India. Discoveries and gifts

A foreword,

One of the four towers of the Charminar in Hyderabad

               First of all, I must say that there’s so many things to share, so this post might be quite long. As I’m discovering quite a few things and that I’ve had very intense two weeks since my arrival in India. Not even mentioning the almost four year gap since the last post. Gap that I have closed back in august 2017 when going to Quebec in my French blog. As often happens I ll write in the language I most commonly use at the time. So now English. Furthermore, I have not taken a lot of pictures as I approach it as a solitary practice most of the time and was happily making new friendships brought together thanks to a common celebration. As well I enjoyed just seeing the site without having to capture them. This might come across as a hearty texty post then^^

Goa, Hyderabad and Kochin:

               Instantly upon arrival heat welcomed me like a long lost friend, with a big big hug. I chose a very confortable and reassuring arrival, personal taxi preordered to my preordered lodging a few kilometers from the vila where the bachelor party would happen.

               Arrived and settled. Then went to the beach for food a walk and sunbathing. The 2 hour walk might just become a “first day jet lag” ritual for it helps to keep awake where one is on a suboptimal functioning state.

               Talked to a few locals, mostly for economic purposes, and I must say making contact is extremely easy, The whole apprehension and appraisal game is close to non existent. In truth I hear there is one social way of gageing one another but its simply a sort of magical consensus of all parties who instantly understand if they are “higher” or “lower”. I believe with stranger (or westerners) there is such a disconnect that we do not even fit in those categories. Of course street vendors oft initiate the encounter, yet if they are insisting, it is gently so and only but a couple of times. Smiles are prompt genuine and often very warm. Very often I get to exchange smiles. Most of the time I find a sort of candid camaraderie, sometimes a sort of innocent shyness. I had an eyebrow battle with a “biker” from my bus seat. A lot just want to say hi shake my hand and know where I am from.

In general I found most keralans very nice open and accessible, coquettish and candid. Curious and smiling. Playfull and snickering. Teasy and well I ve seen tons of beautiful huge smiles, so easy and happy to share them.

 

loving the random "artistic expression" added to the dolphin pattern decoration

               So Goa, three days three villas 40 people. Was quite the huge party. Mostly boose shouting dancing and drunken “I love you bro”

               We rented a yacht for sundown toasts and games, had a meal where we were one long table all together and danced the chicken dance with the local dj animator. Party on the hilltop nightclub. Snorkeling and an awesome local beach name called kabadi  shot shot shot shot shots shots.

 

Laundry service at the Vivanta by taj

               Hyderabad we were 7 from the original 40 to have a room in the same, very high luxury, hotel.

               Went to see an Awesome Telugu movie in a huge Hyderabad cinema. Well honestly we first looked for a beer which took us on quite the “thrilling” quest taking us to special high level elevators, a lot of mall corridors, a kids playground and finally a closed for maintenance sign at the very end of the gloomiest corridor on the highest accessible level. Thankfully the restaurant next door had beer, so we entered and took 7 beers instead of food.

I’d gander that we must have appeared very foreign at that precise time.

advertising facing the backwaters amidst a very natural setting

               Anyways, the movie was tons of fun and the Tickets were dirt cheap, like 2 bucks, popcorn and drinks would have been more expensive. Tholi prema, a modern love story, hybrid between Hollywood and Bollywood. Most Bollywood is hindi and Tholi prema is a telugu movie so still quite different. But overall a production that shows for some quality at least. Most time we were laughing thanks to the absurdity of the cultural aspects that we were not used to, like huge sound effects for sitting down or dramatic music when the main character simply arrives at school during his morning routine, and yet I’ll admit feeling a tad emotional during some more serious scenes. It was well done all in all.

               When we were in Hyderabad, most other tourist seemed to be indian and we were asked dozen of times (nearing a few hundred) to be taken in selfies. The overwhelming majority of times, very politely and with genuine gratitude, however odd it can be to navigate the cultural difference waters nowadays. I felt somewhat relieved and jolly when, in a jain temple in Kochi, a man told me to invite a fellow westerner to come closer to the pigeons. He thought the westerner was my friend on the basis of our appearance.I told him that I did not know the man. We both laughed. To explain, the jain temple in kochin hosts pigeons that congregate every day at noon for feeding. I got to feed a feathery fellow in my own hands. The sneaky lad ate all the peas and left me with the rice, subsequently another one stopped by but decided he wasn’t interested by rice.

