India – First Post

India.
!ncredible !ndia (that’s what tourism India tells us on the billboards when we land; first in Mumbai, and later in Goa).

Here after a 30 hour journey involving 3 take offs and 3 landings and one very winding and reckless cab ride. Writing after several extended-naps-interrupted-by-meals in our straw hut near the beach. Getting back online and in touch with the world and out of this fantasy land that I find myself in. Finding my groove in this special place. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing.

On the journey and now here, there has been this sense of being simply level. No panic, no excitement, no worry, no anticipation. It was quite a smooth…soft…really comfortable feeling. I’m thanking Andrew for that. I got to spend a few days babysitting him before I left, so I think I had his 3 year old “live in the moment” mentality really allowed me to be open to whatever unfolds.

The “memorables” so far include:

– being part of this community of straw huts that is the Himalayan Iyengar Yoga Centre (no, we are nowhere near the Himalaya’s, but the folks that run this centre also set up in Dharmasala – in the Himalayas – in the summertime when it’s too hot here)
– sleeping to the sound of the wind rushing through a gazillion palm trees outside our hut and then being woken up to the sound of a kitten mewing.
– discovering my feet in yoga class this morning!
– pink doggies (the sand/soil is a rich iron-oxide red, and all the stray dogs who started out life with white fur now have pink fur)
– the almost immediate dissolution of my standards of personal hygeine (my feet are red from the sand, and will be the entire time I’m here…)
– all the Western caucasian hippies (many aging – or aged? – and many young families with children), the entitlement to dreadlocks, cigarettes, motorbikes and carefree lifestyles oozing from their pores!

!ncredible !ndia indeed!