India - Part 2: One Country / A Thousand Colors
Second part of this journey in India, after coming back from Myanmar, has brought what have simply been the most intense and beautiful months of my life (it's funny how everyday seems to be again the most beautiful day of my life. My happiness starts to be a worry).
From the people my lucky (silver) star brought on my road, first. Ruth, Tai, Natalia, Jo, Je, Danny, Pino, Celina, Manish, Charlotte, Avit, Alon...Fire-starters and beautiful souls. We've been giving each other a lot, and I can't thank you enough for what I got from you: a warm heart, and wide-open eyes.
India itself ? A 10,000 faces country, pushing you through 15 emotions in one day, that would take you a month to experience back home. Ups and downs. Strikingly interactive. As if Indian had a sixth-sense westerners forgot. If you're happy, events and people will shine around you. If you're angry, or on the defensive, be sure to open your catastrophe-umbrella before going out. It is a fight and a cuddle. Exhausting, draining, but god...so much worth it.
From Calcutta to Pondicherry and Auroville, travelling Kerala with my sister, cruising the dance-floors of Goa, joining 200,000 Tibetans around the Dalai-Lama for Kalachakra, retreating in the mountains, I've seen a same country under a thousand different lights. Kaleidoscopic travelling.
Kalachakra...A ceremony taking place every year, a teaching preaching World Peace, attended by both exiled and in-land Tibetans, making their way to the Dalai Lama in India, some of them dying on their journey, some others on their way back, some meeting their families for the first time in 40 years. There is very little to say about how it feels to be surrounded by a nation gathering, sometimes at the expense of their own lives, to preach for nothing but World Peace. You'll see some Tibetans again in this picture album. That's who they are...
From the people my lucky (silver) star brought on my road, first. Ruth, Tai, Natalia, Jo, Je, Danny, Pino, Celina, Manish, Charlotte, Avit, Alon...Fire-starters and beautiful souls. We've been giving each other a lot, and I can't thank you enough for what I got from you: a warm heart, and wide-open eyes.
India itself ? A 10,000 faces country, pushing you through 15 emotions in one day, that would take you a month to experience back home. Ups and downs. Strikingly interactive. As if Indian had a sixth-sense westerners forgot. If you're happy, events and people will shine around you. If you're angry, or on the defensive, be sure to open your catastrophe-umbrella before going out. It is a fight and a cuddle. Exhausting, draining, but god...so much worth it.
From Calcutta to Pondicherry and Auroville, travelling Kerala with my sister, cruising the dance-floors of Goa, joining 200,000 Tibetans around the Dalai-Lama for Kalachakra, retreating in the mountains, I've seen a same country under a thousand different lights. Kaleidoscopic travelling.Kalachakra...A ceremony taking place every year, a teaching preaching World Peace, attended by both exiled and in-land Tibetans, making their way to the Dalai Lama in India, some of them dying on their journey, some others on their way back, some meeting their families for the first time in 40 years. There is very little to say about how it feels to be surrounded by a nation gathering, sometimes at the expense of their own lives, to preach for nothing but World Peace. You'll see some Tibetans again in this picture album. That's who they are...
As for the pictures, the usual:
1- As a Slideshow
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefworldtour/sets/72057594056364734/show/
2- As an Album
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefworldtour/sets/72057594056364734
1- As a Slideshow
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefworldtour/sets/72057594056364734/show/
2- As an Album
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefworldtour/sets/72057594056364734
More pictures of India in the Varanasi posting, down on the blog...
posted by StefWorldTour at 2:32 PM
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