Airports have never been pleasant. Enjoying a VIP lounge only somewhat makes up for everything else about an airport that is meant solely to torture passengers under the guise of security. I've been to so many in the past few weeks and I'm so over being in one. Too bad there's still lots of visits still in my immediate future. Delhi Airport is probably the worst airport I've ever encountered with Heathrow and Newark being close behind.
Just recalling my return flight from Delhi raises my blood pressure but I'll push on with this. Maybe it will be cathartic. My flight was at 2:00AM on Sunday. I was supposed to be out of the hotel by 8:00 PM. That left lots of time in between with no where to be so I went to the airport. Passengers need some sort of proof they are flying that day in order to be allowed inside the airport. Even if you have electronic tickets you need a printout or some other proof. Without it, they'll take your passport, stick you in a holding area outside while a policeman investigates your claims of travel. That happened to me last year.
This year I was prepared with a printed receipt. I walked up to the policeman and showed it to him. "Sir you aren't flying today, you must come back tomorrow" he tells me. I pointed out to him that my flight was a very early morning flight. There was some back and forth then eventually he allowed me in probably because a throng of people were crowding in behind me giving me nowhere to go but forward. Once inside I learned that it was too early to check in. I would have to wait an hour. That wasn't so bad. There were chairs to wait in near the checkin desk. Well the one hour turned to two before I was finally allowed to check in.
The agent who "helped" be was a typical high caste woman aka "ma'am". Everyone is beneath her and she'll clearly let you know this. I really despise Indian ma'ams. The urge to choke vibrates my hands when I'm near one. She sees that I have two bags, looks at me as though I just shit on her desk and tells me curtly, "You have a one bag allowance".
I respond "well I have two".
She repeats "you have a one bag allowance, sir"
"Yes, and?" I reply.
She just stares at me and sighs. "You'll have to pay" she says.
"Yes I know" I reply.
She sighs again then calls over a porter and proceeds to go though the procedures to charge for the extra bag. While she does this I ask her to look into the cost of upgrading to business class. She completely ignores me as I ask and doesn't give me any indication she hears me. Once all the paperwork is completed she hands me a card and my boarding pass then tells me to go to another line to pay. I ask again about the upgrade. She ignores that question entirely and repeats that I need to go to the other line. I persist. "What about the upgrade?" at this point my trembling hands are raising past my belt unconsciously. She utterly refuses to talk to me and insists I move to the other line.
I gave in and just slid over to the line she needed me in so badly. Once I made it to the front the young girl working that counter starting having trouble with a stamping machine. She clearly doesn't know what to do about it but remains fixated on it. Some guy stood behind her watching her while smiling and offering advise. This took five minutes or more. Once she fixed it or gave up, I'm not sure which, she took my card and then asked for payment. I asked her about the upgrade and she actually listened to me and looked up the cost. There were no available seats it turned out so upgrading was pointless. I paid the extra baggage fee and then was off to passport control.
As I waited in line another agent walked up to me and asked if I was "the one" that checked excess baggage. I confirmed that I was then was told to see her once past passport control. I figured I was maybe undercharged or worse was about to be shaken down. I was warned about that from someone in Dharmsala. I met her at the other side and she took me to a room only telling me to follow her. Any question I asked got the answer "please follow me sir". She takes me into a room where a man immediately proceeds to ask me questions. "Why do you have excess baggage?" "What do you need excess baggage for?" "What are you carrying?" all asked in rapid succession by a perturbed looking man in plain clothes.
"I just need two bags, that's all" was my response.
"What do you do?" he asked.
"Software Engineer" my reply.
"You don't look like a software engineer" he says looking me up and down suspiciously.
"Well I am" I reply. He continues to grill me about why I was in India. He even went so far as to demand the phone number for the Dharmsala Dog Rescue so he could verify my claims. At this point I was getting pissed. I was ready for an international incident. "What is this about?" I demanded.
I was informed that my bags would be searched and I should wait in a holding area until they arrive. About five minutes later they show up and the inspection process begins. A bag full of smelly clothes and toiletries seemed to have disappointed my inquisitor. I had my daily backpack packed inside one of the bags and when he picked it up he asked why it was so heavy. I had some common tools in it, tools that I carry whenever I travel. I opened to bag and showed him. To him, me having tools was just way too suspicious. "What does a software engineer need with tools? huh?" he asks me aggressively.
"To fix things" i reply.
"But you told me you are a software engineer. Why do you need tools?" he persisted.
I snapped. I was done and didn't care how many armed police were about to rush in. "There's nothing wrong with tools, especially when I'm checking them!" I yelled. "What the fuck is wrong with tools?" I added. Another guy in the office said something to him in Hindi and they had a conversation then he made a phone call. The last thing he said, after speaking Hindi for the entire call was "its not my fault". I had no idea what that meant. Meanwhile I'm sitting on the couch imagining a jail cell and phone calls with the US Embassy. The guy who seemed to be the boss walked in and told me I could go. The inquisitor told me that I would ask the same question if I was in his shoes. I refrained from replying. My other bag wasn't searched and I was escorted to the security line.
What a cluster fuck! At that point I wanted out of India so fucking badly. I still had three hours to wait. It was a very long three hours of swirling hatred and loathing. Every word I heard in Hindi was like nails on a chalkboard. I need some time away from that place now. I wish there was a way into Dharmsala that didn't involve being in the rest of India. I'm sure time will heal my wounds but right now I'm so happy to not be there.
So right now I'm in the Heathrow United lounge waiting for my flight back to San Francisco. I'm not too fond of Heathrow either. Everyone here is so rigid, so bureaucratic and often ignorant and/or stupid. Coming though security, a flight attendant was in front of me. She's British so I'm sure she's gone through security lines many many times. At the entry, she opens her bag and removes the clear plastic bag containing her toiletries. The security agent immediately takes it and informs her that she's not using the proper bag. She pulls out the cheap plastic bags that security hands out at the start of the line. The flight attendant informs her that the bag is a standard-issue employee travel kit issued by the the airline and that she's had it for at least a year and its been though security often. The security agent doesn't buy the argument and insists its the wrong bag. The flight attendant went ballistic. I was quieting cheering for her. Still the security agent with a glazed-over look refuses to allow the bag though. I managed to get by and as I was leaving security looked back and they were still arguing.
Anyway. This is most likely it for this blog for a while. The rest of my life isn't exciting enough to blog about. When something exciting does happen I'll restart this.
Bye...
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Seeing Buddha while sitting on the toilet isn't as pleasant as one may think.
This is my last entry from Dharmsala. Tomorrow I go to Delhi and Sunday I return to Stockholm and Tuesday, San Francisco. Lots of travel ahead. Lots of general life upheaval too.
This has to be quick, I need to pack so I’m going to ramble about events of the past week and not necessarily in order...
I got so so sick last night. It hit me very quickly and at the worst I was hallucinating with chills, massive tingling in my hands and feet and a very unhappy digestive tract. Once I broke the fever I was OK but for about an hour I was really in a bad way. I’m thinking its either from one of the dogs or from something I ate. For a while I thought it may be mushroom poisoning because I looked up my symptoms when they weren’t so bad and they matched mushroom poisoning and I had a mushroom pizza for lunch but Deb did too and she’s fine so its not that. Anyway I’m mostly over it now, my body is wiped out though after last night. I missed my last day, today, in bed and it looked to be a great day. Oh well.
