in Kerala for the next days.
I need to find some soul mates and I think that some days at the Sivananda Ashram will be a good choice at this point in my travel. Before Marie and I were accepted for our yoga teacher training at the Bihar School of Yoga, I contacted the Dhanwantari Ashram because Munger took so long to answer our request (more than 2 months).
This ashram is a yoga ashram, a community where yoga is taught and practised. It is therefore not a religious place and people with all kinds of religious or non-religious backgrounds are welcome. There are other types of ashrams in India. Some teach vedanta (Indian philosophy), some are more dedicated to spiritual life.... There is the "progressive" Osho ashram in Puna, the Aurobindo ashram in Pondicherry and so many others..... They are all different but their goal is always spiritual. Some like Munger and especially Rkhia are dedicated to karma yoga and humanitarian work.
Traditionally ashrams were located in natural surroundings where peace and tranquillity prevailed and they were led by Hindu sages. Nowadays it is run most of the time by religious and spiritual leaders. Munger was led by Swami Satyananda Sarawasti who is a yogi master and a vedantis and nowadays by Swami Niranjan who is his disciple. The Bihar School of yoga or Munger ashram in Bihar was not a typical ashram in the sense that the place, in spite its gardens and many trees, was very very noisy and busy and just inside the town of Munger.
Ordinarily ashrams are located in forests or mountains far from cities. It is the case of the Neyyar Dam Sivananda ashram. I am really looking forward to that new experience and hope it will reconcile me with the concept of ashram. I am planning to stay there until Sunday unless I do not like the place.
After my visit to Sivananda ashram, I will have 10 days left in India. I will resume my trip in Kerala, visiting the beach of Verkala, the town of Kollam where I can take a small boat to visit villages (Kerala is full of lagoons). I will then take a boat form Kollam to Allepey. 8 hours journey. I know there will be soon some boat races in Allepey and I might be lucky and watch one. It is possible to take a canoe in Allepey too. And from Allepey I will reach Cochin which is my final destination. Cochin is a huge and old port. I hope to be in Cochin on Sunday 14 September, two days before I take my flight back to England. That's the plan!
I hope I will be able to update my blog from the ashram as they seem to have more facilities than in Munger. But if you don't hear of me for few days, no need to panic! I will just be meditating or standing on my head under a coconut tree!
Speak to you very soon and please take care xxx Muriel
02 September 2008-----7:49 AM--------------Sivananda ashram's details
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram
Neyyar Dam P.O.
Thiruvananthapuram Dist (Trivandrum)
Kerala 695 572
telephone: + 91 471 227 3093 / + 91 471 2272703
mobile: + 91 (0) 9495 630951
e-mail: yogaindia@sivananda.org
The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram is set in 12 acres of tropical splendour in the foothills of Kerala's Western Ghats. The natural beauty of Neyyar Dam, the forested surroundings, the cool green coconut tree groves and colourful flower-filled views, all offer an ideal atmosphere for the practice of yoga and meditation.
The ashram program covers classical yoga techniques, taught in a warm and friendly environment, helps to instill in guests a deep awareness of the spiritual essence of life.
03 September 2008------Back
03 September 2008-----11:31 AM--------------More beautiful beaches
My mood is better and I am getting used to being on my own again. Actually I met some lovely people yesterday: the handsome and enigmatic Richard, a Kundalini yoga teacher and an ayurveda practitioner from Finland who is staying in India for 10 months. It is easy to meet people when you want to. A smile, an hello, a glance and that's it. People in Kerala have time. Westeners too. Thanks to Richard, I got a good yoga mat and I am ready to embark for my new ashram.
This morning I went back to the vegetarian restaurant where Richard took me yesterday and met other westerners, Iolanda, a lovely Italian woman coming for ayurvedic treatment and Miles, an English man living in Kerala for 3 years and setting up a music studio. Iolanda invites me to share a taxi and we go together to Somatheeram and its Manhateram Resort.
Another glimpse of paradise. Very long beach. Tranquillity far from Kerala. Luxury and beauty. A place I would like to be for my honeymoon if I marry one day. Nice to speak to Iolanda with her artistic mind and fluent French. I paddle in the ocean, the sun is burning. The resort restaurant is excellent: rice with fruits and raita, yogurt with herbs and cucumber.... Other German girls tell me about their ayurvedic holidays and treatments....
A lot of tourists come to Kovalam for ayurvedic treatments. Mainly women. There are ayurveda clinics everywhere in the village, as many as hotels.
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They grow like mushrooms. Traditionally ayurveda treatments and oil massages were not given near beaches as sea baths and massages do not go well together but tourism have deformed the purity of the tradition.
I am told that it is nicer here off season because it is quieter. I just would have liked to swim more but I guess I will do that when I return to the English Channel!
The sea temperature will just be somewhat different...
My Indian phone is not working anymore.... Indian mobiles.... Mmmmm..... I have to go a town to sort out the problem but I am now going to the ashram and won't get any time. So better to send me emails if you need to contact me.
My friends, I will soon drop you a few lines from the ashram where I hope to find inspiring yoga, meditation and nature.
With all my love from Kerala and its tropical weather xxx Muriel
04 September 2008------Back
04 September 2008-----7:01 AM--------------Another devotional ashram....
Gosh I do not know how long I will stand this new ashram!
After Rikhia in Jarlhand and Munger in Bihar, this is the third one I've visited since I've been in India and I am afraid it will be the last one I ever visit!
On top of that, Marie is not here with me and I have nobody to laugh about all the absurdities I can see around me.... When I arrived yesterday night, I had to enroll for a minimum of three days but I might leave tomorrow morning and keep travelling in beautiful Kerala. This end of my trip is a struggle between too touristic sites and the bore of ashrams but I'll try to stay positive and focus on 1) the beauty of nature under the tropics and 2) meeting people!
Neyyar Dam is a very renowned ashram in South Kerala, especially amongst westerners. Sivananda ashrams run crash teacher training courses which last one month as opposed to long teacher training courses in Europe (which can last up to 4 years). Yes Westerners everywhere here. You have to remember that yoga is mainly practised by westerners. Indians do not practise yoga with very very rare exceptions. They are too poor and too busy making money to have the leisure to think of yoga. Yoga became a western product! It is difficult to see real authenticity of yoga here. The only thing I see is that this ashram is adding Hindu mythology and religion to the practice of yoga as it is often practised in vedanda yoga.
