You shall not say "it ain't possible"

About the purposefulness of Life

This means to be as much of a thesis as a declaration of my feeling of me.

I FEEL THAT LIFE IS PURPOSEFUL, THAT IN NO WAY COULD IT BE BETTER EVER, THAT IT IS ALWAYS AS IT HAS TO BE IN THAT PRECISE MOMENT OF YOUR TIME AND SPACE.

By purposeful I mean not that there's an end waiting and calling from a far away lost future, that finding that out and the means to reach it is what we should pursue; but other that we should be faithful in the Now, in the relevance of this moment for our Path - even if we're not sure where It is leading us or even where we would like It to take us.

I feel and know that Life is purposeful now, that there's no such thing as a coincidence, and I say this not only because of my readings which do help me to keep the spirit and most of all find the right words for it (e.g.: Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield and The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle here mentioned before), but mostly because I´VE BEEN HAVING THIS UNEXPLAINABLE BUT HIGHLY MOTIVATING FEELING OF SINCHRONICITY FOR MANY YEARS NOW.

Life has been proving to me time after time that things don't happen by some random reason, your life and mine and the world aren't rulled by change but by a superior collective and inter (actually: "inner")-connected matrix and conscience that makes every minute meaningful and every decision determinant.

In my long arguments about this over the years, the most common OBJECTION I hear is that what I am saying is that I believe in destiny, "right"? So what space does that leave for free-will, I am asked.

The other one was how could I then explain so much disgrace in the world if there is actually this wheel of major purpose underlying all that is done of this place we share with all nature.

Well, I must say the first point was a problem to me for a while when I thought that non-coincidence might not be reconcilable with the denial of a full predestination, a master-plan designated for you irrespective of your power of will or conscience, basically a decision prior to your own acts and mental dispositions covering your whole existence - I don't believe in that.

• ... then the word "believe" comes in. This word seems to allow doubt in too as it leaves space for factual proving of the opposite... if only research could ever collect spiritual data! (BELIEF IS WHAT KEEPS MANY GOING SO IT MAY BE A BLISS AS IT MAY BE AN IGNORANCE-VEIL.) Dogmas and book-based religions often tried to turn faith matters into sets of rules for followers: the only thing they managed was to empty the creeds of its meaningful power of making people reach and think beyond their own ego's. Now they promote ego's, leading to catastrophic fanatic disconnected ways of being in the world, to people living in fear and spreading monstruous feelings.

It was difficult to keep my thesis also when I still labelled happenings as good and bad seen from a micro perspective and thus found no possible bigger reason for so many records of human suffer in history. I am not saying I have it all sorted out, say the least that massive massacres and other unforgivable human-planned events or natural catastrophes were justified or are now justifiable but YES that I believe there is a macro-structure, a macro-world evolution that somehow could use those "tortuous lines" to write its story, teach its lessons, lead its way.

But there are 2 certainties I have now:

- 1 is that SINCHRONICITY (OR NON-COINCIDENCE) IS A MATTER BEYOND OUR CONCEPTUAL MIND-FRAMES OF TIME AND SPACE (Katherine helped me solve this cross-road I was at, thanks so much for dissolving the conceptual knot, Kat), this "conspiracy" works way beyond the limited variables we use to measure and catalogue our rational experience, it's another sort of matrix (the unexplicable connectedness that makes you find your soul-mate, "randomly" meet just the person you needed or get a phone-call from the person that had just crossed your mind). This matrix links all existence into one big purposeful evolution & connection-oriented world, and it influences small scale events as the ones described as it determines the meaningful ways in which each person's life evolves and the way they link to one another in highly relevant "productive" ways. WE'RE ALL A CONTRIBUTING PART OF THIS COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE THAT HAS BEEN EVOLVING WITH THE WORLD, that's just for a start how relevant each one of us is.

- THE OTHER CERTAINTY I HAVE IS OF THE TRUTH OF THIS, IT'S AN INNER POSITIVENESS, AN INSIGHT I FEEL OF THE TRUTH, so you can say it's a mere belief but I have just about all the proofs in my daily life of this that I used to call "my star"... And for the sake of this testemony and my happy life, I need to go no further.

You may be asking: but what do you gain from that? what does that add to your life? why are you even mentioning that? "i don't feel that. i have no idea. actually, i don't even care."

What all this makes to me is to believe profoundly in THE POWER OF NOW, OF THIS NARROW YET FULL OF POTENTIAL PLACE WHERE THE COUNTABLE AND THE UNCONTABLE VARIABLES REUNITE IN YOUR HANDS. It makes me be aware of signs, of non-coincidences, of messages hiden in that much more subtle realm that lies between the lines of the happenings in my days.

It makes me feel joyful and trustfull and CONFIDENT THAT I AM WHERE I HAVE TO BE - and not because I aim there, hereby living with an anxious heart on the future, on that expectation, suffering with antecipation; or otherwise hanging to the past, re-living situations that are impossible to change and grieving in non-action and self-pity or self-punishment or acusation.