Yesterday, we arrived at the clinic to see a dog that had been hit by a taxi. His front leg was broken in two places. It was brought in the previous night and Arvind and a vet stabilized the dog. When we arrived they were preparing to put a splint on him. Arvind isn’t sure if the splint will work and if it doesn’t the leg will have to be amputated. So far the dog hasn’t tried to remove the splint which is a good sign. He’s going to be at the clinic for at least a month recovering. This is going to be an expensive recovery because they have to feed the dog lots of chicken to make sure its getting enough protein to heal the bone. A month’s supply of chicken isn’t cheap.
Earlier in the week someone dropped off three puppies. They’re about a month old and perfectly healthy. They’ll stay at the clinic for at least a month then Arvind will release them in a relatively safe area if he can’t find anyone to adopt them.
On Tuesday I visited the daycare I was at last year. Three of my kids from last year were there. There was a holiday so the others were not in school that day. I was a little disappointed but I was happy to see the ones that were there. The kids had no toys to play with. We had to bring toys with us last year. The school has toys but the teacher hordes them and they are locked up. I mentioned this a post from last year and don’t need to go into more detail now.
Saturday was Tibetan New Year, Losar. There were no celebrations this year as a protest. I don’t know exactly how that’s a protest but so be it. There was a march into lower Dharmsala and a talk and film at the temple in the evening. The talk was in Tibetan so I have no idea what it was about but the film was from last year’s protests in Lhasa where demonstrators were viciously beaten by Chinese police.
We did end up seeing the donkey. We had to take an hour long trek up to a remote farm village to see it. Arvind has been going up there almost every day for the past week. It takes him about three hours to take the bus up the McLeod Ganj, make the trek up and return. The donkey needs daily treatment. It started out with some minor infection about a year ago and got much worse. The donkey actually has owners. We initially thought it was stray. The owners tried some holistic medicine that didn’t do a damn thing. After that they gave up and basically waited for it to die which evidently would be five or more years.
There’s pictures of a guy getting a haircut in this week’s pictures. That guy is Michael, Heidi’s cameraman. Don’t ask why I felt compelled to photo document it.
Click here for pictures
This has to be quick, I need to pack so I’m going to ramble about events of the past week and not necessarily in order...
I got so so sick last night. It hit me very quickly and at the worst I was hallucinating with chills, massive tingling in my hands and feet and a very unhappy digestive tract. Once I broke the fever I was OK but for about an hour I was really in a bad way. I’m thinking its either from one of the dogs or from something I ate. For a while I thought it may be mushroom poisoning because I looked up my symptoms when they weren’t so bad and they matched mushroom poisoning and I had a mushroom pizza for lunch but Deb did too and she’s fine so its not that. Anyway I’m mostly over it now, my body is wiped out though after last night. I missed my last day, today, in bed and it looked to be a great day. Oh well.
Yesterday, we arrived at the clinic to see a dog that had been hit by a taxi. His front leg was broken in two places. It was brought in the previous night and Arvind and a vet stabilized the dog. When we arrived they were preparing to put a splint on him. Arvind isn’t sure if the splint will work and if it doesn’t the leg will have to be amputated. So far the dog hasn’t tried to remove the splint which is a good sign. He’s going to be at the clinic for at least a month recovering. This is going to be an expensive recovery because they have to feed the dog lots of chicken to make sure its getting enough protein to heal the bone. A month’s supply of chicken isn’t cheap.
Earlier in the week someone dropped off three puppies. They’re about a month old and perfectly healthy. They’ll stay at the clinic for at least a month then Arvind will release them in a relatively safe area if he can’t find anyone to adopt them.
On Tuesday I visited the daycare I was at last year. Three of my kids from last year were there. There was a holiday so the others were not in school that day. I was a little disappointed but I was happy to see the ones that were there. The kids had no toys to play with. We had to bring toys with us last year. The school has toys but the teacher hordes them and they are locked up. I mentioned this a post from last year and don’t need to go into more detail now.
Saturday was Tibetan New Year, Losar. There were no celebrations this year as a protest. I don’t know exactly how that’s a protest but so be it. There was a march into lower Dharmsala and a talk and film at the temple in the evening. The talk was in Tibetan so I have no idea what it was about but the film was from last year’s protests in Lhasa where demonstrators were viciously beaten by Chinese police.
We did end up seeing the donkey. We had to take an hour long trek up to a remote farm village to see it. Arvind has been going up there almost every day for the past week. It takes him about three hours to take the bus up the McLeod Ganj, make the trek up and return. The donkey needs daily treatment. It started out with some minor infection about a year ago and got much worse. The donkey actually has owners. We initially thought it was stray. The owners tried some holistic medicine that didn’t do a damn thing. After that they gave up and basically waited for it to die which evidently would be five or more years.
There’s pictures of a guy getting a haircut in this week’s pictures. That guy is Michael, Heidi’s cameraman. Don’t ask why I felt compelled to photo document it.
Click here for pictures
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Fear and Loathing in Dharmsala
OK, so the past few days have been more of the same dog catching, vaccinating, sterilizing etc. etc.. I got most of the key pictures already and now I’m either getting B-roll images for reference or portraits for newspapers or fund raising. There’s two more events that I need to be at but that’s it. We’re supposed to vaccinate a whole bunch of puppies sometime and we’re going to check out a sick, stray donkey that’s being treated by Arvind and a volunteer vet.
Lately I’ve been taking pictures on my own of general life in Dharmsala. The last time I was here I spent most of my time in Lower Dharmsala which is predominately Indian with a few Tibetans and very few Westerners. I was also constantly looked after with a well stocked kitchen, three meals a day and various support staff to care for my every need. This time I’m basically on my own up in Mcleoud Ganj mixed among Tibetans, Indians and Westerners. My apartment has a kitchen but no refrigerator so I don’t cook. I eat out for every meal. I can’t complain about that though; its actually really cheap to eat out. Breakfast is about $1.50 and a good dinner is about $2.50. Being without the support net does afford me a more real experience here.
It took about eight days to get everything straight in my apartment. Most requests took three days or more to fulfill with inquiries bringing the answer “tomorrow” along with a smile and Indian head weave. My Internet request took ten “tomorrows”. Oh but payment was always expected immediately. “You pay now” was a familiar refrain, including for Internet that kept coming tomorrow.
The internet installation has been the biggest cluster fuck so far. They run cables from an Internet cafe across the way from the apartment. These cables are moved from apartment to apartment as requests come in rather than have a permanent cable leading to each unit. Of course this means that every time the cable is moved it gets kinked a little more and it capability to deliver signal degrades. The first cable was severely damaged with evident kinking all along the hundred plus foot length of the cable. I tried to point this out but was dismissed. I guess I don’t know what I’m talking about. They installed a new cable after Heidi went ballistic because her connection was unstable and called a meeting of the staff, residents and the owner. They brought me in and after the owner knew what I do for a living I became the expert and they sort of listened to me. The next day a kid came out with a box of Cat-5 cable and strung up a new cable. He kinked it, twice and I told him that’s not good for the cable. He assured me that there’s six cables inside so its redundant and will be OK then he threw in the infamous smile and Indian head weave. I started to explain why he was wrong but half way though the first sentence the futility of doing so hit me and I shut up and just walked away. Well I have internet now but its so slow I can’t really use it for anything.