Like the Bihar School of Yoga, Neyyar Dam in Kerala is very devotional and I am afraid that devotion and religion are inevitable parts of ashram life. Vishnu, Ganesh, Shiva, Durga, Kali, Saraswati, Brahma and all their mates are in the temple and devotees and students chant morning and evening their great stories and qualities. I just cannot stand it and positively hate it. I cannot bear these deities and images especially sung by all these young westerners and hippies. It is totally uninspiring to me and my concept of yoga is independent from religion. I would rather read the Mahabarata or the Ramayana on my own as they are great epics. The only fun moment in yesterday's kirtan was when a gracious cat came and sat on the throne near the Yellow Yogi. I found it more inspiring. This cat was a real yogi, calm, supple and silent!
Devotional life is intense here and there is also some brainwashing with lectures on the Indian Deities. I find it totally unbearable - even more so because it is taught by "white" yogis. I haven't seen even one Indian Sannyasin so far. It all sounds wrong and false to me but I am sure that these western yogis take themselves very seriously and humour is not a quality developed in an ashram. People are dead serious with the Truth of God!
All students here participating in "yoga vacations" are westerners and seem to come from all over the world. This is the opposite of my last experience in Munger where western students were the minority. Near me, a girl from South Africa and another one from America are emailing their parents.... The average age is pretty young. Faces are not inspiring, even body postures are not inspiring with round backs and hippy style people. I feel very negative with the whole atmosphere. Classes are all directed by westerners.... and I do not find the same quality of teaching which I experienced in Bihar.
I was welcomed yesterday by a lovely young Indian of 23. He told me he lives permanently in the ashram and began yoga in 2006. He got his certificate last winter and is now teaching in this ashram. With only 2 years of experience, to be teaching in an ashram seems a real joke! He is obviously totally immature... I am happy that I had such beautiful and inspiring teaching with Swami Yogkanti in Munger.
After I arrived yesterday at 7pm, I attended the evening Kirtan from 8 pm to 9.30 pm. Chanting, guided meditation, more chanting and a boring lecture on Indian deities with many mistakes from the teacher and neither intelligence nor analysis of the Hindu religion. Real brainwashing. I felt immediately put off and after 3 months in India and two other stays in ashrams, I think I became totally allergic to mantras and kirtans (devotional songs). It all sounds so ridiculous.... All these westerners mimicking Indian rites..... I feel like in a spiritual fair!
It seems to me that this ashram is all about money. The TTC (Yoga Teacher Training) is extremely costly, more than 2100 dollars for 4 week training! Staying in the ashram if you come to visit costs 350 rupees in the dormitory and 500 rupees in a double room. This price includes food and yoga class. There are some special rates for Indians because it is expensive.
We awoke at 5.20am this morning and had to attend the first Kirtan/Meditation/Satsang session from 6am to 7.30am in the large temple. Huge red Om at the end of it and painting of all the Hindu divinities on the walls. Gigantic statue of a dancing Shiva with his 4 arms. A female teacher in yellow salvar kumis is speaking. It is impossible to understand her. She does not know how to project her voice through a microphone. The voice does not carry any wisdom anyway and it is probably better I cannot hear her. The guided meditation is followed by songs in Sanskrit. It is all too much for me and I decide to leave the temple and to visit the ashram. It is very beautiful and calm. Buildings for the men and women. Reception. Kitchen and dining room.
An ayurvedic centre, a library and the ashram shop. I have decided that I have had enough of kirtans for my entire life.... but all programmess are compulsory and a lady takes the register. As ladies are not allowed to go to the temple and pujas (special prayers) while menstruating, I will pretend I have my periods to escape the bloody songs.
After a nice Indian tea, I had my first yoga session from 8 to 10am. Two classes. One for beginners and another one for intermediate. I go for the intermediate. The teaching style of the lady in yellow is totally different from the Satyananda style although Satyananda was a disciple of Sivananda. The Yellow Girl moves around the room while directing the class.
Difficult to hear her sometimes.... There is not the peace and interiority taught in Bihar. Also she has a funny way of singing "inhale and exhale" which is out of place. The breathing exercises (Kapalbhati and nadi shodana) are too guided and she gives the tempo not allowing each to follow his or her own breath and rhythm. She walks with her neck in front of her and her own posture is not inspiring either. Having said that, I had some challenging postures and was happy to have a good stretch. I could have done without the chanting before and after the session.
There will be a small karma yoga at 11am. Perhaps half and hour of communal work. From that aspect, this ashram is very different from Munger. After this small chore, free time till the 2pm lecture. We will have a second yoga lesson from 3.30 am to 5.30 followed by dinner at 6am and rekirtan tonight.
Neyyyar Dam is located in an absolutely splendid setting. The vegetation is rich. There is a calm lake at the feet of the ashram. I am not sure whether I will have a swim as some people told me that there are some crocodiles.....
The food is very balanced and nutritious, lassi, vegetables, rice, salad.... Of course it is all vegetarian. Total silence while eating but otherwise we are free to speak..... Each ashram has its own style even if the common feature is devotional and religious in nature.
I am going to have a walk near the lake..... and speak to other visitors..... I want to leave tomorrow. Why should I stay any longer?!
04 September 2008-----8:32 AM--------------An Indian atheist satire
I haven't told you about Hari! Hari was the auto-rickshaw driver who drove me yesterday from Kovalam to the Ashram. After the usual deal to get a decent price for the ride, Hari revealed to me he did not believe in God. He is the first Indian man I met during those last 3 months, who is an atheist. Simple man. His parents are serious devotees. Hari has no proof that God exists and lost his faith when he was a teenager. He does not want to marry either nor have any responsibility except taking take of her own mother. Hari very quickly decides that we are alike because I do not "believe" in God and am not married. Of course he wants to make love to me and assures me that he will have real feelings as he has been on her own for 2 years! Hari is insistent like some Indians can be. He claims that he is not like the other "beach boys" who seduce westerners for money. Hari is a very short Indian man without any charm. Totally unadapted to his society and unable to find a real solution to his sexual life, he hopes to get lucky with westerners.... He tells me about his adventures with a Swiss and Japanese girl. Hari is certainly not in the right country. He cannot have any affair with Indian ladies but still wants his freedom. Darkness is coming and I can see that Hari becomes a kind of satire - werewoolf. I know he is not dangerous, but I feel relieved to arrive to the ashram. My relief does not last very long when I discover that kirtans (call-and-response devotional chanting) are imposed on me again....