It makes me active, alert and trustful in me and all humans, all of us who have potential to go beyond our conditioning, our labelling and our collectively repeated behaviours - to reach out to a higher consciousness of ourselves and all that of living and non-living that surrounds us.

And it makes me feel no longer in fight inside. I feel peacened, I feel no fear as to what may come as I am sure of its relevance in my way. Most of the times I do actually manage to live my words and not worry, just be happy. And I do actually get glimpses of sublime moments as I purposedly stop or at least manage to slow down the pace of my mind (our mind often just produces rubish that leads to no positive attitude or disposition but to time-bound hanging to something other then your present reality). THESE MOMENTS OF CONNECTEDNESS (medidative states some currents would call it) ARE SOME OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL YOU CAN GET IN LIFE: THAT'S WHEN YOU'RE MOST CONSCIOUS AND YOU CAN DETECT AND PRODUCE TRUE BEAUTY.

Am I talking about enlightenment? An approach to it maybe at this level that is realizable by any human being. I speak of nothing extraordinary, but only of withdrawing yourself from the viscious cycles of thought, prejudice and unconscious behaviours and live your presence, live and indulge in your SELF.

You'll never be any more fuller in your true self than you are right now, so leave it not for later - when maybe on an outer level you'll be richer or may have accumulated some more of someTHING: wealth, body fitness, belongings, clothes, job position, social status, you name it - but you'll be no more full inside. You're just about everything you may wish for on a spiritual level already: just access that inside you and clean yourself from outerly-build worries, demands, pressures, release yourself from the dependency on pain and the "stories" upon which you insist on creating your identity. LIVE FULLY. It's really your choice.

What does this conscience make me? I FEEL GRATEFUL EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE.

Swedish colours of my Happiness

SWEDEN. New destination: new feelings, new thoughts, new perspectives on life too.

Second time I step foot in this "God's own country". The reason: my dear Johan. And what a great reason! ... and the country doesn't stay back.

To contrast (probably the most extremely possible) with my most recent international experience [India], in Sweden:

- the air and tap water are the freshest;

- the forests (mostly with pines) and lakes are at every corner; all the urbanism and infra-structure that covers no more than 30% of the territory were themselves stolen from forest;

- recycling is institutionalized and their general behaviour as to anything that matters environment is in a generalized manner very responsible;

- everyone seems to speak English;

- everything, in every corner that you may take a peak at trying to find the fault that proves the rule... everywhere all things seem to be exactly in their place, neaty and organized as only in a very planned, efficient and thought for society as this one;

- people have individual space, vital space for themselves in the interior and exterior spaces;

- swedes do actually go out for walks and runs and ride their bicycles on a regular basis;

- the houses are the best I´ve seen when it comes to combining aesthetics and practical sense - I can say MY DREAM HOUSE IS DEFINITELLY A MIX OF THE MANY I´VE BEEN SEING IN SWEDEN.

- they have a very practical and efficient sense in all their activities.

... For some reason Scandinavia is considered the peak of Civility (the opposite of what I felt in India). I had the luck to visit Finland 3 years ago too. The life quality and the life style here are definitelly above average.

By both life quality and style I mean literal quality, not quantity, not unpurposeful wealth, not unestimated acumulation of belongings, not excess of consumerism, not only - in one word - money.

I see more CONSCIOUSNESS in people as individuals belonging to colectivities.

If this is good for the environment, peace on the streets, silence on the alleys, conviviality in public spaces, even for people's health habits... it's not so much so for their sense of tightedness, of control by the macro-structure, and their passiveness and resigned contentment as they are rocked by a soft and all-mighty condescendent paternal government.

Can't be perfect if the highest rate of suicidal attempts and successes is registered here, 50% of married couples end up divorcing and it's raining and grey, close or bellow 0 degrees celsius and there are below 6 hours of light... something like: 9,5 months per year (no wonder the depression).

IT´S BEEN LOOKING PRETTY PERFECT TO ME THOUGH (lucky I came in Summer ;) ). And these details... these features... are not what I wanted to focus on anyway.

I wanna paint the colors of my happiness here. Check out what I've been up to in the past 3 weeks:

- Early dinner barbeques outdoors, walks after dinner through neighbour small forests - always beautiful lakes and sunsets in our path

• the best one? Friday, when me, Johan and Pontus took a boat and navigated and fished through a lake that brought us to a lost castle in a far away foresty island. Johan had fished a fish, the meat was in the bag, salad's ready and bathing suits on. We had put on a fire just on the steps of the lake as the rain came: we persisted, took clothes off to feel the rain and blew the fire hoping to keep it burning. As the sun came down and the 2 full rainbows had gone it was past 21h30 in a beautiful rose-purple sky just behind the mountains we faced. We ate, my feet on the water and a feeling of wildness in the soul. Later I even got to sing out loud - free and sound as I like, still in my bikinis, wandering around the castle amidst the vegetation and the echoing on its walls - this was when Johan found small strawberries: the tastiest concentrated flavour! The night ended with a lot of playing with the fire (no, I heard of no one wetting their beds later :P ) and an engine that didn't want to work as Johan rowed back home in an almost pitch dark lake (me, no worries, I was roled in a towel and trusted that it would go fine - so it did).

