David in India - Abschluss

-
Abschluss - David
1st March - written by David

Now, after 22 days, getting to know many new and unbelievable people, making friends, after a surprisingly cheap, often very high-quality food (on which I really had to get used to.. but when I became friends with it, the food was a tasty experience!), high temperature, flu, cough, many temples and huge wisdoms and experiences of religious and spiritual missionaries, who travel across the land, and believe in more than one religion of various spiritual backgrounds – I could name a never ending list of things, that fascinated me and at the same time influenced me and my life – finally I have to say, that I enjoyed my staying in South India very much.

I have got to say, in the beginning I had a big problem with the "canalisation" in the whole city – and with life in South India, I was homesick a little bit. But I found out, that I had to learn how to "pick" things I wanted to see, so I saw them, and "fade out" things I didn't want to see. Kind of "selective perception". I didn't have to re-learn that (everyone does it always), just recelibrate your own system and your own senses – I restrain some things in Germany, I don’t notice them, or I don’t think about them. Here are dirty streets, on which sides are trenches full of waste water, which many wild and house animals drink from, or the (not existing) waste politics (“Out of sight, out of thoughts”), dusty reed stacks or dirty cloths, which are used to clean the glasses and tables in restaurants (maybe the floor
too? :-) ), which a person learns to "fade out", to think about it later.

We did a little “Crashcourse” concerning food – It actually took me and my body two weeks to get used to Non-EU food. Now, I enjoy it a lot. Of course I mostly like, that there’s a wide choice of vegetarian food. There are villages here, that ONLY serve vegetarian!

Our room–neighbor Gopi taught me a lot. He wanted to teach me yoga, but unfortunately we couldn’t do that because of my illness. So he was telling me stories of old Indian gods all day long, much wisdom from the Vedas and of course from his own life, which seemed to be longer from his storytelling, than just 20 years, which is his age.

Anyways, I am taking a piece of culture with me, which I was “observing” (and didn’t understand for a long time) and I am definitely going to add it into my everyday life. It is, not because of the 10.000 kilometers, a long spiritual way. You have to open yourself for the mentality of the people here, you have to talk to them and not use some European personality barriers which you are used to – and then you talk to everyone openly and heartily. I have the feeling, that you can read the whole story of a person from their eyes here. It’s written on their face, because mostly, here where I was, were only honest and proud people.

And I want to say, that I was scared of this trip in the beginning. I was scared of illnesses, scared of the flight and of the possible infections because of the low sanitary here. Some of it happened, not much, some of the fears helped me a bit. My conclusion is, that I "jumped over lot of my shadows", and I am really happy, that we went here. It enriched me, emotionally, with experiences, spiritually and with friends.

And here I thank everyone who supported me till now, sitting here now and enjoying the last hours of my stay, until me and my dad will be picked up in 5 hours, at 22:00 and fly back to Germany.

Let's get home.Ab nach Hause

David in India - Indien-mein Eindruck

-
Indien-mein Eindruck
22rd Feb -Written By Mildus Gibkus

Der letzte Tag unseres Aufenthaltes in Indien bricht an. Ich überlege, ob ich noch einmal hierher kommen würde. Die vergangenen 3 wochen waren so ereignisreich, fremdartig und intensiv, dass es mir viel länger vorkommt, als in meiner gewohnten Umgebung in Deutschland oder ein Pauschalurlaub AllInclusive. Es war eben nicht nur Sightseeing und Strand hier. Kenne ich jetzt Indien oder die Inder? Mit Sicherheit nicht. Ich stelle mir vor, ein Inder besucht Europa und fährt nur durch Griechenland und Albanien. Danach weiss er soviel über Europa, wie ich jetzt über Indien. In 3 Wochen als Tourist schaut man, selbst wenn man so freundschaftlich wie wir hier aufgenommen wird, nur auf die Oberfläche. Alles bleibt mehr oder weniger fremd und man fragt sich, warum sich die Inder das Leben in vielen praktischen Dingen nicht einfacher machen (aus der Sicht eines Deutschen natürlich). Dieser Ausflug in eine andere Welt mit Menschen in einer anderen Realität wird in uns noch lange nachwirken. Wir schütteln unseren Kopf angesichts vieler unverständlicher Gegebenheiten, sind uns jedoch bewusst, dass auch wir ins unser eigenen
Gesellschaft vieles nicht oder anders wahrnehmen, als ein Fremder es tun wird. Mit der Zeit verändern sich die Wichtigkeiten und die Gewohnheit akzeptiert vieles.

