Friday, June 24 Gandhi's ashram in Sevagram

The trip to Sevagram ashram was quite exhausting...since I took a sleeper bus and the journey was 13 hours long and I hardly got any sleep on the bus. I had a little more luck though on the journey back; I think I probably slept a few hours. Going to Sevagram, I unfortunately had to share a double bed, but on the way back I was able to book beforehand and got a single compartment. But the trip to Gandhi’s ashram was nonetheless memorable. I met a lot of good ppl and staying in the ashram will probably be the closest experience I will have to living in a village.

There are roughly about 12 ppl who practice in the ashram and they maintain a very strict schedule. I think they wake up at 4 am and they do it 7 days a week. Not sure how they manage it. Some have lived there for twelve plus years. However, the ashram has about 10-12 families and also workers to maintain it...it’s a big ashram. I hope that the ppl in the ashram didn’t expect that I was going to follow the schedule...I was so sleep deprived the entire trip and the mosquitoes gave me hell during the night. The people were very welcoming...and I didn’t have much trouble fitting right in.

 Lalita is from Assam and she has lived in the ashram for over 6 years. Her father passed away three days ago and she is taking a 3 day train back to Assam on Monday...very nice person and kindly gave me some toothpaste because I forgot to bring some...before that I used a bar-soap as toothpaste to test the saying of "washing out mouth with soap." It is an experience that I would rather not describe nor repeat. I followed her around the town center of Sevagram (a 1km walk from the ashram). She had to go to a tailor for him to make her two new kurta-pajama.








 Lunch is a quiet event...and only is for the ppl who live in the ashram and are part of the schedule. In many ways, I feel kinda lucky that I was able to have lunch with them...even though I hardly took part in the schedule. After anyone finishes eating, he/she cleans and washes their plate, not with soap but ash. 

I also felt really happy that there were a number of really cute children in the ashram...it certainly took away some of the somber atmosphere. The kids were really playful and excited to see someone new...although I didn’t understand a word what the boy was saying, he really was a chum...and the little girl too, she was really cute, playful, and shy.

 At about 2 pm, about four ppl in the ashram would do the cotton spinning wheel to extract threads from cotton balls as visitors snap pictures and this happens everyday at the exact time.

 

 I saw this family when I was heading back to my room because I couldn’t stand the heat and needed to take a quick shower. I was told by one person from the ashram that I was lucky to have come this weekend instead of 10 days ago when the temperature shot up to 48C--that’s like 114 Fahrenheit! The girls in the group were all giggling when they saw me wearing a lungi and I thought I probably would want to take a family photo but decided that I need to take a shower desperately before I come too close to anyone..and if they happen to be there once I’m finished, I’ll take a few snaps. They turned out to be a really wonderful group of ppl...friendly, funny, and from the local town of Wardha (6 km from Sevagram). I tried to guess who was related to whom and it was quite challenging. It’s not one family but several families altogether--they’re relatives though.

5:30 is dinner and then at 6:30 is prayer at the prayer ground and by this time most of the visitors have already left. Here they chant some verses in the Gita and the Lord’s prayer (this stems from the belief of Gandhi that all religions are equal). After 30 minutes of chanting, residents were free to either go to bed or do some more devotional songs or readings from some of Gandhi’s writings. We sang the first night and after 30 minutes of singing the rain came and the ppl joked that after a hot spell during the last 10 days... god has finally answered our prayer with rain.

While they were singing, I sat in meditation.

This was right after prayer.

Thursday 24, 2011 Gandhi's ashram in Sevagram

Okay folks, I'm going to Gandhi's ashram in Sevagram tonight and I'll be there for the entire weekend. The bus ride is 12.5 hours and I won't get there until 7:30 in the morning...it's a sleeper bus so hopefully I could get some rest. The ashram is where Gandhi stayed for 7 years when he was in his late 60s to mid 70s. I want to do this to pay my respect for the man but also to taste what life is like in the village.

