Tuesday, January 16, 2018 - Saturday, January 20, 2018
“When the five senses and the
mind are still and the intellect rests in silence, then begins the highest
path.” Katha Upanishad
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Bad news- I finished Fante’s Dreams from Bunker Hill last night and when I went to grab my copy of the Upanishads, which I hadn’t read in twenty years, I realized that in my stress filled hurried packing due to the flood in my house, I forgot to pack one stack of four books. I’m sure they are just sitting in my home office next to where my backpack was. I must have overlooked them when I was running out the door worried about missing my flight. The four books were: The Upanishads, Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald, Oblivion: Stories by David Foster Wallace and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. This is very disappointing to say the least. Luckily, I did manage to take some others with me- I still have Hotel Bemelmens by Ludwig Bemelmens, The Bell Tolls for No One by Bukowski, The Big Hunger by Fante (short stories), Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion. If I cannot find a bookstore somewhere along the way, these will have to do.
My treatment is progressing, though I still have the rough therapist (Murali) doing my foot massages and my body feels sore every day because of it. The good news is that the powder massage is over, which was the one I liked least, and today I had an Ayurveda oil treatment in its place. They started this treatment with a deep head massage. After, I lied on my back and they covered my eyes and plugged my ears. Then, warm/hot oil ran in a small stream onto my forehead while continuously moving slowly from one temple to the other. I lost track of the time, but assume it was about a half hour.
The head massage and small stream of oil activated certain pressure points and weird things happened internally. I drifted into a meditative zone only to be jolted awake with a quickened heartbeat and a mild sense of panic. I felt close to hyperventilating, but steadied myself. A few minutes later I again drifted into a meditative zone and then awoke with the same hyperventilation, hurried heartbeat and mild sense of panic. From that moment, I just focused on my diaphragm moving up and down with each breath to steady myself. I was relieved when the therapy ended.
Usually, this type of reaction, coupled with the painful massages would be enough for me to throw in the towel on the “treatment from 1000 B.C.”, but the reaction I had reminded me of a cranial sacral therapy I previously had in Austria when something similar (but even more intense) happened, so I was able to rationalize and acceptit. When you activate the pressure points on your skull, it has a way of sending a pulse through your body and if you have this increased heart rate and hyperventilation, it usually means you have some type of blockage that the therapy is trying to remove. I know this sounds totally ridiculous and if I didn’t have this reaction happen to me personally I also wouldn’t believe it, but something actually does happen and there is a noticeable physical effect from it. I’m hoping that this is a breakthrough moment and tomorrow’s treatment will show me if it was. I stumbled out of the clinic feeling haggard and exhausted, in the purple Indian diaper thing covered head-to-toe in a thick coat of herbal oil.
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
I changed up my routine today. I skipped the beach and headed into the city with Irina to pick up something to wear to Seeshoo’s daughter’s wedding tomorrow. After looking around at traditional garb, I found something that I liked that will be appropriate. It’s a long blue dress shirt that goes to about my knees and some light white pants. It cost $14. On the way back, we stopped at a fishermen’s market and picked up some beautiful king prawns from the morning catch that were 80% cheaper than what you would pay stateside. Ira will make them for dinner tonight. By the time we got back to our village, it was too late to hit the beach, so we chilled for around thirty minutes and then went to the clinic for our treatments.
To be honest, I wasn’t enthused about going back for the treatment and my body, especially my hips and neck were quite sore. I was happy to find Agil there and waiting. He was my therapist again today. He gave me a foot massage and it was so much better and more relaxing than Murali’s. Agil doesn’t use so much force/weight. There was no pain whatsoever and when it ended, I felt great. I then moved to another room to find that the hot citrus pounding and rubbing therapy was also over, replaced with another hot oil therapy.
I laid on my back, then stomach and then each side while two therapists poured hot herbal oil slowly all over my body. It lasted about a half hour and it was refreshing. I then lied on my back and they did the oil on the forehead therapy again. As “Om-Na-Ma-She-Vay-Ya” played in the background, I slipped into the moment, found the void and lost consciousness. Before I knew it, the therapy was over and I felt like a million bucks. I believe the previous day’s forehead treatment cleared up multiple mental and body blockages. I’m confident that my body and mind have turned the corner and are finding balance. Rejuvenation has arrived!
