The India Chronicles

Nancy, this is what I was able to recover of the original India Dec'08-Jan'09 posts. Please bear with the quality, some of it I could only salvage by taking screenshots of  pages....  Enjoy. 

Leaving For The Airport 

posted by Agnes

Hope all of you lovely people had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the rest 

of the weekend. 

Don't you just love it when Christmas Day falls on a Thursday or a

Friday -- we all deserve an extra long weekend once a year, don't you think?

Geoff and I leaving for the airport now. All packed and ready to go. 

I'm taking my laptop and will try to update when we have some down time. 

We do have a couple of layovers and if I am not sleeping through the flights 

then I'll definitely have quite a bit of time to kill. 

We're spending some time in Paris first. 

It's going to be cold, that's for sure.  Very much look forward to some 

French cheese andbakeries, checking out a few cafes and hanging out downtown. 

Geoff wants to have French hot chocolate, the one that's real melted chocolate 

with foam on top -- sounds really good. 

On the one hand I'd love to see some snow, on the other 

I am hoping it's not too cold as I don't have a winter coat. 

Our good friends Bruce and Robyn had major snow for Christmas, 

in fact they’ve had massive snow for 

2 weeks or so now and there were days when they just couldn’t drive 

into the city. They have some amazing snow pictures and their 

pictures make me really excited at the prospect of seeing some snow in France. 

Well, we look forward to spending the day in Paris, getting a good night’s sleep 

at the hotel, a good French breakfast and getting on the plane to India. 

P.S.:  I love having stopovers in Europe because, one: I love Europe, 

two: I love traveling and three: I love, love, love mornings like this:

See you soon.

Agnes         

p.s.: you all seem to like this last photo -- I didn’t take it! It’s from a brochure. 

Comments:

(click here to read what I was 

able to recover of the original comments)

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10:30 am 

I’m on my 3rd cup of coffee already. 

So happy to be leaving -- even though I know we’re going to be dead meat by 

the time we get there. 

Ironically I am most comfortable outside my comfort zone. Comfort is fine but 

it's almost vegetative. Aren’t we most alive and happy outside our boundaries? 

I know I am.

That’s why I love being in rural areas such as some parts of India.

12:40 pm

Our flight’s delayed.

There are only so many things you can do to kill time on an airplane or in a 

waiting room. Eat, sleep, read, watch a movie.... I already counted the 

immigration stamps in my passport: this is our 8th time in India. In my 

current passport the most immigration stamps I have are from Malaysia: 16 

entries and 16 exits. I killed about 10 minutes of waiting time counting 

passport stamps. 

On my 5th or 6th cup of coffee...

5:26 pm, Atlanta

Slept through the flight to here. I must be on my 100th cup of coffee by now.

I just found out that some of our frequent flier miles will expire on the 31st so 

I am going to spend them in the "air mall" once we get on the plane -- that 

should kill some time. Other than that I am hoping to sleep through the flight, 

unless there's a good movie. 

We are bored out of our minds:

I wish we were in France already. Last time we spent a night in Paris was a couple 

of years ago en route to Africa. The next day we found out that Air France was 

on strike the whole time we were there. Neither of us actually noticed the strike, 

they were all their usual unfriendly, non-service oriented selves so we 

assumed everything was status quo. 

I love many things French but service isn’t one of them.

Update, about to land in Paris, 10:51 Paris time:

Don’t know what time it is, or what time zone for that matter. We’re about to 

land. Oh it’s 10:51 local time.

I might have to take EVERYTHING back about French service I said above. This 

was the best flight, ever. I’ve been avoiding Air France for years as I didn’t like 

their service but I have to say, this flight was exceptionally superb. I slept through 

all of it but still. These new aircraft are awesome, so comfortable. And the service 

and the food were exceptional.

The only thing is on Air France you can’t spend your air miles in the air mall. 

Soon, but not yet...

Well, we’re about to land here, are pretty tired, but not too bad. 

I said it’s been 2 years since we were in France, but actually I was here in May 

this year when my friend John and I were en route to Thailand. We were so 

beat though we didn’t do anything, just crashed in the hotel. 

6:42 pm, Paris time

We just saw the comments on the last post -- thank you so much :-)

Well, we’re here in Paris now. Pretty cold, around freezing, but no snow and no 

wind. Cold but sunny. 

It’s just past 6 pm but we’re back at the hotel already. We went downtown into 

the busy city, had some coffee and pastries, enjoyed the busy post Christmas 

town a lot, but we’re beat now. 

We’ve been back and forth on whether we like the hospitality or not. 

French hospitality is strange: When it’s good it is SOOO good (such was the 

service on the plane and the cab drivers were awesome), but when it’s bad it’s 

really bad (airport). Oh well.