Siddhartha didn't come home until 8pm...otherwise it would have been a family picture

Last night Dr. V. Rajopadhyay, a Sanskrit schoolteacher from Indore, invited me for dinner with his family. I met him at Bhandarkar and it was his last day in Pune before he and his wife head back to Indore. They've been in Pune for the past 2 months since he was on summer vacation and they have been staying with their son and his wife. Rajo's wife cooked up some really delicious food. Their son Siddhartha is an IT engineer who works very close to the Bhandarkar Institute. Both husband and wife live in a very nice 3 bed/3 baths condo in a very big but quiet apartment complex. Dr. Rajo told me that the rent for a flat like this costs between 15000 to 20000 rupees/month and to buy it would costs roughly about $150,000. Siddhartha showed me around the place and I told him that this would be considered the American dream which is not at all attainable in San Francisco b/c of the sky-high rent in SF.

Dr. Rajo also showed me how to tie a dhoti and the different styles, but when I got back home I totally forgot how to do it until Renjeet showed it to me and now I can proudly say that I think I can wrap a dhoti. Anyways, folks I will probably not report anything in the next 3-4 days due to the remoteness of the ashram. I will leave on Sunday in the evening and won't be back in Pune until morning.

Sunday in Mahabaleswar June 19, 2011

Do you want to take a guess what this woman is selling? I'll tell you later in the blog

On Sunday, I took it really easy in Mahabaleswar...didn’t go anywhere, did some shopping for people back home and really enjoy my last few hours before I took the bus back to Pune at 3 pm. Having lived at Zen Center for several years, I really learned to appreciate the fact that we try to get all of our produce locally and organically...and so many ways I’m very spoiled now...that I don’t even bother with Safeway or any produce that is not grown sustainably or locally. I wonder how people back home feel when I tell them that the stuff that I bought in India is either made locally or grown organically. India is just full of beautiful stuff that has either been handmade or grown locally. I don’t think there’s any feedlot or anything like that...and thank god for that. I sometimes see farmers with a bunch of goats crossing a very busy street intersection. It’s kinda funny, because they would completely stop traffic for like a minute which is an impossible thing to do in India.

The beautiful girl who made some incredible knitted clothing.

In Mahabaleswar, I saw a shop where they had knitted sweaters and shirts...very beautiful. I also found out that it was made there in Mahabaleswar and that the the person who made it was also the one who was working at the store...I was delighted when I saw her. I found out from the owner that she spent 3 to 4 days knitting the sweater that I bought for my sister...I was really moved when I learned that and told her that I really think she is really good at what she does and that my sister will be very happy when I show it to them. As I was going over my photos...I kinda hate myself for forgetting to take pictures of the beautiful clothing that I saw....darn. Surprisingly there were also 2 or 3 Kashmir stores in Mahabaleswar and I thought that I should get a Kashmiri shirt for my sister as well because this will probably be the closest as I will get to a Kashmiri shirt since I have no plans whatsoever to go anywhere close to the Himalayas this time around in India.

I forgot to take pictures of the clothes that were hanging on the wall. Maybe because I was really awed by what I saw.

Nothing else was used other than this knitting needle.

 So have you figured out what the woman was selling? It's the local honey in Mahabaleswar with all the small bees and honeycomb too. At first I saw a few ppl gathering around her and the flat half circle pancake size shape couldn’t help me figure out what she was selling. The color of it didn’t help either. At first I thought it was something unappetizing. Then after walking back and forth in the bazaar a few times, I decided to stop and take a look. With some help from the other visitors I learned that it was honey from Mahabaleswar. Ever since I've been on my trip, I haven't had any coffee or honey. While I don't miss coffee as much b/c I drink so much chai here in India, I do however miss honey. I tasted it and to my satisfaction it tasted so different than any other honey that I have ever had. I'm not saying that it's better than the organic honey from zen center...it's just different...it's not crazy sweet like some of the processed ones that I  have tasted in the past. And while at Zen Center sometimes it takes forever to liquify our honey from solid chunks which can be so troublesome to get for something so sweet, this one is quite runny...I've been using it for breakfast in my cereal...YUM!

