October 15th - Our Days Off

We've had three days off this course and while I'm not sure their purpose is to go swanning off exploring nearby towns ... that does seem to be what happens, at least initially! In the first few days I'd made friends with a French woman living in New Caledonia and a Macedonian living in London – and over tea, plans were formed and dates set.

The first adventure with one, plus another 2 from the course, was to go to Haridwar – about an hour and a half away, on the Ganga (the Ganges) and a very religious place ... I hope you're not expecting the full correct info about the place, if so, might I suggest wikipedia.com ... :-) I enjoyed just seeing a smaller Indian city – and within 10 minutes it was confirmed, all the same chaos of the bigger city just on a slightly smaller scale! We had a good lunch and wander down the main street before taking a gondola up the hill to a temple – which I have to say felt a little like my experience at the Vatican Museum ... be a lemming and follow the stream of people going by the different shrines and for 10 rupees, being blessed at each. (Editors note: Just a little cynical I know - basically, I didn't know enough at the time to understand or appreciate what I was experiencing – and there were a lot of people, which is never my favorite experience. I'm not sure I know a lot more now, but I definitely have more appreciation.) The main event we were there to see was the sunset Puja (prayer service) on the Ganga – both sides of the banks lined with concrete steps down to the river and filled with people from all over India offering their prayers – either in baskets of flowers or pieces of paper that were consolidated, set alight and then afloat on the river. It didn't last long – and it was really quite magical in the evening light. What was less magical unfortunately was the Ganga – it was very low and dirty – that didn't seem to stop people swimming in it or fishing for things in the garbage ... or a couple of us dipping our feet in – it is meant to cleanse past impurities which seemed a little ironic at the time but here's hoping :-)

After Haridwar, it took me a few days to come back 'down' to the quiet of Rajpur, so on our second day off I decided to stay put and just enjoy the day in Rajpur. It was lovely: breakfast and stories with Richard, connected with my family via skype, lunch with my French friend (and a great discussion on yoga and sabbaticals – she's been through a similar journey to my own and had some great advice), some errands and then I made it to the studio for self practice. All day I've had this lovely spring in my step – it's been with me the last few weeks – either walking to yoga in the morning or down the hill to breakfast or errands - and just appreciating everything from the air, to the hills, to the sky, to just being here. I'm very grateful.

Our last day off, we headed up to Missourie, a town just above Dehradun – it is built into the hills such that parts reminded me of the Greek towns built into the cliffs. It is a lovely little spot – much smaller and quieter than Haridwar. You stroll from one end to the other and we had a good putter – did some shopping, had a great lunch and then at the coffee shop, ran into a larger group of students who had done the 3 hour walk up ... maybe next course ... You can get a view of the Himalayas from a hill just beyond the town but only early in the morning – so when the course was over Richard and I caught the local bus at 6.30am and made our way up. The air was crisp and clear with great views as we walked - so impressive – made me want to get closer and also showed their remoteness and fierceness - still I'd be tempted to try ...