05 September 2008------Back
05 September 2008-----8:29 AM--------------Lions, crocodiles and Swamis!
I woke up with the wild sounds of roaring lions.
No, it was not a nightmare but the reality of the Kerala jungle! The ashram is situated at the foot of a lake and on the opposite side of this lake are lions in a safari park . It is very wierd to hear those poor lions roar and also quite frightening. They must be hungry like the crocodiles in the lake. Some yogis here seem to be very unconscious of the danger and just go and bathe! God and Krishna might have pity of them....
So I did not wake up at 5.20 am with the ashram bells. Instead I decided to stay in bed with the thoughts of lions and to relax as I felt a bit tired. No more worship songs for me. I went for the 7.30 am tea and spoke to an Australian actor who came here to relax. Nice guy. He looked particulary calm as he had just had an ayurvedic massage. The ashram is providing ayurvedic treatments.... So different from Munger. Neyyar Dam resembles a holiday resort with yoga, ayurveda and a zest for spirituality and religious songs. At least Munger was authentic even if it was hard work and very often so badly organised. The yoga tradition was beautiful and spirituality more serious than here. This Sivananda ashram made me reconsider my judgement on Munger. Anyway I certainly do not want to come back to ashrams in the future...
The 2 o'clock lecture yesterday was about a famous yoga sequence used in the Sivananda tradition. This sequence begins with the headstand, the shoulderstand, the fish, the backstretch, a twist and finish by backward bends.
Interesting combination of postures which I will try for a while. I think it is the famous Rishikesh series.
Yesterday afternoon's class was very funny. Three young Indian men ran it in a military fashion. Very bad English and harsh orders. The 2 hour yoga class looked like a gymnastics class with relaxation.
It is obvious that most students are all new or fairly new to yoga. I understand that the ashram can be a good introduction to yoga for some. I also think that even if I were 20 and did not know anything about yoga, I would leave this place as soon as possible and might even be disgusted with yoga for life . Very little intellectual rigour around. I spoke to a few students. Most of them are like puppies and their thoughts are clichés.... Relationships are always superficial and disappointing.
Last night we had a nice walk after dinner instead of the usual meditation. We sat near the lake admiring the stars in the sky.... The charm was interrupted by devotional songs and the usual Hare Krishna.
I am now staying till tomorrow morning. I will practise a bit more yoga. I realise that after 3 months in India I am not very fit and 4 hours yoga a day is quite good for me even if the teaching is rough.
I of course fear being a tourist again.... It is the first time in my life that I have adopted this role and probably the last time. I prefer to travel for study or professional purposes. Integration becomes natural and relationships with people are usually much more fulfilling than hazardous encounters on the road....
05 September 2008-----9:12 AM--------------Ayurveda massage
I didn't tell you about my last massage in Kovalam. It was very good and relaxing although the treatment was very strong. I was massaged by a young lady with strong hands. The oil was perfumed and delicious. It looked like a strong Swedish massage but perhaps less deep than a Swedish one. Some rubbing cream at the end of the treatment to smooth the skin. No use of acupressure points. I know that these points also called marma points do exist but only experienced practitioners know and use them. It is difficult to know what training this lady had. I am sure that her boss was trained but she was certainly given a crash training course. I could have done what she did to me. The massage that my friend Marie gave me during my time in Munger was as good as hers if not better.... What makes ayurveda massage distinctive is the use of special oils and their power. Some also use their feet to walk on you.... Nothing to do with the subtle massage of shiatsu!
Kerala is full of ayurveda practices and it is one of the biggest business with yoga here but you have to be very cautious and get recommendation to avoid charlatans and sexual abuse. Usually gents massage gents, and ladies massage ladies. You have to bear in mind that you are entirely naked when given an Indian massage. Traditionally gender should not matter but unfortunately the purity of ayurveda is often lost for devotion to a new God: MONEY!
07 September 2008------Back
07 September 2008-----10:20 AM--------------Last days in Sivananda Ashram
My last lessons of yoga in the Sivananda Ashram were certainly some of the worst in my entire life! It was not yoga but acrobatics and not a well taught gymnastics lesson. Sivananda teachers should consider whether they want to train people to join a circus or to increase their consciousness and expand their awareness while getting fit and flexible. Mere devotional songs and atmospheric pujas are not enough to bring people to this inner place.
The use of meditation at the ashram is not connected to the yogic practice. It is a pity because I understand that the primarily goal of Sivananda approach was an integral yoga combining postures, breathing, meditation, chanting, religious practice and karma yoga or community work. Unfortunately the reality is far from this initial good intention.
On Friday, the beginner and intermediate classes were joined together because Friday is a free day in the ashram and many students go out of the ashram on that day. The class was run by the young Indian who welcomed me on the first day. He is 23 and had only two or three years of yoga experience. He got his TTC (Teacher Training Certifcate) a few months ago. The poor chap had no idea of how to teach yoga. In many ways, it was interesting to observe his numerous mistakes and ignorance. A good lesson of what not to do as a yoga teacher.
No control of voice. No calm. A nervous attitude, eyes running and fingers moving while speaking or chanting. No presentation of the postures, not even the names of the postures (asanas) either in Sanskrit or English. Poor English. Impossible to understand his voice as he was literally running up and down the temple to give his poor instructions. No instructions prior to demonstrations of the movements. Very rare demonstration of the postures except the last balance postures. Use of advanced postures with no alternative postures for the struggling and desperate beginners. No preparation of the breathing exercises (pranayama). Kapalbati (bellow breath) done in a military fashion with an imposed rhythm. No space for silence and letting students concentrate on their own practice. Shouting voice. No correction of postures. No instructions for awareness and breathing in the posture. Last mantras and salutes to Sivananda Guru conducted as if he was running after a train. No interest in students nor kindness. No inspiration. A total disaster. Only positive point: he was young and probably able to do most postures although he did not demonstrate them.
