Beach time

Hmm... 2 weeks since the last post? I believe that. I think Hernando and I have been on another planet for the last 2 weeks, and especially the last few days. Right now I'm actually surprised to find myself on the internet. We're on a remote beach that thus far still doesn't have a proper road to it, though that is unfortunately soon to change as they are working on a road right now. We're in Gokarna, in the state of Karnataka, south of the touristy beaches of Goa. I forget how amazing it is to be on the beach, to operate on beach time, with nothing to do in a hurry.

We are now half way through our India trip. We've seen a lot, done a lot, but now we are relaxed and we're both in very contemplative moods. Our lives have been divided into simple sections, life before the trip, life since the trip began, and what we have ahead, both for the rest of the trip and for daily life once again when we restart in San Francisco. We are both so glad to have stepped out of Boston, and the lives we had there. Hernando's job was better but we both feel like we were just caught up in the rat race with everyone else. It's just too easy to do. Work, make money, spend it, over and over. Traveling like this has given us new perspectives. I feel like I've been given a chance to step outside myself and concentrate on what I want to make happen for myself in the future.

That way of thought comes after observing what I have of life here for people in India. People here are very caught up in the rat race on a level of desperation you don't see in the US. People work and work here for that very last rupee --there is no 8 hour day here, that's the stuff of fairy tales-- and it often will be the difference in having food on the table, but only after the cell phone has some credit on it and they have chewing tobacco in their pocket. The mentality seems to be the same everywhere, we seek modern things and the extra money required to have more of them all the time. The man I mentioned in the last blog from Sanchi seems to have it all figured out just right. He has a house that his whole family shares, three generations and then some under one roof, but everyone gets fed, the kids go to school as opposed to work for extra family income, and he spends his days doing the things he likes to do. Money is not a worry for him so long as he has enough to maintain his way of life, and his way of life doesn't require much.

Speaking of our friend Parihar, our last night in Sanchi we were invited to watch a ceremony he called "husband puja." This is an annual ceremony chosen to take place on a night of the full moon. The wives fast all day, no water even, and prepare special foods to be taken during the ceremony at night. When the moon came out we all went to the roof, surrounded by neighboring families on their rooves. Usually 2 or 3 wives perform the ceremony together. They pray, burn incense, walk in a circle and spill water and grains, then each married couple pairs off and the wives do a prayer for their husbands, touch their feet, and feed them a bit of yummy coconut cake and other things. I took tons of photos so those will have to posted next time I feel inclined to leave the beach and use the internet. It seems to be for the wellness of the family though again my only given explaination was, it's husband puja, with a shrug, just one of those things you understand if you are Indian. Puja is a word used for everything. You have puja with holy monuments, with statues, with anything spiritual, it's just puja, a lovely way of understanding that I don't entirely understand as a foreigner.

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