Das erste, was uns beeindruckt hat, war der Verkehr. Ein amerikanischer Freund, der vorher in Marokko war meinte, "in Maroque they're driving crazy, but here they're nuts". Das stimmt. Jeder Überhol- oder Abbiegevorgang wird mit Hupen angekündigt. Es herrscht ein unbeschreiblicher Lärm, vor allem in Städten. Die einzige Regel scheint zu sein, irgendwie durchkommen, ohne einen anderen Verkehrsteilnehmer zu berühren. Andere Verkehrsteilnehmer können, unabhängig vom Strassentyp Highway oder Dorfgasse, Autos, LKW's, Mopeds mit bis zu fünf Personen, dreirädrige Motorrikschas mit bis zu 12? (wir konnten es nicht zählen, vorgesehen sind die Rikschas für maximal 3 + Fahrer), Fussgänger, Kühe, Schweine, Hunde, oder Ochsenkarren in beliebiger Fahrtrichtung sein, d.h. auch auf dem Highway muss man auf seiner Seite mit entgegenkommenden Verkehr rechnen, nachts auch unbeleuchtet.

Da hilft es auch nicht, dass bei Dunkelheit lieber mit Dauerfernlicht gefahren wird und somit alle mehr oder weniger blind beten. Viele Inder fahren denn auch bei Dunkelheit nur sehr ungern, vor allem in fremden Gegenden. Die Inder haben kein Gefühl für Geschwindigkeit (wurde uns gesagt), daher sind überall auf den Strassen sogenannte Speedbreaker eingelassen, das sind ein bis sechs bis 30cm hohe Erhebungen im Strassenbelag, in der Regel unangekündigt und durch nichts angezeigt, die bei Nichtbeachtung und Geschwindigkeiten jenseits der Schrittgeschwindigkeit zum Achsbruch führen. Die Strassen sind in den ländlichen Gebieten grundsätzlich einen Meter zu schmal und ohne befestigten Seiten. Das führt dazu, dass sowohl entgegenkommende, wie auch überholende Fahrzeuge immer auf der Belagskante fahren und der Strassenbelag innerhalb kurzer Zeit wegbricht. Dementsprechend ist der Zustand vieler Strassen, was auf unserer 2200km langen Tour zu einer Durchschnitts-geschwindigkeit von etwa 40 km/h geführt hat. Vorteil dieser Art von Verkehr ist, dass alle Verkehrsteilnehmer sehr aufmerksam und konzentriert sind und es bemerkenswert selten zu Unfällen kommt.
Die Seitenstreifen entlang der Strassen werden als öffentlicher Mülleimer genutzt. Je mehr Autos, je mehr Menschen, desto mehr Müll, vor allem Plastik. Scheibe runter, Müll raus, vergessen. Überall an den Strassen stehen kleine Buden, notdürftig aus Ästen und graubraunem verrosteten Wellblech zusammen gezimmert, in denen Tee, Kaffee und kleine Snacks angeboten werden. Unser Fahrer hat ungefähr stündlich an einer solchen Bude Rast gemacht, um einen Tee zu trinken. Fast immer standen wir dabei knietief im Müll. Manchmal wurden eine Art Kroketten, Reisküchlein oder Gebäck frisch zubereitet. Der Teig wurde dazu auf einem klapprigen schwarzen Holztisch von einem zahnlosen alten Inder in schmuddeligen T-Shirt geknetet und in einem Topf mit Öl, der auf einigen brennenden Ästen stand, gebacken. David und ich haben noch zuviel nachgedacht, um uns darauf einzulassen, während die anderen unserer Gruppe fröhlich genießen konnten. Wohlgemerkt, alles unter freiem Himmel im Staub der vorbeifahrenden Autos und der im Müll wühlenden Kühe.

Langsam scheint ein Bewusstsein für die Müllproblematik zu entstehen. An vielen (vor allem touristisch besuchten) Orten stehen Verbotsschilder für Plastikmüll und Mülleimer sind aufgestellt.

In unserem Ort Marmallapuram wurden gerade Plastiktüten verboten und durch Papiertüten ersetzt. An der Wand des Gemeidehauses ruft ein riesiges Schild zu mehr öffentlicher Sauberkeit auf. Viele Inder(innen) fegen den ganzen Tag vor ihrem Haus und viele mit denen wir gesprochen haben, empfinden den Müll ebenso unerträglich, wie wir. Es wird sicher noch einige Generationen dauern, bis sich eine Abfallinfrastruktur ähnlich unserer entwickelt. Das gilt ebenso für Wasser und Abwasser. Viele Abwasserkanäle verlaufen offen an den Strassenrändern und werden von Kindern, Kühen und Hühnern genutzt.
Wir haben uns gefragt, ob man das Fleisch dieser Hühner bedenkenlos essen kann und uns fiel als Antwort ein, schlimmer als Dioxin-belastetes Industriefett-haltiges Hühnerfutter kann das auch nicht sein. Das Essen war für David und mich eine große Herausforderung und es brauchte seine Zeit, um einige Speisen zu finden, die unserem Geschmack nahe kamen. Am Anfang gab es nur scharf und sehr scharf, mittlerweile können wir etwas mehr differenzieren. Das indische Früstück ist noch nicht unser und wir wählen lieber Toast, Butter, Jam und auch die Gewohnheit mit den Fingern zu essen, wird die Gabel noch lange nicht ersetzen können. Sehr angenehm empfanden wir, dass mindestens die Hälfte der Gerichte vegetarisch sind, ich habe das Fleisch keinen Augenblick vermisst. Alles wird immer frisch zubereitet.