I am afraid that Indians do not always come for the right reasons to yoga. It seems obvious that yoga in India is a huge business like ayurveda. Many resorts have their yoga teachers and their ayurveda masseurs. The purity of traditions is often lost and you really need to know where to go if you don't go want to be cheated, disappointed and disillusioned.
In spite of the awful lesson, I managed to practise and it was good for me to work on difficult postures after 3 months travelling and not enough time to practise. Sivananda ashram had some good effects and I realised once more that I had to challenge my postures if I want to keep my flexibility and improve. I have now 3 goals for my hatha yoga practice: performing shrishasana (the headstand) without a wall, chakrasanas (the wheel) and the crow posture when I return to UK. I want to practise more vipassana meditation too when I come back.
I met the poorly trained teacher just before I left the ashram and he complained to me that people in the previous class did not know the postures!!! He was even blaming students with no awareness of his own shortcomings, probably proud of his own postures. Amazing ignorance. Poor guy. He is thousands miles away from any real idea of yoga. I did not have time to really discuss with him as I was leaving and I very much doubt he would have understood me.
I felt so so ashamed of this terrible yoga teaching and also very cross that this ashram is allowing such inexperienced teachers to give lessons to people coming from all over the world and hoping to get the best of Indian knowledge. There is not supervision of the teachers in this ashram. . Let us hope that teachers teaching TTC at Neyyardam are a bit more experienced. The ashram has no soul and no leading guru.
On my last day, the lesson was no better. It was run by a fat bellied Indian guy who spends his morning sleeping in the Internet Cafe (it must be his karma yoga). No spirit.
The day before my departure I met a French yoga and ayurveda teacher called Sylvia from Toulouse. She was more positive than I was about the ashram. She herself began her own yoga training in Delhi with the Sivananda tradition and got a TTC at the Neyyardam ashram and further trained in Iyengar tradition to perfect the placement of her postures. She loved kirtans and did not have my reactions to the religious chanting..... She told me that the TTC was only teaching teacher trainees how to take and leave the postures. No more than that. The TTC have the reputation to be tough because you have to learn so much in one month time but there is no time for real reflection on yoga and true teaching. Satyananda teaching is certainly much deeper and serious and also run long teacher training and many deeper forms of yoga like the kriya yoga and tattwa shudis without forgetting the courses at the yoga university of Bihar.
Sylvia explained that the purpose of her journey was to organise a 15 day course in India with her students next January . She was thinking of taking them for 3 days in the ashram to show them ashram life style. I have very many doubts that it could be an interesting and true experience for yoga students. Anyway Sylvia has a very lively character and is full of ideas for her students. She gave me the address of the Varkala resort when I am now resting and I am so grateful to her....
My last evening in the ashram was a meditation and puja in the small temple of the ashram. It was very very atmospheric. We were only 20 people, mainly all westerners. Lights and candles. Incense. Flower petals and a red paste on a banana leaf in front of each of us. A Brahman priest was conducting the ceremony. We had to recite a special mantra and throw each petal on a candlestick on each mantra. Very hypnotic technique. No clue why we were offering the petals... It certainly looked very Indian. We were given prasad (gift) after the puja: a wonderful spicy porridge on a small banana leaf!
07 September 2008-----12:05 PM--------------Varkala.... coconut trees and fine sand!
So happy to leave the ashram and these pseudo-yogis! Such a relief to be back on the roads with my rucksack. An young American girl might join me in Verkala as we are going in the same direction. I give her my mobile number. I call the Pink Aana resort and speak to Niyas, the owner. Very welcoming , he agreed for a very moderate price. Low season allows good bargains. From 450 rupees I manage to get a 250 ruppees room in a small independant bungalow.
I feel so happy in the buses leading me to Varkala.. I love Indian local buses. I love watching people. It is a true experience. No tourists there. I listen to my mp3 and dream while admiring nature, towns and people. Women are naturally smiling. I have the feeling to be amongst flowers of different species and colours with so many different sarees...
Three buses and a rickshaw without satyre leads me to a remote resort at the North End beach of Varkala. Sylvia's recommendations was excellent. I arrived in a very quiet place with 4 hut-bungalows under coconut trees facing the sea and the beach. A well preserved place far from the usual touristic site of Kerala. An oasis of peace. Another glimpse of paradise. I know that I came to the perfect place for the end of my trip. Niyas and his brother Kalkul welcome me very nicely. I feel at home. I have a small hut with a large bed very nicely arranged and so clean. A modern bathroom. One of the best of my places of accommodation with Katmandu and Kovalam. Niyas is a chef working for Ibis hotel in Vienna and can cook for me whenever I want. I do not even need to go to the more touristic cliff of Verkala with all its hotels and handicraft shops. I can practise yoga near my hut. There are many walks on the beach. Ideal to relax for this last week in India and to escape tourism. Niyas will recommend another place in Allepey, which I plan to visit at the end of this week.
I leave my rucksack and explore the town.... High cliffs. Shops after shops. I decide to return quickly to my hut as the night is descending. I passed a big mosque. Niyas is a Muslim and all this part of the town is Muslim. Very nice and quiet people. The 5 prayers a day must have a soothing effect on them.
07 September 2008-----12:21 PM--------------Kerala fish curry, Niayas and a Swiss lady
Niyas cooks a beautiful Kerala dish for my first dinner in Varkala. I feel so happy to come back to non vegetarian food and to drink lassi. My body was crying for it after 3 months of vegetarian Indian food. I share my meal with a nice, strange and unusual couple living in the hut next to me. The lady is Swiss and 46. Her name is Dana and her boyfriend is from North Kerala and only 26. He is wearing the lungi, the traditional Kerala piece of cotton around his hips down to the feet.