The faces of my readers who are now wondering why they just don’t use WiFi just flashed though my head so for those people I’ll delve a bit deeper into the Indian Internet Cluster Fuck. The apartment building, like most buildings here are made entirely of concrete. Every wall is thick concrete. Wifi does not penetrate concrete. The wifi that does exist here is run by a person sitting in front of the admin interface for the access point manually adding the MAC address of the computer allowing a connection. These are typical home access points meant for two or three connections, not ten or more by the way. Each time a new user wants to connect the AP needs to be reconfigured and reset throwing everyone off the internet for a minute or two. This gets tedious when things are busy. Bandwidth is a joke. One place advertises “Fast Broadband”. I got a good look at the router and looked it up. Its a 128k bps ISDN router.
I thought about automating the Wifi cluster fuck then realized that wouldn’t go over well here. The MAC address guy is employed and that’s a good thing here. Automation is mostly considered bad. What one machine can do is better done by two, three, or ten paid Indians. Everything that can be a manual process is. Moving rocks is done by six people rather than one guy and a wheelbarrow.
So I’m going off course and should pull back. Dharamsala. If you disregard the Dahli Lama and the Tibetan exiles for a moment, this place is just a typical small mountain town. There’s two roads that lead to it and one of them can only loosely be considered a road. Those two roads meet at the bottom of the hill and lead to a minor Indian road that after fifty or so kilometers leads to a kind of major two lane road. There is an airstrip nearby but there aren’t many flights and those flights are all on tiny puddle jumpers. Before the arrival of the Dahli Lama the biggest thing about this place was the bus stop. It was practically abandoned after the departure of the British.
The Indian government gave The Dahli Lama this small town for him to set up his government in exile and host the many Tibetan refugees that followed him here. Slowly a community was built and then the tourists came. First they were Buddhists on pilgrimage. Then came the hikers, travelers, Eastern Europeans looking for a cheap holiday and Israeli soldiers on leave (Dharmsala is one of the few places they are allowed to go).
Following the tourists came the Indians. They set up trinket shops, restaurants and hotels. Indians own mostly everything in McLeod Ganj. Tibetans have no money to start a business. A Tibetan owned business here is rare and most of the Tibetan owned businesses are simple roadside stands. Some Indian owned businesses employ Tibetans and many of them are treated poorly. One day I was at a cafe where the son of the Indian owner sat in a chair near the door talking on his phone while barking orders at the Tibetan staff. This is typical. The Indians and the Tibetans don’t really get along. There’s a state of detente and open hostility is rare but there is definitely hostility. The Indians act as though they “own the place”. Some will tell you that they despise the Tibetans because they are spoiled by foreign sponsorships and donations while Indians suffer.
Many, but not all, of the Indians here are clearly out for money and will quickly take advantage of the next tourist that comes along. Any Western tourist can give you more than one story of an Indian shopkeeper trying to charge two or three times the regular price for water or something. There was one place that had the prices clearly advertised on a sign and as my friend stood under that sign the shopkeeper attempted to charge a premium then could not explain why the sign said what it did then persisted in charging the premium. This kind of thing quickly turns off Western tourists. Savvy tourists here know to avoid Indians when possible and when not possible how to not get ripped off. Anything sold in stores here has a government set price written somewhere on it by the manufacturer. Pointing that out usually avoids haggling with an unscrupulous shop owner. Last year I did have to argue once with a guy who tried to charge me double for a soda. I restrained myself from throwing it at him and just walked out.
There’s also the local Indian tourists that come here from Punjab mostly. Later in the summer, rich tourists form Southern India also come here to escape the heat as well. The Punjabis are just like college students on spring break. They’re loud, obnoxious and sometimes violent. One night recently a group of them came roaring into town at night in a monster SUV driving the wrong way up a one way street looking for some Tibetans to engage in a fight. More recently Heidi and Michael (her cameraman) were followed home by a group of teenagers looking for trouble. The Indians from elsewhere are a little more respectful but they still walk around as though they are royalty. Seeing them in The Temple is disgusting. They’ll walk into the middle of a service taking pictures, talking loudly, letting their children do whatever they want while they look around as though they are in disgust.
A subgroup of the tourists are young Westerners lost and disillusioned looking to find something spiritual here. Its easy to identify these people. When they arrive they’re wide-eyed and all love and smiles. After a few days and interactions with unscrupulous Indians they become jaded. A few more days it hits them, there’s nothing here. At least nothing easy. These pour souls are the most easily identified. The best analogy I could give may only be understood by a few people but its what I have. Picture a rave. [Yeah I know I lost many of you right here] Think about the end of the rave when all the ecstasy has been taken and everyone that was going to pair up has and has long since left. Those that are left have a distinct look. Its a very lonely look exacerbated by the drugs running through their brains impacting them with a deep desire to connect with someone but there is no one. Well the lost souls here have that same exact look. Its sad to see but not uncommon.
These people arrive here and maybe take a class on Buddhism and think they’re Buddhists. They may sit around talking about Buddhism. They may offer to buy a monk dinner. They most definitely go to The Temple spinning the prayer wheels and bowing to every image of Buddha they some across. Some may go on a ten day meditation retreat (or at least talk about it to everyone they know then flake out). One place they are rarely seen is in the parts of the temple where actual Buddhists prostrate themselves in an act that what would make a hundred Hail Mary’s while kneeling seem like child’s play. They also are missing from the circumambulation paths inside and outside the temple where the prayer beads they so proudly wear on their wrists are supposed to be used to count the saying of mantras.
These poor souls are preyed upon by the False Babas, Indians wearing robes and accruements that give them the impression of spirituality. Some of them are just in it for a quick rupee and will tell a tourist that giving them money will be returned to the many-fold later on though Karma. I’ve watched them fleece tourists many times and each time I laugh. I’m not going to warn the tourists. I honestly don’t care when a fool is parted with his money especially one with enough to come here for vacation. The False Babas that become leaches are the evil ones. They’re pretty easy to spot. They look for certain kinds of Westerners then once their prey is sighted they’re relentless. They’re con-men and often they can easily win over their mark into buying them dinner, taking their class (for a price) or even following them around recruiting others to do they same. Some of these followers are middle aged adults who take their entire families on the road to follow the False Baba. When I see that I feel really bad for the kids.
I could go on with tales of False Yogis, New Age Deepak Chopra wannabes and the like but I should post this soon. I’m sure you get the picture.
Anyway, on to the order and chaos thing. There are a lot of tourists who are here just for a good time and aren’t necessarily carrying a spiritual void. Many are Israeli soldiers on leave. There’s also a large number of Eastern Europeans here because it is so cheap. Gap year college students are another group commonly found here. These tourists are here to party plain and simple. Some don’t quite get that this is a Third World country and the fact that this town is a practically isolated mountain town in a Third World country doesn’t quite convey the reality that this is not a resort. One really needs to go with the flow here. Doing so will eventually reveal the order in the chaos and once that is found being here can be a very pleasant experience. The ones that expect things and complain about everything and wonder why things aren’t done here the way they’re done back home are the ones that break and end up going home early and consider this hell on Earth. I ran into a group of them at the airport coming here. I could tell they were about the have the worst time of their lives. I saw them around the first day I was here and they were evidently in shock. I haven’t seen them since. Last year a few of the people I volunteered with were the same way. They all left pissed off and strung out. I just don’t get these people. I really don’t.
