To Work, and about The School (Wow!)

Then I go to work, by walking around the corner to the Institute, which comprises a residential building that has 9 rooms, for those who come for treatment and are in residence. There is the diagnostic area, where the Ayurvedic doctors see their local and foreign patients. In the basement is the pharmacy where all the medicines are made up.

In another building there are the Dr.’s own telephones in the call center. Here they take calls from everywhere in the world, and the mail room where the medicines are dispatched to all corners of the world.

In another part of the building is the kitchen and dining room. The kitchen staff is absolutely delightful, and they produce excellent, simple fare. I am well fed and feeling very good. I drink chai, ginger water, salt water and ordinary bottled/filtered water.

In another part of the large building complex are the admin offices, and my desk and computer is in one of those.

There is another large building which is the school. Let me tell you about this. Jiva has created a school/educational curriculum and teaches children from ages 4 - 17. They wear school uniforms, and they are taught like we would wish our children would be taught in the West. The curriculum is nothing less than magnificent, profound, fantastic, revolutionary, progressive, and more modern than modern. These are the words that come to me. And for a modest fee that these people can afford they are ferried from villages in school buses, fed, educated and taken home. I am so impressed; I cannot even describe further at this time how I feel about it. I will comment more as I learn more.

The teachers are also from the villages, and Jiva is creating a model for all of India, and the rest of the world. This is a WOW! experience. This is not something you would expect in India, and then I have come to realize that India has everything within her, and you cannot judge something that is so unfathomable. In fact who of us can judge, period? And in my next letter I will tell you about my trip to the most beautiful temple I have ever seen, Akshardham, in Delhi (of all places). (Pictured in the blog header)

I trust you are enjoying these glimpses of India through my eyes. I am being graphic and honest. This is how India is. I am privileged to be with these great people who overcome challenges that you and I could not imagine, and they do it with a smile. They have something to offer our world, just as we in the West have something to offer. It is not for us to judge anyone. In the Native American Tradition of Medicine Ways we are counseled not to judge anyone until we have walked in their moccasins. In reality we all learn from each other.

You and I are not greater or less than anyone and neither are the Indians or anyone. We are all equal. We are one great family. Let us walk in peace & love together.

In Peace and Love

Tony

Morning Routine, Accomodations

My routine is quite gentle. I awake in the morning at about 6am, and seem to be in a state of paralysis, and so I wait for about an hour until I can move. I then take a cup of hot water to kick start the bowel evacuation and digestive track. I now add a pinch of salt as I was informed by a friend that as we are electrical, it is important to maintain our salinity to promote full function of the synapses. So far this seems to be working well. It is my intention to be well here, and to this end that is exactly what is happening. Apart from deep rooted conditions, which I am going to have a consultation with Dr. Chauhan, and avail myself of the therapeutic treatments here that will help me balance my body/constitution, etc.

I then shave and shower, and such arrangements are also quite different. The bathroom is as follows: Spacious room containing flushing sit-down toilet, wash basin with hot/cold taps, small water heater/geyser on the wall, shower head, and two other taps/faucets, a large plastic bowl/bucket, and a small plastic jug. There is also another small plastic jug by the other tap close to the floor by the toilet for those who just love the traditional Indian way. I turn the hot water tap on for the shower, I wait, and eventually there is a trickle of water. I turn on the cold water tap. The trickle gets stronger. Now depending on the water pressure, there may be a trickle and there may be less or more of a trickle. It depends on what, I am not sure.

If there is nothing then I resort to the large bowl/bucket and fill that up from the other set of taps, and this is quite good, because I am in control, and with the use of the small jug I can pour water over me and really have some fun, because I am not worried whether the shower trickle may stop or not. As a kid I loved to play in water, and now I still love to play in water. This works. You just have work out your system. Everything is working well. Not exactly how I want it, but then I am learning to flow, am I not???

My bed is very comfortable, and my room is equally so. The people in whose home I live are the most precious and loving people I have met. I really am enjoying my stay here. The cleaning lady who cleans the house is also the washing service. She washes the clothes for the family outside in the back. I have been invited to have my clothes washed by this delightful lady at cost of 250 rupees per month. That is about $6 or maybe a little less.

Feeling Better, Strange Bathrooms…

This is my second attempt with this newsletter; the previous letter was lost when I had written it and pressed the wrong button.