Dana tells me a story. An unusual story. She is open and lively. I like her. She left all behind her, home, husbands, grown up children to live here with her new boyfriend. Midlife crisis? She had everything in Switzerland but probably was craving for something new. She left her shiatsu and reflexology teaching in a college to rent a hotel in Varkala and try a new life. She initially came to discover India. She seems happy to have a new start in life. After being a pure vegetarian all her life, she now eats fish and meat and even smokes cigarettes and drinks alcohol. Kerala reminds her of her first 7 years in South Africa.... Her boyfriend is a good looking fellow, an ex-hotel manager in Varkala. She tells me all about the "macho" side of Indian men and I am not surprised considering the place of women in society and the very religious mind of Indians. She seems very aware of women's situation here in India but is brave to go for her own desires in life. She is a good example of somebody open enough to try something new in life and leave behind her an easy but boring life. I wish her happiness.
I am myself too happy to come back to Europe and to begin again my music. I do not see how I could fit in with Indian society. Pretty Indian boys, beaches and coconut trees would not be enough to fill my soul!
Niyas joins us and speaks about ramadan, his life between Austria and Kerala, his efforts to develop tourism without destroying nature. Unfortunately these efforts are rare and the whole Kerala and beaches are getting spoiled and destroyed with more and more constructions, hotels and gift shops. He has other ideas and wants to protect Kerala and serve tourism.
His Austrian restaurant is called Pink Elephant. We speak about elephants and their taming master who inevitably die with the elephant. The revenge of the elephant. He tells us so many entertaining stories. Elephants also get mad every year and have to be chained. Elephants love babies and children.... Niyas wants to buy an elephant but they are very costly. A lovely pet though you wouldn't fit it in your living room. A pet which could bring a lot of attraction and money too...
07 September 2008-----1:01 PM--------------Kerala breakfast
Good night sleep. Such a calm night in spite of the strong winds. At 3.45 am I can hear the mosque calling for the Muslims and their first prayer.... Getting up a bit later, Niyas invites me to have breakfast. Typical Kerala breakfast with chapatis and vegeterian curry. We discuss religion with his cousin Kuti. They don't like much Mahatma Gandhi and think that he didn't like Muslims and was responsible for the partition in 1947. This discussion reminds me of my discussion with Amad in Kanyakumari.
Religion has such an important place in the life of these Muslims. Five prayers a day to be done with a pure heart, concentration and awareness. Their prayers look very much like my own meditations. Niyas tells me that he cannot practice when he works in Austria. He also breaks his religious rules and drinks some wine. He knows the Coran very well. Muslim children go to the Mosque everyday to learn the Coran. Niyas believe in heaven and hell after life. He explains that after my death I will walk on one of my hairs and that the sun will just be at few inches from my head..... a divine experience..... unless I go to hell which is quite possible! I tell them about my doubts about life after death. Their conviction is absolute. My doubts do not affect my happiness which is focused on this present life!
Although I ask Niyas and Kuti for a definition of God, I do not get any clear explanation and never got one in all India. How could I? Their God has no image and is hugely different from the thousands Gods of Hinduism and Buddhism, although ultimately God is one for these two religions. Only the vedas gave me an acceptable definition of God. The word GOD is employed to speak about what cannot be defined or understood by intelligence. God is about the mystery of life and creation.
Muslims are very worried about taking care of others before considering themselves and I can find the same altruistic attitude in the Christian or Buddhist religion. Love and social welfare is a common feature to all religions. Human beings have to learn to overcome their natural selfishness to live in good harmony with each other. But do you really need religion to learn principles of morality?
Niyas' cousin cannot understand the meaning of my life as I am not married and have no children at my age. He cannot believe that music and friends can fulfill my life. Many oceans separate our cultures and views on life and happiness! How could they understand me? Their marriages are arranged and their wives totally docile and submissive, staying at home and taking care of children. I feel that I understand them more than they understand me. Niyas is more understanding because he lives abroad. Kuti is a bachelor and works in Dubai. Many Indians work there, make money and only return one month a year to Kerala to visit their family and wives.... Wives live with the family-in-law and hopefully their children if they manage to make some. Funny lives but Indian accept it because it is hard to make a living and only few Kerala people can make a living out of tourism. Life is tough here and there are so so many people.
07 September 2008-----1:39 PM--------------Fishermen
Going to the Cybercafe on the cliff, I have to stop. Rains are very heavy and my pink umbrella cannot take anymore. I stop near a fisherman's hut. Kerala people greet me. I can see an old fisherman aged 75 working hard and taking fish with a net. They have got lobsters! 800 ruppees a kilo. An Indian man called Hari tells me how active this old fisherman is although he cannot row and fish in the sea anymore. I observe the fisherman. He is very fit and muscled in spite of this age. Hari explains that fishermen can live up to 100 years when they don't drink. Unfortunately he tells me that the young generation is drinking too much rum and also takes drugs ruining their liver and internal organs. No moderate drinking in India. Once the bottle of rum is open, it will disappear. It is not the gentle and civilized French way of drinking wine while having a meal! Hari is a Hindu and tells me that all religious groups are peaceful with each other in Kerala. He practices yoga. He is a real exception! So rare to find an Indian practising yoga. He practises yoga but does not know about meditation. Western countries know more about yoga and meditation that India. I share with him my understanding of meditation on the breath.
The rain is stopping and I keep walking but not far.... the monsoon is so strong. I stop again and this time stay with a lifeguard. People are very cool around. Life is going very smoothly and slowly. Time to speak with everybody. Time to live and listen. So nice. I finally arrive at my cafe and meet Raj working in the Internet cafe. A Nepali man who lost his job in KTM after the political changes and the arrival of maoism. I feel so sorry for him. He had to take this job here and would like so much to return to KTM. Like in India, there is a huge corruption in Nepal and to get a job you need to know people and often to pay money. I feel so happy to live in democratic countries!
09 September 2008------Back
09 September 2008-----1:32 PM--------------Pink Aana
Yesterday Monday was a day of wonders! I awake and walk on the beach. Fishermen are repairing fishnets. Kerali people climb up the coconut trees with an amazing agility that many yogis and yoginis would envy. They give me a coconut to drink and eat!
I practise yoga near my hut facing the ocean. Then Niyas prepare me a special Kerala breakfast. My breakfast is different every morning. Spicy cereals with bananas. Niyas, the owner of the Pink Aana resort (www.pinkaana.at), is taking great care of me. I do not feel in a hotel but rather in a family home. What a relief after my last week when I felt so bluesy and lonely. All the staff are smiling. I appreciate the openness and intelligence of Niyas who combines the quality of the East and the West. So rare. Spending 6 months a year in Austria after having completed business studies in Kerala, he has been able to invest money and to buy a piece of land near the north end beach in Varkala. He is worried about preserving nature and has a real sense of environment.
