Seat of Our Pants » Uttarakhand

Beatles Ashram

Martin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:11:54 +0000

It was 1968 and the Beatles were bigger than Britney. The hype around them was unprecedented, raging and so out of control that the band decided to go to India and enter an ashram – the Yogi Maharashi Mahesh’s ashram in Risikesh. They spent some time here, engaging in spiritual discourse and whatever they did in ashrams back then (probably nothing very different from what they do today). This site has some excellent photos – worth checking out if you’re interested in the Beatles.

Ringo and his wife hated the food, so they left early. Paul packed in a month later. John would leave in a huff after three months, and went on to write an angry song about the Yogi. The ashram went belly-up in 1993, and its ruins are the home of various monkeys, hash-dealing sadhus and the occasional cow.

We’d like to say that we felt the wings of history flapping around us at our visit, but we were too busy avoiding stepping in cow dung to notice.

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Ganga Aarti

Jaime — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:51:30 +0000

Hinduism is a religion that, admittedly, I don’t know much about. I’ve been reading up on it and the more I learn, the more I realize that I don’t have the slightest clue what this religion is about. It has multiple dieties, an infinite uncreated thing called a Brahman but beyond that, it’s still all a mystery to me.

Ignorance aside, what does speak to me about this religion is the beautiful rituals they have. One such ritual is the Ganga Aarti, or the lighting of lamps or candles. As the name implies, it takes place on the Ganges river (or Ganga as it’s known here). From what we saw here in Rishikesh, it is accompanied by music, song and offerings to the river.

Martin and I watched the above group of men perform their aarti last night and couldn’t help being caught up in the spiritual feeling of the place. As I already described here, I had a handful of marigold blossoms to offer the Ganga, which I did while making a wish. I’m not sure the wish part has anything to do with aarti, but I did it anyway. Wishing is fun.

: Making an offering to the Ganga

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The Hippiefication Gets Worse

Jaime — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:43:37 +0000

Yep. That’s right. That’s a Hindi dot on my forehead. Just when I thought I couldn’t get more hippiefied in India, I go and get a dot.

Actually, it wasn’t completely my fault. Martin and I walked to the Ganges in Rishikesh last night to catch the nightly Garga Aarti, the Hindu river offering. A man came out of nowhere and within 10 seconds I had a hand full of marigold blossoms, a dot on my forehead and poof! he was gone – a drive-by hippiefication.

You’ll be happy to know that Martin laughed at me until I washed it off.

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Symbolism

Martin — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:03:26 +0000

Now this is a symbol you don’t see much in the Western world anymore, for some pretty good and obvious reasons. Here in India the Swastika is just a good-luck symbol though, and you see it plastered on just about anything. Like these cozy swastika lamps.

Or here: something to lighten up the look of your ventilation exhaust.

Or why not a hip swastika shirt?

I guess what I’m saying is that this is one Indian habit we won’t copy when we decorate our future home.

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Yoga in India

Jaime — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:52:48 +0000

En route to becoming a full-fledged hippie India traveler, I’ve been testing out the various yoga options offered in McLeod Ganj and Rishikesh. I was a regular student of Bikram Yoga (hatha yoga taken in a heated room) when we lived in San Francisco. It’s a rigid, balls-to-the-wall form of yoga and totally my kind of exercise.

Naively, I was hoping for something similar in India. Rishikesh gave me a good option – Iyengar yoga, which focused on minute detail of postures. It was tough and if we liked Rishikesh more, I would take more of these classes. McLeod Ganj, on the other hand, almost ruined yoga in India for me. Check out the video below for two of the moves we did in class.

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The India Transformation

Jaime — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:40:45 +0000

Forget culture, history and all things beautiful about traveling. Let’s talk fashion for a minute.

What I’ve seen by hopping between two travel cultures – southeast Asia and India – is a dramatic change in traveler’s clothing. Southeast Asia is beach culture, for the most part. Tank tops, flip flops, loose fisherman-style pants and skirts are the traveler’s choice.

Northern India has a rather different culture with a much more conservative vibe. You see less tank tops, though you don’t have to look that far to find the ignorant traveler (an obviously frustrated soul wrote the note below).

The look here is more, well, exactly what you would imagine India travelers looking like. Flowing skirts, embroidered light cotton long-sleeve shirts and pseudo turban head band things. (I’m not going to touch the diaper-pants again; you know how I feel about those at this point). Anyway, the look is hippie-chic. It’s nauseating.

That is, until I started shopping for new clothing. And suddenly, I’ve become one of them. There are no other options out there. Unless I want to buy t-shirts that have “Hell was full so I came back” printed on them, hippie-chic was my choice. Feel free to make fun of me.

Who knows, I may be reading palms and discussing aura colors soon.

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Um, Sir, You’re Not Fooling Anyone

Jaime — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:15:42 +0000

We don’t have photoshop on our computers. This is truly and honestly the color of this otherwise austere man’s hair. It’s a phenomenon we’ve noticed lately and, truth be told, we’re not quite sure what to make of it. The other Orangeheads we’ve seen vary anywhere between neon orange and a dark red. I’m pretty certain that it’s white hair that’s been dyed.

Does anyone else know about this phenomenon and want to fill us in? Is it some sort of henna dye? We have no idea.

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Haridwar = Hardly Any River

Jaime — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:12:10 +0000

Behold! The mighty Ganges river! We traveled all day in a public bus (not recommended for the faint of heart or if you have an aversion to the smell of armpit) to reach Haridwar, the region’s holiest Hindu city – only to find out that extensive work being done on the waterways. We found no pilgrims bathing in the fast-flowing Ganges, as promised by our trusty Lonely Planet guide. Nope. Just a dirt-filled canal with a trickle of water.

We’re apparently about 4 months early for a big event. Haridwar hosts the mega Kumbh Mela every twelve years (January or February 2010 is the next one). It’s a pilgrimage event that draws millions to this relatively small city. Work is being done on the waterway (I’m listening to an excavator as I type this) in preparation for it. So, the Ganges canal doesn’t paint the pretty pilgrim picture I had in my head.
No, it’s more like a promise of something good that we don’t get to be apart of.

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