Tour of Mahabaleswar: Saturday June 18

Don’t get me wrong, traveling alone has many advantages but at times it can get pretty lonely especially when you are not in a tour group where there are also fellow travelers. Going to Mahabaleswar during off-season could also be a recipe for disaster. The guidebook said that I should be able to take a local bus that charges a very small fee and will take me to most of the important drop points where I can see breathtaking scenery of Mahabaleswar. Unfortunately, there were no buses running the tour during off-season and so I was stuck paying a thousand rupees for 4-5 hours in a private cab. Really it’s quite a bargain...for western standards but still a lot of money nonetheless. I tried to force the driver to find me another group of ppl so that I only have to pay half...but he kinda laughed at the idea. Mahabaleswar during the monsoon is known to be a place where newly wed couples go for their honeymoon and it is close to nearly impossible to find anyone to share a cab with. And so I was stuck paying 1000 rupees if I wanted a tour of the place.

This kinda reminded me of the mixed-experience I had in Mumbai when the tour bus drove us around to see mediocre science museums and 3D theaters. I realized that I didn’t go to India to see these things but to be with the ppl and to learn from them. For me, it’s very much about cultural learning than anything else. The private tour was pretty cool...although rushed, b/c I can understand that he wanted to maximize his running time in one day. He drove very fast as we zoom down curve ridges that were probably at least 1000 feet up...and sometimes it would get so misty that visibility was reduced to nil. He’s a very good driver but I sometimes wonder whether he got into any life-threatening accidents.

 There were many small waterfalls on the way to Pratapgadh fort...we stopped at a decent size one for me to take a few pics. I wonder where all the water go...because I see this tunnel that channels all the water...probably down into the valley. We got to the fort...in less than no time and the driver informed me that I had about an hour to see this place. I was a little frustrated when I found out later that we could have spent at least 2 more hours here in the fort. The fort is really nice and would have offered some breathtaking views but unfortunately it is so misty in June that it felt like we were up somewhere above the clouds. As I walked up the hundreds of steps to the very walls of the fort, there were small settlements of ppl setting up their shops. I think that they probably also live in the fort. I’m a little jealous at how they have all these beautiful scenery all to themselves...but it must be a very hard life for the locals who stay here. The wind and cold can be a little too much at times.

I think the family also lives where they work...These steps led me to the fort

This is the wall of the fort and over it is at least a 50 foot drop.

The view over the fort...the landscape was completely covered by mist...it reminded me of the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon at the end when the girl jumped off the cliff and floated in the clouds.

 Next we drove to old Mahabaleswar to see a couple of temples. The darnest thing about India is that you cannot take pictures inside temples. So I didn’t want to risk the wrath of the priest who were on the lookout for any transgressor. But the temple was probably the most natural temple that I saw...simple but a very nice concept. There was cold natural water from 5 rivers that merged together entering the temple and the water comes out of a bull’s mouth. The locals would drink and wash their faces and heads; they also dip their feet in the pool too. I also stopped at another temple and you know what was really cool was actually talking to some of the locals there who were born in Mahabaleswar and have lived there for their entire lives. I wish I knew Hindi...our conservation would have been a lot better.

One of the important points: Kate's Point.

From there we went to a famous point that was a sheer 100 foot drop. Lots of greenery and little monkeys too. And believe it or not...my tour was over just like that. I was hella disappointed when they dropped me off at the lake when it was hardly even 1 in the afternoon. They told me that to get back to the main bazaar in town, I could walk the 2 km which takes roughly about 15 minutes. So I decided that it was probably best instead having them drop me directly into town.

I chilled at the lake for about half an hour before I decided to trek the main road back to town. I walked for about 20 minutes before I saw these steps that led me away from the main road. It didn’t take me long for me to make up mind to get away from the main road b/c there were still a lot of cars and traffic.
 

Main road leading back to town...but I decided to take a detour.

I walked up the steps and saw another side of Mahabaleswar...a more village and less traffic side. Locals were all studying me...I walked back and forth to see what was going on...and then continued to walk in the direction back to my hotel. Then I saw a sign that said if I wanted to go to Wilson Point...one of the 11 important points that one must see here in Mahabaleswar... I must go left. It didn’t take me long either to decide whether I want to walk back to the hotel or to the point. It was about 2 pm by now...and I checked with the guide book that said that Wilson Point is actually a good short hike and that one should get there before dusk if hiking. I walked in the direction of the point but also asking the locals if I’m going in the right direction. The whole experience felt like I was in some kinda fantasy video game or something.

