Reflections in Delhi

4/10/12

Returning to Delhi by way of bus to Aurangabad, and flight to Delhi, I once again had a sense of returning home. Living conditions in the monastery are much more basic than the hotel rooms I have inhabited, but it has become home here in India for me with the community that live and pray and work here. And I actually like the simplicity of the house.

On Easter Monday morning I was delighted and blessed to be received as an Associate of the Brotherhood of the Ascended Christ in the 7:00 a.m. Morning Worship and Eucharist. I had applied for this before I left for Chennai. The brotherhood had met to consider. I had written my own Rule of Life (for my own context of ministry, as required) and it only remained to be received in worship, by Father Ian Weatherall, the Head. Later in the morning Kirsty (a physics teacher in training from London) and I accompanied Dinesh to visit one of the schools administered by the Brotherhood. Then in the evening yesterday I met up for dinner with Sanjolie and Namrata (whom I met on the cruise from Vaikom in Kerrala) at Moet, a favorite place of in theirs in the defence colony market. We had a great evening together over good food and wine.

 Today I am taking it easy. Towards the end of my trip I am learning deeper and deeper levels of "taking it easy." I think my main project today is to buy another simple suitcase to transport the stuff I have accumulated while here in India. I am fully expecting a big shock when I get back to working in West End and in New York. I really have adjusted to a gentler pace of life here - the only hectic aspects have been ones I have created for myself in my schedule or expectations of myself along the way.

Tomorrow morning I will accompany Fr. Monodeep to the leper colony in which he does his ministry on Sundays and through the week. I will be reflecting with him on the challenge facing this community who have had several setbacks in trying to rehabilitate themselves into the economy of the wider community.

My flight leaves Delhi at 10:30 p.m. tomorrow evening. Family and friends in Scotland will be in the land of nod. Family and friends in NYC will be on the point of falling asleep! I will arrive in NYC in the early hours of April 12 New York time.  

Some of the brothers at table (l to r) Fr. Solomon, Marshall Henry, Fr. Ian Weatherall, Fr. Monodeep Daniel, Fr. (former bishop) Collin Theodore

 A class in school

 Dinesh and Kirsty examining the science projects strewn over the table in the science lab.

 The science teacher discussing with Kirsty the level of difficulty in assembling this radio

 A student completing a Hindi poem of his own composition on the board, with his teacher, Mrs Anupama Saxena looking on.

With one of the finest of the teachers, Mrs Sanat Jahan. Her ability and gift as a teacher were evident the moment we entered the classroom. It was palpable in atmosphere.

With Namrata and Sanjolie in our reunion dinner.

  

Meherabad

4/6/12

The sequel to visiting Baba's childhood home is that in the morning while visiting the house when it was open to the public, there was no one to greet me at the door. I unwittingly trespassed into a part of the house never seen by the public (not even by Baba lovers I learned later), only to be greeted by a very angry woman cleaner who shooed me out in no uncertain terms. Though the Hindi was uncertain to me the tone and gestures and continuing ranting long after I had found the proper room were very clear. I don't know how many four letter Hindi words were used but I think I was well plastered with them! I was actually quite shaken up. Its been a while since I experienced such a tirade directed at me. Anyway Baba and I found some gentle humor in it. I was reminded of his work with the mandali both in harsh words and the kindest of gestures. Then I felt his warmth and humor as I looked at some photos in the room and captured this one with the perfect caption for me in the moment and my own image in the glass.

 A little bit of light relief after shaking in my shoes!

 

 Residential quarters in upper Meherabad

Above and Below:  a meeting with Bhauji - last living of the male mandali of Avatar Meher Baba and chair of the Trust who lives at the Trust Compound in Nagar.
Below: with Debjani

A photo of Baba in Marge's home (touched by Baba!) which she took a liking to because of resemblance with some artists' imaginings of how Jesus looked.

 With Paul and his mother Marge in Marge' home in Meherabad

I seem to have carried my honoring of the "no photography" at the Samadhi to an extreme. I have very few photographs from the two day visit, but the images are strong in my mind. I think I was very engaged in being present to the conversations and places without using my camera ... learning more about his message and focus and what it is that so many Baba lovers have found in him over the years, both in his company as Mandali and as those who have come to love him since he dropped his body in 1969.