Anyway, its late. I need to post this. Tomorrow I’m going to see my kids from last year. I’m excited. The donkey search was canceled due to rain. Its been raining here almost every day. This time its a cold rain and not really that pleasant so walking about in it isn’t as appealing as it was last year later in the summer when it was very hot. I’m going the Delhi next Friday for a day then back to Stockholm for two days then home. I’ll probably blog once or twice in there somewhere...
Click here for pictures
Lately I’ve been taking pictures on my own of general life in Dharmsala. The last time I was here I spent most of my time in Lower Dharmsala which is predominately Indian with a few Tibetans and very few Westerners. I was also constantly looked after with a well stocked kitchen, three meals a day and various support staff to care for my every need. This time I’m basically on my own up in Mcleoud Ganj mixed among Tibetans, Indians and Westerners. My apartment has a kitchen but no refrigerator so I don’t cook. I eat out for every meal. I can’t complain about that though; its actually really cheap to eat out. Breakfast is about $1.50 and a good dinner is about $2.50. Being without the support net does afford me a more real experience here.
It took about eight days to get everything straight in my apartment. Most requests took three days or more to fulfill with inquiries bringing the answer “tomorrow” along with a smile and Indian head weave. My Internet request took ten “tomorrows”. Oh but payment was always expected immediately. “You pay now” was a familiar refrain, including for Internet that kept coming tomorrow.
The internet installation has been the biggest cluster fuck so far. They run cables from an Internet cafe across the way from the apartment. These cables are moved from apartment to apartment as requests come in rather than have a permanent cable leading to each unit. Of course this means that every time the cable is moved it gets kinked a little more and it capability to deliver signal degrades. The first cable was severely damaged with evident kinking all along the hundred plus foot length of the cable. I tried to point this out but was dismissed. I guess I don’t know what I’m talking about. They installed a new cable after Heidi went ballistic because her connection was unstable and called a meeting of the staff, residents and the owner. They brought me in and after the owner knew what I do for a living I became the expert and they sort of listened to me. The next day a kid came out with a box of Cat-5 cable and strung up a new cable. He kinked it, twice and I told him that’s not good for the cable. He assured me that there’s six cables inside so its redundant and will be OK then he threw in the infamous smile and Indian head weave. I started to explain why he was wrong but half way though the first sentence the futility of doing so hit me and I shut up and just walked away. Well I have internet now but its so slow I can’t really use it for anything.
The faces of my readers who are now wondering why they just don’t use WiFi just flashed though my head so for those people I’ll delve a bit deeper into the Indian Internet Cluster Fuck. The apartment building, like most buildings here are made entirely of concrete. Every wall is thick concrete. Wifi does not penetrate concrete. The wifi that does exist here is run by a person sitting in front of the admin interface for the access point manually adding the MAC address of the computer allowing a connection. These are typical home access points meant for two or three connections, not ten or more by the way. Each time a new user wants to connect the AP needs to be reconfigured and reset throwing everyone off the internet for a minute or two. This gets tedious when things are busy. Bandwidth is a joke. One place advertises “Fast Broadband”. I got a good look at the router and looked it up. Its a 128k bps ISDN router.
I thought about automating the Wifi cluster fuck then realized that wouldn’t go over well here. The MAC address guy is employed and that’s a good thing here. Automation is mostly considered bad. What one machine can do is better done by two, three, or ten paid Indians. Everything that can be a manual process is. Moving rocks is done by six people rather than one guy and a wheelbarrow.
So I’m going off course and should pull back. Dharamsala. If you disregard the Dahli Lama and the Tibetan exiles for a moment, this place is just a typical small mountain town. There’s two roads that lead to it and one of them can only loosely be considered a road. Those two roads meet at the bottom of the hill and lead to a minor Indian road that after fifty or so kilometers leads to a kind of major two lane road. There is an airstrip nearby but there aren’t many flights and those flights are all on tiny puddle jumpers. Before the arrival of the Dahli Lama the biggest thing about this place was the bus stop. It was practically abandoned after the departure of the British.
The Indian government gave The Dahli Lama this small town for him to set up his government in exile and host the many Tibetan refugees that followed him here. Slowly a community was built and then the tourists came. First they were Buddhists on pilgrimage. Then came the hikers, travelers, Eastern Europeans looking for a cheap holiday and Israeli soldiers on leave (Dharmsala is one of the few places they are allowed to go).
Following the tourists came the Indians. They set up trinket shops, restaurants and hotels. Indians own mostly everything in McLeod Ganj. Tibetans have no money to start a business. A Tibetan owned business here is rare and most of the Tibetan owned businesses are simple roadside stands. Some Indian owned businesses employ Tibetans and many of them are treated poorly. One day I was at a cafe where the son of the Indian owner sat in a chair near the door talking on his phone while barking orders at the Tibetan staff. This is typical. The Indians and the Tibetans don’t really get along. There’s a state of detente and open hostility is rare but there is definitely hostility. The Indians act as though they “own the place”. Some will tell you that they despise the Tibetans because they are spoiled by foreign sponsorships and donations while Indians suffer.
Many, but not all, of the Indians here are clearly out for money and will quickly take advantage of the next tourist that comes along. Any Western tourist can give you more than one story of an Indian shopkeeper trying to charge two or three times the regular price for water or something. There was one place that had the prices clearly advertised on a sign and as my friend stood under that sign the shopkeeper attempted to charge a premium then could not explain why the sign said what it did then persisted in charging the premium. This kind of thing quickly turns off Western tourists. Savvy tourists here know to avoid Indians when possible and when not possible how to not get ripped off. Anything sold in stores here has a government set price written somewhere on it by the manufacturer. Pointing that out usually avoids haggling with an unscrupulous shop owner. Last year I did have to argue once with a guy who tried to charge me double for a soda. I restrained myself from throwing it at him and just walked out.
There’s also the local Indian tourists that come here from Punjab mostly. Later in the summer, rich tourists form Southern India also come here to escape the heat as well. The Punjabis are just like college students on spring break. They’re loud, obnoxious and sometimes violent. One night recently a group of them came roaring into town at night in a monster SUV driving the wrong way up a one way street looking for some Tibetans to engage in a fight. More recently Heidi and Michael (her cameraman) were followed home by a group of teenagers looking for trouble. The Indians from elsewhere are a little more respectful but they still walk around as though they are royalty. Seeing them in The Temple is disgusting. They’ll walk into the middle of a service taking pictures, talking loudly, letting their children do whatever they want while they look around as though they are in disgust.
A subgroup of the tourists are young Westerners lost and disillusioned looking to find something spiritual here. Its easy to identify these people. When they arrive they’re wide-eyed and all love and smiles. After a few days and interactions with unscrupulous Indians they become jaded. A few more days it hits them, there’s nothing here. At least nothing easy. These pour souls are the most easily identified. The best analogy I could give may only be understood by a few people but its what I have. Picture a rave. [Yeah I know I lost many of you right here] Think about the end of the rave when all the ecstasy has been taken and everyone that was going to pair up has and has long since left. Those that are left have a distinct look. Its a very lonely look exacerbated by the drugs running through their brains impacting them with a deep desire to connect with someone but there is no one. Well the lost souls here have that same exact look. Its sad to see but not uncommon.
