Namma Metro

I did a metro ride yesterday.....for the long distance from my place to Girija's, and what would have taken me two hours each way by car, I did in under an hour, and in the comfort and ease of the metro

                                                

It's a long ride, a full forty minutes...and a nice surprise was the line being half distance overhead and half distance underground, and it was lovely. It's so popular, that even on a Saturday it was pretty full. 

While Girija told me I'd have to be smart getting in, to get a seat, that kind of smart I'm not. But then there was this young lad who was sweet enough to give me his seat the moment I got in. That was so touching. And I found that happening across the board....people getting up for women with children, for elderly people, for children, for women.......was really nice to see that happen. 

And it's so well maintained, and so clean inspite of the crowds, not just the metro itself, but the metro stations too. And it's all so slick, that it's like it's almost inspiring good behavior.

Inside the metro......a picture after most of the crowd got off

A view from the metro

This is pic courtesy Google.......I really like the emblem 

   

Namma metro.....something to be proud of

Ajmer & Pushkar

The last phase of trip was just Diksha and me, as Dhruva had to head back to college. We headed out from Jodhpur early in the morning, and got to Ajmer by lunch. Ajmer is such a pretty city, with Ana Sagar, a lovely lake in center and surrounded by the Aravallis. Ajmer has apparently been given status of a heritage city.

As we drove next to the lake, it was so brimming full, we just had to get off 

And then imagine our excitement when we saw so many pelicans in the lake

We first headed to the well known Ajmer Sharif, the dargah of Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishty. 

                                          

That's the entrance to the dargah

We did the full ritual of 'chaadar chadana', as I'd really liked the experience from my last visit a few years back. Diksha, in the midst of the new experience

That embarrassed smile at the newness of the experience

The dupatta on the head is mandatory, and the red dupatta they put on us after the chaadar chadana ritual at the inner shrine

Dargah Sharif done, we headed onto Pushkar. Some Saunf fields on the way, with such pretty yellow flowers that it brought to mind Wordsworth and his Daffodils 

The Pushkar lake

The pushkar lake, or pushkar sarovar as it's locally called has 52 ghats and is called 'Tirth Raj',  the king of pilgrimage sites. According to hindu theology, story goes that Shiva cried so much, and for so long at the death of his wife Sati, that it formed this lake. 

Pushkar is also one of oldest existing cities of India. This picture is courtesy Google, just to show what a pretty city it is, again lake in center and surrounded by the Aravallis

Pushkar has some really interesting and quaint shops. And strangely enough we landed in the same shop from which I had bought a souvenir (replica of Shiva's sandals), on my previous visit, and this time round Diksha bought a Tibetan singing bowl which she's learning how to do.

We asked these women for directions, and it was interesting how she spoke through the veil

The Brahma temple. unique for more reasons than one......... known to be over two thousand years old, and described in the Mahabharata, as the most auspicious temple to start ones life pilgrimage from....plus stated to be the only Brahma temple in existence. That's the whole of the temple. Don't know if it's a feature of temples in the north, but it brings to mind how even the most well known kasi vishwanath temple of varanasi is just this small temple, which is such a difference after the sprawling pillared temples of the south.

Matka lassi after a long long day, before we headed out to Jaipur for our flight home

And this ends the chronicles of a visit to the fascinating state of Rajasthan. A few phrases I learnt there...... khamma ghani saa (namasthe),  and pachaa mi laa laa ( see you again) and tharaa ghana ghana shukariya (thank you very very much) . 

Tharaa ghana ghana shukariya Rajasthan !!

Desert Spring

The third and final series from the trip to Rajasthan.

The day after our desert sunset evening, I was up real early, and I caught sight of this brilliant sunrise right from our tent

And I walked on outside the camp to catch an only sunrise picture and the quiet and austere beauty of it was an experience I still hold 

In Rajasthan, you see not just pigeons but wild peacocks too....look at how many peacocks flew in to feast on dinner crumbs

Evening they had a dance performance, Jashne Jaisalmer, a folk dance with accompaniment of local musical instruments like the morchang and the dholak, which was so rustic and lovely. 

This is queen harish, and she (he) is a semi finalist in 'India's Got Talent'. And it was amazing how she involved every single person in the audience, and how that enabled a bunch of people (dhruva and diksha included) to sit around together  sharing stories till late at night.

That's him in full flow, (I say him because after the event he came and sat around with folks, and diksha was like, it's amazing, he's actually a handsome looking guy), and the two girls ( gypsy living is a part of life here, and not just a costume) accompanying were so graceful and sensual.... and as brilliant. 

That's Diksha on stage with the group

On return from my sunrise walk, outside the camp there was this guy with a jeep offering a ride on the sand dunes. That put me into a quandry as the kids were yet asleep...... and plan was to head out soon after breakfast. I couldn't figure if it makes sense to do it without them.........and then I did :) 

This was on the ride

This was chai stop.....and it's so close to Pakistan, that you see the influence in the dress. The men are in pathan suits.

