Let it burn

Last night I had the amazing opportunity to go to a traditional Hindu festival that occurs every year around this time.  It is called Dashahara, among many other names, but if you google Dashahara you should easily be able to find more information.  The basic idea is that it is celebrating the victory of good over evil.  One of our teachers here at Rishikesh Yog Peeth described it as burning negativity, as fire plays a crucial role in Hinduism.

Like many religious traditions, this is also based on an allegory.  From my little understanding of this story, I can say that it is about Ram defeating the demon Ravana in order to save his wive, Sita, who was captured by Ravana.  Ram is able to achieve this with the help of his brother Lakshmana and their follower Hanuman and his army of monkeys.  Got it?  Well, it's not that easy, but you get the idea.

So, we walked to another area in Rishikesh along the river where they had constructed a huge representation of Ravana.  When we first arrived, they were beginning to play out the story around Ravana, which included kids running around him in circles, Hanuman coming with his army of men dressed as monkeys, and a loud speaker of Ravana taunting them all.

There was quite a crowd, westerners and Indians alike.  Shortly after sunset, a lot of fireworks were set off over the river and some accidentally in the river and some just on the ground, hopefully nobody was hurt by this.  Although fire is really important, fire safety seems to take the backseat.  Then it finally came to setting fire to Ravana.

I was all prepared to get a nice photo of this happening as the men approached Ravana with torches and doused his legs with lighter fluid.  Next thing I know, we (as in the westerners who don't know what to expect from this spectacle) are going for the good old duck and cover move.  The entire statue was loaded with firecrackers, big ones, as in I could feel the explosion of the whole thing.  Within seconds there were only a few faces and the wire structure left to tear down.  They take this burning negativity a little more serious than I thought.  Shouldn't we all?

At a glance

Here is a first look into my journey in India....

Train to Haridwar

Paharganj in Delhi

Looking Closely

Ganga

On the roof and into the yoga shala

Rishikesh

I have so many more, but the dodgy internet connection makes this a time consuming process. I`ll add more as I can. Enjoy!

Arriving

I usually wait for some sort of complete thought before hitting the keyboard, but there is really so much to say and I would like to say something about India so far, rather than nothing at all.  I tried to come with as few expectations as possible, which I think helped me a lot when I arrived in Delhi.

It was surprisingly easy to get from the airport to the New Delhi train station for about 80 rupees (less than 2 USD).  My suspense of the pending culture shock grew for the 23 minutes I sat on that train.  As I walked up to the train station, I would have to say the first thing that hit me was the smell...the smell of food, people, trash, and most of all pollution.  Of course it was crowded and I had to deal with being hassled from time to time, after all I was the only white person that I saw there.  Overall, I didn't feel that shocked; I think I was just ready to put my things down and get some rest.


It wasn't too hard to find a place to stay in the main bazaar area of Delhi, but walking around even without my big backpack was exhausting.  There is so much going on there between auto and bike rickshaws (like a mini taxi, sort of), shops, street food, dust, fumes and lots of people, it is nearly impossible to focus on one thing or have one single clear thought among the craziness.  I did, however, voluntarily stay in that busy area, so I somehow enjoyed this experience.  

I only spent one night in Delhi before heading towards Rishikesh for the yoga course.  Taking a train from Old Delhi at 5 am was an abrupt way to start the day.  I had to first dodge getting hit by rickshaws as I crossed the street where my taxi dropped me off, then I was at this point a bit thrown off to see easily more than a hundred people sleeping outside and inside the train station.  I found my platform with ease and intuitively sought out a nice person to sit next to while waiting for my train.  That worked perfectly and I had a very easy conversation with a guy who works for a MetLife call center in Delhi.  The good vibes kept coming my way the rest of the day, making my journey to Rishikesh long but well worth it.  This was really my first day in India and I met a few really interesting people who were helpful, welcoming and weren't too pushy about maintaining a long conversation (which I had been warned about from a few friends who have been to India).

I'm still getting a feel for Rishikesh, but it's definitely calmer than Delhi, which is expected since it's smaller and is considered a Holy city (that doesn't stop anyone from the incessant horn honking that drives my ears crazy).  What I can say about it is that it's along the Ganges river with jungle covered hills almost like a backdrop. It's full of color, monkeys and cows.  More on that later.

So that about covers a tenth of what I've experienced so far.  The course started officially yesterday and I am already learning so much and have a lot to digest in the mean time.  I hope to post some photos sometime this week and maybe some more things about the course as well.

I hope all is well!