We’re going to call it a day, get a good night’s sleep and tomorrow we’re off to 

the magic that is India.

See you soon.

Agnes

Comments

(Click here to read what I was 

able to recover of the original comments)

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I am not actually sure when this post will be up. I am not on-line that 

I am aware of, but I’ve hit the publish button. I guess next time 

we’re at a hot spot this post will appear on-line.  

At any rate, if you’re reading this it means we are finally in India.

28 December 2008

City lights beneath us, it’s about midnight, touching down in Bangalore in 

about 15 minutes. Immigration, baggage claim, then a 2 or so hour drive 

to where we’re staying. So I figure we’ll be there by about 3 am.

Even though the flight was as

comfortable as they come, 

it comes as no surprise that 

we look and feel 

like zombies. Punky hair, bloodshot 

eyes, dark under eye circles, 

swollen feet, you name it. 

But, as Kiran has most likely guessed, 

as soon as I am awake I am going to 

the beauty parlor. 

Yes, this is us, about sixty hours 

after leaving home, 

and half an hour away 

from landing in the motherland of India. 

29 Dec 2008, 7:50 pm

We got to the ashram around 5:30 am. An “ashram” is a Hindu religious 

retreat, for the lack of a better definition. It’s a modest but beautiful and 

very spiritual environment. I’ll try and post up some pictures with this post, 

just need to ask the people here if it’s OK with them. 

As soon as we landed, all I could think of was how happy I was to finally be 

here. Yes, people, I LOVE India. I love the whole region, I am also very fond 

of Pakistan and Sri Lanka. 

Just knowing that we’re here makes me so happy.

I have missed the constant horn-honking, the 

scents, the chants, the food, the craziness,

everything.

I have to take a minute here and promote the new

 Bangalore airport -- it is awesome!!! As much as I 

love authenticity I have to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of 

the old airport, especially on arrival where 

immigration lines resembled a bowl of spaghetti and 

the luggage claim area resembled... what did the luggage claim area resemble? 

Mac and cheese? 

The new airport is nice and modern, the only thing is it’s almost an hour from 

Bangalore.

A gentleman named Dr. Kumar was sent to pick us up at the airport. 

He’s a forensic medical scientist. It came as a relief to know that had we 

been killed on the road, our bodies would’ve been in great hands.   Dr. 

Kumar’s driver drives what’s called an 

Ambassador, which is a old HM, a really 

really old car. It looks museum like and and 

it’s got the horse power of a lawn mower. 

In a way I love Ambassadors and if and when 

we ever live here for a while I think I am 

going to have an Ambassador. 

After a couple of tea stops on the way, we got here to the 

Foot Step Hill by about 5 am. I remember Geoff saying something about

 something, then the next thing I knew it was noon and we were waking up. 

First things first, I went to have my hair washed and blow dried, then Geoff and I checked out some of our favorite places, such as the Hotel Southern Star and the Green Hotel. We haven’t hired a driver yet so we’ve been using tuk-tuks or as they call them here ‘autos’. You gotta love tuk-tuks! 

The guesthouse of the ashram (where we’re staying) reminds me of the Green Hotel which is one of my favorite hotels. Very modest but lovely, awesome gardens and authentic landscapes. 

I think it is very good for any of us westerners to be away from our 

materialistic lives and be without much luxury, TV, cell phones, PDAs, etc. for 

a little while. Of course I am being very smart typing this wisdom on my 

state-of-the-art MacBook but you get the idea.

 

It’s a bit hard to explain, but it was so satisfying getting cleaned up 

pouring buckets full of hot water on my body that for a minute I couldn’t 

really understand why on earth Geoff and I have 4 bathrooms in our house 

back home when we’re the only two people living there. 

Well, be as it may, I am sure that I am not going to be posting daily, not 

only because we don’t have internet, but we’re going to be working on 

our program for the next few days. (We’re here doing a Human Right 

presentation.)

Here are some photos of where we’re staying & our favorite breakfast place:

 

The last photo is the actual guest house, the building we’re in. Lovely, isn’t it?

30 December 2008, 4:20 am

I don’t want to wake up Geoff but I can’t sleep so I am going to update 

once again. You would think not much has happened since I updated just 

before going to bed.

Well, I woke up because of a combination of jet leg, people talking under 

our window and because I am so hungry. I am eating the cheese and crackers 

I told Geoff not to stock up on at the airport lounge in Paris. So glad he 

didn’t listen, the guy is a genius I tell you. I also have a can of coke I 

bought earlier when we were in town. Plus there’s a bag of chips but I am 

worried that fiddling with the bag would wake Geoff. Feels a bit odd to be 

eating delicious French gourmet cheese and crackers in the dark and drinking 

a coke in the middle of this spiritual paradise. The-bull-in-the-china-shop is 

the expression that comes to mind. Thank goodness I don’t smoke. Truth is 

if our kettle was working I’d be drinking coffee now. In fact I’ve been 

hearing some commotion out there so I think I’m gonna put on a 

sweater, wander over to the galley and see if I can score a cup of coffee. 