These people arrive here and maybe take a class on Buddhism and think they’re Buddhists. They may sit around talking about Buddhism. They may offer to buy a monk dinner. They most definitely go to The Temple spinning the prayer wheels and bowing to every image of Buddha they some across. Some may go on a ten day meditation retreat (or at least talk about it to everyone they know then flake out). One place they are rarely seen is in the parts of the temple where actual Buddhists prostrate themselves in an act that what would make a hundred Hail Mary’s while kneeling seem like child’s play. They also are missing from the circumambulation paths inside and outside the temple where the prayer beads they so proudly wear on their wrists are supposed to be used to count the saying of mantras.
These poor souls are preyed upon by the False Babas, Indians wearing robes and accruements that give them the impression of spirituality. Some of them are just in it for a quick rupee and will tell a tourist that giving them money will be returned to the many-fold later on though Karma. I’ve watched them fleece tourists many times and each time I laugh. I’m not going to warn the tourists. I honestly don’t care when a fool is parted with his money especially one with enough to come here for vacation. The False Babas that become leaches are the evil ones. They’re pretty easy to spot. They look for certain kinds of Westerners then once their prey is sighted they’re relentless. They’re con-men and often they can easily win over their mark into buying them dinner, taking their class (for a price) or even following them around recruiting others to do they same. Some of these followers are middle aged adults who take their entire families on the road to follow the False Baba. When I see that I feel really bad for the kids.
I could go on with tales of False Yogis, New Age Deepak Chopra wannabes and the like but I should post this soon. I’m sure you get the picture.
Anyway, on to the order and chaos thing. There are a lot of tourists who are here just for a good time and aren’t necessarily carrying a spiritual void. Many are Israeli soldiers on leave. There’s also a large number of Eastern Europeans here because it is so cheap. Gap year college students are another group commonly found here. These tourists are here to party plain and simple. Some don’t quite get that this is a Third World country and the fact that this town is a practically isolated mountain town in a Third World country doesn’t quite convey the reality that this is not a resort. One really needs to go with the flow here. Doing so will eventually reveal the order in the chaos and once that is found being here can be a very pleasant experience. The ones that expect things and complain about everything and wonder why things aren’t done here the way they’re done back home are the ones that break and end up going home early and consider this hell on Earth. I ran into a group of them at the airport coming here. I could tell they were about the have the worst time of their lives. I saw them around the first day I was here and they were evidently in shock. I haven’t seen them since. Last year a few of the people I volunteered with were the same way. They all left pissed off and strung out. I just don’t get these people. I really don’t.
Anyway, its late. I need to post this. Tomorrow I’m going to see my kids from last year. I’m excited. The donkey search was canceled due to rain. Its been raining here almost every day. This time its a cold rain and not really that pleasant so walking about in it isn’t as appealing as it was last year later in the summer when it was very hot. I’m going the Delhi next Friday for a day then back to Stockholm for two days then home. I’ll probably blog once or twice in there somewhere...
Click here for pictures
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
ahh-chew!
Friday:
I got sick. Its some sort of chest cold that’s going around. Lots of people have it or have gotten over it, even the Dahli Lama. It hasn’t completely taken me out of commission but I’m only at 50% right now. I’ve been sleeping a lot. I hope to get over it soon. Its been raining heavily with glorious lightning off and on. The power went out twice. The first time it went out I was walking back from dinner and all of a sudden I was surrounded by pitch-black. I wish I wasn’t sick so I could better enjoy it. The lightning here is intense.
Saturday:
I felt a bit better so I went down to the clinic to get more pictures. The rain has cleared the air and the views are even more spectacular. Fresh snow has fallen at lower elevations, pretty close to our elevation. Its definitely been colder.
This day was a round up day. We brought back two dogs for sterilization. These dogs seemed otherwise healthy. They almost took a dog that had owners. As the dog catchers were trying to catch him the owner ran out screaming. They explained what they were doing and everything was ok and everyone was all smiles. I cut my day short because I was sick. I spent the rest of the day sleeping.
Sunday:
I’m still sick but better. The damp cold air isn’t helping much and neither is the pollution. I’m not getting any worse which is good.
Today two vets came to the clinic to neuter the dogs that had been caught. They were also going to check out the dog that may have cancer. The owner’s son brought the dog this time. They both sat on a rock and waited for the sentence to come down from the vets. He looked as though he was going to cry and the dog was definitely scared, as if he knew what was going on. Maybe he did.
The vets showed up on Indian time (late) and after the rounds of introductions were complete they inspected the clinic then examined the dog waiting to hear how much time it had left. The owner wasn’t ready for the answer, that was clear. The answer came and the owner smiled. It wasn’t cancer, just a really bad infection. The vets wrote a list of stuff to pick up at the pharmacy and Arvind would administer the injections and whatever other treatment the dog needed. The owner kept smiling throughout, obviously relieved.
Arvind’s friend Vishnu came by with his dog to help out. Vishnu lives in upper Dharmsala where I’m staying. He works at a free vet clinic and does the vaccinations in this area and coordinates the sterilization efforts here. Vishnu’s dog and Beauty, the new clinic dog, had a blast playing together in the woods.
Surrinder, one of the dog catchers, went to the kennel for the first dog to lose its manhood. He stayed with the dog in the anterior room comforting him as though it was his own dog that he’s had for years. This is a stray dog that was just picked up yesterday. He stayed with the dog as it was administered anesthesia and went to sleep. While the dog was in the operating room Surrinder got the next dog and did the same.
A reporter from the national news came by to do a story on the clinic. When I think about a national news reporter doing a story I think a crew of people show up in a truck with lights and mega expensive cameras. Here it’s one guy with a Hi-8 handicam and a microphone. At first I thought this was some local guy with a web show or something.
This day was cut short for us when it was clear I needed to be in bed. I was exhausted and ready to pass out. I slept for the rest of the day except for dinner and a quick turn at Internet access. My access now is worse than last time. Its a pain.
Monday:
After sleeping for about twenty hours I finally felt back to normal. Today Arvind and his crew came up to Mcleoud Ganj (otherwise known as Upper Dharmsala) to put up posters about the dog rescue operation. We walked about ten miles though Bhagsu, a smaller village nearby, around Mcleoud and the temple grounds putting up the posters and handing out fliers. This took a long time because each time we would run into someone we’d have to stop for tea. It was a good day and I’m glad I wasn’t sick for it.
No deep thoughts this time. I really haven’t had much time to write this. I should have more time now that I’m not sleeping constantly.
Click here for pictures
I got sick. Its some sort of chest cold that’s going around. Lots of people have it or have gotten over it, even the Dahli Lama. It hasn’t completely taken me out of commission but I’m only at 50% right now. I’ve been sleeping a lot. I hope to get over it soon. Its been raining heavily with glorious lightning off and on. The power went out twice. The first time it went out I was walking back from dinner and all of a sudden I was surrounded by pitch-black. I wish I wasn’t sick so I could better enjoy it. The lightning here is intense.
Saturday:
I felt a bit better so I went down to the clinic to get more pictures. The rain has cleared the air and the views are even more spectacular. Fresh snow has fallen at lower elevations, pretty close to our elevation. Its definitely been colder.
This day was a round up day. We brought back two dogs for sterilization. These dogs seemed otherwise healthy. They almost took a dog that had owners. As the dog catchers were trying to catch him the owner ran out screaming. They explained what they were doing and everything was ok and everyone was all smiles. I cut my day short because I was sick. I spent the rest of the day sleeping.