(David und ich wurden von Santosh zu sich zum Essen eingeladen, vegetarisch, Garnelen und Fisch - superlecker, gegessen wurde auf dem Boden)

Dagegen haben wir Brot und Brötchen, Käse und Wein sehr vermisst. In Tamil Nadu ist Alkohol (außer Bier) offiziell verboten, unter der Hand bekommt man natürlich alles. Allerdings ist es erstaunlich, dass eine Feier mit über 300 Personen auch ohne Alkohol funktioniert.
Marmallapuram ist im Vergleich zu vielen ländlichen Gegenden durch seine Lage am Golf von Bengalen und die Steinmetzkunst ein touristisch interessanter Ort und bietet dadurch viele Arbeits- und Verdienstmöglichkeiten.

Es gibt nur wenig echte Armut hier. Natürlich gibt es einige Bettler, aber wenn man sich einige Zeit hier aufhält, erkennt man, wer wirklich bedürftig und wer geschäftstüchtig ist, wie z.B. eine Gruppe von Gipsys, deren Klan gut durchorganisiert Tücher, Ketten, Haschisch an Badegäste verkauft oder bei Vorliegen körperlicher Gebrechen mit leidendem Gesichtsausdruck am Strassenrand bettelt.

(Kind mit Microcephalus (vermindertes Knochenwachstum des Kopfes führt zu Verkümmerung des Hirns), kann wahrscheinlich nicht laufen, bewegt sich wie bei Hospitalismus, wird von seiner Mutter vor einem Tempel zum Betteln eingesetzt, vermutlich der einzige Weg zum Überleben)

Die soziale Rollenverteilung von Mann und Frau ist hier noch tief verwurzelt und es gibt noch keine Freizeitkultur. Das Kennenlernen von Jungen und Mädchen läuft sehr verdeckt ab, Aufklärung ist praktisch nicht vorhanden. Romantische Rollenvorbilder stammen schon mal aus Bollywood und eine verschmähte Liebe führt nicht selten zu Mord oder Selbstmord. Aus amerikanischen Filmen werden sexuelle Anspielungen, Anzüglichkeiten, nackte Haut und leidenschaftliche Küsse herausgeschnitten, in Japan oder China-Actionfilmen werden dagegen blutspritzende Kampfszenen in jedem Detail und jeder Einzelheit in Zeitlupe und Zoomansicht dargestellt. Ich weiss nicht, wie das Verhältnis von arrangierter Ehe zu freier Partnerwahl ist, aber anscheinend ist es üblich, dass die Brauteltern der Tochter eine Mitgift geben, selbst wenn es den Ruin der Eltern bedeutet. In der Landwirtschaft führt das zu immer kleineren Ackerflächen, die irgendwann niemanden mehr ernähren können. Öffentlich waren an den Cafès und Buden immer nur Männer zu sehen, ebenso in den Restaurants und Hotelbars. Keine Ahnung wie sich Partner hier kennenlernen können. Auch am Strand trifft man fast nur Männer, abgesehen von Touristinnen. Viele halten sich
an der Hand, was machen die mit ihren Hormonen?
In der Zeit, in der wir hier waren, schien jeden Tag die Sonne bei ca. 30°C. Das macht das Leben wirklich easy, der Aufwand an Kleidung beschränkt sich auf Hemd, Hose, Flipflops. Frühstück kostet 1,50€, Flasche Wasser 0,25€ und Dinner 2,00€. Alles ist von Gelassenheit und langsamer Bewegung geprägt.

Wer läuft, wird ungläubig bestaunt. Die meisten Inder hier sind relativ fromm und religiös. Man kann eine Spiritulität, ein Wissen um einen Sinn und die Zugehörigkeit zu einem großen Ganzen spüren, die uns in unserer westlichen Alltagswelt fehlt. Bei uns muss man aufpassen, das man sich nicht lächerlich macht, wenn man seine Gedanken über den Sinn unseres Hierseins preisgibt.
Ich bin neugierig geworden und ich denke, ich werde noch einmal wiederkommen, um mehr kennen zu lernen. Der Norden Indiens, der Himalaya, Darjeeling usw. sind Ziele, die ich gerne noch besuchen möchte und natürlich meine hier neu gewonnenen Freunde wiedersehen.

Achja, eine Frage die nicht nur mich bewegt hat war, warum es in keinem Hotel/Guesthouse Klobürsten gibt?



