Hi all. this is just to let you know that I will no longer be posting on this blog. I am moving to a different blogging system which is much more user friendly for me, and for you, as a reader, as well. So, my next trip to India, beginning on October ...
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"India Journal 2006" - 5 new articles

  1. This blog is closing - see new blog link below
  2. #21- April 6, 2008- Finally Something Interesting to Write About
  3. Sounds of Laxman Jhula Video
  4. BAGPIPES OR SNAKE CHARMER?
  5. March 26, 2008 - PS to yesterday's post
  6. More Recent Articles

This blog is closing - see new blog link below

Hi all
this is just to let you know that I will no longer be posting on this blog. I am moving to a different blogging system which is much more user friendly for me, and for you, as a reader, as well. So, my next trip to India, beginning on October 10th, will be found at:
http://janesindiajournals.wordpress.com/ Kindly save it to your favorites and you can subscribe to it just like you did to this one. See the sidebar. Also note that I now have the option of pages and you will see them being added on the top toolbar for your convenience as i begin posting.
My Mindfulness Journal has also moved and you will find the link below as well. I hope you enjoy the new format and will make use of the options available. You will note that on the Mindfulness Journal, there are already "pages" on the top toolbar: Home, Reiki, Mindfulness, Poetry, Quotes and hopefully there will be more...so if you are looking for specific information, it is easier to find. These pages are also listed on the sidebar with their subpages, so you can navigate more quickly through the blog. I am still working on the format, but even now, it is a much cleaner and more professional looking blog. You can check it out at this website: http://mindfulnessjournal.wordpress.com/
Please put it into your favorites as I will no longer be posting to either of these old blogs. You can subscribe to this blog as well on the sidebar link. You can also post comments on the new blog if you feel like it.
My love to all and thanks for being loyal readers
Jane
   

#21- April 6, 2008- Finally Something Interesting to Write About

March 29, 2008 -
Sitting in the airport in Delhi with much too much time to kill. It is the now 4:30 in the morning and my flight is not until 6:30, (was actually delayed until 7:30), but I can’t sleep so figured I do something useful.

This will be the last post for this trip, aside from the videos I will post this week from home.

Overweight for first time!! I always have a few KG over the allowed weight but have never been asked to pay for it in the past. This time I wound up paying $70 for my overweight.

And after having a fairly uninteresting trip travel wise, now, my last day, I actually have something interesting to write. I jotted the things down on paper so as not to forget, but will now see how many of them come to mind.

They are basically about the changing face of India. Just as the rest of the world is
changing, so is India. The changes have been very subtle over my last couple of trips, but this trip the move forward seems to be quite drastic…almost as if the country is trying to catch up with the rest of the world over night…to make up for lost time. I know this is inevitable, but I know that each future trip will bring more and more changes, and, aside from the women’s clothing, hopefully at least, India will very soon find itself “caught up”. This of course is superficial at best as the deep seated problems of the country remain….but it is truly overgoing a “face-lift” so that what you see from the outside, is quite amazing. So, below, just a very few of the many things which caught my attention this trip, many of them just now on my way back to Delhi. (I imagine that on my next trip, when I plan to stay in Delhi for awhile, there will be even more things worth commenting on).

The thing I found most outstanding during this entire trip, was the new relative “freedom” I see among Indian couples. It was always an outright taboo for Indians, even married couples, to show any signs of affection in public and in the years I’ve been coming here, except for a couple of Muslim couples, I never saw any Indian couple even touching in public. This trip, I have seen over and over again, couples holding hands, cuddling in rickshaws, husband protectively putting his arm around his wife’s shoulder, and this was not just for very young couples. Also older married couples seemed to have gotten past the long-standing taboo. I even saw unmarried younger people doing this. And this all in the sacred city of Rishikesh. I imagine in the large cities it is already a given and taken for granted.

Since I spent my entire 7 weeks in Rishikesh, and slept through the taxi ride from Delhi to Rishikesh when I first arrived, this evening was the first time I got a glimpse of anything else, and there were many things to see. First of all, lots and lots of more modern cars on the ride. It is now a truly rare sight to see the old faithful Ambassador on the road. Aside from the local Tata cars, Indica, Indigo etc., there are many Suzukis, as well as Chevrolets and others I don’t recall. I even came today in a taxi which was a Chevy 4x4. True luxury for India! But this seems to be the growing trend. For the country’s huge population living in poverty, life remains the same, but for those on the move upward, things are moving forward very quickly.