Sunday:
I’m still sick but better. The damp cold air isn’t helping much and neither is the pollution. I’m not getting any worse which is good.
Today two vets came to the clinic to neuter the dogs that had been caught. They were also going to check out the dog that may have cancer. The owner’s son brought the dog this time. They both sat on a rock and waited for the sentence to come down from the vets. He looked as though he was going to cry and the dog was definitely scared, as if he knew what was going on. Maybe he did.
The vets showed up on Indian time (late) and after the rounds of introductions were complete they inspected the clinic then examined the dog waiting to hear how much time it had left. The owner wasn’t ready for the answer, that was clear. The answer came and the owner smiled. It wasn’t cancer, just a really bad infection. The vets wrote a list of stuff to pick up at the pharmacy and Arvind would administer the injections and whatever other treatment the dog needed. The owner kept smiling throughout, obviously relieved.
Arvind’s friend Vishnu came by with his dog to help out. Vishnu lives in upper Dharmsala where I’m staying. He works at a free vet clinic and does the vaccinations in this area and coordinates the sterilization efforts here. Vishnu’s dog and Beauty, the new clinic dog, had a blast playing together in the woods.
Surrinder, one of the dog catchers, went to the kennel for the first dog to lose its manhood. He stayed with the dog in the anterior room comforting him as though it was his own dog that he’s had for years. This is a stray dog that was just picked up yesterday. He stayed with the dog as it was administered anesthesia and went to sleep. While the dog was in the operating room Surrinder got the next dog and did the same.
A reporter from the national news came by to do a story on the clinic. When I think about a national news reporter doing a story I think a crew of people show up in a truck with lights and mega expensive cameras. Here it’s one guy with a Hi-8 handicam and a microphone. At first I thought this was some local guy with a web show or something.
This day was cut short for us when it was clear I needed to be in bed. I was exhausted and ready to pass out. I slept for the rest of the day except for dinner and a quick turn at Internet access. My access now is worse than last time. Its a pain.
Monday:
After sleeping for about twenty hours I finally felt back to normal. Today Arvind and his crew came up to Mcleoud Ganj (otherwise known as Upper Dharmsala) to put up posters about the dog rescue operation. We walked about ten miles though Bhagsu, a smaller village nearby, around Mcleoud and the temple grounds putting up the posters and handing out fliers. This took a long time because each time we would run into someone we’d have to stop for tea. It was a good day and I’m glad I wasn’t sick for it.
No deep thoughts this time. I really haven’t had much time to write this. I should have more time now that I’m not sleeping constantly.
Click here for pictures
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Made better
I uploaded the wrong image sizes. Sorry if you have to give up waiting for the big images. I uploaded the correct images. Page loading should be much faster.
Click here for pictures again!
More blog later. My internet time is limited right now. Everything is swell...
Click here for pictures again!
More blog later. My internet time is limited right now. Everything is swell...
Friday, March 20, 2009
I'm not really sure I ever left.
Remembered Truth: Order arising naturally from chaos brings balance. Order unnaturally imposed on chaos brings conflict.
Learned Truth: I get by with a little help from my friends...
Monday & Tuesday: Boring Travel.
Wednesday:
Today I followed three dog catchers. They were looking for stray dogs to vaccinate for rabies. One had a burlap bag with a rope, one held a syringe loaded with the vaccine and the other chased the dogs. Also with us was Arvind the guy organizing the hunt. He runs The Dharamsala Dog Rescue, the only veterinary clinic in all of Incredible India that cares for stray dogs and one of the few who cares for dogs at all. The other veterinary clinic mostly cares for owned cows and sheep.
Few Indians care about the welfare of dogs and many detest them. During a recent rabies outbreak many stray dogs were killed on sight. Arvind was inspired to start the dog rescue in 2007 after a previous rabies outbreak led to the death of hundreds of dogs though poisoning. He said the sight of so many dogs walking around like zombies or laying dead or dying on the street led him to do something.
The primary task for the dog rescue to is vaccinate stray dogs for rabies. This is how Arvind convinced the government to give him land for his clinic and a little bit of money. Much of the rest of the needed money comes from Piyara Kutta, the organization ran by my friend Deb who I met in India last year. While they are out looking for stay dogs to vaccinate they keep an eye out for dogs who are sick or injured. If they find one they will take it back to the clinic and treat it. Veterinary doctors are at the clinic one or two days a week to handle anything Arvind and his mostly untrained staff cannot handle.
Arvind and his dog catchers attract a crowd of onlookers wherever they go and Arvind takes advantage of this by handing out literature about what he is doing and also about the facts of rabies. He’s just begun to publicize the clinic now that it is mostly up and running. For the past two years news of it has only spread by word of mouth. When someone sees a sick or injured dog they will get word to Arvind who will come looking for it. He’s familiar with many of the dogs in Dharamsala. Some dog owners will bring their dogs to him as well.
A local man came by with his dog who’s tail got caught in a barbed wire fence. Arvind cleaned up the tail and disinfected it. He also noticed a lump in the dogs groin and had to tell the owner that his dog most likely has cancer. The owner seemed distraught and he was trying to deny it, repeating that it must be from the fence, it must be.
After Arvind was finished cleaning up the dog and talking to its shocked owner we went out on a vaccination run. I followed the dog catchers as they rounded up around ten dogs. Some needed to be caught in the bag but most were friendly enough to come when called. Each dog was marked with paint to indicate it had been vaccinated. Arvind coordinates the locations where he vaccinates the dogs with the local government so, theoretically, if someone is bitten in a given area the hospital can find out with some level of certainty that the chance of contracting rabies is low.
After our time with the pack of newly vaccinated strays we headed back to our apartments. The accommodations are pretty nice by Indian standards and a bit below Hotel 6 for Western standards. There’s only running water between eight and nine in the morning. There’s a kitchen but no refrigerator or even a toaster. They don’t even provide matches to light the mini stove. The bathroom is without any sort of towel, paper or otherwise. Its a good thing I’ve been here before and remember the Westerner’s mantra to maintain inner peace in India: “Have no expectations, only hopes”. So far I have my bearings and have acquired everything I need fairly quickly. Basic stuff is kind of easy if you know where to go. The towels I bought are literally waterproof. They do not absorb water at all. They will come out from being submerged in water almost totally dry. I wonder what the point of waterproof towels is? Towels that will actually remove water is one thing I need to find and that seems to be hard.
Later in the day I went back to the Tibetan school where I volunteered last year and met up with a bunch of friends. One was volunteering with me last year and the rest are all Tibetans who I helped teach or just hung out with. The volunteer from last year, Heidi Minx, is kind of famous in the Punk underground. She’s known as the Punk Rock Domestic. She has a few cookbooks, her own clothing lines, two active blogs, a monthly column for a tattoo magazine, a web based show on MTV.com and she runs a few non-profits. I don’t think she sleeps. She’s here now with a cameraman in tow filming a documentary about the Tibetan school. I guess I’m going to be in it. She’s done a short, on camera interview with me and plans to do more. She’s going with us tomorrow to the clinic to do a quick interview with Arvind for her MTV.com show.
