Friday, May 25, 2012

My Kashmiri pal just got an article published about her work, written by out mutual American pal.
You go ladies.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/2012/0524/Inshah-Malik-is-trying-rebuild-Kashmir-with-a-different-weapon-her-pene a look.




Last days in Baghsu.
The panchkarma experience was great and my last days in Baghsu so relaxing. As you can see I renounced the computer for about 10 days and spent that time going for walks in the mountains, watching the women take in the wheat harvest, dozing under trees and noticing the variety of Himalayan birds. Green parrots and blue birds with bright colored long tails, all kinds of small stripped birds in yellow, green, black and white and woodpeckers with long beaks, red heads and black mohawks. For all my years in the Himalayas I never gave myself the luxury of time to just enjoy nature without having one eye on a clock, or my mind busy with some project or head stuck in a study book. Time off was so healing in so many ways. I lost around 10 lbs, feel great, have lots of energy and have no cravings for sugar, caffeine or salty/spicy food. The simple diet seems to agree with me just fine.
Last weekend there was also a big cricket match in Dharamsala so Baghsu was bombarded with young Sheik cricket fans who love to party and attempt to chat up/harass any and all western girls. It was so funny though watching them in the Baghsu’s holy water swimming pool on Sunday. There were hundreds of big overweight, tattooed guys with hangovers in their underwear and black hairnets trying to impress or outdo each other jumping or diving into the pool and having swimming races like a bunch of teenagers. A big, funny Sheik soup. One guy even dislocated his shoulder and Dr Siby came to his rescue snapping it into place; boy did he scream.
I was all so very lucky to be able to visit with 2 lamas before my departure. Geshie Chopel, who has to be in his 90’s by now and still has a youthful cheeky grin and loves to joke. Also Khensur Denma Locho Rinpoche    http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/lineage-lamas/499-denma.htm   who gave a wonderful Chenrazig initiation which started off the 15 days of practice which ends with Saka Dawa on June 3rd. Saka Dawa is on the Buddhist holy day with celebrates Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death or paranirvana. During these 15 days Buddhist do a lot of actions which create positive karma, such as prayers fasting, offering and assisting people however they can. So I had better get on it.


On to Kashmir
It was hard to say bye to the wonderful staff of Siby’s Health Clinic and the family I stayed with as they all took such great care of me. However Kashmir was calling and I was very lucky to bump into my old friend Shabir. He has been working in Bahgsu and McLeod Ganj since 1996 and since he was headed to Kashmir we shared the costs of petrol and hit the road 5.30 am. Much better to go by car than spend two days on the bus. Anyway that was two days ago, but it feels like ages ago. The trip took 13 hours with a few stops for chai and lunch. The views of the mountains on the way were amazing and I often found myself hanging on and whispering a few Tara mantras, not only because Shabir drove fast but because the river was a long way down from the windy mountains roads and I wanted to as they say in India arrive, alive!

Srinagar, a town which was silent and in curfew 2 years ago is now a bustling, loud, tourist destination packed full of Indian honeymoon couples and families. The boulevard on Dale Lake was at a standstill, every car blaring Bollywood music and the local Kashmiris trying their best to sell the tourist sunset shikara (gondola) trips around the lake, plastic trinkets made in China or snacks of spicy nuts. It was the complete opposite of peaceful Bahgsu. Shabir’s family live on a house boat and they luckily had an extra room. These days a room on a house boat, and the house boats are beautiful, starts around 3000 rupees ($60). During times of curfew the same room you could get for about 500 rupees ($10). My question is then, where is the line between making hay while you can in a good tourist season and when are you price gouging? Anyway Kashmir is in its paradise mode just now. People are all crazy to make money from the tourists and everyone is either in denial of Kashmir’s problems due to the conflict or have no clue.
So I am here, not only for the shikara rides, houseboats or to buy the handicrafts but also to volunteer with NGO’s that work with women and peacebuiding. The women I will be assisting are ladies that I met in 2010. In a few days I will be starting with HELP foundation  http://www.jkhf.in/  which was founded in 1997 by a very courageous and resourceful woman Nighat Shafi Pandit  
http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=1820