-

David India blog - Viele Tempel

-
Viele Tempel..
20th Feb - written by David

We're back in Magalibalipuram. The last days of our road trip consisted of the typical sightseeing and we were driving by more than 25°C from palaces build by kings, to temples made to worship gods, to statues of gods, to graves of incarnations of gods. But other than the impression from highly developed stone-roughing industry and a very deep religiosity of people, there wasn't much from it in us left because of the short period of time we had and our low knowledge. Sometime the temple looked like the one before, the next Krishna like the one before and the next postcard - seller and flute - seller and the beggar in front of tourist attraction looked same as everywhere.

But unlike this, the land changed more often during the 2000km drive that we've been on. Further from the seashore, the land around the roads seemed more landscaped. There are many plantations with cotton, bananas, cocoa, rice etc. worked with hands, but that's because of the current season. There were often guides in the temples, waiting to tell us their knowledge about monoliths, which are partly 1500 years old. As soon as they finished giving out this information, they stopped and asked for money :)

Unfortunately we had very less time to inform our selves about these interesting buildings - what I remember are endless, detailed paintings which never repeat themselves on the outside walls, inside walls, on the floor, on the door, simply everywhere on the temple.

There's a long way through long gardens to some temple, so another one is emphasized by that. So a person has to "climb" 700 staircases. I stop in the middle .. it's still very, very high.

We experienced in those couple of days so much, that it's impossible for me to write down all the impressions. But if there's someone really interested in gods, temples and all the other buildings, he should really take part of this trip - anyway I'd really like to have someone who knows this stuff with us, so he could explain to me which story is to which temple and which story tells about stone modification.
Ach .. and I finally managed to compress a video from the jungle. :D Here it is :)






Translation by http://panik-musik.blog.cz/
-

David India blog - Tourtag 5 Unterwegs..

-
Tourtag 5 Unterwegs..
15th Feb

We are experiencing internet problems - sorry for no updates. We will upload translations and pictures as soon as possible.

6 o'clock, we're still traveling. We're on the road from 8:30 this morning. The broken streets are nothing special, I am tortured by hunger, which is nothing compared to huge holes in the road like after a war or something. Our fellow-travelers decided to have some kind of snack from time to time on the side of the road, but I don't trust the street sellers, so I decide not to eat anything until we arrive to the hotel.

Small trucks full of scholars are crossing our way (they are called TukTuk's) in small and very poor villages, which remind me of the movie "District 9". Every third hut is painted in a very bright color with a white Vodafone logo in the middle. It looks like Vodafone donated some paint color.

We're also driving through an area with ironstone, which reminds me of early pictures of "Ruhrhebiet" - only with palms ..

After more than 10 hour drive with approximate speed of 42km/h we finally reach our destination - Hampi. And now finally something to eat.

Translation by http://panik-musik.blog.cz/
-

David India blog - Tourtag 4 Mysore

-
Tourtag 4 Mysore
14th Feb

From our jungle camp we went to Katnataka, the neighbor state of Tamil Nandus. Our destination is Mysore, the million city with a well-known palace, which we wanted to visit. Our driver explains after crossing the borders that you have to respect the traffic rules here. He puts his seatbelt on and every time he uses his cell phone, he stops at the side of the road. We're driving through banana and cocoa plantations and we think it's much cleaner here, the sides of the roads are almost without trash. Anyways, the villages and cities
which we drive through are the same as always.

The palace is big. It didn't impress any of us. Everything is re-organized to speed-up the mass of the visitors. Taking pictures is forbidden, so we have to give away our cameras, of course the shoes too. Just like at the airport, we have to go through two metal detectors and have to give our way to white-out. The inside seems really swagger and tasteless, as if the most important thing would be to show, how rich someone can be. The palace garden is also tasteless and not very taken care of.

After the viewing we check in to our hotel in the middle of the centre. Our room is dark, but there's air-conditioning and we're thankful for that. Our group found something like Pizza-Hut, so we decide to go there. It is the first pizza ever for Santosch and Akasch.

After we finish eating, we go to a huge market, some kind of a market with vegetables and fruits, but there are also herbs, flowers, oils, aromas and incenses. The market is really worth visiting.

Photos:



Translation by http://panik-musik.blog.cz
-

David India blog - Tourtag 3 Dschungel

-
Tourtag 3 Dschungel
11th Feb


The alarm wakes us up at 5:30. It's still dark outside. Today we want to be part of a tour through the jungle. After approximately 5km we meet our two leaders. There has to be two of them, after an accident happened, when an Elephant treaded down a French woman with her son. The jungle, on this place some kind of a steppe is full of sounds of waking animals and also loudly playing Indian pop music, which echoes from the slopes around the hollow basin.