The jeep ride on the dunes is like a roller coaster ride without a seat belt........ came back bruised and happy.

And yet again the realization, to do what you want notwithstanding constraints.......even like needing company, and what it looks like to others. In fact got a thumbs up from two groups of people, which was a nice and almost embarrassing surprise. Then again, I was glad for what it said too...do what your heart tells you, the enthusiasm and joy for life is for you to experience 

Mahaan

Here's another story:

Along the bottom of the river Ganges lived a village of creatures whose way of life was to cling tightly to the rocks on the river bed, and to resist the current of the river. One of them 'Siddharth the adventurous' got tired of clinging. The monotony wearied him. He decided to place his trust in the current and allow it to take him where it would.

His parents and friends cautioned him about the current. "It will smash you against the rocks and kill you". But Siddharth did not heed them...and let go. Immediately he stumbled and then was tossed against the hard rocks...which only strengthened Siddhart's resolve not to cling again.

In time, the current lifted him free from the bottom and he got bruised and hurt no more. The clinging creatures saw him and marvelled at him, hailing him as 'Mahaan -the great'.

Siddharth, swaying in the current said, "I am no greater than any of you. Dare to let go and the river will lift you free and you will discover your true worth". The creatures still clinging, cried "Mahaan!". Siddharth flowed past, leaving the creatures to cling and make legends of a Mahaan.

The story reminded me  'Jonathan Livingston Seagull'  an old time favorite.

The Lost Key

I love stories, and the other day I chanced upon a book with some wonderful single page stories. Here's one:

A neighbour found Nasruddin on his hands and knees near a lamppost, searching for something. The neighbour asked, "what are you searching for?"

"My key"

Now, both men got on their knees to search. After a while the neighbour asked, "where did you lose it?"

"At home"

"Good Lord, then why are you searching here?"

"hmmm.....because it is bright here".

So...Do you end up searching for solutions where it is convenient, rather than where you actually need to look for them........how serious are you about solving your problems?

Almost like 'Manna'

I know that's a quirky title, but you'll get it when you read.

My other option for title was 'what happens when you walk with a foodie'. I've been doing my walks with Amit for a while now, and he comes up with this fine idea. He's like, 'smitha akka, tomorrow let's walk to the metro station (which is 2.5 kms from home), take the metro, go to cubbon park, walk again, and then I'll take you to this masala dosa place. You have to experience it.'

Cubbon park, and masala dosa.....and I was in. We got Swaroop also to join, and by next morning a couple more of his friends also got roped in.

As the plan starts to take shape, he tells me about the place. He says....it's a quaint old place, like it's just always been there, no one knows how old it is. There's a queue for the food, a longer queue for if you want the masala dosa, and a smaller one for the other stuff they have, which is idli and kaali dosa and pulau. That's full menu. And what's more, you get only half a masala dosa, you can't even order more. Sounded intriguing enough, and he's like 'be prepared, it's not any fancy place'.

Inspite of all the preparation, it took us so by surprise, actually shock is closer to truth. For one, I couldn't even see the eatery anywhere, no board, no building... nothing, all I could see was the queue. In fact it felt like walking into a temple, the whole place was very temple like (it is in temple grounds), idols everywhere, people praying.

Swaroop almost backed off in fact, like after seeing the queue. He tried saying let's do the small queue, but Amit had his mind set on the legendary masala dosa you see...so long queue it was. That's Chimpy, Amit's friend, at the end of the queue.

That's the place, a small, fairly dilapitated shack between these two huge peepal trees

This is the entrance, and it's almost hard to believe, apart from how it looks (will reserve any further adjectives), it's like bordering on some crazy sort of classism.......the ones who want masala dosa get to go in, and the others of the smaller queue, eat out on a little bench which seats six.

It boasts two dingy rooms, with a stacked capacity of about twenty. No tables, just old benches against the wall. They'll first come and give you a leaf plate with a banana leaf on it, and you're sitting there holding it till he comes, and then he serves per his order. You only get to say yes or no. Idli, pulao, kaali dosa, and then after a further twenty minute wait, the famed 'half masala dosa'.

And we got the smaller room. Did I mention it felt like a temple before...well, here it was more like pujari's house kinds. It's cluttered not just on the walls but everywhere, with huge dishes for the idlis and sambar and buckets for the chutney. It's got zero ventilation, it's hot and sweaty...... So much so I forgot to take a picture of the masala dosa, even the half of it.

That's Siddappa, the owner, the one who's perched on a platform. He's known to be pretty snappy, and true to reputation, we see atleast two guys face his ire. One for sitting near the idols (right corner, but there is no other place to sit) and one I think for trying to break the queue.

He has this amazing system. You eat, wash your hands from a drum....go to him, (he's sitting way outside), he has pieces of old newspaper with which you wipe your hand, and you tell him what you ate and pay him there, (he does not even cross check) and he's sitting with this big cash stack right there. He was as quaint and interesting as the place.