- visits to family in the most varied villages: always beautiful though: mamma Anna, cousin Linda, pappa Kent, granny & granpa, Adam, Sara, etc.

• one to remember? sunbathing in a fluctuating peer outside Kent's future house in Ulricehamn, eating salad and watermelon with Johan and sis' Sara and meditating standing on a warm lake rock.

- always great food: really tasty to my senses. Not to forget the variety of groceries in the supermarkets... and their proud summer delicacies: fresh potatoes and strawberries. Not so rare to me but still an infinite pleasure among Johan's family, especially accompanied with gravy and ice-cream (respectively :P ).

• unforgettable? FIKA with Johan, Karin, Mikael, Mina, granny, granpa, 2 uncles, 1 aunt and 3 cousins around grandparents' table, with tea, coffee, kakor (cookies) and kaka (cakes) prepared by granny.

- sports activities: from basketball in Växjö to fishing in Skirö to jogging in Vetlanda, from riding horse to jumping in elastic mattress to power yoga with Sarah and muscle personal coaching with Johan.

• one of the nicest? walking in forest paths with Anna, Johan's mother, in a sunny early evening, here in there reaching the shining lake, here and there catching tasty mushrooms, here and there identifying birds and trees.

- I´m learning Svenska :D yay! apparently a fast learner. not an easy language at all though.

- I took part in traditional Midsommar festival, dancing with children around the traditional flower pole and eating traditional dishes among family.

- And the most suprising probaly: the first 2 weeks welcomed me with a shining warm sun that gave me a brown envy-worth tan. So sun-bathing in courtyard, lake peers, lake-sides, varandas, gardens, and still sometimes adding cold swims in far-sighted lakes... that has been something! There's even a beach served by the second biggest lake in Sweden, in Jönköping, with young people hanging around in the back gardens - great!

In the meantime, I've been being very warmly integrated among Johan's family, especially Anna, Karin, Sara, Kent and Johan of course - TAK FÖR ALLT guys!!!! :) I am taking care of my love... and looking for my next job opportunity. Pray for me!

Travellers' perspectives on India

I've been hearing all sorts of things about India:

- from people who visited the country as tourists for 15 days (or from someone who knows someone who did)

- from those who did actually manage to make it through a longer and/or less conventional stay

- and finally from those who have been watching the Brazilian soap-opera on India that is now being broadcasted on a main-stream channel in Portugal (but these don't deserve that many more words in the context of this comment).

And as about no "vacation spot", I hear the most contrasting feelings and contradicting opinions about the INCREDIBLE INDIA. But not necessarily categorized as above: people vary, so do the reports.

The truth is that mentioning that you lived there, and the country itself, usually leaves no one indifferent.

The ones who haven't visited India, they usually have it either as:

- their dream destiny

- or think they could never take it, that they wouldn't be able to bear the crude reality of the country.

But many many among the ones that did get to do such an exotic trip: many of these western travellers (some friends among them), they simply didn't like it.

Some even gave up out of shock in the middle of the journey if they had longer stays previewed; the others say they will never go back or if so only in 50 or 60 years. This is mostly because they saw so much garbage lying all over or just about thousands of skinny living people or wrapped up dead bodies being burned in Varanasi, or simply because they were subject to the worse smells, bugs and tummy problems ever!

What I don't always get to tell them is that I think no profound shift can be foreseen for India if a dramatic change of mentalities doesn't take place among Indians.

The ones in between were shocked with some things and delighted with others and in the end "rather liked it". Most of these will confirm to if you ask: they did the same old journey between 5 star hotels in Rajasthan, Delhi and of course: Agra, and got cheated some dozens of times in what later they just laugh about and label as a cute cultural feature.

Others are fans, fanatics, true appreciators of India.

They love what the country has to offer in vast and diversified experiences, namely the cultural, spiritual and the aesthetical/ artistic.

They are also looking for a sense of "seing the world", of finally getting a glimpse of true exoticism (these were definitely some of my drives).

But there is also some sadistic idea that you will broaden your views and value life more by contacting with human misery (by pure coincidence in a far distant country where you have the comfort to think that you don't have the power to do much about it).

Anyway... the ones who love(d) the Indian experience, they talk of its colors, of its smells, of its tastes, of its peculiar habits and rituals, of its wonderfully diverse environments and ancestral heritage: natural, architectural, artistic, religious, spiritual, etcaetera.