It's a week-long music festival, which happens every year and starts today, that's why this guiding is the last one before the festival, our leader explains. Because in the next week there's going to be so many people, busses and cars around, that the animals are going to back off.

Despite of that, the nature, sun, warm light and atmosphere are amazing. We were walking for around 2 hours, but we saw some monkeys, one echidna and some buffalos - no tiger, panther, elephant. One Jeep picks us up and takes us back.
We spend the day doing a meditative nothing.

In the evening we go on a Jeep-Safari tour to Mudumalai, a tiger game-reserve. We visit the elephant washing and feeding, we stop on the road to see some animals. We see elephants, monkeys and roe-alike gazelles? and some other kinds.

(photos will come)
Translation by http://panik-musik.blog.cz
-

David India blog - Tourtag 2 Ooty

-
Tourtag 2 Ooty
10th Feb

Today, the tour should continue another 100km. But we're planning to do it in 8 hours. Before it beings, we want to try to get apples and maybe some croissants. The hotel is in the middle of the town and I don't have words to describe the traffic, noise and chaos. It's 9:30, the sun is shining and the heavy air from all the gas is cca 25°C. On our side of the street is between the street and it's road-site is a canal, in the side lanes are being sold melons, used children's shoes, and roasted chilis? and the co. On the other side of the street are all sorts of shops next to each other, each maybe 4m wide, if it's a teashop, a shop with cell phones, candy or jewelry. Yesterday we were in a pharmacy-shop (I am not saying drug-store on purpose, because it wasn't one - it was someone in possession of medicine, selling it) to buy something for the coughing. First, he had to dust off the dust from the bottle. It was supposed to be kept in dark and in a room with under 25°C.
Both was neglected. We were worried, but the hard coughing I got in-between needed to go away. What we were looking for in the morning we didn't find, so we went back to the car.

The road leads us cca 20km into the mountains. We get through the serpentines higher and higher. The air becomes cleaner, the side of the road too. Momentarily we're going through Nilgirim, well-known tee plantation. Wherever a person looks is tea. Anywhere a person's eye can see. It looks like these mountains are enough for all the inhabitants.

Shortly before lunch we get to Doddabetta. We're in a 2600m height and that means on the highest place in South India. The air is thin and we're trying to avoid uneasiness. Also in this height are growing trees, everything is green and it blooms colorfully. It's wonderful.

We continue on our way to Oota, the metropolis of this district. An old tram goes from there as a tourist attraction through the tea plantations, but it's booked for weeks, so we went on a similar tour with a car. We stopped in one tea manufacture and a tea museum, so we learned how tea is made.
When we get to Oota, we stop to eat in an European Bistro (similar to Subway), where we find bagels, baguettes and sandwiches. Around 18:00 we get to our guesthouse, which is in a 1000m height and right next to a wildwood, so there's a high electric fence around it to protect people from elephants and tigers. It's really nice here.

(photos will come)
Translation by http://panik-musik.blog.cz
-

David India blog - Tourtag 1 Mettupalayam

-
Indiablog.de
Tourtag 1 Mettupalayam
9th Feb

Our GPS us showing us, that our average speed is 42km/h. That means that we need 12 hours to get to our destination, which is 480 km away. There is seven of us in Toyota Innova, some kind of VW Sharan from Japan, which means that there are minimal three of us on one bench. Somehow it works. We, the driver, Klaus, Jan, David and me, and also Santosch and Aschat, a really quiet boy from a dysfunctional family, whom Klaus wants to help to have look-outs in the future.
David was feeling quite well in the morning, but now after the typical Indian breakfast, when we always dream about fresh pastries with butter, Nutella and a hard-boiled egg as we travel longer, he is weaker and weaker. He has heavy coughing spasms. The driver Sanjey, at the same time the travel leader, always stops to show us some landmarks, or to drink tea in a street cafe. One stop is the snake temple, where the white ants are building an ant-hill for centuries. They are food for some kinds of snakes. That is the reason why there are many small holes all around the temple, so the snakes can go inside and out all the time. Right next to the temple is a tree with leaves, which exude healthy aromas, which are mostly good for newborns. That's why the new mothers run around the tree with their babies and cradle them in their scarf's, when they hang those on one of the tree sprays.

The roads are very adventurous from the field way until the highway, some farmers batter their rice harvest (they use for it almost the half of one lane) and they use the wind from the trucks, which drive around, to delaminate trash from the seeds. Sometimes there are also vehicles opposite to us (it seems like they are completely aware of it, so it isn't a phantom rider like here in Europe). It really becomes fun when it is dark. The drive really economically, that means without lights, sometimes you have to help yourself with distance lights, because the people here just believe in their feelings. They pray a lot.

When we arrive to our destination, we get settled in a middle class hotel, which seems really nice at first. Anyways, our rooms are freshly painted and they are right next to three cell phone towers.

Well, if there isn't a headache guaranteed.