The project I am assisting with will take place in the district of Kupwara which is close to the Line of Control, the defacto border with Pakistan. I will be glad to get out of town and away from the tourists for those few days. HELP is setting up a three year training program for women and will cover health education, sustainable agriculture, income generation and small business development such as learning tailoring or honey making, human rights and law awareness and in general self development and connecting women to each other so they can support and assist each other. I only met with HELPs founder yesterday so tomorrow I will find out more about what exactly my role will be. Of course I also have to get settled with a reasonable priced place to stay, get an internet connection adjust to being in a different culture and get a big headscarf; not out of respect for the religion, but I just get fed up of judgmental stares and men checking out by chest. It is a funny world.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Sense of gratitude.
Allowing myself this time out has been great. We don’t give ourselves enough time out to reflect and just be anymore. There are 2 popular t-shirts in India just now that says Human Being  and Being Human, small words but packed full or meaning.
 Anyway as the days pass I often watch the villagers in their daily routine and can’t help compare it to suits in Washington DC. The people in the village get up with the sun, do chores and feed the cows, have breakfast then rest. After that they may work in the house or the fields but always at a leisurely pace, often with a tea break and always with some chatter. After lunch comes a wee nap till until the heat of the day passes then back to work until sunset, again at a leisurely pace with a tea break. Dinner is  around 9pm then bed around 10pm. People walk slower, stop to chat on the streets and always say Namaste as you pass. I just feel so gratefull to be able to stop and be for a while and realize just how crazy fast passed, stressed out and lonely many people’s lives are. This deep sense of gratitude increases as the days pass and with it come a sense of contentment and a lessening of scattered thinking. At times I am just grateful for the clean water, air and healthy the food. Grateful to be of somewhat sound mind and healthy body. So grateful to be in a beautiful and peaceful place with the freedom to go where I please without restriction from an oppressive government, army or even husband for that matter. Grateful to have a good family and friends and very grateful to have the financial means which to be allow me to be here. So many things to appreciate and be thankful for; all I needed was the time out to see it.
Day 15 of 23 in Panchakarma
The panchakarma treatments are going well. Since this process began I have had hot oil placed on or poured over my forehead and heart chakra and had a series of 4 hand pounding massages. This is when herbs are rolled up in cloth, placed in hot oil and then pounded on every part of the body.  I have been told these treatments help the blood circulation, stimulate the nervous and lymph systems and takes toxin out of the muscles and joints. Whatever it does it feels great. Today the course of 4 oil baths started. Not really a bath per say but the two girls pouring medicated hot oil all over the body for about 1 hour. This treatment helps to cleanse the liver and surprise surprise is good for the skin. Tonight will be a treatment for the joints and a massage that helps to reduce fat. What is interesting is that as I began to relax I became even more exhausted and could sleep 8 hours straight no problem. I am told it is the body working to excrete toxin and adjusting to no medications. I think the walks in the hills and fresh air has a lot to do with better sleep. However, and I never thought I would say this, receiving all this treatments and massages is great but 23 days is long enough. I will enjoy these last 7 days with gusto and when the time come to head up to Kashmir I will be revived and ready to go.

Sunday, May 6, 2012


Day 11 of Panchakarma
Wheat and temple on the hill
So far so good, feeling more energy since the end of the drinking gee sessions; boy was that weird. For the next 12 days there will be two treatments a day and veggie diet. What has really interested and impressed me is Dr Siby’s knowledge of how hormone replacement medicine affects the body, both at the physical and subtle levels. His explanation of what happens in the body fits exactly the symptoms I have been enduring the past few years. According to western medicine there was nothing wrong with me and those symptoms were put down to stress, while all the time the very medicine prescribed as a cure for one ailment was the cause of my more problems. Anyway I am going with what he suggests for now and we will see how I react. If he can get me of these hormone pills then fantastic.
Bahgsu
Along with treatment my days are filled with meditation and yoga practice, working on a proposal for the Kashmir women’s project and trying to make contact with people who could be instrumental in gathering key women in various communities. Living in Baghsu has been relaxing and interesting. I have a lovely room in an extended family home and at 6am every morning, along with the mooing of the pregnant cow next door and morning bird songs, granny sings traditional songs at the top of her lungs as she sweeps the stairs just outside the door. The family is not quiet, shouting, arguing, loud music etc. but they are very happy and so welcoming to this funny wee foreigner. Granny just loves to watch and laugh at me doing yoga and is always looking in my window to see what I may be up too? The kids in the village are also getting used to seeing me and now allowing me to join in their games. One two year old now puts her hand sin Namaste whenever she sees me; oh she is so cute. The shop keepers selling trinkets to the rich Punjabi tourists have finally given up on asking me to “come see my shop madam” or “buy something nice madam” as I pass by as they have figured out I am not buying. Now we exchange Namaste’s and just smile.
Going for walks in the hills has been great and I have truly enjoyed taking the time to appreciate the work of local artist trying to sell there creations on the roadside.
Thangka painter
Wood block carver



Deity wall cloths
In stark contrast to the locals the foreign tourist here in Baghsu are very interesting and I do not seem to fit with their style at all; which is fine with me. They are mostly Israeli but also from Europe and USA dressed in all sorts of colourful baggy getups with dreadlocks plied high on their heads, hugs pieces of jewelry dangling from ears, necks, ankles and noses, belts, scarf and handmade leather hip bags, tattoos and henna designs on all parts of their bodies and piercings that make your head turn and mind go OWCH! We cannot forget the guitar, didgeridoo, drum, bamboo flute or accordion, yes one guy had an accordion, thrown over a shoulder or in funky tie dye, hemp or cotton back pack. Of course it also goes without saying that as you pass by some of the cafes or street corners you can get a second hand hit from the clouds of ganja smoke wafting in the breeze. I love checking out all the styles and enjoy chatting with people from all backgrounds but what is kind of weird in this would be chilled somewhat hippy environment, is the harsh attitude of these travelers. There is a pervasive unfriendliness, a sense of superiority, privilege and closeness not only to the locals but to all people who are not dressed as they are. Travelers used to enjoy interacting with each other, even help each other out but now it seems that they are in competition to look the coolest, or tell the most outrageous travel and party stories. It is interesting to note the changes. 