Afterall I haven't heard of a country with more revisiting, or with longer stays of travellers. For many India is the experience of a lifetime (it was for me). That's because it is such a distinct and challenging country for western globalized views, plus it offers and relatively harmoniously embraces and welcomes such DIVERSITY inside!

But India is not for anyone, that's for sure.

Not everyone can let go of their comfort zone but most of all their mind frame and human principles to cope with what you face in that country - especially if you get deeper into the HOW's and WHY's.

After 10 months, I didn't want to anymore.

For a "firangee" (* foreigner in Hindi) who was a resident in India for some time, the feelings are mixed as this blog testifies.

But I know none that would want to actually live there again, as I hardly know any Indian who wouldn't like to leave his country.

Going Within: Spirituality Vs. The Spirit in India

I spoke a lot here about what I felt of the spirit of India; I never got to mention its spirituality.

This is a place that breathes spirituality, although, as everywhere, you can find genuine as well as pseudo/ simply social-ritualistic or even commercialized practices and faiths.

'Guru' is a word that has fallen in disuse in the West as we tend to associate it with this fake trend in the matters of the spirit, but in India it is a very strong concept and a denomination attributed to all the living or past masters.

Indeed, the guru-pampara tradition is still a reality in India as it was in the West since the Greek. This is the master-disciple approach to education, where the knowledge is passed directly between two individuals, rather than without customization from one distant speaker to a mass of individuals.

This applies to any art form, as it applies to the Brahman Priests who are believed to have attained enlightenment, to be closer to God / the Truth as they became knowledgeable of the intricacies of texts as the Upanishads, the Baghvad Gita, the Ramayana, the Mahabaratha..., that tell the story of Hindu Philosophy. These are people who are holders of a greater power than most of us commons, and their simple presence or blessing in a given moment, place or function is believed to be auspicious to the people involved.

Actually all classical art forms, especially performing arts but even plastic arts, are inevitably connected in a deep inescapable way with Indian philosophy, so for example when watching a classical dance recital, you won't miss the depiction of a legendary Hindu scene, as you won't be able to escape a transe state if you totally give in to the sound produced by voices, instruments and bodies that the performers learned to command in a sublime way after years and years of disciplined training in Hindustani or Carnatic music that has always a meditative side to it.

And why are there more enlightened people in India? After all, didn't Budha get enlightened in Bodh Gaya? Aren't there so many others? Once someone explained me why: the only and simple reason is, first, that India is a millennary civilization where the spiritual path is assumed as an essencial part of every individual's life since the Vedas; and than that, unlike in the West, people who chose the yogic path have always and are still today seen with high regard and invited to explore it in any way found conducive - unlike in the West, where anyone going within or showing signs of connection to any dimension other than the materialistic pragmatic side of life was seen as herectic, prossecuted as witch, excomungated and burned in fires.

Well India, irrespective of its profound challeges when it comes to the stage of development of many human rights , is as you hear people say: a spiritual place, a place where anyone who wants to explore the potential of the human spirit will definitely find their ways (be it truely autentic ways or new-age pseudo-yoga programmes: there's something for every taste).

I had the privilege to meet some very special people who opened my windows of oportunity to practices, philosophies and currents as promising and inspiring as Hinduism, Budhism, Reiki, Aura/ Bioplasmic energies, Astrology, Palm reading, Cristals, Self-hipnosis / Subconscious Programming, Creative Visualization / Attraction Law, Guasha, Movement Meditation, Chakras, Power Yoga, NOW, among other much harder to to put into words forms of accessing or manipulating our Higher Power and the Ultimate Energy.

But for sure what touched me and transformed me the most was the SCIENCE OF YOGA.

I haven't found until today a more developed science for general well-being. Everything that I have seen since or had run accross before seems to have its roots in this apparently ever-existing way of living.

Yoga sees human evolution in well-being from three angles:

- The BODY - for which they created the Asanas, the "exercise"-alike (only apparent) practice that is genereally associated with the word Yoga in the West; and also Ayurvedic Medicine for help and facilitation of treatment in malfunction.

- The MIND - for whose peacening they developed an important set of breathing-techniques, that make you re-learn such a vital but usual overlooked process of life and finally feel more balanced on a daily basis.

- And the SPIRIT - for which access they found a very powerful tool called Meditation.

But even in Yoga, there are many currents, but they are usually associated or combine sorts like: Hata Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Vipasana, Prana Yama, among others.

I relate very much to the holistic approach of Yogic Science to life, leaving no dimesion of people's existence out. And I afirm with no hesitation that a regular properly learnt and coached practice definitely takes you higher, frees you from mundane strains and helps you live happier, healthier and more aligned.

Just be sure not to follow fake gurus or associations who do business with religion (test your identification with your guts), and please don't take just any temple rituals as profound manifestations.