Written By Mildus Gibkus
Photos:

-
translation by panik-musik.blog.cz
-

David India blog - Eine christliche Hochzeit in Indien

-
David is still sick, and is staying in bed.
You can read the whole post in German and see the photos at the blog's site: http://indiablog.de/

Eine christliche Hochzeit in Indien
7th Feb

David is not feeling well at all. He isn't able to speak, he has high temperature and he still coughs. We cancelled the hindu-wedding this morning form our what-to-do. I take him to his tea and toast in the roof-restaurant, so he wouldn't take his antibiotics on empty stomach. He feels even worse after that and goes back to bed.
The electricity, which is normally switched off from 7:00 to 9:00 o'clock isn't working the whole day in the whole city. Supposedly it's because of some construction work on the electric lines. Some bigger stores have their own generators for their refrigerators & cash registers. To take some money out of the band, Santosch takes me to a bank on a motorcycle, which is like 15km away and in the middle of nowhere. Two guards with machineguns look at us and let us go into a small room. I read a small paper glued on the AMT, where is handwritten, that the maximal withdrawal of 4000Rs (cca 65€). I stick the card in and it asks me about the language. Unfortunately, the answering symbols on the screen don't match the buttons on the side, so I choose the wrong language. By the next answer, I don't understand a word and I wait for too long, so the AMT sticks my card out again. I stick it in again and this time I choose the right language. It wants my pin from me and makes me choose between "Continue" and "Cancel". I choose "Continue", but the program breaks down again by telling me there has been a mistake. I can see through the door, that the guards look at me and then at themselves. I stick the card in one more time and give in my pin before I choose anything. There is 8 new choices again from changing the pin to ground a depot. I don't understand a word and I want to choose the most obvious choice, but the AMT breaks down again, I was too slow. One of the guards knocks and looks at me. I just show him thumbs up and smile like I'm tortured. So again, am I sweating? This time it works and the ATM gives me my money. I leave the room and I bump into a guard hugging his gun and he asks me, if I am alright and if I got my money. I confirm, wish him a good day and I am glad to be out of there again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Around 5:00 we're leaving for the Christian wedding. David stays in bed. We come to an ornated house, in front of it is marching band dressed in blue (it sounds more Mexican to me) and plays. We find ourselves in front of the house of the groom, actually of his parents. It's too small for that many guests, who are already there. That's why we all go to a church, of course with the marching band behind us. The church is only 300m away, so the traffic situation isn't that bad with the crowd moving. When we come to the church, we're waiting for the bride.

There are approximately 100 guests here, most of them formally dressed, men in suits, and women in colored saris. There are also colorful lights on the church, lampions and I feel in my shorts a bit underdressed. And there are also hundreds of thousands of huge mosquitos. There are chairs brought for the guests and it takes some time, until the bride is here. The band is always standing in two rows and playing some song, everyone hopes, that the bride comes now, but uselessly. Finally, a good hour later, the bride comes in. Like a princess, circled by a crowd of people, so you can barely see her. She is wearing a light blue sari with golden stripes made of silk and she has a diamond diadem in her hair.

In front of the church, the priest slows them down and sprinkles them with holy water (please excuse my bad knowledge of Christian ceremonies, maybe it isn't that different from German manners). The bride and the groom come into the church and stand in front of the altar, when the guests sit on their places.

Everything is being said in Tamil, but I can recognize Father Ours. Klaus, seems like he's even less of a Christian rituals fan than me is pushing me to leave. So in an unwatched moment we left 11/2 hours of praying, oaths, vows and good intentions behind us. We want to come back to the party again.
First I wanted to go see David and change my clothes. David ate his potatoes & some yoghurt that I ordered for him, while we were gone and took his pill. The temperature is better, but he still feels bad. I asked him, if I should stay? But he wants me to go eat something on the wedding and when comeback right away. I promise it to him and we're on our way again.
Me, Santosch, Jan and Klaus are in a three-wheel taxi and we get to a place almost as big as a football field. Officially 350 guests were invited, but this could also be 550. Every guest gets a bowl of fruit, there's a jumping castle for the children, popcorn, cotton candy, Mickey Mouse and Maja Bee walking around, a laser show when there's loud Indian pop music playing, loud fireworks everywhere, which lighten the night sky. There's a camera crew here and we can see on a big screen all the things that are here. There's a stage build up, where are two sofas looking like thrones. In front of it is a photographer taking care of his stuff, tripods, and indirect lights and so on.
Finally, the husband and wife come in, the crows takes them to the stage. On the right and on the left side are stairs and we observe, how a big pile of people is being build in front of the left stairs. And now we understand it. Every person wants to have their picture taken with the bride and the groom.