Friday, May 4, 2012

Efforts less connections!
Wierd how things started to happen when I gave up and went for a massage. A  lady I met in Washington DC who founded the Women's Regional Network e-mailed me back after I told her about some of our ideas for a Kashmiri women's network/fund. That led to another e-mail  to one of her close colleagues, Abha and then a  the founder of Jagori, a feminist NGO that works to educate men and women on gender issues as well as assist rural women with income generation. There project in Dharamsla is  http://www.jagorigrameen.org/   and the NGO at http://jagori.org/    The founders of Jagori also do training through another NGO called Sangat. They will be conducting a month long training in Nepal in September for women from all over South Asia. So I have to get my application in.   http://sangatsouthasia.org/ 
Abha lives n Delhi but is now in Daharamsala giving a training. What are the chances we would be here at the same time? Anyway I met with her and the other ladies of Jagori yesterday at their Women's Training and Research Academy. A beautiful place with garden and retreat facilities for workshops. Jagori has been fighting for women's equality and rights since the 80's and have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. I am so happy to meet with them and hopefully get some pointers for the Kashmir women's project.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012



Bhagsunath.
The decision to leave Delhi and give up on finding a volunteer position was both tough and easy to make. Easy because it was so hot, noisy and polluted who would not leave if given the choice. Difficult to leave Delhi because somehow I feel I had failed in not finding an NGO (non government organization) to volunteer at, which sounds crazy since there is so much suffering in Delhi.  You would think that surely I could find something.  So call it bad timing, no good connections for an in, no karma for that to happen, not enough advanced planning or not knowing the cultural differences on how to get things achieved. I have discovered that to get anything done in India you have to be constantly harassing people, a few e-mails, phone calls or even showing up on people doors steps does not work the same way as it does in the West.  The one positive thing that did come up in Delhi was connecting with WISCOMP and hopefully I will be working with them at the end of this year. I hope this will come to pass. Also I met with Kashmiri friends who have ideas for creating a women’s network and income generation program. I am very happy about now and enthusiastic about planning this work for summer, as it is following up in a practical way with all the research I did there in 2010.  To be able to start something that can assist women in this conflict ridden area would be    great, I hope I have the karma for this to be a positive experience.
Anyway I called it quits in Delhi about 6 days ago and came back up to the mountains, which my lungs have thanked me greatly for ever since. So I am now in Bhagsunatha, a pilgrimage place for worshipers of Zhiva. It is a small village perched on a hillside with a huge snow mountain range just behind it. There is a small waterfall and a bathing pool with icy cold water which pilgrims bless themselves with. I decided to undergo a course of Ayervedic medicine treatments here, called Panchakarma. Ayervedic is tradition India herbal medicine used to not only heal ailments but also purify or cleanse the body of toxins. Various treatments, such as drinking weird medicinal cocktails, various massages and milk baths, rid the body of excess mucus, remove toxins from the organs as well as blood and muscles, reduce fat, improve circulation and help improve joints. For all my years in India I had always heard of this but never tried it and after the Delhi experience it seemed like the perfect thing to do. Plus just having the metabolism slow down a lot lately I though what better time to take some time out and have a middle age clean up and revitalization; a human oil and filter change. However, today is day 5 and I feel far from revitalized. While this all sounds great the process is tough going. This week I am fasting and have been drinking medicine and gee, which I believe is clarified butter. This removes mucus from the body, lungs and brain, yes apparently there is mucus on the brain too. So at 7.30am I have my morning cocktail and in the afternoon ‘4 hand’ massage. No, it is not some weird 4 armed Indian deity giving massages but two really great young lassies with very, very strong hands. To say they pummel me is an understatement. Side effects of this lovely process have included, muscle pain, uncontrollable vomiting, headache and exhaustion. The very thought of doing a yoga pose makes me want to upchuck. Anyway one more day of drinking this cocktail then on the 7th day I get to vomit gee and excess mucus for the morning. Wahoo!! The doctor tells me this is the worse part of the program and I believe him.
Dr Siby is from Kerala which is famous for Aeyervadic and is following in his grandfather and fathers footsteps. He must be in his forties and exudes kindness and tranquility. His staff is also very kind, friendly and the whole place is just very relaxing. I have also been very lucky to find a great place to stay. Today in between treatments sipping ginger hot water and trying not to upchuck, sat and just appreciated the beauty of this place listening to the birds chirp, the lady on the balcony next door hum a tune as she washed her morning dishes, the sound of a builder chiseling stone on the construction site below, a women digging in her garden, children laughing as they played and the pilgrims chattering at the pool in the distance. Not one mechanical sound, no cars and no blaring music; it was fantastic ad so refreshing just to be; be in the now.