Don't take me wrong, there are many true believers among Indian people of course, people who live the philosophy and practice the principles. But unfortunately many many others play the spiritual role just as they are expected to (the same engine keeps them stuck to a more general out-of-date ancestral meaningless apathic pattern of living, where they relate only superficially to one's life, to others and to God). Many religious individuals perform their daily rituals mostly by obligation and habit, without really living the concepts or investing the moments with genuine connection with their God; or even having a faith bigger than fear of idols, society or difference.

... Not to speak of the religious intolerance that mines the country from within although they have lived for centuries in an apparently harmonious conviviality, in a diversity melting-pot with the frame of democracy... but which goes against what is (not always preached but) for sure profoundly imbebed in the true essence of any religion practiced with fervour in that country where 80% are Hindus, 12% Muslims, and around 2-4% Budhists, Christians and Jains, plus smaller shares of any cult you may think of.

And this is out of a mass of 1 billion Indians... imagine how representative and influencial it would be to any creed comunities in the world if these faith-practicioners would give a cohesive example of peaceful co-existence, true dialogue and a mutual understanding that in the end... we're all talking about the same, we're all aiming the same, which luckily is infinite and accessible to all.

GOD IS TOO BIG TO FIT INTO ONE RELIGION.

(writing already from Portugal)

Memories from my final Big Trip in India

I shared with Mariana my last long trip in India.
This one brought me first to the South, for the 3rd time to a state that definitelly feels like you're out of India: Goa - in a stay that from 2 nights ended up in 8 (just what we needed!). Then back again to the so different North: Delhi and Agra. In the North-East, two new very worth visiting spots: Varanasi, the berth of the India's spirituality, and Bodhgaya, the berth of Siddhartha as the Budha. Finally the central Mumbai, which I now saw with different eyes.

This was a phase when my tireness of being treated as lesser than anyone deserves and undergoing undignifying situations was getting to the maximum. My delusion total at points.

1. The boy with a Hotel Management Degree working in one of the poor Indian Railway Cafeterias, alleging a communication weakness (I think he was gay and thus he didn't stay long in hotel chains run by Indian 'business-MEN'). I wrote him a recommendation comment in the suggestion book and me and Mariana will definitelly write him a recommendation letter for a proper hotel job whenever he asks us to. He was polite and effective as almost no one we found in this country: that's what clientelle is looking for though hardly any enterprise seems to have realized it here.
   
2. The burning ghats in Varanasi, where over 150 dead bodies arrive per day.


3. What everyone called 'misconduct': when part of the railway was bombed in what was said to be common 'local terrorism', very close to Gaya where I expected a train to go back to Varanasi. This led to a series of misinformation, 3 hour waiting, and a train trip that should have taken 5 relatively comfortable hours and ended up in 12 quite disputed hours. Result: the whole day was destroyed, but of course we arrived safely.


4. Walking the steps of Lord Budha in Varanasi and Bodhgaya, namely around the Bodhi tree where he got enlightened.


5. Realising the theatre that adults and children do to beg, transfigurating themselves, doing special dreadful agony-like voices. often lying.


6. The best Lassi in India, sweet, thick, eatable with spoon, dry fruits inside: in an Agra roof-top restaurant having the Taj Mahal silhouette as a neighbour.


7. The undescribable Spiritual Disneyland of India in a main metropole, which name I won't mention for the sake of respect and discretion. Included: motion toys and giant screens depicting the life of the Swamiji.


8. The fact that, in the mundane India, even the people that seem to go out of the ordinary and give you a sense of relieve and hope as they stand out from a generally lame majority... in the end all of them deceive the expectations you had thought them to surpass.


9. The Budhist temples in North-Varanasi and in Bodh Gaya. Simple truthful philosophy, beautiful practices, powerful mantras, inspiring places, colourful temples. ---- Feeling everyday more spiritual, although I'm a mere beginner even as a seeker.


10. Almost being hit on the ear by one of thousands of red liquids being spit from an Indian's mouth out of a train. Being forced to hear noices from the inside of men's bodies all the time (burping, gobing, spiting, etc - !!!!!).


11. The riders of cycle-rickshaws in Northern India whose feet don't reach the pedals.


12. VARANASI AIRPORT, flying to MUMBAI (!): NO ONE AT ANY POINT ASKED US FOR OUR PASSPORT!!!!! NO COMMENTS. I had to go and identify our luggage in the hangar on its way to the airplane after checking it in.


13. Lies everywhere! Being cheated. But still naïf sometimes. Feeling irreversibly fed up with the country and the way it works.


14. Silent Noice party in Neptune Point, end of Palolem Beach, South Goa. Great party with head-phones, three frequencies playing different DJ's and a great setting watching the beach from the rocks.


15. The Good Life in Palolem, Goa, and the things I tried there.


16. The full-moon night in Palolem beach, when its light made the sand white and reflected in waters that rose to my feet, sitting on a beach swing.


17. Learning with Mariana that treating them bad, that's the only way it works for foreigners. No more minding being rude, even laughing unrespectfully in the face of no-minded people.