Then sit and watch the sun rise while my husband’s getting his beauty 

sleep. Soon they’re gonna start their crack-of-dawn chants, which are 

quite beautiful.  Geoff just awoke too. I am gonna open the bag of chips 

now, then go over to the galley.  

***

I got my coffee and brought some back for Geoff too. Hope I am not 

boring you with all these pictures but I just love the galley:

That’s the cook making coffee for us. I bet it’s different than how you had 

your coffee made this morning. Last night Geoff asked him for a cup of hot 

water and he brought us a gallon of luke warm water, a pot of curd 

(Indian yoghurt) and a huge pot of rice enough to feed a family of 10.

See you with a new post as soon as I can. 

Thanks for reading. 

Agnes

Comments

(Click here to read what I was able to 

recover of the original comments)

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Happy 2009!!!

**************

Can you believe another year has passed? Well, I hope it was a good one for all of you and that the next one will be even better. 

India is changing so rapidly. Every time we come here, there are vast 

improvements. New airports, new roads and highways, new coffee shops, 

new hotels, malls, etc. I wonder if the poverty index is improving at all... 

As I said earlier, living under rural circumstances for a while is strangely 

refreshing and therapeutic. Of course, coming here as a visitor and knowing 

that we’ll be back to our comfortable lives is entirely different from being 

born into poverty and living the rural life by necessity rather than by choice. 

I’ve seen westerners give up their comfortable lives and come here and live 

in a monastery or an ashram, be without luxury, hot water, learn about 

yoga, buddhism or hinduism. I totally see why they find it rehabilitating to 

be unglued from the materialistic world, and how it expands their view, yet, 

the difference remains, that they are here by choice. That is the difference 

-- they don’t have to be poor. 

Well, we’re done with our program here, for now anyway. It was great fun 

doing the presentation, especially considering that about 10-15 thousand 

people were listening and learning about their rights. We got to meet some 

awesome people here. We’re here for a few more days catching up with 

old friends. 

Been really enjoying our stay in spite of the fact that we’re running on 

very little sleep.

In other news, I was in town today to have some shirts made. One thing 

I always, always, always do in India is have my favorite articles of clothing 

made out of different fabrics. Once I had these great Banana Republic 

pants with me that were just the perfect pair of pants. As we ended up 

staying a few months longer than planned I was in dire need of pants. 

I had 14 pairs made here locally, all the same Banana Republic cut but 

all different textiles. They were the best pants I’d ever had and they 

were dirt cheap, too. The tailors here are awesome. This time I am having 

some shirts made, hope they turn out all right. 

Geoff’s been taking some great pictures that I want to post. I just want 

to ask the people in the pictures if it’s OK with them to post them here.

Meanwhile, here’s one:

I was feeding the elephants. They live here at the ashram.

There are camels and deer too. I’ll show you some pictures later -- 

gotta run now.

Happy New Year again and thanks for reading.

Agnes

Comments

(Click here to read what I was able to

recover of the original comments)

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As I’ve said it was a very short trip. A couple of weeks later we’re back 

home, where red lights are more than mere suggestions, driving our cars 

on the right side of the road, not honking at anyone, not maneuvering 

between three-wheelers and cattle, wondering whether the spicy food, the 

5 am morning chants, the holy men, the crazy auto rickshaw drivers, the 

lost luggage, the elephants, and running into an old friend at the JFK 

airport were nothing but a dream. 

Agnes

Comments

(Click here to read what I was able

to recover of the original comments)

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Comments

[Nancy]

Enjoyed reading the whole lot:-))......brought back a lot of memories.....especially of the ambassador[at one time the only status symbol around but now no Indian wants to be seen in one], autos[I usually get carsick, airsick every vehiclesick but autos are an exception:-)], food on the leaf[it is called the onam sadya....onam a festival celebrated by Keralites sometime during september, we all wear off white clothes with gold border & sit on the floor to eat this delicious feast off the banana leaf....we do it even now]

I've read the whole post atleast twice now & seen all the pics....where exactly have u hidden the tacky bit I want to know....seriously u've recovered it really well, dont even think of deleting it:-o

I loved it.....esp those pics of Geoff & U under the heading "Atlanta"....oh those expressions, esp of u in the middle & the last picture.....they are priceless:-D

[diamondmum]

I like all of your post Agnes!
I love the photos also!

well done :) and envy your travel to India..haven't been there.

keep on posting coz am learning from it :)

[scribbler]

lovely pictures, i wonder how i missed this post before
loved every bit of reading this
and Agnes, U are so pretty!