We are full and we want to leave, when Djj comes, the brother of the groom, who invited us here and he wants us to take a picture with the newly-weds. We come back to the stage and we see, that the queue isn't any shorter. We ask Djj, if we have to stand there too, but he thinks of us as of honorary guests (we are the only white people here), which should be on a special photo, only with the family, so at the end. A grimace became by the time from the happy smiles of the bride and the groom, they can barely stand up, but they still can do it. We finally get to the stage, congratulate them and smile into the camera. Done, we leave the wedding and get back. I say goodbye right away and go to see how David is doing. He is awake and he is feeling better. Finally.

Translations by http://panik-musik.blog.cz/
-

David india blog - Auroville

-
Auroville
6th Feb

MIr geht es besser, David nicht. Neben Fieber hat er jetzt auch noch Halsschmerzen und Husten bekommen. Um 8 Uhr sind wir mit Klaus verabredet, wir werden von einem Fahrer nach Auroville gebracht. Dort wollen wir an einer Meditation im Tempel teilnehmen und Jan, den Pflegesohn von Klaus, abholen. Wir kommen leider erst um kurz nach 9 Uhr los und sind damit zu spät für die Tempelzeremonie, der wir zunächst auch keine größere Bedeutung beigemessen haben.

Auroville ist der Versuch, eine spirituelle, aber nicht religiöse Gesellschaftsform zu finden, in der der Einzelne im Wissen um die Verbundenheit von Allem handelt. Das impliziert ökologisches und nachhaltiges Produzieren und Wirtschaften und eine Gleichbewertung jeder Tätigkeit. Das meint, eine ärztliche Tätigkeit ist nicht mehr wert, als eine bäuerliche, ohne die der Arzt verhungern würde. Wir haben dort Herbert kennengelernt, der vor über 30 Jahren aus Österreich gekommen ist und seitdem hier eine Farm bewirtschaftet. Ich frage ihn, wie man Aurovillaner werden kann. Es gäbe eine Art Prüfung, erklärt er, in der man darlegen soll, ob und inwiefern man bereit ist, quasi besitzlos für die Gemeinschaft und in der Erkenntnis der eigenen Göttlichkeit zu leben.

Auroville hat zurzeit 2100 Einwohner, 5000 sind geplant. Seit 1968 ist es den Gründern gelungen aus einem Brachland, dass durch Erosion zur Wüste zu werden drohte, in einen blühenden Garten zu verwandeln. (zur Geschichte von Auroville).

Wir machen uns auf den Weg zum Tempel, der das Zentrum dieser geplanten Stadt bildet. Als wir zu ihm gelangen, erkennen wir, was für ein Privileg es ist, dorthin eingeladen zu werden. Es handelt sich um einen riesigen goldenen Golfball inmitten einer wunderschönen Parkanlage. Wir erfahren, dass man Zutritt nur durch eine komplizierte Bewerbungsprozedur erhalten kann, oder von einem Einheimischen als Gast eingeladen ist. Wenn wir Jan hierher zurück bringen, wollen wir noch einmal versuchen, dort an einer Meditation teilzunehmen.

Written By Mildus Gibkus
-

David india blog - Krankheit

-
Krankheit
4th Feb

It caught us, we're feeling exhausted, we have really bad headache and I even have fever. Gopi woke us up at 6:00 AM to take us to yoga, but unfortunately I had to cancel. Klaus, who is fighting cough told us that there is cold outbreak in this area. We stayed in our room the whole day. Later Gopi takes care of me, massages my temples, he got us some medicine and stays with us.

Written By Mildus Gibkus

Translation by http://panik-musik.blog.cz/
-

David Indiablog - Dalit-School

-
Dalit-School
3rd Feb

Today we went to a school for the kids of the “Untouchable”, one of the lowest castes in the official Indian castes-list, which does not exist anymore. This school was established by Lady Mallavizhi a few years ago. Before that, she already established a school for kids from the middle class about 12 km further, where the parents can afford to pay school fees.

She selected some of that money to finance Dalit-school. The teachers here earn about 4500 rupees (cca 80 Euro) a month, which is - even for Indian conditions – only a little. It takes a lot of persuasiveness for Lady Mallavizhi to hold up the teachers’ idealism. The latest law says that schools must pay the minimum wage, which applies for the owners of state school. That’s something she can’t afford, what means she’ll have to either send some of the 236 students home, or she’ll have to get together enough money to bribe the school inspector.
Another new law, which worries Lady Mallavizhi, is purchasing and using school books only from one determinate publisher, which happens to be the minster of current government at the same time.

Lady Mallavizhi tells us that at the beginning of her mission it was very hard to convince the parents, who are mostly analphabets, to let their kids go to school. Not only they use their children as labor force to support the family, but the belief in one’s own power to build his future is really weak because of the religious and social conditions.

But right now would most of the parents let their kids go to school. Children from 4 to 10 years come here from the area of about 15 km. In everyday conditions they would come by a school bus, but it’s broken at the moment. That’s why they need to improvise and find vehicles and drivers, who would help, of course, not without charges.

