agra-phobia

well i thought i'd seen india. i haven't had a clue. now i have seen india the way it is meant to be seen. i am now stuck in agra for 4 days, but it dosen't matter cause it's a chaotic dream.

of course we misread our ticket from indore to agra and thought we would be late, only to hurry up and wait, something you do in india each day. a pack of cards is very handy for these matters, as we played gin rummy while a pile of onlookers watched us. the next bus was worse than the first, 13 hours in a video air con bus with sit up seats, only no video, and no air con. the seats were packed and the aisles were filled with passangers sitting on the floor, some lucky to have plastic stools. if you did not piss fast when the bus stopped, you would be left behind, as several people actually were. i learned to piss with the men by the side of the road. i am getting very good at hiking my salwar and scarf out of the way of the stream.

we arrived in agra round 7am and were fortunate to meet our companion for our entire time here-19 year old samin, our personal tour guide and rickshaw driver. he set us up in a hotel, and got us a nice meal in a garden, took us to travel agent cause we did not know how we were going to get out of here eventually cause it's high indian tourist season because of the holidays and everything is booked solid. the travel agent was a buddhist and upon finding out i teach yoga forced me to take down a list of 9 questions which went something like this:
1. what is truth? is it possible to know it partially?
2. what should we meditate on?
3. what is the ultimate glimpses of enlightment?
4. in which form the energy of ego changed into?
5. is a sex creative energy? how could it be possible for a husband and wife to make this relationship more creative?
6. love is understanding or not?
7. treasure insight
8. describe marriage
a. social marraige
b. spiritual marraige
c. divine marraige
before starting any sort of marraige we should know who am i? where do i stand? what is my nature?
9. i live in the land of seriousness, imprisoned and its borders. can you draw me a road map to your land of playfulness? have i a defective gene? i can not find my laughter or lightheardness? it's around me, but do not feel it in me.

this from a travel agent.

stuck in the most indescribable traffic imaginable-4 hours behind bike rickshaws, mule carts, bulls, dogs, rickshaws, bikes, babies carrying babies, sadhus, motorbikes, cars, packs of pigs, goats, i don't remember what else, we finally made it to the back of the taj during sunset. it was quite powerful. i got a nice picture with it reflecting on the back water.

sanir, after making us shop at a silver shop (yeow)insisted on taking us to the decendents of the craftsmen of the actual taj mahal. there, muhamed showed us how they crafted the marble and put the intricate pieces of precious stones inside of the marble. it was extremely impressive. we spent a good hour in there learning and looking, preparing for our next day when we would visit the taj from the front and go inside. out of all the pieces available, of course i had to have the most unusual one, which is from 1972 and made by his grandfather, a direct decendent of the taj laborers. this piece had to be mine cause the marble had the natural spots and the flowers had pieces of gems that are extinct, and some pieces were actually stolen from the real taj mahal many years ago. it is an actual museum piece with government stamp and worth over 30,000us in the states-a piece i will someday donate to a museum. i had it shipped home and can't believe i am the proud owner, especially for what i had paid for it. totally unbelievable.

back to the guru travel agent who had bad news for us, no way to get out of here. we're stuck here until the 22nd evening when we can get a 2nd class no a/c train back to mumbai, except we have to go to delhi first, take a taxi 2 hours to get a train, connect in delhi, and travel 30 hours back to mumbai, should get us there by the 24th.

when we got back to our hotel, we lost our key. the drama was very big cause they don't have extra keys. they ridiculed me and i fought back. of course all they wanted was 100rps. then we sat and watched then hit the lock with their bare hands, ripping up their knuckles. dorks. but it popped open and we said sorry, they promised a new room in the morning, but we booked out of there cause they did not have a room in the morning and it was time to go to the taj mahal and we had nowhere to store our stuff. big drama there cause the hotel wanted us to pay another 500rps for another night. we screeched out in the waiting rickshaw with samir, as he found us another travel agent and another hotel.

then the drive to the taj. he gave us the lowdown-this guy is great-we are extremely blessed to have him. pickpockets are rampent, the food over there is all poison cause they want you to get sick,(the doctors have a thing with the restaurants and they bleed your insurance) the begging is horrendous. we got in line to pay the 750rps to get in and when i opened my wallet, 500us dollars flew out and on to the ground!!! luckily we were surrounded by tibetan monks and nothing blew away (i think).and it's indian holiday and a saturday, so you can't imagine how many people were there waiting to get through that gate that leads to the garden which leads to the most amazing thing i have ever seen in my entire life. THE TAJ MAHAL. of course i balled like a baby because all my life i've dreamed of seeing this exquisite monument. there is no possible way i can describe how it felt to be in its prescence. i actually thought i would no longer be able to blog cause i can't properlly describe what it's like to be over here in agra. and i appreciated it even more because of the time i spent with my friend at the marble shop. the way they carve out the marble and put tiny pieces of stones that fit perfectly. i just can't describe it. it was probably the most inspiring moment of my life. now you have to understand that i have only begun to travel just 5 years ago for the first time. this was a very big moment.

so if you all decide to study yoga in india, you are crazy not to see the real india. there's WAY much more to this place than mysore. don't limit yourself. don't cheat yourself. this place is totally indescribable, magical, and very very hard on your body and mind. but it's worth every single hard moment. i would do it all again in a heartbeat.

bindifry