On Holy Thursday, very appropriately and thoughtfully, Debjani arranged for me to watch a moving piece of film footage, called "Beyond Words" in which Baba's use of hand gestures to communicate [he was silent from 1925 till he dropped his body in 1969] and their skilled interpretation by Eruch are depicted together with Baba's frequent washing of the feet of lepers and providing them with blankets and food.

Had I not had a bus to catch early on Good Friday morning, Debjani had hoped I might have been able to attend for a second time the early morning Artis (prayer service) at Baba's Samadhi which she felt would have been appropriate to Good Friday. As it turned out my attempts to find both the church and Good Friday service times here in Aurangabad failed and so I marked Good Friday with my own private prayers and readings, which proved to be a very special time for me.  

Mumbai to Pune

4/2/12

I can't believe its April already. I arrived here in the cold of February! The bus journey was comfortable - Mercedez-Benz coach with A/C. Four and a half hour journey for $6.60. Getting to the bus stop was another Mumbai story. The pictures speak for themselves. Then in Poona I found my hotel by 4:00 p.m. so after a quick bite I was able to go out and explore by foot. It turns out I had chosen my hotel location very well for the Baba trail. After a few false turns and hesitations I found his home and then his high school and then the shrine of Babajan. I was hoping to find the neem tree and its site looking its natural self - no such luck - we westerners are no better of course - but it is cut down to a stump, covered in decoration and the shrine sight is build up with marble around her burial place! But with some amazing timing, unplanned by me, I arrived at Babajan's shrine not only at the appointed hour of the day for visiting the shrine 6:30 p.m. but also on the second day of the 81st annual week-long festival in honor of her (marking her death, or her transition to another life). The video I took captures the scene better than any photo, but it is hard to upload video. Tomorrow I will return to Baba's home in the morning when it is open for darshan from 11:30 a.m. - 1:00  p.m.. Later at 3:00 p.m. I will catch my bus to Ahmednagar.

 The room that I saw so much of in Mumbai, deserves a picture, as do my two trusty bags housing all my belongings

 Mirror mirror on the wall...

 My auto-rickshaw driver's posture kind of says it all

This proximity of vehicles is typical in the cities. Driver's instinct and mind reading of other drivers is key it seems

 The bus office clerk fancied my hat

 Meher Baba's family home in Poona

The high school which Baba attended (above and below)

 

Along the street in a Catholic church, familiar meetings in a familiar setting
 

 And not forgetting the special needs of women
  

Hazrat Babajan's shrine tomb in Poona (above and below). The haze is not on account of my camera. It is the effect of the light on incense.

 Three faces that clearly wanted to be pictured outside the shrine - so I obliged

Anticipating Pune, Ahmednagar, and Meherabad

4/1/12

I want to set the scene as I anticipate with considerable excitement a special part of my pilgrimage here in India. Two really good friends Matt and Viola in NYC are Baba lovers and have been sharing with me from time to time about Meher Baba and the Baba centers at Meherabad and in South Carolina where they have frequently stayed. I have just finished reading their gift to me of Donkin's Diaries - Travels in India with Meher Baba. From Mumbai, tomorrow morning by bus I am heading towards Ahmednagar (and Meherabad) by way of Pune, where I will spend one night. Baba was born and grew up in Poona (Pune) and I will visit his childhood home. When he was 19 he met another Perfect Master of the time Qutub Hazrat Babajan who sat and taught under the neem tree in the Char Bawdi area of Pune. There she made him aware of his divine status but bringing him into a state of God-consciousness. And the amazing story begins from there.... I have a map of all the significant places in Pune so I hope to also find the neem tree. I will definitely have my camera with me. I will then spend three nights in Ahmednagar in order to spend time over two days in Meherabad visiting Baba lovers there. I will visit Baba's Samadhi (tomb shrine) in the company of Viola's good friend Debjani. I am so honored, thanks to Viola's introduction and Debjani's plan for my visit, that I will have a meeting with Bhau, the last of Baba's male disciples still alive - who lived with and served Baba in person. To be continued .....

