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Archive for October, 2004

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Shaking Hands..With A Monk

Thursday, October 14th, 2004

You meet so many different kinds of people while traveling and it just so happened that I bumped into a very resourceful ones. The Swedish couple who were documentary filmmakers with an interview of the Karmapa under their belt. Then I bumped into Tishani, a half Gujju half welsh free lance writer who lives and works from madras. What a beautiful girl! A dancer’s eyes with honest expressions. Turns out she is a dancer without any formal training. Beauty that radiates. I asked her for her autograph just in case she turns out to be this very famous Tamil actress that she resembles. Anyway, she looked like had plenty of connections and I was happy to tag along while she went on meeting some of them as I really was not in a mood for touristy things but something else. To look deeper and closer into the Tibetan community in Dharmsala.

At a local bookstore she happened to ask the owners name and exclaimed “ah you are the man am looking for”. Turns out he is the local rebel who another author friend of hers knows from ages. He is a renegade as he is one of the few who disagrees with His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama on his policy with China. The Dalai Lama since 1988 wants Independent rule within China, where as there are other who feel that they should ask for complete independence. I really wonder if this will be a possibility in our lifetime. Will Tibet ever see the light of self-rule? Sad plight as a generations are still living without a country. Neither home in India nor in Tibet.

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In the Land of Lama’s…

Sunday, October 10th, 2004

Its been a while since I have written…well did not have much to say. All I did the past few weeks was just eat, sleep, read and watch the idiot box. Well, actually I did make a small trip down to Pondicherry to see an old high school friend of mine who lives in Auroville. It was refreshing to renew a friendship and drive down memory lane. It’s amazing how much I remember and she does not! It was great to share her life for a few days and live right in the middle of Auroville, middle of nowhere.

For those who are more curious about Auroville you can find a lot of information on their web site. I can only say that I found the concept of Auroville a little unrealistic, but then I guess all dreams take a while to come to reality. I found some people escaping from reality and some who really believe in the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and are they’re trying their best to build this community of human unity. It’s definitely not for me. Shama seems to have a very normal working life. She is an architect who works in the area and wants to take projects in Pondicherry or Chennai the big town next door. She is one of the few I saw had a balance of the real life and principles behind the whole place. Has a healthy spiritual perspective of the place and a firm grounding in reality. Others who I met worked just as hard as we do in the “real world” they also need to make money to live and pursue their interests. They are not in an ashram environment being taken care of. They have taken a barren land and made it green, are trying to live in harmony with nature and with other beings. But, they have their problems.

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Matra Mandir..Auroville.

The locals think they all have money and an easy life..well some of them do. They work in their native country for 2-3 months and then life off of that money in Auroville. In their spare time they volunteer and pursue some of their hobbies. They are surrounded by the same politics and pettiness that we all are. It’s a world within a world, interdependent on the outside world desperately trying to be independent. Still very far from that dream. But I found that some of the work that they are doing with alternative energy, with progressive constructions techniques and other organic cultivation programs very interesting. It takes a lot to change the world but at least they are trying in their own small way. Its a start right?

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Shama and myself bearing the burden just by ourselves.

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