Rishikesh meditation spot

Rishikesh meditation spot
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

What is the now lacking?

Rishikesh

Fellow travelers are such blessings. The 27 hr train from Varanasi to Haridwar brought the chance to converse with a Brazilian woman who helped me to digest and better understand all that I have been seeing. These fellow travelers bring so many insights both intellectual and tip-wise. After a ride in auto rickshaw from Haridwar, where the Ganges enters the plains out of the Himalayas, to Rishikesh I have set up camp for a day. This place is filled with westerners seeking guidence in yoga and meditation, with only a day I'll have to find a quiet spot along the Ganga to do my own meditation. Tomorrow I move on to Dehra Dun, the capitol of the Uttar Ranchal state to visit with friends of the family.

PS: for those of you in Humboldt County, the Ganges and the landscape here are very reminiscent of the Trinity River at Willow Creek...no need to buy the plane ticket...;-)

PS:

Best idea ever: have everyone eat out of bowls made out of leaves, that once thrown on the ground either biodegrade or, more likely, are eaten by cows conveniently roaming the streets...

Shiva festival/ b-day coincidence?

Well the yearly Shiva festival is being celebrated today (Varanasi is the Shiva city). Last evening a 75km walk started from the "burning" (cremation) ghat's Shiva temple. Completion of the loop brings good things to one's family for the year to come. A veritable river of young men rushed down the waterfront of Varanasi starting around 9 pm on this journey. A friend Noah and I couldn't hold ourselves back and joined the masses at the burning ghat, after successfully shoving our way into the 9 sq ft Shiva temple along with a raging group of 100 or so males our age and gathering a few grains of rice, tradition requires, we began the walk. It was 8km or so before we realized that we hadn't misunderstood: many take 15hrs to walk the whole 75km. Some water and a hot street omelette finished off the evening nicely around 2am...namaste cwt

Varanasi II

Varanasi II
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

The ghats (the buildings with stairs leading to the Ganges) are used

for bathing and for washing clothes as well of course as places of

worship. So many smiling people, so kind...

Varanasi

Varanasi
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

Here in Varanasi, preparations are heating up for the festival

tomorrow. Last evening I attended a concert of classical Indian music

near the ghats and ran into a fellow traveler that I had met in Delhi.

This morning took me to the Golden Temple of Varanasi with its golden

exterior. Energy is very high there as it has been a spot of high

Muslim/ Hindu tensions, many soldiers lining the streets, and the

energy of those coming to worship, one is carried along by the flow of

pilgrims.

Also to a Nepalese temple this morning, with a shaded place perched

atop the ghats, what a view.

I am at the Elvis, yes Elvis guesthouse, love,

chris

Varanasi

Varanasi
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

Here in Varanasi, preparations are heating up for the festival

tomorrow. Last evening I attended a concert of classical Indian music

near the ghats and ran into a fellow traveler that I had met in Delhi.

This morning took me to the Golden Temple of Varanasi with its golden

exterior. Energy is very high there as it has been a spot of high

Muslim/ Hindu tensions, many soldiers lining the streets, and the

energy of those coming to worship, one is carried along by the flow of

pilgrims.

Also to a Nepalese temple this morning, with a shaded place perched

atop the ghats, what a view.

I am at the Elvis, yes Elvis guesthouse, love,

chris

Vrindavan temple

Vrindavan temple
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

Varanasi bound

After a couple days of recoup I am feeling very well, Friend Meera in Delhi and her family have been so wonderful. I am heading to Varanasi tomorrow the Feb. 23 and then on to Haridwar the Feb. 27 as planned. I entered a mall near Delhi today (nicer than many US malls) and can still not reconcile its luxury with the poverty within shouting distance and its modernity with the rich and ancient history of India. All my love, namaste, chris

ah Delhi belly

Well, Delhi-belly set in the day before last, so I came back to the comforts of friends here in Delhi. I will head back out once it has passed. What times in Mathura and Vrindavan. My Rickshaw driver yesterday was Muslim, and through our gestures and newspaper photos were able to agree that GW Bush is bad and that Bill Clinton is good, a good democrat this man...salam ali khoum

Mathura and Vrindavan

Mathura and Vrindavan
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

Truly as if a dream, without a tourist in sight, stepping on to a

fully decorated row boat to view the Ghats of Mathura. The Monkies

and temples of Vrindavan, where Krishna had formative experiences...