OK..getting tired of writing…will continue when I get home I guess…

It’s now a week later and I am getting back to this. So, we continue with the changing face of India. I imagine in other places of the world there have been rest stops all along highways for years. Here in Israel it is a new growing trend and it seems at every junction a mini-mall sprouts seemingly overnight. There are so many of them the last few years it is almost comical. Well, I’d never seen anything like this in India, until this last ride back to Delhi, where, starting from about 2 hours outside the city, every few minutes we would pass what is called here a “shopping complex” on the side of the road. Many were already working, and others were being built, but I asked the driver about them and he said now, outside every large city, there are many of them, and they attract shoppers from the city who come to shop in AC comfort and to find all the latest shops all in one place.

And then there is the new approach to the Delhi airport which is just as complex and confusing as the one to the new airport in Tel Aviv. And not only that, you have to pay to get into the airport area..there is a toll booth. 11 rupees!! Even the driver was surprised and he had made this journey recently and it wasn’t yet working!

Once getting INTO Delhi itself, there were also roadworks everywhere. It seems like the whole city is getting a face lift, not just the airport. The airport itself has a new look…real international duty free areas, modern toilets, freezing AC and coffee and sandwich shops offering horrible food at ridiculous prices!

All in all, this trip to India was completely hassle free as I didn’t travel anywhere and stayed put in one lovely place. It was a perfect vacation, and with my newfound freedom from fears, quite pleasant actually. Going home, I asked that all be provided for a perfect and easy flight and also asked that Raphael, who appeared in the first card I chose you may remember several weeks ago, to remove any physical obstacles which may appear along the way. Well, the taxi ride was easy, even though I tried not taking travamin for travel sickness…and I was not sick at any point along the way, even managed to fall asleep in the taxi. I really believe that all the years I suffered with travel sickness in cars, busses, planes etc., was a physical manifestation of my fears of travel…and it seems now I am finally past them.

The flight was lovely…I even had two seats to myself. Even managed to sleep on the plane which I have NEVER done before, despite delays in both Delhi and Amman and even upon landing in Tel Aviv…I was relaxed and happy the entire way. Never felt stressed or uptight. Quite lovely.

And that’s about it. I am now home..been home for a week already, and it’s almost as if I never left. I am going dancing tonight for 3rd time since getting back…have been to visit all my children, traveling to them by car…even went to see a friend on the way home. Putting together new workshops and sharing groups, working on new energy exercises and pranayama as suggested by Dudi, and look forward to a lovely 6 months at home before going back to India in October.

Namaste for the last time this trip. Hope you’ve enjoyed the videos I uploaded, even though they are very small and the quality is not really good. Sorry about that…don’t know any other way of doing it.

See you all in October. I will now get back to posting on the Mindfulness Journal, which I got away from some time ago and have many interesting things to already write about.

Jane
   

Sounds of Laxman Jhula Video

This is a lovely video I took with a true feel of the area around laxman Jhula, with the sounds and sights of the place. You can even see the lovely scene of a lady feeding the holy cow and blessing her (or perhaps asking for a blessing for herself) by touching the cow’s head. Today, while down there, without my camera of course, I was witness to this same cow giving birth and seeing the beauty of instinct, the speed at which the calf stood up, and the cheering on of the crowd standing around.

 
   

BAGPIPES OR SNAKE CHARMER?

This is a short video, just for fun. This guy has been hanging aroung Swiss Cottage since last year. When I first heard the music, I was trying to figure out where the sound of bagpipes was coming from! Someone playing music in their room? Why? Only when I went to check, I found this guy. A couple of days ago he was outside my room, and I grabbed the camera to film him. He is not very good at "charming" his snakes. They seem to just want to sleep and he does his best to prod them into action, but they are not interested. Enjoy!!
 
   

March 26, 2008 - PS to yesterday's post

(PS: since writing the above I’ve done a Reiki treatment to Yael and her comment one “You were on fire!”. I was also sweating through the whole treatment and I generally never get this warm while doing Reiki…so whatever has been happening, has certainly opened things up for me which were blocked before)

Yesterday also had a Reiki treatment, today, I've just come from my facial and back massage, and tomorrow I have a further "going home" treatment with Dudi. Not a bad way to spend my last few days in India.

Also found an apartment up here with a kitchen and now have the dilemma of deciding the pros and cons (there are lots) to having my own kitchen when I come back in october.

Don't think I'll write any more before leaving. and I will post the remaining videos when I get home so you'll still enjoy India vicariously for another week or so.

Namaste
Jane
   

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