The Pink Aana offers something so different from the usual concrete and soulless tourist hotels on the Kerala beaches. Close to nature and understanding the needs of Westerners and the importance of conserving the beauty of Kerala, he designed bungalows which blend naturally with the tropical scenery. The huts are made of natural materials, coconut trees and bamboos. He also seems to have integrated his religion and his everyday activities. He is obviously ahead his time. India needs a lot of heads and hearts like Niyas'!
I am also very pleased to be here off season. So few tourists around. I have the chance to speak to local fishermen and all the resort staff and to understand more and more about Indian mentality. I even love monsoon, the heavy rains, the sky full of clouds or sunny. Nature is strong here. I do not swim much because the sea is too dangerous and the currents too strong but it does not matter. I walk and enjoy the peacefulness of the nature.
09 September 2008-----2:13 PM--------------OASIS
I met the wisest person in my Indian trip in a place called OASIS. A real guru, a shaman, a simple fisherman who does not pretend to be anything at all....
At 12 pm I met my new Australian friend Rose at Trattoria, the Internet cafe on the Cliff. Fruit juice and discussion about Sivananda Ashram which we both loathed and escaped from as soon as we visited it. Rose has a kindred soul and is both sensitive and cheerful. She teaches yoga in Australia and also works part-time in a library. Like me she is travelling alone in India after having accompanied her son to Germany for his studies.
We are close in age and interests and I feel so happy to share and to connect again on a deeper level. We both agreed on the lack of joy and smiles on the faces of the Sivananda Sannyasins and also on the lack of understanding of true yoga in this ashram. She tells ma about an incident in one of the intermediate classes. A student fell and hurt herself after taking the headstand but the "Yellow Girl" teacher did not show any compassion....
Rose is well equipped with her hat, sunglasses and sporty shoes. I want to show her Niyas' resort. She loves it and is thinking of joining me in the resort. We will travel together to Cochin. So lovely to have a companion!. Niyas welcome us and shows her the rooms. I am craving for fruits and he kindly offers to go and buy some for us. An angel!
We keep on walking on the beach and Rose tells me about her life, her 4 year trip around the world on a boat, her two sons, her journey with yoga.
So much wisdom and maturity. I wish she did not live so far away from the UK. The landscape is stunning. The beaches are empty. Only birds, the sun and us. The sky is all blue for us. I walk bare feet in the sea. So nice and refreshing.
We have perhaps walked for 4 kilometers when we see a small sign with OASIS written on it.
We take a small path and discover.... an oasis! Few little huts, 2 lovely rooms..... some benches.... I call but there is nobody.... We visit the rooms left open. I can see somebody coming. A huge smile is coming is front of us. Some teeth are missing but what an open face with lively eyes! He gives us his name. He is called Chaokut. She shows us his "Kingdom".and tells us about his life. He 65 but 25 at heart. He is a simple fisherman and fishes in the river facing this amazing oasis. His family lives in the nearby village of Kallup across the river. But here we feel at the end of the world. It is so beautiful and wild. On one side we can have a glimpse of the beach and the sea and on the other side is the river. Chaokut has built everything himself and shows us pictures and letters of the Westerners who had the extreme fortune to share his life. A natural life. He obviously likes the people who come here and considers them as friends.
He takes us for a ride in his small fishboat. It is amazingly beautiful. When I ask him if he is a Hindu, he smiles and answers me that he is a man! What a beautiful answer! So much freedom, intelligence and wisdom in this man who lives so closely with nature. He has a great sense of humour and shows us the toilets and the showers open to the sky.... What a wonderful place for a real retreat! No trace of any tourism here....
He has two rooms for his guests and one for himself with no door. He laughs and tells us that his house is open and shows then his heart .... which is open like his house. Yes, he is certainly an open heart. He invites us to eat fish in his house in town and we cross the river in the canoe. Rose and myself imagine we are dreaming. His wife and son welcome us with the same simplicity and generosity. The river fish are delicious and grilled with spices and accompanied with tapioca. They have so little but share so much with us. Chaokut might sell his fish for 100 rupees a day....
He enjoys life and keeps moderation in everything including drinking. Never attended school but so intelligent. His English learned with his guests is good. I ask him about his daily routine. At 2am he takes his boat, goes on the river and put his fishnet, goes back to bed or walk and at 4am comes back to pick up the fish. I haven't found such happiness in any ashram and real wisdom far from any dogma. He has learned it all from nature. He even tells us that religion was for people living 5000 years ago!
Friends call him on his son's mobile. They have arrived at his oasis. He invites us to join the party. He is so happy to be surrounded by his friends. He is also so happy we are with him. His friends are educated, solicitors and doctors. He is so so happy to have this company. When he says that he is only a simple fisherman, I think to myself that he is one of the richest men I ever met.
His son is now creating his website and his freedom is amazing. Although he lives so close to nature, he understands how to adapt to society. He tells us that he doesn't want a lot of money but just a little to enjoy life and it is obvious that all the lucky people who have lived in the oasis have become his friends. I would not mind coming back to Kerala and living with him for some time. I will learn more from him than in any ashram!
Rose and myself are thrown into a fairytale with this unexpected meeting. Chaokut's son, Babu, gives me his website address. We take a rickshaw back to Varkala. It is already 7pm and it is dark. I decide to walk back to my hut after leaving Rose who lends me a torch. Like Snow White in the forest, I cross the somber paths to my resort. Monsoon rains suddenly fall so heavily and I arrive totally soaked but so happy at Pink Aana! I can see that Niyas was a bit worried about us.... He was waiting for us with beautiful plates of fruit! He has also prepared some very special fish for me! I am quickly putting back on the kilos I lost in the Bihar ashrams! Niyas tells me more about India, Kerala, ayurveda, life.... This day is pure magic! I won't forget it. The address of Chaokut on a small piece of paper was washed up by the rains... Was it a dream?