Mathura and Vrindavan

Mathura and Vrindavan
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

Truly as if a dream, without a tourist in sight, stepping on to a

fully decorated row boat to view the Ghats of Mathura. The Monkies

and temples of Vrindavan, where Krishna had formative experiences...

2/17

2/17
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

2/17

2/17
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

2/17

2/17
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

itinerary/ delhi train station

Hello again from Pahar Ganj in New Delhi. After an afternoon exploring the narrow and busy backstreets of the Muslim neighborhood ajacent to the Jama mosque yesterday, today I spent the better part of the morning at New Delhi train station booking tickets, and was successful. Thus I have an itinerary to pass along: 2/19 Mathura/ Vrindavan 2/21 night train to Varanasi 2/27 night train to Haridwar and Rishikesh ?/? Amristar and Dharmasala (if time) ?/? ??????? New Delhi

More pictures on the way, namaste, chris

P2280030.JPG

P2280030.JPG
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

boy.jpg

boy.jpg
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

P3010036.JPG

P3010036.JPG
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

P2280021.JPG

P2280021.JPG
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

P3010035.JPG

P3010035.JPG
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

Delhi, Noida

Namaste from in Pahar ganj, a bustling bazaar area in Delhi (picture to come). There is not enough time to note all that I would like to share. I love buzing around town in a tempo(or auto rickshaw) (picture) discovering little treasures tucked away on side steets, and beautiful colors, faces, and entrancing eyes. Today i will visit the Jama mosque, reputed the largest in Asia (including Asia minor I dont know). 20,000 can attend prayers there. I am very eager to see the muslim experience up close. India has the second largest Muslim population in the world. Friends of my family have welcomed me at their home in Noida 30 km from Delhi in Uttar Pradesh. What an honor it has been. They have all been so helpful and filled me with such delicacies. Shukriah. Tomorrow or the next day I will leave for Mathura and Vrindavan abit south. NPR did a multi day report on Vrindavan, it is probably still available on npr.org . That is all for now, all my love, namaste, chris

India!

well here we are in Delhi! I have been lucky to meet many travelers that you spend a few hours with, explore with, and then part ways, a woman from quebec and now Jared sitting next to me from australia. To a friend Meera's house 30km from Delhi tonight. more soon, all my love, the world is beautiful, people are beautiful, chris

aeroports de paris

here at the airport, little time, all is well, thanks to everyone in France, it was great to see you all. well, my lack of words is like the calm before the storm i guess... 7h00 paris time is departure cwt

Rochelle/Paris

La Rochelle's first mayor came along in 1124 + or-. What a wonderful welcome I had tonight at the train station in Paris from friends Thomas, Olivier, Antoine, et Rebekah. Great to see some friendly faces, thanks for everything...

De retour a Paris

My time in Nantes is now passed, paris tonight, tomorrow, New Delhi Tuesday. La Rochelle was fantastic, what a wealth of history. First Euro city to have mayor, a rare French protestant haven until Richelieu reconquers it in 1624, the last French city to be liberated in WWII. Like Nantes, and le Croisic, a "beneficiary" of early Euro intl commerce and the triangular trade, notably with French holdings in Africa, the Caribbean, and French Canada. see you in NewDelhi, cwt