 

one lovely aspect of india are garbage fire (they are deliberate) this one though was a "normal" one

Being taken care of:

               So here’s a more “philosophical” part of this post. Told you it would be all over the place. Friday evening was Sangeet (which mean music in hindi) and it was quite the spectacular show, where family members of all ages would go on stage and perform specific and rehearsed dances and chants in honour of the spouses to be. The more informal part. At this point I had gone to bed on calm days at 2am and often around 4 or 6am. As well it appears that I had developed a cough that I attributed to the close to 40km of very fun and entertaining tuktuk (auto rickshaw) in Hyderabad, during which time I found confort in humming the “invincibility” theme of Mario kart’s corresponding bonus power. I believed the cough Th was mostly due to pollution and dust.

Awesome lad of 402 room. Brave Gregory, jolly Christophe (which was a ton of fun during the party) and good man Damien. (and me too obv)

               So, at a point during Sangeet, the cough and tiredness culminated into a sort of cold sweat mini fever all the while doing my best to stay awake and furthermore enjoy the rejoicing. The bachelor party crew had waited for a few hours now expecting every show to be our turn as we had rehearsed a few simple dance moves. We went on stage close to when I was in my worst state. But it did give me a boost. Sadly, my energies were low and I had to retreat from informal dancing and tried to regroup. Eventually I asked Gregory for the key to our room and went to rest. Took some Ventolin and waited, then the good man actually came to check up on me and offered some antihistaminic, which I gratefully took. In the next half hour I realized how hard it had become to breathe and my lack of passion became much more logical. I enventually recuperated and went to dance around midnight. Unfoprtunately the music stopped around 12:30 but I still enjoyed hanging out after that.

               Earlier on the same day another friend, Damien, offered to lend me his south India travel guide and I eventually got the opportunity to send my wedding costumes back to Switzerland with these awesome lads instead of bringing them along for the rest of my Indian adventure.

               I am very lucky and quite grateful. It truly is a pleasure to accept the help from others and furthermore that they care for me. Of course there is so much more.

               Big praise and Thanks to Manohar and Sashidhar Jonnalagedda, Yadhu and Pritha Prasad and overall everyone that partook in organizing the whole amazing week we just spent celebrating Manohar’s awesomeness and the most beautiful wedding I have ever witnessed.

               Big thanks to Pawan, of which I felt like a privileged guest when he undertook showing me a explaing about all sort of delicious indian food at the huge wedding banquet.

Kurta, dhoti and dhupatta in indian style picture,
arms down and stoic face

               Here’s a little disclaimer btw : sorry for saying nice things about myself; I know we hairless and super awkward pink gorillas have a hard time with it.

              I find myself awesomely grateful for so many people freely telling me that I am good looking (and other superlatives) it feels awesome. For example (yeah I know but fight throught it its gunna be A-ok), The other day I was in the 70ct bus from Alleppey to kallamballam and one of the ticket dudes sat next to me. Well more like stuck himself with me in the one and half seating space. Honestly it’s a space for two Indians or one and a half Europeans or one us citizen. Anyways he asked if I was comfortable, like a lot of people I meet here they are authentically well meaning. So I said that I was indeed but yeah I am bigger. He went on to tell me “I like fat fellows”. I do love the specific English words that have stuck where their have become rarer in Anglosaxon culture . Anyways later on he told me that I look nice so it felt pretty good. But enough ranting about people love and self love.

Spelling's all over the place!
kind of a testament to their free spirited approach

               I believe it had been somewhere back in 2015 that I first saw the little  shop nested between a tobacco plus groceries market and a nondescript pub. It had nice colors and a few crystal objects in the window display. I subsequently passed in front of the shop every day when I would live at the family house and go into town. I must have taken me a year or two, but I eventually entered the place a day where I allowed myself to enjoy having spare time.

               I was met by a man that, despite having the appearance of old age, had the passion and genuine heart of a young child. We ended talking for close to an hour.

                I became an infrequent regular. One day I asked the man if he knew about naturopathic healers that could help with some health issues. And so I met the woman that he had suggested. We went on doing almost a full year of treatment which yielded the end of serotonin recapture inhibitor treatment bettering of my skin and overall much better health.

               Back in Hyderabad I saw this huge poster stating that a certain Amma was in town, and as much I didn’t make time to go see her, my playful part resonated with the definition of a“hugging saint”.

kerala backwaters near Aleppey

               Some of you most certainly know that I have unlimited amount of hugs for everybody and that I take them seriously (yet of course with lightheartedness and joy). So that kinda stuck with me. During the bachelor party and wedding I had browsed my fellows’ opinion on places to visit in India and Kerala seemed to come back again and again. So I went to the last place that my friend (that is lending me his travel book) had appeared to travel on his map. Place in which I am chilling right now.