11 September 2008------Back
11 September 2008-----10:52 AM--------------Last day in Varkala
Oh everything moves so fast on these last days in Varkala. I feel very sad to leave Pink Aana where I feel so good amongst friends and the family staff. I am also learning so so much about India, life, yoga, music..... I haven't swum here as I expected to, but Kerala is giving me much more than the pleasures of the sea. I keep learning about Indian life. Niyas warned me about the fisherman-guru of the Oasis. It appears that Chaokat is perhaps drinking too much and might lose his control from time to time.... It appears that he might be dealing grass and smokes it on his boat. I am not too bothered with that as it might be part of his freedom and wisdom.
Rose and her recent friend Lin from Singapur and Malaysia are now staying at Pink Aana and it is lovely. The 4 bungalows are rented by 4 women. In P1 is Rose, in I2 Dana, in N3 Muriel and in K4 Lin. We take our breakfasts and diners together. All delicious food prepared by the Chef Niyas.
I returned to Oasis yesterday with Lin, a girl from Malaysia. Chaokat was not there but his son Abu was resting in the fresh oasis. The magic has left the place without the strong presence of the fisherman but always the same beauty and tranquillity. I left a packet of cigarettes for Chaokat. Abu confirmed what I knew from Niyas and we spoke of the extreme alcoholism of the nearby town Capple. 70% of the male population is drinking at least one bottle of black rhum per day. Women usually do not drink except in the young generation. Coconut men cannot climb up the trees unless they drink and smoke grass, otherwise they would tremble and fall!
Niyas told me how unsafe the all village was..... He looked for me on the bridge near the Oasis but I did not see him. He told me he would come to check on us. We return to Pink Aana. So hot but there is some breeze. Children stop us. It is Onam celebration in the whole of Kerala, a kind of Xmas here. Celebration of an ancient and great king of Kerala.
Children are on holiday and so pleased to speak to us. Another couple of brothers want photos with them. So naive and touching. Not everybody in India is used to seeing foreigners. A young fisherman tells us his story. He has returned from Singapour where he was hoping to make some money. He has just lost his money and was actually exploited and worked on dangerous scaffoldings while sleeping in a room with 30 other workers. Real slavery. Now he is happy with his boat and nature. His smile is pure and beautiful.
Coming back to Pink Aana, we discover that Niyas and his cousin waiting for us.... and we all have a laugh: they actually came and spied on us and we didn't even recognise them. They certainly take great care of their hosts! Rose is still a bit unwell and is resting in her bungalow. The dinner brought all of us together. Lin comes with a French lady called Nikita...... We all have very good time.
I can see that Niyas is still concerned for Lin and a young Buthanese man she met in a cafe..... Many foreign workers try to go out with Westerners and are rarely honest..... I wonder if Lin is naive in spite of her education. There is certainly a lot of easy sex going on all around and many Indian and local restaurant employees fooling young girls and less young girls. Some ladies might not be fooled but happy to exploit sexually young Indian men. So much business around yoga, ayruveda and sex!
Late discussion with Niyas. I like his integrity and purity. It is rare to find so many qualities combined in a young man. It is very very refreshing to meet so much maturity and deepness of character. I feel blessed to know India through his eyes and experience.
11 September 2008-----11:11 AM--------------The beautiful Nikita
Wonderful discussions this morning first with Niyas and then with Nikita. I finish my yoga and see Nikita waiting for me. Nikita is the French lady who joined us yesterday. She has just recovered from her travel and was sick all the night. She probably ate or drank something wrong in the train. It is the fourth time she has been to India. She absolutely wanted to see me and asks me to play my bansuri flute. I am too happy to play and improvise a few notes.... I discover that Nikita is also a flautist and singer and plays jazz and Latin music. She visits Varkala to study the bansuri with an excellent flautist who will be here in a couple of weeks. She would like so much for me to stay. We could have played and sung together. I feel so sorry to have to leave. Some doors are open. I can imagine other journeys more musical in nature. We have so much in commun, age, passions, musical interests. She tells me her life. Maried at 16. Travelling on a boat for 8 years with her husband. Nikita is amazingly beautiful, pure, honest and interesting. Her interest for different types of music and especially ethnic music is inspiring. We exchanged some ideas about the bansuri and how to play it..... I show her my latest cds and bansuri method with Chaurasia. We have to seperate but I want to know more about her and we will meet again tonight. In the meantime I will have a real ayurvedic massage which Niyas has arranged for me with a doctor he knows...... I now have to run along the cliff and join my hut. Rose is typing near me. We will be travelling together to Cochin for my last 4 days. I am too sad. I would like to learn the bansuri and stay with Nikita on this beach for the next 4 months but we will keep in touch. I have the feeling that I will see Rose, Niyas and Nikita again. These are not ordinary meetings....
13 September 2008------Back
13 September 2008-----6:22 PM--------------Departure from Varkala
On my last day in Pink Aana, Niyas gave me the address of an ayurveda doctor and I had a wonderful massage which totally relaxed me. A much better ayurvedic massage experience than in Kovalam. An experienced lady using acupoints also called marma points. Warm perfumed oil.... No beating up.... Kalcul, Niyas' brother, explains to me that the famous ayurvedic massage have been created for tourists and did not exist in the past! Ayruveda had other types of treatments.... Anyway ayurveda is changing perhaps thanks to Westerners and these treatments are great.
Leaving Pink Aana and feeling so sad on Friday morning..... Last breakfast with the typical rice bread and delicious Kerala sauces. Niyas is a chef! Always so fast, efficient and artistic in all he does. I wish I could learn cooking with him. Niyas prepares artistically a plate with fruits: papaye, banana, apple, mandarine, grapes.... Gorgeous!
Nikita who did not manage to reach us on Thursday evening because of the heavy rains, joins us and gives me her address and contact details. She is so lucky to study bansuri (Indian bamboo flute) with an Indian flautist for 3 months. She is full of life, of stories, of passion, of genuine simplicity.... A very colourful character from Russian Jewish origin. A very beautiful woman, tall and elegant, a French lady. Simplicity and refinement. She has travelled everywhere in the world. Eight years with a first husband on a boat playing baroque music in Alliance Francaise. She learned Brazilian music in Rio. She also can play some Jewish music... She has done so many things in jazz and Latin music. She is now applying for a teaching post in French oversea territories, perhaps Madagascar. An open and adventurous lady. France does not seem enough for this imaginative soul. We will meet in Paris for Xmas. I feel terribly excited about it and I hope that one day we can play and sing together . Her musical interests are very wide and I like her spirit and heart. I feel totally inspired by her presence and enthusiasm. We are similar in age and passion and it feels so good to find each other.
