time to repair

After a long long day of bollywood my body was aching. My iron levels were also pretty hard up due to a visit from my dear aunt flo. It seems any time the energy levels are low india is ready to pounce. So I got sick. Not delhi belly sick, just a cold sick, but its hard to be sick in india no matter what kind of sick it is. But here's the amazing thing: my whole life I've had terrible menstrual cramps. Crippling menstrual cramps. I've dealt with it by crying and taking loads of pain killers and then walking around like a zombie for a day and ahalf out of every month. But thanks to some reiki/body talk break throughs, this month I was fine. There were the hints of pain but I used what I'd learned and they never manifested. Never in the dozen years of my womanhood have had a month without pain. SO, here's to reiki cause I'm now a believer.

Still worn out from all the other stuff and of course still pissed off at the world, as every woman's right, Rob and Harry tolerated my company as we wandered around mumbai all day. I cursed at the men who tried to grab me under my breath, rob tried to make me smile, we watched a TERRIBLE bollywood film about a blind girl who tried to kill herself (try singing and dancing about that), we ate fancy ice cream coffee drinks and then made out way to our sleeper train to pushkar.

The train ride was lovely and although it was continuoulsy interrupted by the snoring of everyone around me, it reminded me of sleeping at home, where you can hear my fathers snoring from every room in the house. It was nice. Rob and I played with tarot cards as well as regular cards, we made pleasant conversation with an indian woman named "Shitler," I shit you not and we drank more chais than I can count. By sundown we made it to pushkar where the sun seems to cut rays of light through the sky. It was beyond cheesy paintings and the only words for it would surely constitute bad poetry.

We arrived the night before shivarati a festival to celebrate shiva and it seemed that our timing was impecable. Unfortunately I was still sick and really not feeling up to pushkar. It was a holy city on a holy lake in the desert with amazing shopping. But I just couldnt be asked to interact with any of it. I found the priests to be pushy and the sadhus to be glorified beggars.

The only thing that made me smile was a small street boy named Natu. Natu played some crazy instrument that resembled a violin out of cocunuts and wire. He spoke some english, had excellent manners for an indian boy and had a smile that made you want to pay for his college education. I took Natu and some of the other street kids out for some meals and tried to teach him some stuff that might help with other toursits like how to shake hands, head shoulders knees and toes and of course some michael jackson, because who wouldn't give money to a small boy singing "Im starting with the man in the mirror, oh yeah, i'm asking him to change his ways..."

After a few days I was done with being in pushkar and really wanted to make my way to righikesh so I could find a place to settle down and take some courses for the rest of my time in India. I had to leave Rob in Pushkar because he was committed to seeing this painting of Ganesh get painted to his likings. And I was off to Delhi on my own. Its funny though, cause theres just no being a lone in India. As soon as I sat down to wait for the bus I met an Australian woman and then a guy from NYC who plays classical indian music and then another guy from LA and then a girl from Chile (who looks just like pam, if pam were all shanti shanti instead of death metal) and a couple from France. y the time I got off the sleeper bus there was a whole gang of people that insisted I come to breakfast with them and travel the rest of the day to rishikesh with them as well. How could I say no.

We arrived here in Rishikesh last night and I joined my gang from Pushkar to a guesthouse in lokshman jhula for some more music and merriment.

Today I have been wandering around looking for a place to call home for awhile. An ashram maybe. Rob arrives some time today and Caitlin arrives tomorrow. We are at the base of the himalaya mountains here and right on the ganges river, the most holy river in all of india. Its nice cause its so far north that the river is still clean and not full of burnt body parts from funerals gona awry. Ah, what a country.