Holi is coming, It's time to Hide

Holi is the upcoming holiday where foreign women are warned to stay indoors or they will be attacked (the local women know enough not to go out). Does that sound like a holiday to you? Me neither, but the men loooove it. They run around, act like maniacs throwing paint at each other.

Like paint ball on acid, it sounds like. They rip each others clothes off and try to smother each other in these paints. Krishna of the German Bakery fame said "It's a very naughty holy day. If you go outside and something happens (as in you get attacked, violated) the police will just say 'What were you doing out on Holi? You should know better.' " Because they'll rip anybody's clothes off, and try to smother them in paint. And men will be boys, and you know, there's no telling what could happen. Well there is, but you've already heard how the authorities would handle it.

Alec said, "I wouldn't go out if I was a woman. Sometimes they use sewer water to mix the paint. Just don't leave the hotel."

Swamiji is cancelling Yoga classes on that evening/day, because Holi starts tomorrow night and then goes until Saturday afternoon. After which it's apparently safe to go back out into the market but, like who's going to test that? Nobody, that's who.

So to catch up: I may be blogging regularly again as those Hindi lessons from the Nepalese Krishna of the German Bakery aren't really making me feel like I'm making any headway. Okay, like no headway at all. How do you say "Stick a fork in me 'cause I'm done" in Hindi? Don't you have any forks here? 'cause I don't see any chopsticks. Unless I can say "Alrighty then, use your right hand to slap me 'cause I'm done."

Note to self: Do not try to correct an Nepalese man. See previous notes to self under Errors, correction of, cross-reference Italian men, Indian men.

So, not much to report. I still scream when I fall over in headstand. I still have a huge interior monologue about being unfit for functioning and contributing something usefull to the world every other second. Thank god for those other seconds, where I get a reprieve and I crave Snickers bars. Did I mention how many I've had here? The count is at 10. Do you know how many I've had my whole life up to this point? Thirteen. Ten in a week in a half compared to the 3 I've had in my first 39 years. Because there's better chocolate hey people, no for any self-control. Self control? What's that? A song by Laura Branigan, that's what. Oh, now you're gonna be mad at me, when you can't get this catchy tune outta your head:

Oh, the night is my world
City light painted girl
In the day nothing matters
It's the night time that flatters

You take my self, you take my self control
You got me livin' only for the night
Before the morning comes, the story's told
You take my self, you take my self control

I, I live among the creatures of the night
I haven't got the will to try and fight
Against a new tomorrow, so I guess I'll just believe it
That tomorrow never knows

It's getting hotter by the second. I don't want to give you the impression that Indians are crazy, because trust me, you should meet the tourists.

You know what they say, it takes one to know one.

The struggle continues. The challenges I guess I should call them. And I apologise for not being in touch, but when I get this way, I'm not fit for company. It's just to hot to climb to the temple top and remove myself from the Pushkar crowd.

And now for some poems by Mary Oliver, with bahut gratitude to Sarahji for passing these on at the exact perfect time.

The Journey
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shoutingtheir bad advice --
though the whole house
began to trembleand you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.

OM Shanti