Siddhartha Returns: India Journal vol. 2, part 1
Since
I am back in India on holiday these days, I thought I would do a follow-up to
my original India Travelogue that was published last year. If you haven’t read the original and are
interested in hearing about this great and diverse country, I recommend starting
there. You can find the first
installment of my initial trip around the country here: https://libertinereflections.blogspot.com/2018/02/india-journal-part-i.html
Thursday, January 10 – Monday, January 14, 2019
"Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go." Hermann Hesse
"Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go." Hermann Hesse
It’s
been a year since my inaugural trip to India where I spent a fantastic and enlightening month traveling
around the subcontinent, experiencing new cultures, meeting varied people, eating incredibly
diverse foods and finding fresh thoughts and ideas about life and how to live
it everywhere I went. Last year’s trip
was a highlight of 2018, so when my family decided to return again for a winter
vacation this year, I decided to join them for a couple weeks.
I
wish I could stay longer this time and explore other parts of the country that I didn't make it to the first time around (especially Dharamshala), but the last six months have
been not been the easiest for me on many fronts, and I just couldn’t manage
such a long getaway this time around.
Nevertheless, it was time to return- I could use a recharge. Also, since I didn’t plan on jumping around and
road tripping to so many major cities like last year, it would be nice to just settle
into the region of Kerala and hopefully find some peace of mind and
rejuvenation.
Getting
here was a snap. I found a great flight
from Chicago direct to Delhi where I had a short layover and then transferred for another flight to Cochin and then on to Thiruvananthapuram/Trivandrum. It was about 14 hours on the first flight,
then about four and half hours more to get to Thiruvananthapuram.
I
arrived at Thiruvananthapuram at 10:30pm and the airport was totally empty. This was a stark contrast to my arrival last
year at around 3:30am when the place was packed to the gills with people and
activity. I got through the E-Visa line
within only a few minutes, got fingerprinted, grabbed my luggage and Part II of
my Indian adventure had begun.
What’s
interesting is how fast we become familiar with a place, no matter how exotic
or different it is. Last time I arrived
here everything jumped out at me and was fascinating to behold. This time, it all felt comfortable and
normal. Don’t
get me wrong, I still greatly enjoy
people watching and going on excursions around the region, but the
excitement that comes from stepping into new places and new cultures for the
first time has been replaced by a comfortable understanding of my surroundings
in this place. My thoughts are more stoic and reflective than expansive this
time around. This is both a positive and
a negative, as I enjoy the feeling of coming “home” to my favorite beach and
this region, but I miss the excitement and feeling of adventure that comes from
experiencing something completely new and the sensory overload that usually accompanies
it.
Kovalam Beach- A timeless and fantastic place |
Since
my trip is much shorter this time around, I decided in December that I wasn’t
going to do an Ayurveda spa treatment so that I could maximize my time kicking back and relaxing with the family while exploring the
region a bit. Despite agreeing to this
in December when I was in Kiev, Irina changed her mind and booked us into an intensive one week Rejuvenation and Detoxification Ayurveda treatment that started two days after I arrived (jetlag be damned!).
While
I wasn’t very excited about this (and even that is an understatement), I didn’t
protest this decision and decided to just go with the flow. In Chicago before I left, my pal Bruce, who’s idea of relaxing is to breed
discontent among his circle at my favorite bar- the Old Town Ale House- tried to goad me into making a stand and not doing
the treatment, but I didn’t buy into it and accepted that
Ira was acting in my best interests.
Doing
the Ayurveda, a treatment that has been around for thousands of years that was
clearly beneficial to my health last time I was here- both physical and mental-
couldn’t be a bad thing, even if the process itself isn’t really my style and
thus, doesn’t bring any immediate pleasure to me. At the end of the day, I usually spend most
of my Chicago nights at the Ale House (or some other bar) and taking a week off
while doing an intensive treatment that rebalances my mind and rejuvenates my
body cannot be a negative to either my mental or physical health.
The
first day of treatment was a gas. (Again, I recommend you read in last year’s
travel blog linked above, which described the entire experience in much greater
detail and humor.) This year I had Babu
as my main massage therapist. Babu’s
hands and feet are extremely callous from years and years of working in this
profession. They feel like a low-grade
sandpaper, and thus, for me, it is not a relaxing or soothing massage
experience in the least. This also
doesn’t take into account the massage itself, which consists mostly of Babu
hanging onto a rope and massaging my entire body with his feet.
Nevertheless,
I knew what I was getting into this time, so I was much more mentally prepared
for the task, or so I thought going in.
Throughout the first day of treatment, I kept relying on the scar tissue from
last year’s experience to get me to the goal line.
I had already been here and done this, so I just tried to meditate my
way through the experience this time around.
It wasn’t easy and my thoughts were constantly jumping about to many
random things and concerns that were stuck in my mind. It’s really fascinating how today’s society
makes our minds run on short little bytes of thought. I found it hard to just relax and focus, or,
as I say when running on a treadmill or swimming laps at my fitness club in
Chicago, find the void and just zone out.
I was happy when the massage ended.
The little bags full of spices wet with hot oil |
The
next treatment was the one where two masseuses beat and rub your body with
course little bags wet with hot oil and full of spices. It was painful and my skin burned
throughout, but I kept telling myself that I’ve been here before and can get
through it. I again wasn’t able to find
the void and my thoughts were constantly jumping around, which only prolonged the therapy. I barely made it to the end.
After
the hot oil bag rub, came the powder treatment.
They coat your body in some Indian powders to absorb the thick coat of
oil that generously covers your entire body and then they start rubbing and pinching-
back and forth- pinch- back and forth-pinch- slowly from the feet to the your
neck. This is the one I liked the least
last time around and that hasn’t changed.
I kept telling myself I could get through it and it was good for my skin
and circulation, that I was strong enough, but by the time they made it up to
my chest area and were rubbing and pinching my stomach, I mentally threw in the
towel and said to myself “screw it, this hurts!” Once I did that, I couldn’t help myself from
laughing out loud at the situation I
was in, which surprised the masseuses and led them
to intensify the rubbing and pinching! Pretty wild, but once my mental fortitude collapsed, the process was
actually easier to deal with. Sometimes,
you have to let go to move forward and this was one of those times. After another twenty minutes, the day’s treatment was
over. I got up from the table a bit wobbly and was
wrapped in an Indian toga/diaper type of large shawl and left the room.
The powder for the body rub |
When
I met Ira after this, we both just looked at each other, covered in powder with
oil sopped hair in our Indian togas/diaper garb (hers pink, mine purple) and we
just laughed. It was a good time. We then made our way home
to shower and move on to other, more pleasant, experiences before crashing out
for the night.
I will post another installment in the coming days, so stay tuned- More
to come-)
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