               It figures that my naturopathic healer goes frequently to India and probably has a few places to recommend so I send her a message. And she tells me that she actually works with the woman named Amma and that she will come and see her in two weeks and that she’ll be in… Kerala. Oh the humour of life.

Anyways, other paths and generous experience arise and I’ll happily experience them yet I am very happy to make a plan merely based on going to go give a big hug to the hugging saint, anything else that could, should or won’t happen are irrelevant at this point. Funny how things work. All of a sudden I also realize that seven weeks are now five and that five weeks seemed long at first and now I’ll barely have time to do 2 or 3 of all the things I yearn to do!

Traditional Kathakali theatre from Kerala, mute but with coded sign language

               Since then things have evolved and I have chosen to give the whole ayurvedic cure a go. Found a very nice place, kind of like a hidden sanctuary close to a beach. Where, it seems, there happens to be all the white people travelling in India. I ll probably say that about rishikesh later on, I know. But still there’s not to many people. So I can chill. Hopefully the cure will help greatly to give me beautiful skin again.

I am going to shave my head though, and I now realize how attached (no pun intended)I am to my hair. It will grow back promptly anyways.

Cows, obviously

Prem

Waterborne sunset

            I believe I might just have witnessed one of the most beautiful ways to get married. Specifically, the creating moment. So here goes, I currently am in India, my reason for coming to this foreign mysterious yet so open and visible place is that I chose to attend one of my dearest friend’s wedding. The cultural curiosity is an important factor as well. And boy is it different here. I was somewhat apprehensive before travelling to one of the most populated places on earth, precisely for that reason ^^

            It appears that most of the people I ve met are more than nice. The whole act of meeting is very different from western societies. Its quite simple, if you find yourself in the same space as someone else you can openly talk. It truly becomes awesome when you happen to be at a 600 person wedding in a purposefully rented resort for that event. Anyone that I have met there was here for the same reason as I was and quite happy thanks to that as well.

            Anyways, there was tons of people taking pictures and it much preferred simply enjoying the moment rather than preprogram reminiscing (taking photos). It also felt like it was something quite private, I do want to share an amazing feeling that I’ve had the lucky fate to experience.

aquatic plants (and a bit of realism as well)

            As I introduced earlier I’ve come across the most beautiful way to get married.

Picture yourself sitting on the ground, a sacred space on a platform before an audience comprised of only loved ones, all sorts of scents and colors whirling around you, priests chanting like master ragga muffin mc’s. All your family is there and strongly rhythmic percussions are supporting hypnotizing high pitched clarinettes like wind instruments. In front of you, yet behind a veil, the loved one, your promised and the one that you chose to devote your love life to.

            A specific, very precise moment is inbound, amidst a sea of nonchalant way to relate to dates.

The priests chant faster and more intensely all the while the whole group of loving ones feel the energy and excitation rise. The moment is upon our hearts. Drum grow stronger and the spirits dance ever so frenetic. You hold your loved hands with yours preparing yourself to meet as spouses for the first time ever. The meeting precisely creating that reality.

            The time stirkes and you lift the veil, strong explosions in the sky offers flowers of golden light to the community as you meet your partner’s eyes (and place cumin on their head)

you see each other

meet each other

for the first time again

and recognize each other

as you do, the bond strengthens and renews, every body is chanting as laughing and shouting in exaltation. Giving you all their love and energy. You look into the eyes that look into yours as tremors of happiness crash upon humble souls again and again. The passing of time makes itself elusively known only to wither into the reality of the being in front of you.

A soul that has chosen to proclaim you as a itself.

It is happening you are together, as both your choices and the community binding and strengthening your resolve.

            You are exposed to everyone and celebrated for all the gifts you bring. Today you are divinities also in symbol.

All the while the universe itself opens inspires and expires in the arena of your partners eyes, you let yourself be seen and the tears running down your face are the purest most valuable essence incarnated in the physical world. And they are gifts!

             How incredibly amazing that you could make them even better for they are the most beautiful offering.

 

Decorations at the wedding venue

In conclusion, quite the intense and generous two weeks, I know this post kinda jumps from here to there and well I simply chose to put plenty of different things in them. If you arrived to this point know that I am super grateful and touched.

May you have a wonderful day, full of nonchalant magic and tolerant patience.

Much much love,

 

Countryside

Scott