Thursday:
This morning we headed to a coffee shop across from The Temple for a quick breakfast then headed down to Lower Dharmsala. One of the things Arvind is starting with help from Piyara Kutta is an education program. This has two parts. He wants to educate adults about how rabies spreads, what to look for in a dog that has it and what to do if a rabid dog is spotted or worse what to do if someone is bitten by one. He also wants to show little kids that dogs are not evil, disease ridden animals, which many Indians believe. For this he goes to schools and talks to kids and actually shows the movie “Air Bud” to which the kids seem to react well. He’d like to take puppies to the preschools to let the kids play interact with the dogs. This is something that would make for a great story and photos so we’re all over that.
To get into the preschools we went to the organization where Deb and I stayed last year. They can help get Arvind and the puppies into the preschools since they send volunteers to all of them and know all the teachers and the local head of preschools. We talked with the program coordinator for a while and he was more than willing to help out. They actually have five, month-old puppies. We played with them for a little while. Deb and Heidi couldn't contain their oohs and ahhs and baby talk. I mostly took pictures and put the puppies in photogenic situations.
Later in the day we went to the clinic so Heidi could do her interview with Arvind. Earlier in the day they found a puppy who was dehydrated and took it back to the clinic. It was in perfect health otherwise so Arvind decided to keep the dog. He’d been looking for a puppy to adopt for the clinic. He asked Deb to name it and she named it “Beauty”. Just before Heidi’s interview was to begin the dog catchers brought in another dog that had a skin disease. They will treat it there and when it gets better they’ll return it to the area where it was caught. There was already another younger dog being kept for treatment of what seems to be the same disease.
During the day, Heidi also had the task of finding a terabyte hard drive because the other drives they brought were almost full and they are no where near done shooting. Finding such a thing is something we take for granted but not here. It took a network of people and many phone calls to source the drive then it took another network to get it up to Dharmsala from Delhi. Seven people are all in some way involved in getting this hard drive to Heidi and after a day’s worth of phone calls its on its way. The only “business” that is involved is the store where it was found. Everyone else is just a friend or a friend of a friend. I kind of realized that you really can’t get much done here without a network. Its good that everyone I knew last year remembers me so if I need something I can activate my network and much of it overlaps with Heidi’s so if that network can get a terabyte hard drive up here it can get anything. I need to send feelers out for an illusive Dalai Lama shot glass actually.
I took Heidi to the tattoo artist who did my tattoo last year while he did some touch up work on me. Heidi interviewed him while he was working on me and that footage will be in her documentary. Ashok, the artist, was very happy to get the exposure. Heidi may also write about him for one of her columns. That’s kind of the way things work here. Everyone helps everyone else.
As the sun was setting I went back to The Temple. They’re doing some minor construction work and of course its being done by Dalit migrant labor from Rajastan. It seemed as though they were waiting for something because they were doing the dance of futility in order to make it seem as though they are working. This dance involves two women and four men and two piles of rocks about thirty feet apart. Two men are at each pile and the woman carry the rocks from one pile to the other. The men pick up the rocks, put them on a woman’s head, she brings it to the other pile where one of the men takes the rock off her head. This goes on until there’s one pile then, if there still is nothing else to do the whole thing starts again. I’ve seen this a few times in India. The whole concept is quite typical. There’s a whole lot going on and little getting done. Construction projects that were ongoing last year are still ongoing with little apparent progress and much activity.
The Temple was very peaceful, well mostly peaceful. There was one little boy who was running around the temple having lots of fun while his father prayed. He ran with the people who were circumambulating the temple while praying. This is tolerated without the slightest agitation. I came across a monkey who liked to have his picture taken and I took many while his parents who seemed to be grooming themselves watched. As the sun was setting and I was taking pictures of the event a monk I knew from last year told me that the monks were about to debate downstairs and I should go take pictures. I already have pictures from last year but he was so excited for me I went and took more. What they call a debate is really a lesson. Two teachers stand while the student sits. One teacher gives the lesson while waving his arms and slapping his hands to drive his point home while the other observes and the student does all he can to understand, which from the look of many of them is quite hard.
Tomorrow is a non day. I’m assuming I get to post this then. I’ll probably just chill tomorrow and maybe look for that cobra that bit me so I can return the favor...
The chaos here still runs rampant but I understand this chaos and live well within it. An order does naturally arise from it and if one allows that order to arise they will do well here. Any attempt of imposing order will lead to disastrous results. More on that later.
Click here for pictures!
Learned Truth: I get by with a little help from my friends...
Monday & Tuesday: Boring Travel.
Wednesday:
Today I followed three dog catchers. They were looking for stray dogs to vaccinate for rabies. One had a burlap bag with a rope, one held a syringe loaded with the vaccine and the other chased the dogs. Also with us was Arvind the guy organizing the hunt. He runs The Dharamsala Dog Rescue, the only veterinary clinic in all of Incredible India that cares for stray dogs and one of the few who cares for dogs at all. The other veterinary clinic mostly cares for owned cows and sheep.
Few Indians care about the welfare of dogs and many detest them. During a recent rabies outbreak many stray dogs were killed on sight. Arvind was inspired to start the dog rescue in 2007 after a previous rabies outbreak led to the death of hundreds of dogs though poisoning. He said the sight of so many dogs walking around like zombies or laying dead or dying on the street led him to do something.
The primary task for the dog rescue to is vaccinate stray dogs for rabies. This is how Arvind convinced the government to give him land for his clinic and a little bit of money. Much of the rest of the needed money comes from Piyara Kutta, the organization ran by my friend Deb who I met in India last year. While they are out looking for stay dogs to vaccinate they keep an eye out for dogs who are sick or injured. If they find one they will take it back to the clinic and treat it. Veterinary doctors are at the clinic one or two days a week to handle anything Arvind and his mostly untrained staff cannot handle.
Arvind and his dog catchers attract a crowd of onlookers wherever they go and Arvind takes advantage of this by handing out literature about what he is doing and also about the facts of rabies. He’s just begun to publicize the clinic now that it is mostly up and running. For the past two years news of it has only spread by word of mouth. When someone sees a sick or injured dog they will get word to Arvind who will come looking for it. He’s familiar with many of the dogs in Dharamsala. Some dog owners will bring their dogs to him as well.
A local man came by with his dog who’s tail got caught in a barbed wire fence. Arvind cleaned up the tail and disinfected it. He also noticed a lump in the dogs groin and had to tell the owner that his dog most likely has cancer. The owner seemed distraught and he was trying to deny it, repeating that it must be from the fence, it must be.
After Arvind was finished cleaning up the dog and talking to its shocked owner we went out on a vaccination run. I followed the dog catchers as they rounded up around ten dogs. Some needed to be caught in the bag but most were friendly enough to come when called. Each dog was marked with paint to indicate it had been vaccinated. Arvind coordinates the locations where he vaccinates the dogs with the local government so, theoretically, if someone is bitten in a given area the hospital can find out with some level of certainty that the chance of contracting rabies is low.
After our time with the pack of newly vaccinated strays we headed back to our apartments. The accommodations are pretty nice by Indian standards and a bit below Hotel 6 for Western standards. There’s only running water between eight and nine in the morning. There’s a kitchen but no refrigerator or even a toaster. They don’t even provide matches to light the mini stove. The bathroom is without any sort of towel, paper or otherwise. Its a good thing I’ve been here before and remember the Westerner’s mantra to maintain inner peace in India: “Have no expectations, only hopes”. So far I have my bearings and have acquired everything I need fairly quickly. Basic stuff is kind of easy if you know where to go. The towels I bought are literally waterproof. They do not absorb water at all. They will come out from being submerged in water almost totally dry. I wonder what the point of waterproof towels is? Towels that will actually remove water is one thing I need to find and that seems to be hard.