18. Feelings like compassion and respect just vanish from you after a while of living and travelling this country because you've been deceived so many times. In the streets they don't have the minimum principles.


19. Indians in its gross mattering majority are sadly totally resigned.


20. Incredible levels of challenge: risk and lack of higiene one after the other.


21. Nauseating and despicable behaviour of common men. Submissive and apathic behaviour of women.


22. They don't touch food and drink containers with their mouth, including water bottles and glasses.


23. They paint their children's eyes in black from when they are months-old.


24. Babies don't cry. Children don't complain. They have suffered too much before.
    
    
25. The ceremonial side of Varanasi, the belief and the mystical side of the Ganga. Seing them meditating, bathing and drinking out of those bacterial waters that apparently get no one sick. Seing it by 5.30 am... and still the foggy amazing sunrise!


26. Indian Hotel number: 30 or so? Have seen a lot, believe me!


27. Seing Mumbai with different eyes as you get a view to the bay from Renato's apartment.


28. A Bollywood-like wedding on a private beach at Intercontinental Hotel in South Goa, in which we ended up by chance. Dozens of cooks, dozens of masks, stage, lighting and a sky filming-camera: a lot of dancing in a Carnival-like atmosphere. And that must have been only one night among the ceremonies that usually last for days.


29. There are definitelly 2 INDIAS.


30. The reinforcement of an eternal friendship with Mariana Aflalo Lopes, original from Santos, SP, Brazil, but one of my girls, a woman from the world, and a woman from the heart.

The Other Side

To everything of marvelous I've been saying about India, my experiences and travels, some reality is naturally missing.
And probably because now I'm in countdown to return, the contradictions start jumping even more to my eyes and things that I took as inevitable start adding up and bugging me.
And of course I have to mention them to you at some point. So now is the time.
Here is the possible summary, of only the things that occurred to me now.

Of course you find exceptions, but for sure the rule in this country is as I witnessed:

They have no ‘collective thinking’.

They naturally try to take advantage of every situation.

They are very rude. To an outrageous point.

There´s no such thing as client service and satisfaction except in 5 stars.

To be a foreigner means to be seen as 'a walking dollar bill' (quoting Mariana).

The misery is really miserable here and many social roles and rules just reinforce it and make it inescapable for many right from birth.

To be a tourist here is challenging, to be an expatriate is a daily fight that in the end wears your energy and patience down.

I’ve never seen more lack of efficiency, logistics management, organization, information. E.g., it took me 5 hours in the main post office of Bangalore to finalize the process of giving in my parcels to send to Portugal. I had to accompany all the phases of the process to make sure the boxes didn’t get wrongly tagged, weighed (which at first they still were), placed, etc.

Their mind-set is very rigid and oriented towards survival, advantage and rituals. I’ve hardly seen or met anyone who seemed to be happy.

CHILDREN are spoiled if they are boys, put up with or mistreated if they are girls (mostly because parents will have to pay loads to the groom's family for them to get married). They're put to work or crippled to beg for money.

Animals, namely street-dogs, are often mistreated.

The corruption is very high and works at all levels of society.

You see irresponsible action all the time:
- for public safety (maniac driving; street lighting/energy having exposed cables and high tension circuits at hand level; unstable sidewalks and construction structures; the Police maintaining metallic structures in the middle of the road with no notice or illumination, etc etc etc),
- for public health (burning garbage in the street; throwing any sort of garbage anywhere, even rivers, even office floors!; even supermarket items are full of dust)...

The level of Civilization of Indian society is very low.

This is a country of contrasts where you keep bumping into opposites.

Socially they are stuck to ancient cast system, prejudice and pre-conceptions that limit the life potential of the Self.

There’s little space for love in this culture. It’s more about rituals, obligations, convenience, logics and one's or one's family's goals.

They forbade dancing in Bangalore and any place closes strictly until 11.30 pm. Justice definitely doesn't target the actual problems.

They lack assertiveness. Even their head movement for 'yes' looks like 'more or less' or 'maybe' or even 'no'. And they don't know how to say 'no' or 'i don't know'.

Their notion of hygiene is VERY poor, so you definitely have to learn how to share your space with cockroaches, lizards, spiders and many sorts of biting mosquitos.

Shops, pharmacies, all sorts of businesses look exactly the same from the outside and you can rarely find what you want at first.

Women hold a very poor condition irrespective of their social status. The poorest and oldest work in construction (!). The younger and richest can only wait for the day they'll be given to a man chosen by someone else. The average cannot expect to be spoken to by a man. In many cases women are the ones working while the man stays sitting and drinking at home, and plus they suffer abuse.

People have hardly any social life, they live their family's or their husband's family's life, very often not their own.

Dignity doesn't exist here as I have known it until today. Not only do many people not act respectfully and don't act as to be respected, as also the cast and social differences really make people treat others as if they were not the same race or kind (either too tyrannically or too submissively). Plus there's the whole condition in which people appear to you to beg etc ETC ET CETERA.

