Epilogue

Hindi has a very appropriate way of saying 29: "Unnatis", literally "One before thirty". I think it captures the feeling very accurately. So, today I am "one before thirty" years old.

* * *

I am also leaving India today. I love India but after 4 months and a tad I feel quite exhausted of the everyday struggle that starts once you leave the guest house's door-step.
So I've decided to spend my last few weeks in Thailand. Thailand is not a place for a Sadhu, not even an electric one. So this is my last post before I seal this blog for good.
Some last updates: First of all, I've added a third and last post about the Vipassana course (dated 22.4), this time a rather informative one.

Secondly, an update regarding Durga and the cow killer. Turns out he's not Greek and he didn't kill no cow- he is the "Buffalo Demon" Mahisasura. Apparently he possessed the poor water buffalo and plagued the world and the poor animal was killed in the cross fire. I added here a somewhat less bloody version than the one I saw in the barbershop.

Bad rep and good fish

I got to Kolkata (the formal name of what was previously known as Calcutta) for two reasons:
First of all, the trip saved me about 65US$ on my flight to Bangkok.
Secondly, it was highly recommended to me by my brother:

"Calcutta is interesting to go through. This is how London is going to look like after the great disaster (It feels a bit like the city in '12 monkeys', only with loads of people). Don't try to avoid it. Good food."

Kolkata is probably the city with the worst PR in the world. An American Peace Corps volunteer who is stationed in Bangladesh told me: "The only reason people think Kolkata is 'the Armpit of the World' is that they have never been to Dhaka".
I found Kolkata to be quite beautiful. Of course, it still is an Indian city, full of beggars and filth, but after 4 month in India, that doesn't prevent me from seeing it's beauty: From the old Raj-era buildings to the vivid markets.

* * *

Finding genuine Bengali food was quite tough though, most restaurants here serve either "standard" Indian food or their version of Chinese. It took me a whole day to find an authentic place, but it was worth every minute of searching. It was a real local restaurant, with the menu written in Bengali on a blackboard.

You don’t have a menu in English, do you?
No sir, come this way.

The waiter took me to the (spotless!) kitchen and showed me the content of the pots: mutton curry, three kinds of fish curry, fish-eggs masala, sabji (vegetable mix)… A Bengali feast for 46Rs.

* * *

I went this afternoon to Eden Gardens, a corner of the city that is supposed to be cooler and laid back. It was 41 degrees and felt like 100% humidity. I got to the gardens with my shirt sticking to my back and my hair to my forehead, only to find a shut gate and the following message:

"Due to the objection of the local armed forces to pay an entrance fee,
The gardens will be closed until further notice"

I went to the Paan-Walla (betel nut seller) stationed near the entrance.

Is it always closed?
No sir, only for the past three months.

GoingToRelax

Daramsala is the lion's den: the Israeli colony per-excellence. It is High-Season in Daramsala and Manali this time of year, since the state of Himachal Pradesh is almost the only livable place in India in the pre-monsoon season.
I came to Daramsala to take two courses. The first was a Hindi course, mostly intended to give me some practice in everyday use of the language. I learnt the basic grammar, reading and writing from a book, but seeing that everybody here speaks quite good English, practicing it is quite difficult.
The second course was a one-week Yoga course with Vijay, a 50 year old teacher who was recommended to me by my Tel-Aviv teacher. Vijay teaches Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga, also known as "Power Yoga". The method emphasizes not only the correct practice of the Asanas (postures) but also the dynamic flow from one Asana to another, and the synchronization of Asana practice with breathing. It's quite exhausting at first, but once I got used to it other methods seem not thorough enough and too "Shanti".
Vijay teaches the standard "First Series" of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga with no shortcuts - about 2.5 hours including warm up and relaxation. What I found unique to him was the odd mixture of instructions in English and chanting in his hollow, penetrating and high pitched voice, mainly during relaxation:

The RightFingersThumbAndBackOfTheHandAhhhhhaaaaaahhhaaaaaaaaaiiii...
GoingToRelaxAhhhhhaaaaaahhhaaaaaaaaaiiii...
The RightWristLowerArmAndElbowAhhaaaaaiiiiAhhaaaaiiiAhhaaaaiii....
GoingToRelaxAhhaaaaaiiiiAhhaaaaiiiAhhaaaaiii....

And so on.

What Is Your Good Name?

“I always prefer taking 2nd class train tickets- it gives me an opportunity to speak with Indians.”

I have heard this sentence so many times, mainly from European travelers, and I must admit to something quite unpopular. On 95% of the time, I hate these train conversations. It’s usually just having the same standard conversation over and over (and over) again.
It will always consist of at least five out of the following ten questions:

What is your good name*? (A must)
Which country?
How much time are you in India?
What is your age?
Are you married?
What is your religion?
Do you eat non-veg?
What do you do in your country?
What is your salary?
What’s your local currency’s worth in Rupees?

At first you like it. Then you get the hang of it, but you still have the patience for it. As time goes buy, you become bored of it, especially on long rides when you have several of these conversations consecutively. I’ve met some travelers who start making up answers (“I’m from Atlantis”, “I’m a Jedi Knight” etc.). I don’t feel like lying, but lately I stopped caring about being understood.

Hello, What is your good name?
Avner.
Alnay?
Yeh, yeh.

* "Good" is added because that is the polite way to ask this in Hindi: "Apka shub naam kia hai? ".

Why do Israeli tourists in India travel the way they do?

This question was posed to me by an American guy in Sikkim. What he meant was clear to both of us: big packs of noisy Israelis, traveling from one "Israeli Colony" (such as Old Manali, Dharamsala or Kasol- "the Petah-Tiqua of the East") to the other, doing nothing but chilling out, namely staying in the guest house, speaking Hebrew, eating Schnitzel and smoking loads of Ganja.
I encountered this phenomenon mainly in my previous trip to India, four years ago. A girl I met on the bus-ride to Delhi back then was a typical specimen of that crowd.