Wilson Point...I think it's more of a plateau once I'm at the top

 I was probably the only one walking to the point. It was somewhat spooky and eery...since there was really no one around. One car passed me and was going in the opposite direction. There were so many times on this trip that I just wanted to turn back and walk straight back to the hotel b/c who knows what I was getting myself into...but again I thought a chance like this was not going to come again if I miss this opportunity. I guess there was a part in myself that just wanted to get lost in Mahabaleswar. And I’m glad I didn’t give in to my crazy and mindless fears. After trekking uphill for about 10 minutes, I finally got up to this flat plateau...It must be some kind of a plateau or something otherwise how the hell is it so flat...and it was wide and large too. There was this huge radio tower that reminds me of the one in SF. There...thank god I saw some ppl. It was encouraging because it was quite desolate for a very big beautiful place like Wilson Point.

Wilson Point is really quite a magical place. There I saw a farmer tending his oxens; he was all clad in a hoodie and shorts sitting on a rock looking all lonesome but happy. I thought about hanging around for about an hour before I head back but since I didn’t have a jacket with me...enduring the blistering wind can be quite something. I was there for about half an hour before I ran into a group of 11-12 IT workers who were from Mumbai and were spending their weekend exploring the different points in Mahabaleswar and the fort that I went to earlier in the morning. They were nice enough to actually take me along with them...when they figured that I was traveling all by myself and that I didn’t see all the points that I wanted to see in Mahabaleswar.

We hung out together for about 5 hours; had lunch and went to most of the important points but really having a really great time with people who were about my age. Really, all the important points were all fogged up. I like to tell ppl that the weather was so nice in Mahabaleswar that you could hardly see anything. The temperature was fantastic...while Delhi and the rest of India are suffering in the stifling heat of 100 to 110 degrees everyday...Mahabaleswar is really like a magical landscape where everything was so green and damp. The temperature hovers in the high 60s to low 70s. But everything was so misty that it really was impossible to see anything other than the clouds and fog.

Friday June 17 (local bus to Mahabaleswar)

On Friday, I took a bus to Mahabaleswar at 2 pm which is a hill-station 3 hours on the local bus. It’s funny how when I tell ppl that I want to visit Sevagram (an ashram that Gandhi stayed for over 7 years), I always get this question as to what is there in Sevagram. However, everyone knows the attraction of Mahabaleswar. My roommates joke that the bus driver might think that I’m on the wrong bus if I’m taking the local buses from Pune to Mahabaleswar because number one: I’ll probably be the only foreigner since there will hardly be any tourist this time of year and number two: no one goes to Mahabaleswar during the monsoon from June to the end of September, not even the locals. I read in the guidebook that during the 100 days of the monsoon, the heavens could dump rain of biblical proportions--up to 7 meters of water. They also told me that riding in the local buses can be quite an experience, esp. the smell. I was not too thrill when I heard it but then again it’s going to be a new experience for me whether pleasant or unpleasant. Fortunately, the bus to Mahabaleswar was practically empty. The seat that I was sitting for some reason was kinda damp and after suffering in a wet seat for 15 minutes, I asked the conductor if I could change seats since there were less than 6-10 ppl on the bus. I didn’t want to ask at first b/c I thought every other seats were going to be damp and that this was probably one of the many downside of traveling in a local bus. Luckily, all the other seats were dry.

 The drive to Mahabaleswar was very pleasant. The air for a change was not polluted but fresh and re-energizing. Now that I’ve been in India for over a month, I can safely say that the air in the cities can be very polluted wherever you go...it’s not just in Delhi that the air quality is bad...even Pune is pretty bad too. Since I take an autorickshaw pretty much everyday, I must have breathed in my fair share of car smog...and carbon monoxide. I feel like I might have shorten several days of my life-span breathing in all that carbon monoxide and cigarette smoke from my roommates who like to smoke a few times in the morning and evening. My roommates who smoke have terrible coughs...sometimes too terrible...but it doesn’t dawn on them to give up smoking...not sure the reason why. Then again, Vikas doesn’t think he’ll make it past 65, even though I told him that at that age Americans think about retirement...not their deathbeds. I also think that pollution definitely has something to do with the short life-span of people who live in the city compared to the villages. In Pune, I’ve seen a lot of women covering half of their faces with handkerchieves to reduce the carbon monoxide fumes.