My good friend, Eric Tischler has created a blog, http://tonyaltman.wordpress.com which will carry the letter updates of my journey, with photos when I am able to download them. My intent is to post information that you do not receive in my “letters from India.” All in good time. If there is one thing I am learning, it is PATIENCE!  Several times a day the electric power goes out and we just have to wait. What an opportunity to learn the flow of life.

I have been in India for one week now, and I am observing the affect it has had on me. Something is definitely happening that is positive, as I am not experiencing pain as I have had for the past 6 years. My sacro-iliac joint is stable, my lumber vertebrae are stable, and my cervical vertebrae are also stable. The bones are staying in place for longer and longer periods of time, and I do not have to roll on the ground in certain postures to help re-align the joints. The only thing that is different is that I am in India and I am eating a purely vegetarian diet. I also feel that I have left much stress somewhere in the air between USA and India. Furthermore, I feel it is appropriate for me to be on this journey, and as I am flowing more with my destiny (rather than resisting) my body is displaying less stress. In the final analysis I am not sure, only that something good is happening.

One of the things that I find very challenging is the toilet arrangements in India. I am not freaked about it as I have experienced the best and the worst in several other countries, like Spain and Italy in the early 60’s. Here they have two types of public toilet. One, the flat ceramic pan on the floor, two footprints, and a hole. No bars to hold on to. You are expected to expose your rear end and adopt the correct posture/angle without the benefit of holding on to handles/bars. The other type is the conventional, normal sit down toilet, like we have in the West. In either case, there is no paper, only a tap, fawcet and a little plastic jug. The idea is to do the do-do and then wash that area WITH THE LEFT ONLY, (In India you shake hands and eat with the right hand only). I have not been able to perfect this. Let me explain.

Usually, when you go in public toilets, the floor is wet. Quite logical. This contaminates dropped trousers. To take the trousers off is difficult as you will have to step in the wet with your feet. Not good. Then with trousers around the ankles, you wash, and I get water all over myself, clothes and all. I emerge looking as if I have taken a shower/bath with my clothes on. Therefore, I go in my room where I have a sit-down toilet with paper, and the only other public sit-down toilet with paper at Jiva is in the clinic. On Sunday I went to Delhi (city) and I just could not “go” because the circumstances were worse than awful in the places I visited. There is a way, but I just have not found it and I am asking for someone to teach me. So far no takers to teach me.

Greetings this lovely day in India,

I have now joined Jiva Ayurvedic Institute as the Public Relations Person, and it appears there is much wonderful work to do here, all in the service of God, Love and Humanity. What a blessing to come all this way in search of my path, of my identity as a spiritual/human being, to be able to participate in the work of helping to spread the knowledge of Ayurveda.

In this sense, I wish to acknowlesge and honor Dr. Jay Apte of the Ayurveda Institute of America in Foster City, California, USA, where my beloved Angelia attended Ayurveda Practitioner Classes with our dear friend Liz Kruger.

While Angelia departed for the higher realms, Liz completed her course and is now an Ayurvedic Practitioner. My acknowledgement of Dr. Apte is for the inspiration and support she offered me in my spiritual journey to India, along with Liz and Joanie, CC, Alex C., Eric T, and my other dear friends. God Bless you for the part you have played in my life.

For anyone who would like to know more about Ayurveda please call Dr. Apte on USA 650-341-8400 and/or Liz in Pahrump, Nevada, 775-253-0314. From statistics now available, it is anticipated that in the next decade Ayurveda is the next major healing modality in vogue.

As the P.R. person, my job is to help develop the newsletter and community activities worldwide. I shall start with the website, www.jiva.com, to help update and enhance the content of  the latest news, views and opinions, questions and answers, articles, etc. I am putting on my creative cap and I start right away. This activity is such a blessing, as this job now precludes me wandering around the Himalayas like a lost soul. Besides, it is very cold in the Himalayas right now. So, I am here in Faridabad, New Delhi safe and sound, with beautiful, Loving Indians, from whom I am learning so much.

The simple and wonderful food is prepared by delightful young men who want to learn English, and who teach me Hindi - another extra curricular job. Yesterday I accompanied some course participants to visit a village about 1/2 hour drive away. This is where many of the children come from, to attend the Jiva Public School. What a wonderful experience. A resident made chapatis with the traditional outdoor fireplace, using cow dung. It tasted really good, even after they had put the chapati up against the burning dung to to brown a little!!??