People simply accept and repeat what their ancestors have done, evolution is very relative in this country and mostly stimulated by foreign investment.

ULTIMATELY AND SURPRISINGLY THIS COUNTRY WORKS IN CHAOS.

Memories from South-India

I had visited all those places: Goa, Hampi, Pondicherry, Chennai, Bangalore, Allepey, Fort Kochin (only Mumbai - the point of origin - I hadn't, but still I didn't this time, after some typical but personally rare digestive problem that kept me in bed)...

... but to re-live these sites with you, my darling, made a whole lot of difference. I love you forever.

Again this is not the story of my trip with my sister-like friend Ana Gil (a.k.a. Ana Sanchez de Sousa, Ana Gil de Sousa Pinto, Aninha or Docas), but the story of some first striking memories from South-India in the 1st fortnight of Feb'09 with her.

1. The attempt of a pseudo-guru to ask for money for some lucky-charm objects and a forehead paint tikka alleging a religious festival while we still carried our backpacks together for the first time.


2. Putting pain-killer mint gel in my mouth in an attempt to brush my teeth in a (quite common) pitch-dark guest house room in Allepey, Kerala.


3. Sleeping in never-washed brown dirty berths and hearing the vomits of someone 4 am in train Hampi-Chennai: immediately rated 2nd grossest experience in India (classified under a revolving stomach).


4. Having our heads full of flowers and eating fruits from the trees while walking the canal villages, homes and rice plantations of Allepey with a local villager.


5. The contrast in cities like Mumbai and Pondi between touristic and urban/local areas.


6. The moving fact that Ricky came to Mumbai just to say goodbye to me. Really appreciated it, dear. Sorry for having had to stay in bed.


7. Great sunset on top of Hannuman/ Monkey Temple, Hampi.


8. Good guides: good people: T. - village tour in Allepey; call rickshaw driver Vikram if you go to Hampi for any pick-up or drop or day tour: he is honest like there are few, very helpful and a nice person: his number: 00919480568903.


9. My carry-around small back-pack always having everything that was needed.


10. Meeting young, middle-aged and aged women travelling India alone and finding it easy. Like our newly made friend Ute, from Germany, in Hampi - the 65 y.o. youngster, our pal.


11. 'Ladies Only' marked zones: bus seats, train wagons, queues.


12. Being stolen an ice-cream by a crow while walking Fort Cochin ocean promenade, reminding me of having been stolen 6 bananas by a monkey on the way to Taj Mahal.


13. A Cape-Verdean Coladera music playing at 'Upstairs Italian Restaurant' in Fort Cochin, after Kathakali (again an amazing artistic experience).


14. Ayurvedic massage in a wooden table with oil: the 2 girls by 2 girls.


15. The elephant bath, feeding and ride in Perimbavoor, Kerala.


16. Having my very travelled sandals sowed for the 3rd time.


17. Eating egg biriyani (an Indian rice specialty) with hand in my final train.


18. Staying in a family-house in Kochi.


19. Palolem Beach, Goa, and the will to stay longer.


20. Ana's determination and success in overcoming just about enough of all India's personal challenges: hygiene, mosquito bites, garbage and dirtiness, danger and relative risk, fear of malaria and others, men's looks, usage of public low budget crowded transportation and accommodation, luggage carrying and pains, heat, confrontation with poverty and misery, disturbing noise and loud horning, constantly having someone trying to sell to you = cheat you, etc.


21. The way everything simply worked in spite of chaos.


22. The way I started really missing home and people for the first time in my life after the taste of familiarity through Ana. The re-awakening of romantism.


23. Feeling like a good traveller and back-packer.


24. The orange(st) sunset in Kerala.


25. Sitting on the open-door steps of train Madgaon-Cancona, Goa.


26. The trip in suburban bus to Auroville: overcrowded, literally glued to 3 indian women, their babies, bags and buckets.


27. Our late night talks in beds covered by mosquito-nets or upper-berths of trains, recovering all the lost time after not having met each other for long.


28. Taking every day (almost! - whenever there could be one) 2 or 3 showers in one go after having put on a thick layer of dust.


29. The colonial outlook of Old Goa and Pondicherry and the Portuguese and French heritage and cultural/ linguistic remains.


30. How good it is to revisit places and see them with less anxious eyes, especially when you have such a great company! :)

Memories from North-India

This is not the the story of Maria (Slovakia), Raquel (Portugal), Anna (Russia), Ahmed (Egipt), Michelle (Brazil) and Eduardo (Brazil) in an unforgettable 2 week trip in the North of India during the last fortnight of Jan'09.

Rajasthan and Punjab have thousands of years of stories to tell themselves, so this is the story of my memories of North/ North-Western India:

1. Thousands of colourful sikh turbants.
   


2. 'Hello! 5 rupees._ ... _ ... Ok. 10 rupees' - said the begging children.
   