But back to Mahabaleswar. The scenery was very green with a lot of overcast conditions. It kinda reminded me of my trip to Utah when I helped Carol moved from San Francisco to Boulder, Colorado. There were dappled settlements and villages but mainly the low regions were dominated by farmlands with the higher-regions mainly uninhabited with lots of greenery. On reaching Mahabaleswar, it was like being lost in some kind of fantasy world that you only see in video games....seriously. I can’t imagine any place in the US that comes closest to it. It was very misty when I got there and was like that pretty much every day...it rained too. And the rain with the combination of heavy mist produced a really strange sensation. The temperature probably did not go above 60 to 65 degrees. It took me a little bit of trouble to find my hotel...and had dinner, but Mahabaleswar is a very small place because all the restaurants and shops and hotels are clustered in a 10 minute walk from one end to the other end.

Sometimes it was so misty that you can't see for more than 10 feet ahead

Last Saturday at Aga Khan Palace (6/11/2011)

Staying with the guys on the weekends is a pretty boring affair. I quickly realized that I would pretty much waste my entire weekend if I didn't find anything to do. The guys after a long week of work don't like to get up until noon and because of the rain-showers, they don't like to go anywhere...which is understandable. So for them, the entire weekend was spent watching movies...one after another. Hence, I think I am doing the right thing by using my weekend to travel around India and not stay in Pune.

So last Saturday afternoon, I took a rickshaw to the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. The place was where Gandhi, his wife, and a number of other important Congressional Leaders were jailed in the 1940s for a few years. His wife, Kasturba and his personal secretary of 35 years, Mahadev Desai died there.


 It rained but it was a nice place to visit b/c it was tranquil and beautiful. I visited the room in which Gandhi and his wife must have lived in and was completely sealed off, and the place where the ashes of his secretary, his wife, and some of his were buried.

There is this huge painting of Gandhi touching the body of his wife as she laid dying. Afterwards, I went down to the place where the ashes were buried. Going there I felt this quiet tranquility which is almost impossible to find here in India with all its noise and pollution. It would have been nice if I had some company.

I'm not sure how accurate the movie was. But from the movie, Margart White was seen interviewing Gandhi at the Aga Khan palace walking down these steps...

The ashes of his secretary and wife with mango trees surrounding the courtyard.

 This Saturday I thought about making another pilgrimage to Gandhi's ashram in Sevagram but had to cancel it when I found out that it was pretty hard to find accommodations for the next 7-10 days b/c there is some kind of 75th anniversary going on at the ashram and tons of people are flocking there to celebrate it. I could go and be with the crowd but my house-mate after talking to the hotel manager at Sevagram said that it was a bad idea to go this weekend if my intention was to learn more about the lifestyle of Gandhi while he lived there for 7 years in the ashram. The people at the ashram will be too busy this weekend preparing for the celebration that they will not have time to show me around. I'll probably go to Nasik this weekend which is about a 5 hour bus ride from Pune and visit other cities that are around Pune. And then go to Sevagram next weekend. However, Vikas suggested that I should go to Mahabaleshwar instead b/c right now it is supposed to be very scenic...I'm a little skeptical but we shall see.

The entire 4th week (June 6-10, 2011)

Sorry folks about not posting anything for the past number of days. There were a lot of minor setbacks this week. The monsoon has finally arrived here in the western front of India particularly Mumbai and Pune. The monsoon hasn’t swept into Delhi or Varanasi yet. So far the rain has been steady in Pune...it isn’t bad like the ones I have seen in Aurangabad...but it brings with it power outage...internet outage...and all kinds of other outage. The internet was down for about an entire day on Thursday. The temperature has been in the upper 70s to low 80s even with the rain and so there’s this kind of tropical rainforest humidity when I step out of the building to go to Bhandarkar. I don’t even bother to wear a jacket anymore, actually shorts and a long sleeve shirt would do just fine in this kind of humid temperature--the only problem is that I only brought one pair of shorts. Wearing a white lungi is kinda of a bad idea b/c there are pools of mud and rain water and since there are hardly any sidewalks...a lot of times I have to walk out on the streets and with cars driving by, the mud puddles splashed all over my clothes and body. The locals seem to be fine...the women especially still wear saris and such. Not sure how they keep themselves clean...then again they don’t wear white saris but very colorful ones.