She tells us that sometimes she doesn’t have the nerves anymore, but then always something happens, that gives her the strength to continue. Like for example our visit here and our interest in those things.
We are very astonished by the radiation, warmth and mercy of this lady, who gives out so much strength for something, that is for us – Northern Europeans – unimaginable.

For the kids it’s like Christmas to get a pen as a present, and I appear to myself somehow smaller. (Projekt Pangea)

You can find more pictures HERE .

Translated by P2k

PHOTOS:




-

David India blog - Mahabalipuram – Erste Eindrücke

-
Mahabalipuram – Erste Eindrücke
2ND FEB

Friends picked us up at the airport in Chennai and the first thing we learned was, that the traffic rules, traffic lights, speed limits and similar regulating rules of everyday don’t match the Indian mentality. They really brake only when there’s a great canal-pipe sticking out of the road, which can break every axle, or because of cows. Also many only halfway done streets, buildings, apartments and bounders were noticeable, they made an impression, that the construction workers still didn’t come back from their lunch breaks. Our 50 minute drive to the destination was equal to a Roller Coaster Tycoon Simulation.

We were settled into a house with Klaus, who was a PE teacher at my dad’s school, in a guesthouse. It’s right at the seaside, so our sleep was accompanied by the sounds of the sea the whole night. We share our room, which is pretty simple, but clean. We are sleeping on hard mattresses under a tablecloth. There’s one toilet (the ideal standard) with a bucket (we got ourselves a toilette paper) and one shower, which showers the whole room, typically Indian, how they explained to us. On the wall, there are hanging 3 (again THREE!!) liter boilers for hot water for the shower – which aren’t working. So we shower with cold water, but that isn’t so bad with this temperature – in the night, it gets down to 25°. We both are paying for the room for about 14 Euro.


The first day, we got to know Gopi on our balcony, which is on the right side of Klaus’ balcony and on the left side of Anthony’s balcony, who lives in the room together with Anthony. Gopi left Madurai in the South India when he was 14 years old to Belur Math, the main station of Ramakrishna Mission, north from Kolkata, to be accepted as a novice. At his age, he has already read Vedas like Baghavadgita , now he also knows the writings of Krishnamurtis, he know Dalai Lama and the highest representative Sri Aurobindo-moving in Pondicherry/ Auroville, like of course the actual president (chosen the highest monk) of Ramakrishna Mission. Momentarily he has vacation to end his college studies (and to learn the world more). He’s known as a singer of spiritual songs in India. Other than that, he works as a yoga teacher and he gives courses to the tourists. He’s 19 years old. We get on well with him right away. Shortly after that, comes Anthony, an Irish musician in his 70ies, who can’t play music anymore because of his illnesses. He’s writing a book at the moment, Gopi is helping him do that.


Gopi and Klaus suggest that they go eat Indian breakfast, but we have to wait a bit longer, because Klaus is waiting for someone. It becomes clear, that we are supposed to be invited to an Indian wedding. The brother and the father of the groom come, they put flower-wreaths around us, hug us warmly and they give us the invites. We thankfully accept them.


Indian breakfast, very interesting. They don’t know bread, we get baked rice girdle-cake filled with hot potato-salad instead, together with spicy sauce made from lentils, or water milk rice.
David is full really quickly; I stay strong until my plate is empty. Then black tea, that means steal cup in a little steal pot, filled to the edge with tea, it’s ok, mh. As desert we get a plate of something else filled with herbs, sugar and something else, which you have to put whole in your mouth and chew and chew and chew ..

We’re leaving the restaurant and going to Santosch’s who picked us up from Channai (airport) tonight. Santosch is actually a fisher, but he works at his father’s shop now as a seller and a stone mason. Momentarily he’s sharpening hundreds of small stones, which he gets as 5mm thick raw products, which he converts by hand and some kind of sandpaper to 2mm. We asked him, why he didn't use any machine? He answered, “otherwise they wouldn’t have any soul.”

We spend the day on the beach. We’re constantly being asked by men and women trying to sell something, nice tablecloths (?!), nice wooden pearl chains, marihuana, everything “very cheap”! The sea is very warm, we think it’s like 25°-26°C. It invites to bath in it, but Klaus recommends to go more into the north, because of the watercourses here. But not today. There are some tourists, establishment of Radisson hotel, it’s guarded, other than that cafés, restaurants, there’s fresh lobster or tuna everywhere.

Now we’re going to eat – it’s said, that the hotel is up to the mark – I think we’re going to get several different menus to choose from :) And then we’re going to be ready to go to bed, I’d
say :)

Laudenbonk & Mildus Gibkus
Written By Mildus Gibkus

Translated by www.panik-musik.blog.cz (P.2K)
-