[Nilambari]

its nice to know that you like India :)

do keep visiting us...you must also travel up north..tis lovely esp Rajasthan,Himachal & Ladakh...btw Im from Benares,India.

A wonderful New Year to you Agnes.

[Artemis]

Hi Agnes,

I love India too, though I haven't been there yet, lol, but surely in the future...

[Shashank]

Hi Agnes,
This is Shashank from North India,i have read about your visit to India (South India).
My Country is a grooming ground for multifarious cultures ,culture changes not from region to region but from place to place & from village to village.
U might have visited many places around the world,which are ultimate in providing luxuries.
My country,the only country which is ultimate in providing peace of mind & of inner self & can establish your link with the ultimate GOD.
you will find lots n lots of ashrams but not all will provide you about the ultimate truth.
we do not talk about hinduism,buddhism,christanity,sikkhism,etc;we talk about our association with the ultimate GOD.
The reality is beyond imagination & only few, 4-5 people on this earth knows.They have established the direct contact with the supreme being.
keep in touch

[Edson Dias]

Beautifully written. I'm glad you'll enjoyed the visit here.

[Hitesh]

OMG..........i was so amazed by the whole trip......love the fact that you loved India.....agree that many westerners come to India to leave or take a break from the materialistic life.....

So you work from the human rights .....nice....think there's a lot of exploitation of same in India.....

yea, the new Banglore, sorry they call it Bengaluru now.....hey BTW....i'm living in Bengaluru for past 6 months....cause of job....but love it here.....and the Tuk TUk....well not that exciting.....for me.....cause of the traffic jams cause of them....but it's good for people visiting here......

My fav part of the whole trip description was the end.....i meant no honking....no cattles or three wheels....

you are good writer....i felt like going through the whole trip .......now this is one...page i'm visiting everyday.....

Both you do great....\,,,/

[Hitesh]

oohhh yea..the Ambassador .... think you know it more than me now....cause its your fav huhh???

now days only government officials use it.....but even they are demanding something like Honda or a Mercedes ..... :)

[michael j contos]

Elephant in the ashram? Deer and camels hanging out there too?

I'm hoping to see spots where the Buddha travelled and have a lot of reading to do before my little pilgrimage. It's a spiritual adventure, but one I hope to squeeze in a lot of fun and lots memories for stories to tell later over chai tea and curry and rice.

This was a second trip for you? Must be nice to be so close and make time for this. Wish I still had my "Nehru" jacket from the 60s.

What, you never heard of them? I'm sorry. That's before your time. It was all the rage here in the States when I was growing up. A suit jacket without a collar buttoning up to the neck.

The Beatles may have knocked it off the market when they came in with their "long" hair and skinny lapels on their jackets.

Happy New Year this time around. 2010. Let's hope we talk India this time again next year.

michael j
USA

[Agnes]

@Michael, it was my 8th trip to India, I think. Definitely the shortest one, (by far).
Of course I know who Nehru is. Beautiful independence speech.

[Raji]

Hi,

Landed here thru Zhu's blogroll I think. Me being an Indian, its interesting to know that you like to come here again n again inspite of honking/ manouvering/ cattle on the road/ etc etc! What brings you here ? and if you could give the name of the ashram near bangalore pls? Was it Sri Sri's place ?

[Agnes]

@ Raji, hi. It's hard for me to describe what I like about India. Every country is different in its own way and what you look for is what you'll find I guess. What keeps me coming back is work (non-profit) and my love for the country. We were staying at the JSS ashram that particular trip. Where in India are you from?

[Raji]

Hello,

I left a comment asking you about the ashram and kept checking my mail for reply. Today it clicked to see the same post to see whether you have replied here and yes!
Thanks but if you could reply thru email pls next time, it wud be easier. Tho I have subscribed to your posts and see them as soon as i get alerts.

I was born n brought up in Rajasthan but now based in Gurgaon (south of Delhi).
Will google about JSS Ashram.
Have been looking for a purpose to live. Too much of 9-to-6 routine jobs. Lets see.
Thanks
Raji

[Ve]

hey...
dont even know how I found myself on your blog.. but was pleasantly surprised to see a 'Last India Trip' post! Being an Indian, I have no misconceptions bout pros and cons of our country, but its home and I love it despite its many flaws. so it was really nice to see you appreciate the small things that most tourists would look down on.

If you can get yourself to look beyond the rural feel, and lack of proper development in a new country.. I think you coining yourself as a world traveller is bang on! :)

PS. You should also consider giving some of our major cities a try next time.. we're not all about elephants and snake charmers, you know! :)