3. My Yoga practice in the Rajasthan desert sunset.
   


4. The profuse jewels of arabesque architecture.
   


5. The old man snoring in one of several sleeping trains.
   


6. 'Excuse me, 'mam. Don't miss my shop.'
   


7. The generosity of some and the greediness of others.
   


8. The sun 'heating' the lake in Udaipur.
   


9. The sunrise watching the Maharaja Palace from a distance in Jodhpur, the blue city... and being awake to see it.
   


10. Climbing to the Tiger Fort in Jaipur, city of the pink city.
    


11. Squeezing in my initial Reiki practice in every possible circumstance, in every rickshaw, jeep, waiting room, coffee table.
    


12. The richness of the maharajas and their palaces.
    


13. The sad or surprising adultness in many children.
    


14. Managing loads of people and luggage in auto-rickshaws (three-wheelers).
    


15. No hot shower or no shower at all.
    


16. The con-men in Delhi - outrageous and extremely tiring!
    


17. The Taj Mahal in Agra.
    


18. How handy my blanket in rooms and trains.
    


19. Surprisingly always managing to relax in each of the 8 cities we visited in 10 days.
    


20. Sitting in the sun in front of Lotus Temple, Delhi (Baha'i House of Worship).
    


21. The monk in Jain Temple 'seasoning' all the images of Budha #8, Jaisalmer.
    


22. Feeling cold again - never thought I could miss it!
    


23. The Golden Temple (the 'Meca' of he Sikh Religion), sun-lighted and reflecting in the lake, and its chantings at night in Amritsar, Punjab.
    


24. Young and old Indians wanting to take pictures with/of us - and inevitably getting to our nerves.
    


25. Thousands of stars near the bonfire in the desert, while eating fire-made food prepared by our camel-guides.
    


26. Easier and easier to get into 'alfa' state.
    


27. The 7h bus-trip Jodhpur-Udaipur, almost freezing and with no space for my legs.
    


28. The covered heads of women.
    


29. Being so well taken care for by Rhea and Rhea's family in her house in Delhi.


30. Yoga on the floor of Bangalore airport 3 am first day and in a Delhi Airport chair 9 am last day.

A glimpse of Paradise

Thailand was a glimpse of Paradise.

At least if anyone had told me that in one country you could:

- Have frequent very cheap massage on the beach or any urban corner, but not any massage: Thai Massage, the best I've ever tried. In group, in couble, anyway! Full body, feet, reflexology, oil, etc!

- Eat the best and freshest fruit and 'fruit encounters' ever in every corner of the country, even in the boat, even in the water!

- Have any wish, the weirdest? Be sure of it: Bangkok has it.

- See monkeys, elephants, sharks and snakes.

- Experience an amazingly metropolitan capital, with sky-scratchers and beautiful urban views.

- Eat very cheap and good street food, including the unforgettable banana pancakes.

- Travel easily because - the tourism being the base of their economy - everything is thought of before you wish for it.

- Meet a clean neaty organized environment everywhere.

- Eat very good Thai food in almost every restaurant.

- Have three-wheelers (rickshaws, that they call tuk-tuks there), motor-bikes, side-cars, tri-cycles and cars working as taxis (5 options: not bad, uh?).

- Have sexuality being accepted to such a point that transvestis are not only very well accepted as also very respected in the society, and profuse.

- See sunrises and sunsets from the best locations.

- Walk dark beaches after midnight.

- Visit islands in the north and in the south.

- Party on the beach.

- Buy cheap cool clothes in cool roads.

- Meet all sorts of sandy rocky wavy still-water cristaline dark-watered beaches.

- Do or experience anything out of the ordinary you may ever have wanted to: if you thought of it, it is there, you can do it in Thailand.

- Travel comfortably in an already welcoming colourful smooth Thai flight.

- Walk the roads bear-feet.

- See the most paradisiac things ever:

- from pirate treasure beach discovered after swimming under a pitch dark cave... to snorkelling just to swim together with an amazingly diverse underwater world.

- from the thinest smoothiest whitest sand... to the clearest most cristaline most turquois or transparent ocean waters... to the sweetest coconuts under their trees.

- from watching gigantic ocean stones... to having your boat touch dreamlands of palm-trees and beach.

- from the amazing waterfall site... to having its litters of salty water dropping heavily on your shoulders.

- From feeling like you're sailing the fancy boat with your singing in the front... to having the strong ocean splashes on your face when travelling in a fisherman boat that caught a big current.

- From dancing the maddest ever with hardly any clothes on, on the beach, feet on the sand and the sea, temperature: high, in 2 very important nights: christmas, new years eve... to having some of the most special people in your life by your side all the time.

- From watching golden Reclining Budha... to attending the simple rituals of the budhist spiritual commons.

- From the smiles of all the people... to the life in the floating market, where you watch and buy everything from canoes...

: ... if they told me this and the more I'm not able to tell you all, I'd definitelly say this is what salvation dreams should be all about. :)