Maneeshi is the 15 year old maid for Aradhana. She doesn't go to school, her mom & dad are both gardeners and they just migrated from a place in Maharastra where there was a really bad earthquake. I learned from Aradhana that the mother is reluctant to send her to school. She's really a beautiful girl and always seem quite happy. I really wish her the best.

Maneeshi's sister...very shy and almost burst into tears when I wanted to take a picture of her. I was really touched by both children.

The plight of poor people...children and women can be overwhelming. It is sometimes hard for me to see so much suffering here in India...but there is also so much beauty and happiness even in people who really don't have anything. It's really quite inspiring to see how the poor people, both young and old work so hard for so little.

I’ve been going to Bhandarkar everyday to study for a few hours before heading home. Our cook is back from his trip on Tuesday; meanwhile, Vikas and Bhavesh had gone to Madhya Pradesh for a small wedding on Thursday evening--they won’t be back until Wednesday afternoon. The house has been quiet. I’ve decided to take this weekend off instead of going anywhere because I felt that I needed more rest this weekend before I venture off again next weekend.

I tried to capture the intensity of the downpour for you guys back home so that you all believe me when I say that in India...it doesn't just rain alone, it comes down in buckets...but it is actually quite hard to do so. This comes pretty close. But actually in Pune, it's really not that bad compare to some other places. Then again, the only time that I got really scared in Pune was that motorbike ride to the bus stop for Aurangabad...when I saw a flash of lightning followed by very loud thunder.

Ellora Caves & around Aurangabad June 4, 2011

The tour to Ellora caves and around Aurangabad was really rushed. I wish they had split it into two tours. There are 34 caves in Ellora and we only went to the three major ones: 2 Buddhists and 1 Hindu. We also covered a fort in Aurangabad which has some magnificent views but the most memorable part of exploring that fort was walking completely in the dark, in a passage that were full of bats and their smelly guano. However, the view was well worth it once we got up to the top. The fort was built and defended by the Muslims and the numerous false passages as our guide explained lead to a 30 feet drop down a moat that was full of crocodiles and snakes (there were no crocodiles, but plenty of snakes).

The guide said that the moat is about 1 meter deep.

Our party was a party of twelve with two Americans from the East Coast. Carlin has been living in India for a year and will continue to live in Mumbai for the next two years with her partner, Michael. She works for some kind of non-profit agency that works with the street kids in Mumbai and she gave me her contact info...I think it would be very interesting to see what she does.

 Another pair that I talked to, Sidharth and Sridevi also have an interesting story to tell me. They recently converted to Buddhism from Hinduism because they were from a low-caste. They had a Buddhist marriage in their village in Bangalore in which caste cease to exist. The wife is a medical administrator and the husband works as an electrical engineer. Sidharth for some reason doesnʼt smile a whole lot in pictures--he always has this grin on his face...however, he seems to be a nice guy though. I just hope that I didnʼt offend the two of them b/c I covered their lunch tab. They didnʼt seem very happy when I did that...maybe next time I should really let anyone who want to pay for my lunch do it, even though I did cover Pratap and Shilpa yesterday and while they were reluctant at first, they were fine afterwards. Maybe class is something of an issue that I am not really unaware of.

 The Ellora caves is a lot bigger than the Ajanta ones and I found out today from my guide that the first 13 caves were Buddhist...they were commissioned by the Emperor Asoka at the beginning of the 2nd century BC. Buddhism ruled India for 800 years until the resurgence of the Hindu and the decline of Buddhism in India after the 7th century AD. The Kailash temple was built completely out of mountain rock and it was quite spectacular...I didnʼt get to explore it much b/c by the time we got there...fatigue was really an issue--it was already 1:30 and the humidity didnʼt help either. . Besides, Sidharth and Sridevi, being a convert Buddhist, didnʼt want to have anything to do with Hinduism. So the three of us actually sat in the shade watching people passing by. We actually sat very close to a bunch of monkeys...they were like a feet away from me. At first I wanted to take a picture to show you guys how close we were to the monkeys but Sridevi told me that one should never disturb the monkeys otherwise they will bite...one shouldnʼt even pat them on the back or even touch them...letting them be is the best thing to do. Taking a picture was out of the question because they could snatch the camera and run away with it since they have never seen cameras before and are curious as to what it does.