Worship and Hospitality in Mumbai

4/1/12

I arrived in Mumbai on Thursday evening, very grateful for the help of my friend Deepika from Varanasi, who had made connections for me to settle on a good hotel at an excellent price (not an easy thing in this big city). Then for two days I saw only the inside of my hotel room because I was laid low with another tummy upset, this one more severe and needing the attention of the hotel’s on-call doctor several times. I am on antibiotics he prescribed, one of which I had brought from my doctor in NYC. Last night I ate for the first time (curds and rice only). Today I ate curds and bread for breakfast and felt well enough to venture out to find a church, it being Palm/Passion Sunday after all! I followed directions in a text message sent from Aneesha Henry (elder daughter of Arun and Chitra) who had lived and studied in Mumbai. She had a recommendation of a church near my hotel. It was perfect for me - just what the (higher) doctor ordered  – quite refreshingly different from my own tradition – New Life Fellowship meeting in Mumbai University at Kalina’s Dinesh Mody Auditorium. We had lots of praise and worship recalling for me my teenage and student years. The preacher and translator were both women and were excellent. I met the pastor and his wife, Bosco and Elvina Gonsalves, at the door as I arrived. He later invited me to share testimony towards the end of the service, which I was delighted to do. Then after worship he and his wife invited me to their home, together with a few other familiar visitors to the service, where I enjoyed my first full meal in three days together with wonderful conversation well into the afternoon. This was far from a usual tourist’s visit to Mumbai, but it was delightful in its conclusion none-the-less. Sadly I don’t have pictures because I forgot to take my camera in my less-than-focused self this morning. The adventure continues... 

Sands of Time and of Goa

3/28/12

Reporting from Goa beach and a beautiful hotel called Tarika's Sea Breeze which just about describes the whole experience. I have been kicking back here and playing in the waves, enjoying some fish and seafood, watching families playing cricket on the beach (only in India!?) In case some of you did not notice India beat Pakistan in the Asia Cup one-day test cricket competition only to be eliminated in overall performance. Then Bangladesh having exceeded all expectation in reaching the final with Pakistan and with one bowl left to decide the match lost by three runs to Pakistan. I watched most of both these exciting cricket matches in the past two weeks. It is the only TV I have watched while in India, but then again those of you who know me, know I watch next to none at home either. The India Pakistan match as you might imagine roused a lot of sentiment all over the country - perhaps even more than a Scotland-England football match would ... well maybe:). Its good to have my body back to normal appetite and digestion. Tomorrow I am onward bound to Mumbai for four nights and no doubt some more sight-seeing adventures.

 View in one direction

 View in the other

 Towards sunset

 Some cricket action - the best kind - an extended family on the beach

  Wider view of the cricket

Vellore and Kochi/Cochin

3/25/12

I'll let the pictures tell the story....

 A day center in the village for the elderly to gather and hear the newspaper read to them, play games and chat togeher - addressing a serious and widespread problem of depression in isolated seniors

The biweekly Thursday morning clinic in the village where primary and secondary care is available through the nurse program. Here two nurses are at work.

 Above: the signpost that pays tribute to K.A. Norris who worked hard to establish this work in the villages and rural areas around Vellore.

Below: At far left my guide for the tour Senior Nursing Director and Faculty member Rajeswari Siva pictured here with the staff of the new library in the new College of Nursing building

After all the references in JWD's letters to playing Carrom and my own memories of playing it at Great Aunt Mary's house in Banff, I couldn't resist taking this picture in a sports shop in Kochi.

Our houseboat for the backwater cruise and one of our two very able boatmen

Just one of the many delightful views on the cruise

They call this Chinese fishing on account of the origins of the method

 Very colorfully painted homes all over the south of India

My companions for the morning part of the cruise Sanjolie and Namrata, two young accountants from Delhi on a weekend trip to Kochi after a month long work assignment in Chennai

Handing over some control for just a few moments :)

Great fun, but we made much less progress with my efforts !