India is a crazy crazy place. Everything happens tomorrow. Ok, ok. (shaking my head). Some of you may not understand my joke above but if you ever visit you will know. Oh I love these people. So cute and friendly.
November 1, (Happy Halloween)
I am sitting on the floor of Siva hall in my first ever ashram stay. This is the Sivananda Ashram in Neyyar Dam, Kerala.
A long list of blogs is saved on my phone. All ideas come to me during meditation. The most quiet and creative space. I know I know.
Today it is my 8th day in India. A week in ‘God’s own country’ and a week being completely free (free even from wifi at the moment).
I made my way from Varkala to Neyyar Dam ashram. The journey cost me all together £0.65. Sitting on the local bus on the way here I observed the local people. The school kids. The men and the women. The bus. The nature. The rivers. The trees. The houses. I had to pinch myself and all I could think was. Fuck I am in India.
On the local markets here there are a few types of bananas. The big yellow ones. The ones I bought first. (Not taste at all.)The small ones which I learned later were much sweeter than the first. And the red bananas. The beautiful red bananas. OMG. So yummy. The ones I bought last.
Going back to my bus journey here. I watched the local people. Observed their behavior. And seriously we really are not that different. The kids are smiling at me. The young guys are flirting with the young girls. The old women are complaining. The older men are chilling, reading newspapers.
We are no different except we have all these ettiquetts to cover ourselves and look sophisticated like the big yellow bananas. But in reality those different ones of us may taste so much better.
Later at night dinner was served at the ashram. We sat on the floor and as dinner was coming I sat there waiting for my spoon to arrive to eat my rise but guess what no spoon. You sit on the floor scoop up the rise and the curry with your hand (right one please!!!!) and hop you go in the mouth. Yes it feels grouse at first to eat and watch other people eat curry with their hands. It really took me by surprise. But when do i stop to always act like a yellow banana and embrace the sweetness of the red.
Same in life if we never try the unknown red bananas how would we know the difference. You may ask why do we need to know any different. And yes some of us may never have the urge to know. That’a why we are different from one other. And yet, seriously, if we are always scared to touch the water how would we learn to swim…
