It’s all to do with the Israelites leaving Egypt …
Rishikesh 12/4/08
Saying goodbye to Kishikesh it’s like on a very special day, when we do not want a wonderful day to end, but than, the next day – the sun is up again and a new wonderful day is waiting smiling.
Don’t be afraid to look with a smile and courage at a new place, at a new day! I said to myself.
14/4/08
I want to cry. Why? I do not know. Is it because of leaving Rishikesh today? or, is it leaving the sense of freedom that I feel here? Feeling of freedom that I would like to carry with me every where.
In Rishiskesh every day is like any other day: Holy people and pilgrimages are coming and going, loud singing and prying are heard every where, colorful people, happy cows, wonderful different scents and smells – all together a happy place.
Today there is some kind of festival – I wouldn’t know that, as it’s like any other day, just like yesterday – another happy day – but the post office was closed!!
I have to take the feeling of freedom and easiness with me
everywhere. The knowledge that there is a special place for every one, and each one goes by his rhythm in his stream.
My favorite place is Ganga View, of course it’s located by the Ganga, also the food is fresh and the kitchen is clean. One meets there a variety of people, reading the daily news paper – is part of the event. It’s of interest of every one, even the guys with the long rastas – surprisingly, they like to read the papers too. Each day the headlines on most Indian’s papers is SPORT! Not the news about HighTec, nor the starving people, not the inflation that started to raise up in India, nor the rises voices of the Tibetans – sport is the subject that makes people happy, so it stands up first, politics & the rest is second.
Dharamshala, Mcleod Ganj, 16/4/08
Each time I arrive to a new place I feel ill. It takes a lot of energy to move with the bags, the long train journey, the buses, and than to find a new location to stay etc. On top of all my stomach was asking for rescue, after the farewell lovely party we had at the Pyramid in Rishikesh – that didn’t suit my delicate stomach. To add the cream on that cake – I lost my glasses…
Only now, at last, I understand why the the Jewish people crossed the desert from Egypt to Israel in 40 years – not that it takes such a long time, but each time they settled down for a while, they wanted to stay there for ever! it was bloody (sorry) hard work for Moses to move that big heavy tribe again!!! … And than a woman gave just birth to a new born baby, and someone got married… etc.
I can feel-see it by my own actions – each time I arrive to a new place, I think it’s wonderful, exciting and I reached The Most Place! – all that’s only out of convenience!!!! That’s way the Israelites complained – every new place they arrived – we like it here! They said. Of course, they even wanted to go back to Egypt, to be slaves again!!! No doubt, I am part of my tribe.
I am staying in a nice clean place with view to the valley in a village called Mcleod Ganj, it’s 1770 high. 60 years ago the 14th Dalai Lama fled here with his people after the occupation of Tibet by the Chinese. On the edges of the village white mountains are looking at us from above.
The atmosphere is very different; it’s colder, even that it’s summer here, every one wears warm cloths, most faces looks Tibetan, solid type of faces. It a quiet place.
I am sitting in a Tibetan vegetarian restaurant eating just brown rice & veg, to clean my stomach… Every few minuets a beggar enters the restaurant, and the waiter asks him/her to leave, one by one. A young child enters to beg. Next to me there are 3 French people sitting and a child, she was mingling with her fork the noodles she did not like to eat. One of the French man invited the beggaer-boy to have tea with them. The kid immediately agreed and set done next to the French girl. They set together next to each other – the young blond girl and the Indian looking boy – both the same age, 6-8. The boy drank the tea with great pleasure, and than I saw him eating of the girl’s noodles with delight, no doubt he was shay but he enjoyed the meal! The girl was looking at him closely with great interest.
Did the French man wanted to show his little girl how valuable the noddles are to an hungry child? Maybe he wanted to treat the young boy with something different of what he’s accustomed, or both?
After the boy finished his noddles thoroughly, he looked deep into his pockets, than he put a small white stone at the table, looking at the French man with gratitude. All that happened with not a word said.