(I) So, where have you been in India?
(She) Well, I was 2 weeks in Delhi, 3 in Old Manali, 3 more in Kasol and now 5 in McLeod Ganj. And you?
I did two treks in Himachal Pradesh with a friend of mine.
Wow, trekking, how energetic of you. We went once on a two hour hike to a waterfall.
Did you meet any non-Israelis in your trip?
There were a few "Tourists" in our guest house, but we kinda ignored them. I don't really feel like talking inEnglish- it's hard enough with the "Locals". Anyway, what's the point, when you can find such charming Israelis all around?

Since Israelis are the real land-lords of India, non-Israelis are usually referred to as "Tourists" or "Foreigners". The Indians, a.k.a. "Locals" are here mainly to serve food and do the laundry (reminds you something from the middle-east?).
So, why indeed is it so?

They just got out of the army, they need to unwind.
That's the standard answer every Israeli gives, and even the "Foreigners" and "Locals" were trained to recite. I simply do not except it. I can speak from my own personal experience: I too needed to "unwind" after my military service, but it didn't mean I wanted my whole trip to revolve around Israelis, quite the opposite. Besides, I see no correlation between the intensity of one's military service and his or hers behavior. I've met ex-combatants who were active and interesting and ex-"Jobnicks" (non-combatant soldiers) who made me move to a different guest-house.

It's just Israeli mentality unveiled
Of course, noisiness and disrespect are not unheard of in Israel, to say the least. The Israeli traveling culture is a reflection of Israeli culture back home. But that doesn't explain the uniformity of this crowd, all looking the same, talking the same, doing the same.

You are all individuals...
I think this homogeneity can be explained by the standard life course in Israel. A European or an American who embarks on such a journey is almost always an individualist- wasting a year of his life going to dirty, disease infested "third world" countries. The conservative conformists stay at home, because a trip like this is not part of the standard life course in the "west".
On the other hand, by the time Israelis are 21-22 years of age, they are expected to do this trip. Of course, I do not have the statistics, but it seems that those who choose not to are the real exceptions. Therefore, the population you get here is a true representation of the population in Israel, consisting of a large majority of herd-like conformists who want to do what everybody else does and a small minority of interesting, diverse individualists. Furthermore, almost all Israelis you meet who are older than the post-army age are like that.

A pleasant surprise
Seeing that this was my experience with Israeli travelers the previous time, when I left Israel this time I thought I'd better stay clear of it all. I also expected Israelis to have a really bad reputation amongst non-Israeli travelers. But I was surprised to find that most non-Israelis I've met had a very good opinion of Israelis, and a lot of them start eating Schnitzel and even learning Hebrew out here. What I didn't take into account was that the tendency to congregate has an up-side to it: if you stay clear of these "colonies" (by, for instance, going to south India which not on the Israeli "map"), again you will find the more interesting individuals.

My Cup of Tea

I started sketching in a beach just south of Goa. Since I decided not to bring along a camera this trip, I thought this could be a good way to pay attention to what I see around me. I had half a notebook full of trial and (mostly) error sketches by the time I got to Yuksom, a village in Sikkim. There I met an Israeli designer, Betzalel graduate, who took one look at my sketch book and said:
Boy, you have serious perspective problems.
After a short one hour course about vanishing points and the correct use of shading I tried sketching the nearest Dhaba (kiosk). Then he gave me some “rejects” and I erased the whole thing and started again (with a caaaalm and quite mind…). After a few rounds of sketching, erasing and vice-versa I was given my first assignment. The cup was re-filled about 5 times before I managed to finish my first half-decent sketch.

Maintaining Perfect Equanimity...

Vipassana is a Buddhist meditation technique. Supposedly, it was invented by Gautama Siddhartha, the Buddha himself, and was preserved throughout the years in Burmese monasteries until it was introduced to the rest of the world by Goenkaji and his Dhamma Organization a few decades ago.
The first third of the course is dedicated to "Ana Pana Meditation"- observing the natural flow of respiration. This is quite difficult because 1) at first it's quite difficult to concentrate on anything for more than 30 seconds and 2) whenever you concentrate on your respiration it immediately becomes controlled and therefore unnatural (try it yourself and see!). After 3 days of practice and "Noble Silence" the mind relaxes and you gain some ability to separate the observing part of the mind from the controlling one.
The last two thirds of the course are the actual Vipassana, or "Internal Insight" practice. The attention is gradually shifted from respiration to sensations by scanning each and every part of the body. With practice the mind's sensitivity to these sensations becomes enhanced, and by the end of the course one feels all kinds of until-then unfamiliar sensations. Is it pleasant? Not necessarily. I did feel my blood pumping in my arteries and sometimes even gentle vibrations throughout my skin surface (a sensation called "Free Flow" in the courses terminology). Yet some sensations were all but pleasant, especially the pain caused due to the long hours of motionlessness.

Get to the point...
So why are all these sensations important? The idea is to experience first-hand the impermanence of all sensations and thus to change our life-long habits of pursuing good sensations and avoiding bad ones. Hence practicing the technique is supposed to help one develop the famous Buddhist Equanimity.

* * *

On the morning of the eleventh day I stood at the gates of the Dhamma Bodhi center blinking at the world that awaited me outside. I felt extremely calm and in control. It was weird to start talking again, my voice sounded strange and unfamiliar. Of course, I returned to "normality" a few days later, but I'd definitely say the course did me good, and I even try to practice now and then.
That doesn't mean I forgot to collect my skepticism and cynicism from the center's reception.