Also I now realize that I should have said something to the other therapists when they were using too much force and will tell them to lighten up going forward. I was stupid to just accept the pain. I will have another treatment tomorrow morning before the wedding and then, on Friday, I will have the detoxification therapy. I feel good about this now.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
I got up early for an 8am treatment at the clinic. We will all be leaving, by rickshaw, to Seeshoo’s daughter’s wedding at 10:45am, but I didn’t want to miss a day of therapy now that I’ve turned the corner. It was the new routine- a foot massage, then the two hot oil therapies. I had Murali for the foot massage, but I told him to “please take it easy”. He responded by saying, “Yes, relax massage, yes, yes.” He understood and it was a lot better. The other treatments were quite relaxing and invigorating at the same time.
I returned home feeling refreshed, took a shower and got dressed in my new Indian formal wear. The girls were also getting ready in their new clothes and had already put on their make-up. They had our landlord come over to help them correctly wrap the sarees (traditional Indian dresses) around their bodies and to put flowers in their hair. We left at 10:45am in two rickshaws. Gowdy (sp?), the landlord’s six-year-old daughter who we have pseudo adopted while here came along as well. She and our son are good friends.
The wedding was in another village and it was a little ways away. We arrived at 11:30am and it was already in full swing. It was a Hindu wedding and the temple was packed with people coming and going. There were around 500 people there. Unlike weddings in the states where you can hear a pin drop during the ceremony, this one was loud and active. Music was blasting, everyone was talking, people were moving around. It was organized chaos, which is a term I am coining for India in general. The bride and groom were on a stage up front and they were already married when we were walking in. There was a long procession of people in line to congratulate them.
Once we found some free places to stand on the sidelines, Seeshoo saw us and motioned us over. We crossed the threshold and congratulated him. He was all smiles and then he took us up on stage to meet his daughter and his new son-in-law. We were the only foreigners there. We congratulated the newlyweds and gave them their gift in front of a few photographers who were snapping photos nonstop. Once we finished, we exited the temple to make room for the other guests to come and say their congratulations. Seeshoo pulled me aside on the way out and told me to stay around the entryway, for soon there will be a special meal of vegetarian curry for everyone and he wanted us to have some and enjoy ourselves. Of course, I told him we would be honored and weren’t going anywhere.
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| Good old Seeshoo, the happy Father of the Bride |
After a short time in front of the temple, the doors opened to a huge banquet room lined with long tables on the ground floor (the wedding was on the first floor up). On the tables were these big green banana leaves with eleven different kinds of brightly colored sauces spread across it, some fruit and puri bread (which is deep fried and light) and a cup of tea. Once everyone was seated, hurried servers immediately came down between the rows of tables. The first was scooping rice out of a big pot and dropping it in the center of each banana leaf as he passed and then, right behind him, another server was pouring out a ladle full of vegetable curry. The guys were fast and efficient. I looked at Irina with a “wow” expression. I’ve never seen anything like it before.
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| Wedding Food before the Vegetable Curry is Served |
Everyone immediately started digging in and talking and there was a celebratory vibe from the start. When I say “digging in”, I really mean it. There were no utensils. Everyone was using their hand to mix the rice and curry and then they were scooping one of the sauces in their fingers and then grabbing the curry rice and popping
it into their mouths. When in Rome as they say, we all started doing the same thing. The flavors were over the top and very diverse. All of the sauces were interesting and tasty. They had a mango one, a pineapple one, a yogurt one, a really spicy one that I liked (but Irina couldn’t handle the heat) andseven others- all very different textures and flavors. One had a potato in it as well. Really authentic stuff in every sense. No alcohol was to be found and I didn’t see anyone smoking at any time. There was also no speech making, which I found strange, but maybe we missed that and it happened at the very beginning before we arrived.
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| Banquet Hall in the Temple's Basement |
As the meal progressed, servers came through again refilling the tea, and then another round of rice and curry. I was barely through half of my first portion, so I passed on the seconds, but in all fairness, the guys gave me a huge portion to begin with. It was at least double what many others around me received. I think they were excited to see foreigners present and wanted to take care of us.