 I told them that the only time we get to see monkeys is in zoos...not out in the caves and such. India is this crazy and unique country where there are quite a number of wildlife living alongside people. There were many beautiful birds..and what struck me was that they werenʼt afraid in terms of the proximity of people. I saw a small little bird on the way to Ajanta sipping water from a pipe that was dropping a little bit of water every few minutes.

The Ellora caves have many buddhist statues that are not well-preserved...hopefully someday the glory of the caves will be restored back to its former beauty...even if it means tampering with the past. And yes, I did see the room chamber...instead of being a double bed like the ones in Ajanta, this
time it is single with a pillow made completely out of rock...OUCH. Also the tour guide told us that these caves are not permanent residence...they are merely just to have monks stay for a few nights in each room before they move on to another monastery I guess.

Many of the pictures for some reason came out terribly...they were really bleary and bleed all over--I think it has something to do with the dilapidated conditions of the statues themselves.

It didnʼt feel much like a tour today given the fact that we tried to cover so many grounds in one day. What I did a lot of was taking my time talking to people in my group and people watching.

Ajanta Caves: A Buddhist Paradise June 3, 2011

I wanted to book the Ellora tour on Friday and the Ajanta on Saturday, but unfortunately the guys at the hotel said that the Ellora had been cancelled and only the Ajanta was available. At first I didn't believe him so I took a rickshaw to another hotel after calling that hotel...thinking that there was still a possibility for the Ellora. Thank goodness I arrived at the very nick of time. The Ajanta was supposed to leave at 8:30 and I arrived only to find out that there was no Ellora tour because hardly anyone signed up. So the decision was quick...the Ajanta it was. Even the Ajanta didn't have that many people; we were a party of 10 at most...but boy did it turn out to be a fun day. It was a good group too. I had a great time with my party...met Shilpa, a nice girl in my party, and saw some really nice Buddhist sculptures and wall-paintings. The bus left at about 9:00 and we picked up a number of ppl along way who rode the bus to go to their villages.

I think everyone in the group was related except for Shilpa and her brother, Pratap.

The bus ride to Ajanta was very much like Aurangabad...lots of farm land and villages. We had a 10 minute rest stop where I saw a family at work...the father was watering the cows and the daughter was chasing after the goats.

Going to Ajanta was like going down to Tassajara valley...very curvy roads running down to a valley. When we reached Ajanta, we had to take another bus that took us to Ajanta proper. There I bought my entry ticket, and had to run after my group. The temperature was bearable.

I wish there were more lights in the Ajanta caves b/c we had to turn off our flash. This was to prevent the further deterioration of the paintings. But without flash, it was really hard to take any pictures; most of the pictures came out pretty blurry. But Ajanta is one of those places where you kinda need an entire day to absorb and appreciate all the beauty of the Buddhist sculptures and paintings. The caves were begun in the 2nd century BC up until the 6th century AD. From the tour guide, I learned that it was not made by monks but artists who were commissioned by the rulers of those time. I think we had less than 3 hours to actually see all the caves...we started at noon and had to be back at our bus stop at 3 for the ride back. The tour guide was great, he had to explain both things in Hindi and English...he was an old man but very helpful. The caves started out with the Hinayana tradition which did not idolized the Buddha in personal form...instead they created a big stupa in a hallway-kind of cave. Then gradually with the emergence of the Mahayana we began to see the bodily form of Buddha and boddhisattvas...and boy was it worth it.

The earlier caves are like this. 

Some memorable parts were: the cell that the monks stayed in and the wall relief of Buddha's pari-nirvana (his final nirvana, i.e., death). About the cell, it is small as hell; it's probably about 6x7 made for two monks. Even I had trouble reclining because my body could not exactly fit the dimensional length. My head would be right up against the wall and my feet probably an inch away from the other wall and I am only 5'8. So anyone taller than me would not fit....I bet the monks were very short. The beds are made entirely out of the rocks from the cave...and Pratap (Shilpa's brother who went to the Ellora caves yesterday) said that one of the cave in Ellora even had a pillow made out of rock as well.