Roy and Niyas are sad, we are all sad to leave each other.... Lin is still sleeping with her boyfriend. Dana is decorating her cottage with flowers for Onam and the return of her Kerala boyfriend. Lilian will do some environmental spring source for Niyas. But when will I come back? Soon I hope! I need ways to make money and come back to Nepal and Kerala. So many things to explore, so many lovely people to see again.
Off on the roads to Allepey with Rosy.... Rickshaw, train, bus.... Niyas has contacted his friends in Allepey and Sunil is waiting for us at the bus station. A very handsome and athletic young man. We are so lucky that Niyas is taking so good care of us. We arrive at the Lemon tree and we are given a little palace with huge rooms and enormous bathrooms. We feel like princesses but perhaps we are princesses! We are so nicely welcomed. Sunil and Ajeer are great and so funny!
It is Onam.... and it feels like Xmas in Kerala. Nobody works and everybody is eating in family at home. All Kerala celebrates and we cannot find a single open restaurant but we manage to get a delicious pineapple juice. We also have some sweets and cakes in a bakery. Local atmosphere. Tea and Coffee. Nice and creamy. The sweets are very sweet. A jam rollcake gives me some strength. . We are tired and come back.
The boys try to change the lights which are not working in my room and finally give me another little palace. I have a long discussion with Ajeer who is a lawyer and learn sad things about laws concerning homosexuals. Homosexuals can still theoretically be condemned to 7 year emprisonment if they are caught doing "unnatural" practice but in reality government has asked the police to fine gay people and to beat them up "to give them a lesson". That tells a lot about Indian society..... We speak about religion, spirituality, society..... I learn that Kerala is the most educated district of all India. School in Kerala is compulsory until 16 and I understand why Kerala is so peaceful and people so lovely.
13 September 2008-----6:31 PM--------------Allepey and its backwaters
I am ill again and my cystitis is back but happily I kept my medical prescription. I probably did not drink enough water yesterday but I really want to go on the canoe and visit the backwaters. I drink as much water as I can and rest before breakfast. No yoga. Sunil and his friend Jos go to the chemist for me. Their cook is on holiday and they cook for us an improvised breakfast of toasts and scrambled eggs. Lovely.
The canoe is waiting for us with our tourist guide Lalgi and an older rowing man Celiba. Celiba is only 64 but looks much older.
Rowing under the sun must be a hard business. He is strong. The boat is decorated and has a small roof which protects us from the sun. We go to the backwaters. The day is splendid and the atmosphere so quiet. We are very lucky to avoid the monsoon heavy rains. We glide on the waters visiting the villages. Magic and peaceful atmosphere. All the villagers and children wave and greet us. We have the most beautiful meal at Lalgi's house. His wife cooked a fabulous tali for us. Rice, vegetable curry, ginger, coconut sauce, fish. We meet the children. Two girls and one boy. Lalgi is taking care of their education and they will all study. So touching.....The elder daughter is beginning her nursing studies. Big financial sacrifice for the family.
Back on the boat I play my bamboo flute and we are all in a dream state. The coconut trees, the houseboats, the birds are all inspiring me. Rosy is in front of me with a blue hat and red scarf protecting her from the sun. Very elegant. She has the beauty of a cat. Her posture is so impeccable probably thanks to her yoga. We finish this slow and meditative day with the sunset. It is so nice to be there with Rosy and it is so wonderful to travel with such a sensitive companion. I love sharing and Rosy makes this end of my trip very special.
Time is running out. Tomorrow we will be in Cochin and on Tuesday morning I will be flying back to London. I cannot believe it.... It is late: 11 pm. We're going back together to our palace.
14 September 2008------Back
14 September 2008-----9:54 AM--------------Flute guru and providence
My last day in Allepey is so surprising. After our breakfast, I go back to my room to pack but feel like playing my flute and improvise.... Jos and Sebastian, two young men who are staff members, come and knock on my door. They want to hear more. They love my flute and are so nice to me. Jos is an athlete training soon for the next Olympic games, Jos and Sunil trained together in running. Sebastian has a very artistic look. He is a painter and a guitarist. His mum is Portuguese and his dad from Kerala. They both praise my flute and Sebastian tells me about his neighbour, a professional flute player and would like to introduce me. He calls him and off we go to meet him. Only at 3 km from our Lemon Palace. Sebastian sings for us a song he composed "Teacoffee" with such funny rap like lyrics imitating all the words you can hear in Indian trains. A future hit.
I take my flute and soon we arrive near the beach waiting for the flautist called Sunil. A noble man with a beard and a dark red shirt soon arrives. We all go to his house. All the neighbours and kids are there with us. Simple house. Sunil is looking for his flutes. 21 flutes which he made himself. He asks me to play something and I play a bollywood theme I heard while I was in Varanasi. He plays for me a special raga and I discover how half tones and the magic sound of Indian flute are both produced with lips and fingers.
I ask him so many questions about bansuri fingering. So different from the Western flute. So supple. His playing is beautiful and flowing. I am enraged not to be able to stay longer and learn more with him. He invites me to come back and study with him for one month. He doesn't speak English but it is not a problem to learn. He knows the ABCDEFG notation and I learn my first raga and the bending notes. Sebastian is our interpreter. Sonul is playing with an orchestra all overl Kerala. He is also a family man and has a small shop to support his family.
It is so fantastic to find a flautist on my last day and in such an unexpected way! An invitation to come back. I really like this idea of getting an initiation in ragas and bringing back this knowledge into my jazz playing. I like the idea of returning to India for music and to stay and live in a simple Kerala family. It would be the best way to know India in a deeper way. Furthermore Allepey is a quiet town near the beach and very close to Varkala and Pink Aana.... This last day in Allepey is leading me to my next Indian trip. Providence.
Rosy is also happy to be with me and to see people living in Allepey.