India – Wrap Up Post

Here I am back in Canada. I arrived back on Monday (March 10) after 2 sleepless flights spanning about 18 hours in total.

I think a combination of things prevented my sleep.

Firstly, I had mixed feelings about leaving India. The struggle between simplicity and complexity of being there is really quite intriguing. Because of how complicated EVERYTHING is, when I’m there I’m forced to live life paying more attention to necessities and priorities.

Even though a homicidal instinct kicked in each time someone:
~ pulled out their carbon copied note pad to write down my order or purchase in triplicate, or
~ the power went out repeatedly at the end of an unsaved email, or
~ the guy who made my business cards promised to have them ready in “an hour” for days on end,

I learned.

What I learned was to be patient. Here I seem to have no patience. The world whirls around me and sparks this anxious furor to get more and more and more done. So I need to call on my memory of those times to bring myself back to the humour of life.

Secondly, I couldn’t sleep so well on those flights because of my issues with Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD). What goes along with that is something called Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS). So, not only do I have this flinging limb issue (PLMD), but the RLS gives me this feeling in my left leg as though there is something crawling inside. It’s a really uncomfortable and bothersome symptom. For some reason, even Gravol and the free booze courtesy of Air France couldn’t dull this annoying sensation.
So is it any wonder that I felt more than just a tinge of envy as Trixie slept soundly beside me, almost the entire way?!

Needless to say, the last few days have been a bit topsy turvy. Adjusting to the time zone, weather and cultural changes has really challenged my mind, body, spirit and emotions. Luckily, I have my Nia to keep me going. Thank God for Nia. It is medicine for my being.

There are a few more pictures I wanted to share with you. Here’s one of the family home that we stayed in while we were in Mysore. Truly I felt like I was living in a palace. Outside of their gate, we were in India, but inside those gates, it was heaven on earth! Marble floors, HOT water, really inspiring conversation partners, a fully working kitchen (stove and fridge!), and a beautifully manicured garden.

On our last weekend we took an overnight trip to Kushalnagar (District of Coorg, state of Karnataka). We stayed on a Mango Plantation, but can you believe that because there wasn’t enough rain in December, there weren’t any blooms to turn into mangoes? Gawd, how disappointing…
Nonetheless, I got to spend time with elephants on my birthday!
We went to Dubare Elephant Camp and I got up close and personal with a few massive fellow mammals. Our photographic quests seemed to agitate not only the elephant groomer, but at one point the elephant got startled and started to get up. Hence I was ready to make a quick exit. Trixie was fearless, though, as always!

And finally, I had to include some snaps of my Bollywood Dance teachers in Mysore (at Granduor’s Institute of Dance on N.S. Road). Suresh and Prabhakar (whose name sounded like ‘Rebecca‘ when he said it..) were excellent teachers, even though we had no common language other than body language to communicate with. The moves that came out of these brothers was inspiring and if I ever return to Mysore, I’ll be spending some serious time at their studio! I came away with some refreshing ideas about how to play with beat and rhythm along with some funkafied new music to play with.

Check out Suresh’s “Ladies moves”. Too funny!

Jai, Jai India (celebrate India).