Spiritual materialism

Pushkar (Rajasthan) is a small town beside a lake somewhat related to Brahma the Hindu god. The water of the lake is holy for the religious crowds and they go and bath and drink from it, (it looks quite greenish by the way, and big big fish lives in it since fishing is not allowed - they survive despite the amounts of incense and flowers that are thrown daily from the shore).

When I arrived in the late afternoon I thought of going to watch the sunset, but there are lots of warnings in the magic guidebooks about touts that want to "help" you to make a pooja (offering). Thus I looked for a quiet place, (actually there was not even a direct view of the sun setting down). A guy here and there would come and do their ablutions in the green water. Then a priest came and cleaned up (indian cleaning) some of the steps by throwing buckets of the holy water, and then his gadgets for the ritual. Afterwards he went for a bath himself and, since at that moment I was the only alive person around, he asked me if I could stay at least for a few minutes and then I would look after the gadgets - in case a doggy would come I should keep them safe.

The guy even swam a bit and went to change loincloths and came back and started his pooja. An old man joined him with a cymbal and a stick. Eventually they needed somebody to wave a kind feather duster (holy one) to welcome the gods - they asked me as a last resort. I joined and we did the thing and tossed flowers to the lake and the priest sat down and started singing (praying). It was nice, relaxing, lonely, even if his voice was not melodic. Pleasant. When the fire was finish the priest stopped. Then we talked a bit, he explained me that he was praying for shanti, (calm, meaning non-aggression). His english was crap, when I asked something the answer made no sense to the question (or maybe it was mysterious), and I guess he got a similar impression of me since I did not understand when he was asking something. At the end he recommended me a couple of simple mantras. I'd guess he was a honest hindu believer.


The ritual was kind of nice, curious, as I say the full scene was peaceful, agreeable, and maybe if I tried the mantras I would feel ok with them. It's quite common for we westerns to have those kind of feelings. There's a buddhist writer who explains it using a very good example: some meditation techniques are supposed to bring boredom to the practitioner but actually for the foreigners are enjoyable, they say they find them "an amazing experience". This guy (Trungpa) calls it "spiritual materialism", a mistake of even truthful spiritual seekers, who try a technique and find it nice and get a result, but then their rational mind makes a full setup about it which has nothing to do with it, (since it has nothing to do with anything rational), and in the worst cases there is a masala mix of rituals and details that he/she likes or finds powerful, of several religions and woodo and shamanism.

Of course the half mystics of Leh and Pushkar and all around India are the perfect embodiment of it. But nobody seems to be free: myself if you would had asked me only a few days before I'd told you that no no way I would never be the altar boy of a priest, whichever religion it was...

Leh is cool

Leh, (Ladakh, J&K, north India), is for sure a cool city, a touristic city.

After some wandering around you realise that the residential area for locals occupies hardly the same surface as the section for hotels and guest houses and restaurants and travel agencies. Luckily is the low season now, not too many people, although still you can find the main kinds of touristic subspecies.

There's the Israelis, (not all of them of course, it is always wrong to generalize), with their very long and tough military service, 2 years, and after that they're crazy to take a holiday at least as long, and they come to India since it is such a cheap place to go around, and they smoke joints and drink and do nothing. On the other hand, it's important to note that the Israelis (the ones of this kind) literally don't move around so much, they don't get out of hotels and restaurants, thus unless they are exactly in the same as the one you've decided to go to, (since it is said in the magic guidebook the food is good), they will not bother you, you won't even notice them.

There's the half mystics as well. They are easy to identify for their clothes, which in Europe would look a bit like Indian, but in India they just look weird. Lots of colors, loose garments, which appear to be worn out. (It seems Indian recycle old sarees for the manufacture; they've realised there's a big market for the half mystics' peculiar style). Anyhow, besides the clothes, the half mystics are interested on anything that may sound spiritual and religious and traditional, although make no mistake, just interested enough, not going much into details that would be boring.

Besides in Leh there's lots of the specie of trekkers, who all dress as if they were going to go on a trek, (of course). It is true they're going to go on a treck, sooner or later, but not necessarily in the next five minutes, as a neutral uninformed observer could think when looking at them. "Wow, all these people in this city just about to go on a trek at this moment, how many there will be then in the mountains".

And there's plenty of shops of handicrafts and clothes, (in particular for the half mystics but also for the other travellers), and bored and somewhat but not too much annoying shopkeepers, and low business in low season. And plenty of restaurants and different kinds of good food. Well, and Buddhist monasteries, surely too many.

So it is a weird cool city, and it is good luck there's not so many tourists now. Since I don't know what day is it today, you could probably convince me that I've been either 2 days or 1 month here, or both with only a few hours' difference.

Indian home stay cliches

There's a travellers' cliche about home stays in India, for sure. It's said it's supposed to be a very enriching and deep experience, even if nobody knows what exactly it's meant to be.

And then there was a nice village in the middle of nowhere and I really liked it and I decided to have my piece of home stay in India and for sure it was intense. HOWEVER:

- The owner of the house was a drunkard

(Well he had a broken leg in a plaster, and he was really bored, he said he needed the alcohol for digestion since he could not go to work -- ?, anyhow at the end of the day after 2 litres of a hellish artisan liquor he was quite pissed, and I had to have dinner with him and it was annoying, even worse with his limited english).

- The friends of the owner of the house also enjoyed drinking

(Even if they could and had to go to work. One evening I prepared dinner for them, and they got so drunk, and when we ate and they liked the food so much, the conversation got so bad about me being so nice to cook for them and about eternal friendship and about god in the tribal kinnauri views - and it implied me drinking the undrinkable, at least a bit, whenever they got more enthusiastic).

- And I got a marriage proposal

(Actually the 1st evening the owner asked me if I was married and then he started talking about his land and the dowry, if I liked any of his 2 daughters. And I tell you it did not feel good, not at all, I nearly felt like vomiting, even if it was a stupid reaction and I only had to say no).

- And women in India are treated like shit

(Myself trying to make the point, e.g. helping the daughters at the kitchen or bringing the plates back and forth, was stupid and hopeless. Women are nothing in India, at least in rural India, they're treated as servants).

- And there were nice and warm moments but I wonder

(I wonder what did we actually share, what was the cultural exchange. They're just supposed to treat guests as half gods, thus they make you feel good. Traditions may look nice, you might feel curiosity, but mixed with annoyance and pity about the things you don't like or that are unfair - I had lots of pity for the girls, but how honest it was?. And what are their perspectives, their possibilities, their choices? - are these people really interesting?).

- And I got some bugs as a good bye present

(Which were biting me all around, and took me 3 days to remove after nearly striping my skin, and all my body was still itchy for a couple of weeks).



As a positive note, I guess experiencing is the best antidote for naivety. And it was a perfect nadaist activity, since I did nothing in those 3 days.

Well there's travellers' cliches and so many ways of travelling and nobody seems to like being called a tourist. Maybe we should start an anonymous club and introduce ourselves to each other saying something like "my name is Lorenzo and I am a tourist". And then we could start saying the truth about the trip, since it is not always so fantastic...