Missed our train from Chennai

Currently it is about 4:45 in the afternoon and I am sitting in a dirty little "internet cafe"-- which consists of two rows of computers (Windows 95) stacked in a little hallway on top of each other (we're on top--with a small rat which just ran from out of the corner). Last night after riding a bus from Pondicherry to Chennai through the rain and noisy streets where various Pongal celebrations (the Tamil new year) were in full swing, we arrived a little later tan expected (right on schedule in Indian time) and ended up missing our train by about 45 seconds. We saw it pulling slowly out of the platform, but we couldn't quite catch up to it. So we talked to various railway ticket attendants and found out the next train will take off today at about 7 pm. So we got a hotel room and watched Indian music videos, road-runner cartoons, and CNN (top U.S. story was Barack Obama's wax figure being unveiled...). We were very hungry, but all the little food shops had closed down (it was around 11:30) and the room service only had "toast and pepsi." We snacked on dried mango and triscuits.

The station and the whole city are hot and filthy and smelly with all sorts of crippled beggars and homeless families sleeping in the medians of the train station parking lot. Horrifying, but there's no escaping it--certainly leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

The last week has been a whirlwind, and I don't think I could have asked for a better introduction to our India trip than the one that we received. We flew into Hyderabad and were staying with the coworker of Josh. His name is Vijay Nandula and his wife Sharmila and son Mayukh. I've never met a family quite like this one. Mayukh is a brilliant 7 year old who has a wider vocabulary than I do. I got a little video of him sitting me down and telling me a very elaborate story about Vishnu, as well as describing to us how to build an electrical circuit. Sharmila is working on her Ph.D. now in fashion technology and made Josh and I feel very comfortable coming into the bizarre world of India. Her cooking is unlike anything I've ever tasted- when we arrived I was feeling really sick, with a sore throat, headache, chills, stuffy nose, etc. She knew exactly what to do and how my illness would play out, and sure enough I followed her directions, ate what she told me to, did what she said to do, and bam, the next day I felt fine. Vijay is, like the rest of his family, just a step beyond. You know when you meet someone and you think, 'They get it.' Well this man gets it. He has a very calm and deep presence and has a fantastic sense of humor. I've never felt so welcomed and comfortable as I did around him.

The first couple days in Hyderabad we spent driving through the surrounding countryside and city. The driving, as I'm sure you know, is absolutely insane. No rules. Period. There are signs on the side of the road every so often that say "Follow traffic rules, Stay alive." But it seems the only rule of the road is to stay alive. Honking and swerving (on your side or on the oncoming side...doesn't really matter), cows, pedestrians, buses, motorcycles, rickshaws, bicycles....all in this fantastic mess of movement. I would say that driving through the city gives you the best taste for what goes on there. Everything is so casual, very little rules or structure. People sort of do their own thing everywhere. Driving, working, walking, resting, etc. everyone seems to be sort of hanging out and flowing in this very relaxed yet very chaotic way. It's difficult to describe without having been in the center of it; sitting in the back seat, mouth open, dumbstruck, without seatbelts while a family of four rides past on a motorcycle, Dad barefoot driving, with a baby sitting on the gas tank and his wife in full sari riding side-saddle on back with his son squeezed between... Vijay calmly weaving through, honking, telling us a story about Shiva or something.


I will recap the main events of the last week, before we have to go get our things and head to the train station (finally off to Agra).

We were talking in the car one evening and I brought up Jiddu Krishnamurti. As it turned out Shim and Vijay had come across Krishnamurti years ago and he had "been happening to them ever since." With this connection having been found out they decided to take us to the Jiddu Krishnamurti Center, about 1.5 hrs outside of Hyderabad. They had been going there for retreats and stays for a couple years and thought we would like to see the place. It was a rural little plot of about 25 acres that had a main library and meditation hall, a kitchen and dining hall, several surrounding buildings for people staying there, and then various garden plots and cows and chickens etc. We had lunch and meandered around the grounds. There was a mainly French group that had been staying there for a week or so and they were leaving that day. Josh, Vijay's family and I watched a Krishnamurti video in the main hall then came out to meet the woman who sort of runs the center. Her name is Apparajita, and we got into a discussion with her about politics, the environment, the spirit, etc. Josh and I didn't quite fit her view of the average American boy, and she later extended an offer to stay on at the Center and work, farm, and learn about ourselves, as well as maybe even talk to local Indian youth about the "perils of Western consumerism, etc." We stayed at the Center that night and listened to Vijay sing Hindu folk songs by the fire under the full moon, and got up before dawn to watch the sun rise over a near by lake. Where Vijay taught us how to brush our teeth with the branch of a Neem tree.

The next stop was Pondicherry on the Bay of Bengal where Auroville is located. This is an experimental utopian village (which seems to be working) where 46 different nationalities are living (about 2,000 residents). We stayed with a friend of a friend of Vijay and Shim's, a man named Swadhin who lived outside Auroville proper but has been affiliated with it for years. It was started in the 60's by Sri Aurobindo and a French woman called "The Mother." I have plenty of pictures that I will try to upload as soon as I find a computer younger than me. We stayed here for about 4 days and rode motorcycles through the winding dirt roads of the town. It's about 400 acres and there are little neighborhoods (like Serenity, Calm, Quiet, etc.) with little houses and businesses. It's
an extremely well organized and functional system of communal living. It's hard to describe it really...for a black and white account, the website is good enough. But as far as I can tell you...it really is like a little utopia in the forests of southern India where anyone can come and live and contribute provided you are dedicated to leading a life aimed at Peace and Truth. I wasn't really aware that places like Auroville existed or are possible, but I was shown that they do and are. I'm sure I'll refer more to this as the posts go on.

Anyway, we're running out of time and my internet costs may jump up to about $1.50 if I'm not careful. Hope this paints a semi-coherent picture of the goings on here. More in a couple days, I'm sure!