Later in the day I went back to the Tibetan school where I volunteered last year and met up with a bunch of friends. One was volunteering with me last year and the rest are all Tibetans who I helped teach or just hung out with. The volunteer from last year, Heidi Minx, is kind of famous in the Punk underground. She’s known as the Punk Rock Domestic. She has a few cookbooks, her own clothing lines, two active blogs, a monthly column for a tattoo magazine, a web based show on MTV.com and she runs a few non-profits. I don’t think she sleeps. She’s here now with a cameraman in tow filming a documentary about the Tibetan school. I guess I’m going to be in it. She’s done a short, on camera interview with me and plans to do more. She’s going with us tomorrow to the clinic to do a quick interview with Arvind for her MTV.com show.
Thursday:
This morning we headed to a coffee shop across from The Temple for a quick breakfast then headed down to Lower Dharmsala. One of the things Arvind is starting with help from Piyara Kutta is an education program. This has two parts. He wants to educate adults about how rabies spreads, what to look for in a dog that has it and what to do if a rabid dog is spotted or worse what to do if someone is bitten by one. He also wants to show little kids that dogs are not evil, disease ridden animals, which many Indians believe. For this he goes to schools and talks to kids and actually shows the movie “Air Bud” to which the kids seem to react well. He’d like to take puppies to the preschools to let the kids play interact with the dogs. This is something that would make for a great story and photos so we’re all over that.
To get into the preschools we went to the organization where Deb and I stayed last year. They can help get Arvind and the puppies into the preschools since they send volunteers to all of them and know all the teachers and the local head of preschools. We talked with the program coordinator for a while and he was more than willing to help out. They actually have five, month-old puppies. We played with them for a little while. Deb and Heidi couldn't contain their oohs and ahhs and baby talk. I mostly took pictures and put the puppies in photogenic situations.
Later in the day we went to the clinic so Heidi could do her interview with Arvind. Earlier in the day they found a puppy who was dehydrated and took it back to the clinic. It was in perfect health otherwise so Arvind decided to keep the dog. He’d been looking for a puppy to adopt for the clinic. He asked Deb to name it and she named it “Beauty”. Just before Heidi’s interview was to begin the dog catchers brought in another dog that had a skin disease. They will treat it there and when it gets better they’ll return it to the area where it was caught. There was already another younger dog being kept for treatment of what seems to be the same disease.
During the day, Heidi also had the task of finding a terabyte hard drive because the other drives they brought were almost full and they are no where near done shooting. Finding such a thing is something we take for granted but not here. It took a network of people and many phone calls to source the drive then it took another network to get it up to Dharmsala from Delhi. Seven people are all in some way involved in getting this hard drive to Heidi and after a day’s worth of phone calls its on its way. The only “business” that is involved is the store where it was found. Everyone else is just a friend or a friend of a friend. I kind of realized that you really can’t get much done here without a network. Its good that everyone I knew last year remembers me so if I need something I can activate my network and much of it overlaps with Heidi’s so if that network can get a terabyte hard drive up here it can get anything. I need to send feelers out for an illusive Dalai Lama shot glass actually.
I took Heidi to the tattoo artist who did my tattoo last year while he did some touch up work on me. Heidi interviewed him while he was working on me and that footage will be in her documentary. Ashok, the artist, was very happy to get the exposure. Heidi may also write about him for one of her columns. That’s kind of the way things work here. Everyone helps everyone else.
As the sun was setting I went back to The Temple. They’re doing some minor construction work and of course its being done by Dalit migrant labor from Rajastan. It seemed as though they were waiting for something because they were doing the dance of futility in order to make it seem as though they are working. This dance involves two women and four men and two piles of rocks about thirty feet apart. Two men are at each pile and the woman carry the rocks from one pile to the other. The men pick up the rocks, put them on a woman’s head, she brings it to the other pile where one of the men takes the rock off her head. This goes on until there’s one pile then, if there still is nothing else to do the whole thing starts again. I’ve seen this a few times in India. The whole concept is quite typical. There’s a whole lot going on and little getting done. Construction projects that were ongoing last year are still ongoing with little apparent progress and much activity.
The Temple was very peaceful, well mostly peaceful. There was one little boy who was running around the temple having lots of fun while his father prayed. He ran with the people who were circumambulating the temple while praying. This is tolerated without the slightest agitation. I came across a monkey who liked to have his picture taken and I took many while his parents who seemed to be grooming themselves watched. As the sun was setting and I was taking pictures of the event a monk I knew from last year told me that the monks were about to debate downstairs and I should go take pictures. I already have pictures from last year but he was so excited for me I went and took more. What they call a debate is really a lesson. Two teachers stand while the student sits. One teacher gives the lesson while waving his arms and slapping his hands to drive his point home while the other observes and the student does all he can to understand, which from the look of many of them is quite hard.
Tomorrow is a non day. I’m assuming I get to post this then. I’ll probably just chill tomorrow and maybe look for that cobra that bit me so I can return the favor...
The chaos here still runs rampant but I understand this chaos and live well within it. An order does naturally arise from it and if one allows that order to arise they will do well here. Any attempt of imposing order will lead to disastrous results. More on that later.
Click here for pictures!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Rikki Masala going back to India
OK, so I never wrote the last entry I mentioned summarizing my feelings about India. Its been so long now that I need to go back to be reminded of a few things so I can write that summarization entry.
I'll be there for three weeks, this time following stray dogs, a veterinarian who cares for them and various organizations who are involved in either the support or destruction of them. Piyara Kutta ( http://piyarakutta.org/ ) is the name of the organization that is bringing me back a for this.
I'll be back in the same general area as I was last time. Previously I was living in the Indian neighborhood at the base of the hill. This time I'll be in the center of the Tibetan community at the top of the hill. The vet is Indian and lives at the bottom of the hill and we'll be spending most of our time down there but honestly it's just better in the Tibetan area mostly because the accommodations are more geared for Westerners.
Right now I'm in Stockholm, Sweden. I leave for Delhi tomorrow morning extremely early. Its going to be weird going from one of the most clean and ordered societies in the world to one of the most dirty and chaotic. I'll probably be more comfortable in India just for that reason.
I'll probably be able to update this blog more often this time. I'll probably have more down time than I did last year. I'm not sure what kind of internet access I'll have though. Of course there will be pictures included with the posts.
I'll be there for three weeks, this time following stray dogs, a veterinarian who cares for them and various organizations who are involved in either the support or destruction of them. Piyara Kutta ( http://piyarakutta.org/ ) is the name of the organization that is bringing me back a for this.
I'll be back in the same general area as I was last time. Previously I was living in the Indian neighborhood at the base of the hill. This time I'll be in the center of the Tibetan community at the top of the hill. The vet is Indian and lives at the bottom of the hill and we'll be spending most of our time down there but honestly it's just better in the Tibetan area mostly because the accommodations are more geared for Westerners.
Right now I'm in Stockholm, Sweden. I leave for Delhi tomorrow morning extremely early. Its going to be weird going from one of the most clean and ordered societies in the world to one of the most dirty and chaotic. I'll probably be more comfortable in India just for that reason.
I'll probably be able to update this blog more often this time. I'll probably have more down time than I did last year. I'm not sure what kind of internet access I'll have though. Of course there will be pictures included with the posts.
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