It's temple grounds so there's this Hanuman idol right there, and as you're in the queue, there are the regular temple visitors coming in for prayer too. Hard to explain the feel of that experience. 

That's Amit, Swaroop and me after about an hour of waiting. we couldn't believe we'd stuck it out. Swaroop right from the beginning, and me somewhere half way in, essentially after hearing that there was no coffee. Amit I don't think had even a moment of doubt. That's commitment to food.

This tree, and some idols at its base (again snakes) is the main temple I think, lots of people coming there for prayers

                              

That's the place, and there are all these idols there, all snake idols, the naga devata idol kinds. And those six people you see to the far left. They are the lesser mortals who didn't want masala dosa, thats where they get to sit and eat. In fact Swaroop pleaded some sanity saying let's do atleast that smaller queue, but Amit was clear...only masala dosa.

                                       

It's hard to believe how the place works. The foods good, the dosa was good, the pulau was brilliant,(I took two servings so early in the morning), the idly was decent,  but then I thought the dosa at our local bandi behind home was way better.... and idly, I for sure think vijji aunty's idlis are way way better, so I don't know what about this place makes it work like this. 

The only explanation that fit is that there is some energy at work there.  It felt like going to a temple and then paying for the prasaadam. My faith in 'sthana balam' definitely grew stronger.

Amit, dosa and idly I don't know...but an intriguing and fascinating experience it sure was :)

Closure

I've been writing a few posts on closure over the last month. Yesterday was yet again a closure, a closure of one of the most, no, the most, intense courses I've ever done. Pretty literally a one year journey into oneself. 

What propelled me to join the BSIC course, (Basic Skills in Counselling) is an innate interest in people.......plus maybe some kind of a lofty ideal of being able to enable clarity and joy. Also a native interest in psychology, human behavior, self awareness and such. Little did I know that to learn how to do counselling and therapy one would need to parallely go through an intensive and long term process of therapy oneself. 

It is said that unless the counsellor is self actualized, how can she (he) self actualize the client. 

"If there were indeed such a thing as complete self actualization, what is (facts) and what ought to be (values) would fuse - our authentic self would match our value and there would be no more conflict"  - Becoming Naturally Therapeutic 

So you can imagine the process...it pretty much rips through you. And this was something each of the twelve of us who journeyed the year committed ourselves to. And what a deep and intense journey that was. You get challenged from every side, and sure, also held and supported from every side, but there's no taking away the tremendous churn it creates. At one time the most difficult, and the most fulfilling of experiences and learnings.

It's about being inner directed, and nicely described in 'Becoming Naturally Therapeutic'by Jaquelyn Small:

• Break old structures and try new behaviors 
• Personal growth comes from personal interactions, not individually
• Do away with the self consciousness of the adolescent in you (move away from everything happens because of me)
• Learn to know and accept your strengths....and your limitations
• Within the above boundaries exploit your potential to the best
• Life is a series of choices (growth or regression). Make choices for growth
• Listen to your natural impulses, your intuition
• Be fully alive, and enjoy living
• Find challenges in life
• Develop stress hardiness, so that your coping is transformational rather than regressive
• Balance your development in all the planes.....mental, physical, emotional and spiritual

If I started to write in depth, I think I'd write a book :)

There's a cohesion and rigour to the structure of the course that's mind blowing....the two words I'm left with are 'beautiful' and 'intense'

Beyond the regular course content done through the year, we had weekly individual sessions of personal counselling (around forty sessions) ten weeks of process group (which has intriguing objectives like making the invisible visible, enacting the withheld, owning the disowned) my first such experience and it was fascinating, then a personal 'transactional analysis', which is done through a questionnaire consisting of 56 unbelievably incisive questions, which are then analysed by a TA expert, and learning on spirituality and counselling from an expert who has spent twenty years working on body, mind and spirit connect, which was almost transcendental in depth. 

A whole year of this and it sure has it's impact. .......you know yourself like never before, and not just know yourself, you find you've undergone a metamorphosis.  And now it's all you....there is no karma, no childhood issues, no genetics, no pointing fingers......no nothing. You have full ownership for your life. In the here and now. Self awareness at levels I hadn't dreamt of. Very powerful....scary too....but fundamentally empowering.

Now you'd get why this closure could have been intense.

That's all twelve of us in a groupie:

L to R, sitting Fariha and Monica and standing Kshitij, Shweta, Meby, Thomas, Malini, Suma, Asha, Preethi, me and Saurabh

This one's with Sharada (right front)  Gayatri and Vinitha,(behind her), our dearest facilitators for the year 

This is outside Parivarthan

After that intense and heavy closure, we went out for a much needed cheers, to this place most aptly called 'hangover' :)

To the entire team at Parivarthan......Sharada, Gayatri, Vinitha, Malini, Shabnam, Manish, Veenal, Snehal, Padma, Sophie, and Leo ........through that ten minutes of absolute spellbound silence when we closed ........... when there wasn't a dry eye in the room......it was our gratitude that overflowed.