La Rochelle

La Rochelle
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

L'entrée au vieux port de La Rochelle/ Entrance to La Rochelle's Old Port

continued protests

Yesterday was also a day of mobilization against the contrat première embauche that I mentioned earlier. According to the papers there were 10,000 at the events. I picked up a flyer at the protest from the local communist party The institutionalization of job precariousness for youth and the distrust of economic liberalism in general were the highlights. According to a chart in Le Figaro, youth between 18 and 26 have a jobless rate going from 30 to 10 percent (older than 30 and the rate is 5-10 percent). If the new reform is passed, youth in that same age group will be able to be fired without rationale, thus the precariousness...but more jobs aswell?

misc

Well, Friday will be an outing to l'île Noirmoutier (Noirmoutier Island), a French island off the Atlantic coast. If I had been on top of things I might have gotten a tour of the Airbus factory where they are constructing the A380, the largest passenger plane ever built, but alas...

France 2, the TV station, had a special on India's developing economy, and the attempt of Meetal steel to acquire Alcelor. Couple interesting points: First the Bombay/ Mumbai stock market just passed the symbolic 10,000 point mark for the first time. Second, Indian companies are serving a nitch/market that Occidental companies have been less willing to enter. Indian capitalists are designing products for developing countries like China and Indonesia, like 2,000 $ cars that are affordable for middle class Chinese and Indonesians. According to the guests on the show often developing countries design exclusively for US or European tastes, but increasingly India is developing products specifically for the lower GDP per capita countries.

Another thing that I have been musing about is the reason that the ramparts around Nantes were taken down in the 1700s. I can't get over what a symbolic event this is, why was there such a confidence about the safety of the city that it was judged prudent to take down the walls. The reasoning I have found is that the ramparts were inhibiting the city's growth. But where did the threat that led to the walls being built go? Was it that international commerce had relieved the threat by ending scarcity of food and materials and tying peoples' well being to the European/ international market instead of to local production subject to scarcity that would cause regional instability or fear of it? I'll continue to research...

Isn't this caricatures of Mohamed affair starting to look like the clash of civilizations? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clash_of_civilizations

Le Phare du Croisic/ Le Croisic's Lighthouse

Le Phare du Croisic/ Le Croisic's Lighthouse
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

Le Croisic

Well, hello to all. Hope the year of the dog is off to a good start for you. Yesterday took me by train to Le Croisic a town at the end of a Peninsula near the mouth of the Loire river as it empties out into the Atlantic.

Without a tourist insight, I exited the small train station and turned right. The tourist office being closed at the time of my arrival, I spotted a hill with some sort of rock construction at its top. So in order to get an idea of how Le Croisic was laid out I went up to the perch. The top was roped off because of "éboulis" or rock slides but things looked pretty stable ... Le Croisic is a medieval town that has had two periods of expansion. The first resulted from the salt trade. Salt beds inland were developed and trade boomed. Then in the 18th century as the price of salt decreased Le Croisic became a cannery town and thus had a second economic boom. One cannery is still standing today and shrimp are still harvested off shore. In 1735 Mr Pierre Bourguet a hydrographer and Croisicais sailed to present day Ecuador where he spent 10 years and measured a degree of the meridian among other things. His statue with a plaque from the Ecuadoran government is just off the main pier of town. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bouguer The US Navy had a station in Le Croisic during WWI. Even with the remarkable Gothic church, the historic buildings, colorful ships, and views of the sea, it was Le Croisic's light house, and the 3/4 kilometer jetty leading to it that I found most enchanting. After a half an hour or so at the base of the lighthouse I headed back to the train station where a very French bourgeoise woman and I happened to be running towards the departing train at the same time. cwt

bowling: the truth

this is painful for me to say but Luca is threatening to kick me out of her place if I don't: She came very close to beating me at bowling. My reputation as a bowling giant is really in question here but the truth is the truth. cwt

Luca's tram stop

Luca's tram stop
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

Hello all, well, another fine couple days here in chilly France. I

thought I should add the disclaimer to my editorial comments from my

last entry that I am of course not French (though I do my best) and

so all my comments are of course just my musings. Do with as you

may...