There was a wedding in the village and I walked past the newly erected marquee/tent. The music was loud and exciting. The people were so beautiful. Angelia would have loved it. Cows roam freely all over the place, weaving in between the madness of Indian Traffic. They roam in gardens, onto cricket playing fields, down alleyways. They eat and defecate. The people use the dung for fires. So very ecological.

New found friends purchased coconuts and had them opened to drink the nectar, for 50 cents (USD) each. I bought a litre of sesame oil for $3, and had a very good haircut (a bit short, though) for $1.30, which included a scalp massage.  I am taking photos, but have not had the time to see how I can download them. Maybe later.

I will be going native with my dress, kurta, sandals, etc. This is the only way to go as the weather gets hot. At present it is very pleasant. Cool evening/morning, but not cold. Warm days. The birds all sing so beautifully here at Jiva. At about 5pm there is a veritable orchestra of such sounds.

This is such an education, such an experience of such magnitude. My senses have become alive with greater awareness. The extremes are immense. Hovels next to expensive houses. All are happy. The driver of the car which took us to the village drove like a demon, and we arrived there without killing anyone. The driving here is like nothing I have ever experienced. They drive all over the place, any side of the road, some motorbikes even going the wrong way. There is an immense number of people all going about their business, working hard, carrying steel girders on a rickshaw. People crossing the roads, cows wandering around, street vendors all over the place. Unfinished buildings. A Tuk Tuk, or auto-rickshaw had 13 people crammed into it. And so the list of sensory perceptions go on.

The next day…

It is Friday. The sun shines with a gentle brilliance, as the climate warms up, to what I am told is very hot in the summer. I am asked if I am OK with heat of around 105/110 degrees F, and of course, I have been trained by the best place, Las Vegas, at 110/120F - No problem!

Friday is when I was offered the job. A good day by all accounts. The kitchen staff were given the evening off, and so I was invited to eat in someone’s home. What an example of gracious hospitality. Another blessed day in India.

As I settle, I will be writing more. I am sending this before the power goes out again.

With my love to you and with blessings.

Tony

Settling in at Faridabad

Well, it is now about 4:30 in the afternoon, Tuesday, 26/Feb., and I am in a town called Faridabad, just South of New Delhi. I am at the Jiva Ayurvedic Institute & Clinic.

My flight was a dream. Eight hours of comfort and impeccable service. Dinner with a cloth napkin. This Indian Airline, called Jet Airways is a good example of comfortable flying and can taech some of the American Airlines, and British for that matter. They did not cut corners, even the plane was top notch.

A taxi met me at the airport and then there was a really interesting drive for about 45 minutes South, to my destination. Cows wondering around in the streets, monkeys crossing the road (dangerous activity for anyone). The seemingly hapazzard driving by the Indians, hooting the horn all the time, and the poverty. However, this is India, with all its extremes and resulting paradoxes. I would NEVER wish to drive here, at least in the city. It is a miracle there were no accidents. It was quite an experience.

I am installed in a room of a family member of Dr. Partap Chauhan, who is the Ayurvedic Physician Director, and who is my friend. I am tuning into the rythm of this remarkable place, and in a few days will speak to Partap, when he has finished teaching an Ayurvedic course, and I will know what and how I will stay here at the institute/clinic.

It appears that Satya Narayan Das, Partap’s brother,  and who is the spiritual leader here, is going to the USA and will be back in one month, and that I will being seeing him upon his return. Therefore, I shall be here for at least a month, and I feel it will be longer.

I feel the strength of purpose here, and I am very happy to be on this journey.

Untill the next time.

With much love,
Tony

GREETINGS FROM THE UK!

I arrived in UK on Saturday, 16/Feb, to clear skies and good weather, although a little cold. It is great to be with my son, Richard, with whom I am spending some good quality time. Swindon is a very pleasant town with good shopping facilities. Much has changed since my last visit about 17 years ago. England is far more modern, yet still quaint. My flight here was long, yet comfortable, I did not sleep on the plane and suffered the consequences afterwards. I am in a small, quaint hotel. My room is also small, but comfortable.

This a good prelude to the next leg of my journey to India.

With love and blessings,

Tony

Hello world!

I want to thank you all for visiting my new blog, which I intend to be posting to as much as possible once I am able during my trip to India this year. I will hopefully have lots of interesting things to write here, and I intend also to post some pictures of my adventures in the far east.

As I become more familiar with the world of blogging I will get this site arranged better for you to enjoy and all of us to get the most out of it. I want to use it to stay in touch with my friends and share my experiences as I travel and discover all sorts of things, and expect it will be enjoyable for all of us.