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| Serving the Eats |
About 20 minutes later, the servers came through again and started dropping sauces on the banana leaves. One was a cinnamon-apple sauce that was sweet and tasty. I liked that one the most. There were a couple others, all good and sugary with mashed fruits. Then, and this one was quite a surprise, let me tell you, two servers came down the aisle with large kettles and everyone put out their hands in a cup. The first server filled up your hands with a cool brown liquid and people drank half of it down and the second one, who was right
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| Dishing out the curry |
Once finished, everyone, almost simultaneously, folded up their banana leaf and exited the banquet room. All 500 people vacated the place in like three minutes. I was one of the last to exit, as my finger eating style wasn’t as efficient and I was more tentative and savoring the experience. When I finally got out, I saw a long row of faucets to wash my hands with, which I used. This solved a problem I was having, as there were no napkins offered at the meal and my hands were covered in curry and sauce.
We then stood around the temple talking to people and taking photos. Seeshoo found us again and we spoke to him for a while. He told me that over the course of the wedding, 1,500 people will have attended in total and that there were three separate events culminating in this one: one for the groom’s family, one for the bride’s family and then the marriage itself for both sides. It all seemed a bit intense, but he was cool as a cucumber and radiated happiness. Good old Seeshoo, gotta love the guy!
We ended up leaving around forty minutes after the meal. I was pretty full, so after getting home, I lied down for a little nap and then, in the evening, we went down to the Crab Club for a light dinner and a beer.
Here’s were things got a little sideways for me. About a third into my dinner, I started feeling nauseas. I chalked it up to dehydration and had a bottle of Sprite, but it didn’t help. I excused myself and came home early and lied down. My stomach felt pretty bad and could only assume it was all the different spices and foods I was slamming down at the wedding with my bare hands. Maybe I was a little too enthusiastic about trying everything and finishing what I was given. I fell into a disturbed sleep around 10pm.
Friday, January 19, 2018
I woke up early today, at 6am. I had to be at the clinic for my detoxification treatment. However, when I went to the bathroom, my bowel movement was quite runny and my stomach was upset. When I met Agil at 6:30am, I told him what was going on and he said we would have to wait on the detoxification therapy until my body returned to normal, but that I should still come back at 1pm for my final massage and Ayurveda treatment.
The good news is that my upset stomach wasn’t anything major and I wasn’t running to the bathroom every ten minutes or experiencing the shakes or a fever or anything, so I knew it would pass and this wasn’t the onset of Japanese encephalitis or typhoid. At least, that’s what I hoped and told myself.
I stayed in bed all morning hoping to give my body a break and chance to recover. Everyone else went to the beach. They were all feeling fine, which was also encouraging, but none of them ate the way I did at the wedding.
I went to the clinic for my last treatment at 1pm. It was the foot massage with Murali, who I told to take it easy again, which he did. And then I had the two oil treatments. By now, I was down with the program and it was down with me. I left feeling good and strong and think that this program definitely has benefits for both the body and mindand would recommend it. I feel quite relaxed and at peace and the soreness has all gone away as well.
I had an early dinner and stayed in for the night. I’m hoping that the stomach is back to normal by morning so I can detox before heading to Delhi on Sunday night.
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Unfortunately, despite feeling fine, I am still not back to normal in the bowel movement category, so my detoxification treatment will have to be postponed until after I return from my Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-Varansi trip next week. We all went to the beach at around 10am and spent the day there. The ocean was strong today and we had the biggest waves since I arrived. We all bodyboarded and body surfed, hung out, read and relaxed. I’m getting through Hotel Bemelmens at a good pace and I’m worried that the few books I have left will last me the rest of my trip. I will try to find something new to read on the road.
We had a late lunch. I had some fish and butter marsala. I feel great (despite the stomach issue) and my mind is clear. I have good energy and a positive outlook. I left Chicago on January 9th, which feels like months ago in terms of my state of being. This is indeed a magical and positive place and I think the Ayurveda treatment, despite the speed bumps, worked wonders. It’s amazing how fast our bodies can adapt to new regimes.
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| Indian Sunset |
Since it was my last night hanging with my little boy, I stayed in and we hung until he went to bed.
I’m excited; my journey through northern India begins tomorrow night...
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The story continues to Delhi in Part IV- Linked here:
