Well, as you may or may not have noticed, we have fallen
behind on our lofty goals of doing a blog post each week of our trip. The combination of enjoying each moment,
early bedtimes and wakeups, and spotty internet has left us woefully behind the
times. But, we move forward. We will do a bit of a recap in this post of
our final time in India. The first part
of this post will be focused on, what was arguably each of our favourite time,
at Sri Ram Ashram outside of Haridwar—very few photos but many memories and
stories (and hopes to return soon!).
Next we will share a few photos—but very few words—on our early morning
adventures at the Taj Mahal and our afternoon escapades in Agra, which might
actually be a pretty fun city to spend more time in than just for the Taj. And the final installment of our stories of
India will be focused on Jaipur—again very few photos as it was hard to
remember to capture images with +47Celcius weather upon us.
Sri Ram Ashram—A new extended family
Sri Ram Ashram is a home for children that was opened by
Baba Hari Das and students. This is the
same teacher who inspired the Salt Spring Centre where Michelle completed some
yoga training and continues to return to as part of her spiritual
community. Sri Ram Ashram is truly an
amazing place, with an incredible energy.
Abandoned and orphaned children are welcomed there to be part of the Sri
Ram family, and it really is that—a big and busy extended family full of
love. It is more than an orphanage in so
many ways. We were welcomed there as
guests and left feeling like part of the extended family. The children grow up there raised in a structured,
supportive, and extremely loving environment.
After graduating from high school (Sri Ram also has a school for both
the children living at the Ashram as well as community children) and moving
away from home they remain supported throughout university, or other post
secondary training, and they often return to the Ashram for all vacations or when
they have time off of work—much like any family. The Ashram also helps to arrange, support, or
facilitate marriages and there are two planned weddings in the fall of Ashram
raised women.
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| This is the schedule for the Ashram. We were welcome to participate in everything! |
To describe the magic of this place in a few words is really
not possible. Michelle is already trying
to figure out how to make it work to get back there in October for festival
season, a few weddings, and maybe to provide some nursing/mental health/yoga
type volunteer support as deemed necessary by the Ashram staff. They have a farm where most of their food
(all mild and wheat, some vegetables) come from, a small clinic that used to
provide support to the whole community but now does not have the capacity to, a
school (as also mentioned above), and they work with multiple different local
and international organizations and schools on different initiatives.
We joined in with all of the daily activities including
morning Sadhana (yoga exercise, breathing, sitting for short meditation,
chanting), meals, playing with babies/toddlers or reading during the day while
the other kids were at school, playing games during free time in the evening,
and making ourselves available to support the youth during study hall. Thomas even participated in the CrossFit
during the mornings, and some of the older boys and girls enjoyed teaching him
and sharing their knowledge. We were
welcomed and valued as members of an extended family would be and we really
treasured our time there.
We have included a link to their website, and if any of you
feel inclined to donate to this amazing organization you can rest assured that
your money would be supporting a really special and well run place.
http://sriramfoundation.org/index.php/sri-ram-ashram
Cross fit and other morning exercises...
Agra and the Taj Mahal—“A teardrop on the cheek of eternity” (Michelle keeps quoting Rabindranath Tagore)
We decided to go to Agra for a brief visit with the purpose
of visiting the Taj Mahal. We were
scolded by a few when our original plan for the trip was shared, and it did not
include Agra. We decided to go, and we
really were glad that we did. 
Jaipur—Carpe (Shade)-iem
Jaipur was hot, and we it drained our energy quickly. No amount of water could keep our bodies and
brains feeling energized. We had high
hopes for Jaipur with plans of buying art, gems, textiles and pottery—in all
our travels, everyone said Jaipur was an art lover’s paradise—this did not
happen the way we imagined. We also
missed some sights we were hoping to see (some forts and temples and trips into
the desert), but it was just not possible for us with the blistering mid-day
heat and our energy levels waning.
However, we still enjoyed the city tremendously and might even co
nsider going
back one day, when it is not hot season.
We stayed in a pretty clean, hip and artsy area in the home of some hip
artsy folk. We noticed a large
population of expats and artist folk. The food scene was
fun and we enjoyed browsing in some boutiques (but most items were outside of
our budget at hundreds of thousands of rupees).
One memorable story requires recollection; it is that of our
one day where we fell victim to the scams and manipulations of India: Michelle
and Thomas’ “No Good Dirty Rotten Day”.
The day started out as per usual, dry and hot at 35 degrees before 8:00
am. We decided to go to the local Tapri
Tea House, and jumped in a tuk-tuk anticipating scrumptious masala teas and
Indian snacks. Upon arriving at the
teahouse, we discovered it was closed, (a fact that the tuk-tuk driver standing
by knew all too well). However, he was
more than happy to haggle over taking us to our next destination for an
additional fee. Based on our schedule,
we decided to go to a local art museum (which was a fatal error because we had
not packed snacks for Thomas). The
tuk-tuk driver dropped us off on the opposite end of the museum where he
attempted to convince us that we needed to take a horse-drawn carriage
ride. All of this was manageable, and
even the requirement of paying a ‘foreign tourist ticket surcharge’ was
fine. Even the 50 or so selfie photo
requests were fine at the stiflingly hot museum of Indian artistic expression through the ages, but the next part
of the story is where tragedy strikes.
We had managed to find a cold beer store near our place, and we made the
trek to pick up some ice-cold Kingfisher Lager.
Buying beer in India feels very shady, and the vendors are often dark
and dingy stalls. In this case, there
was a que of Indian men examining different types varieties of spirits. Michelle handed Thomas a five hundred Rupee
note which Thomas put in his pocket (equivalent to approximately 10 dollars
CAD). Michelle then waited for Thomas to
purchase the beer. As soon as the
shopkeeper saw Thomas waiting in line, he beckoned for him to come to the other
side. Thomas ordered 3 large Kingfisher
beers and waited. The beers arrived,
Thomas passed the note and awaited change.
To Thomas’ surprise, the shopkeeper showed that he had a 100 Rupee note
in his hand, which was insufficient to purchase a single beer. In the moment, Thomas hesitated and did not
challenge the vendor, as he questioned whether Michelle had handed the right note. This ultimately caused
a fatal error; a loss of 400 Rupees as well as no beer. Michelle and Thomas returned home; and that
was that. The first and last time we simultaneously let our guard down.
This concludes our blogging time in India. We loved India and will most assuredly be back. The next blog will go through our time in Thailand (spoiler alert: Thailand is the best)!
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| Rajasthani cuisine: these were some type of desert bean. |
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