Otherwise, I am enjoying this time for reflection about the future,

taking stock of where I have been and what I would like to do

careerwise next. Putting myself outside my normal space, in other

words outside the US (though of course one could do the same by

knocking on the neighbors' door or smiling at a stranger), helps to

shake up my thinking a bit, to broaden the field of possibilities as I

think about the future.

Hope everyone is well, out there,

chris

Queen Mary 2

Just as the geography of Nantes has shaped its history, the region's economy is still (though less and less) dependent on its proximity to the atlantic. Shipbuilding is still a big industry and is based in St. Nazaire, a city to the west of Nantes. Notably, the largest cruise ship ever built, the Queen Mary 2, was built in St. Nazaire. cwt

quelle journée!

What a day it has been. A couple pieces of good news came down the pike today, First my degree was cleared by my university, and second the Peace Corps gave me final medical clearance. Une fête is in order.

A side note: I am in a cyber café where kids are playing network games with two teams: Americans and Iraqis...being Iraqi seems to be the popular choice... update: the Iraqis seem to be winning...

On the French front all is well, I finally gave into the societal pressures to participate in the "soldes," the department store sales that take place once a year (maybe twice). So now I won't be getting any more of those looks in the Tram as I now mix in with the French clothing norms quite nicely.

An interesting note: At the supermarket they did not have any disposable plastic bags! There is an anti bag mobilisation (i've always been an anti-bagist). I was forced to buy a reusable bag for 15 cents. Impressed I was...

Yesterday I began to photograph signs, it's a new hobby if you will. Street signs, store signs, posters, etc.

Yesterday evening I went bowling of all things...I think there was a better selection of 60s American music than at your average alley in the states.

The day before last a protests took place all over France over the newly proposed contrat premier embauche (first employment contract) which is one in a slough of reforms by the French government, currently a "Right" government to lower the unemployment rate. I was lucky enough to attend the Nantes protest. The debate is interesting though because the "Right" is convinced that more flexibility on hiring and firing needs to be given to companies in order to lower the rate. The "Left" which is of course in favor of a low unemployment rate sees the government's reforms as institutionalizing the "precariousness" of jobs, especially for young workers. The strong unions in France are bringing out the crowds in protest. The protest culture in France and the sentiment of social "solidarity" is quite particular so I was happy to see it first hand. There is a strong movement against economic liberalism (free market capitalism) which is seen as a threat to culture, to jobs, and workers rights. This clashes pretty nastily with the conviction of the French "Right" that the way to help the greatest number is for France to sharpen its swords and compete in the global economy by helping business along instead of getting caught up in worker's rights. The US of course represents free market capitalism to Frenchmen so this explains some of their anti-US sentiment (which is only skin deep)

A couple news commentaries: On the news front, there is much talk here of the hostile takeover attempt of Mittal steel (# 1 in the world ) originally from India on the European steel manufacturer Arcelor (#2). In short the Europeans don't want to lose their seat at the controls of the world economy. This takeover attempt however says alot about the state of things in the World and in Europe. First the East is rising, who could have imagined a few years back an Indian born company buying up one of Europe's largest. Second, the EU is really being tested by this. It will be interesting to see how the EU tackles the situation, or if it can with its current structure. But one thing is for certain, if Europe wasn't united Arcelor would have already been bought up.

Also Interesting is an article that appeared today on a new book that questions all the literature on the Rwandan genocide until now. France has taken the brunt of the blame for the West's involvement. I don't know if this book (written by a Frenchman) is an attempt to clear France's name but it uses the CIA and the UN as sources in saying that Paul Kagame, the current president and hailed by the west post-genocide, more or less planned the genocide and let Rwandan Tutsis be slaughtered, in favor of Tutsis exiled in Uganda, such as himself.

Well, that is all for today, hope all is well with you all, love, chris

protest

protest
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

the banner says ~ "no legal slavery"