Two beds made out of rock! Now that's just too ascetic.

The pari-nirvana is, shall I say, one of the most spectacular piece of work ever. The 8 meter long Buddha is reclining on his right side with two groups of people: one on top and the other at the bottom. The tour guide said that the gods are on top rejoicing since the Buddha will be joining them while the group at the bottom are weeping b/c the Buddha has departed from this world. I wish we had more time in this cave--I probably had less than 10 minutes in here. Shilpa was running cave after cave even though the party was heading back to the bus...she was really excited and probably wanted to stay much longer in Ajanta than the tour allowed us.

It was very hard to capture the entire image of this wall relief because of the columns that were built so closed together...time was also a factor...and the actual length was quite long. 

My party was also very awesome. I got to hang out with Pratap and his beautiful sister Shilpa who are both from Karnataka. He's only 20 and I didn't ask her about her age...I'm guessing probably around 24-25. I'm always bad with age here in India because ppl who are in their early 20s can act and look very mature for their age. Both brother and sister are engineers--she has a master in engineering and works for Microsoft while he's in his final years of college. She's very photogenic and likes to have lots of pictures taken..I didn't have any problem whatsoever with that...my camera was ready to shoot. The other group was like a family...very cool and helpful people.

I like to think of this picture as me, my wife, and our cute little boy.

Okay now to the beautiful hand-made stone-ware that I found in Ajanta. I think I paid a fortune when I came back to the bus with a bag heavy with 3 items. My tour was kinda surprised when they saw me coming back with a bunch of plastic bag...Pratap laughed quite a bit when I told him I've spent roughly about 2000 rupees on these items. For Indian people...that just way too much money on things that they don't really care so much about. I probably bargained really hard too. The merchants were trying to sell me a stone-ware bowl shape for 3000 rupees but I couldn't stomach spending that much especially when I just spent about 1200 rupees a minute ago. So I bargained down to 1000 rupees. But let me just say that even 3000 rupees would be a bargain for us here in the west when you find how it is made. At first I was just really attracted to the beautiful stone-ware without realizing its worth (that it was made by hand in the local villages in and around Ajanta). Before realizing the value of it...I felt kinda bad too for spending that much money on some really heavy crafts...b/c I'm gonna have to carry it back to the US. I thought it was probably also made by machine somewhere in India and probably paid way too much than the correct value.

I luv these stone-ware boxes of Ajanta paintings engraved on them.

Writing this blog makes me want to make another trip to Ajanta just to get these little guys. 

The moment I saw these globular jars...my eyes were hooked. How much is basalt worth? They were trying to sell me the basalt buddha for a little over a thousand rupees. They said that it changes colors when it touches water...and I was thinking of buying one for Zen Center so that we can use it for Buddha's birthday. 

But my tour and Pratap really made my day when they told me that the items that I bought were solely hand-made, no machine whatsoever have been used. My housemates also made me even more happier when they informed me that the art is passed down from family to family...and something like this probably would have taken them one to two days to complete. I'm just happy to know that these are unique items and that they are not the same. After telling me how these crafts have been made, I told my group that these are considered extremely valuable in the US. Something like this could probably be sold for hundreds of dollars if the buyer  knows that it is completely hand-made and unique. I also tried telling them that b/c everything nowadays is made by machine...we Americans don't care so much about things that are made by machine...but when an artist has put in so much effort and work into his art...we value that a lot and so they were kinda happy for me to see how happy I was and how much I valued these crafts.

Now just a thought my roommates suggested to me...why don't I start a business selling India crafts in America? I told them that I'm really bad at business and not sure where to start. But I feel very strongly about helping the poor people of India. If only India can import its incredible goods to the US....even selling it for a fraction of the price, it could probably make tons of difference in the poor local villages. Right now...the villagers are making a measly sum for their labor..and they deserve a lot more than that. Look at all the Greek vases that are now worth millions of dollars...well back in the days...ppl did not prize their work either...and now we only find it in museums. The same goes for here.

A perfect ending to a perfect day.