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VARANASI TEMPLES MUSIC SLIDESHOW • 4:54

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 20:48:42 -0400

Varanasi has a 6,000 years old history. In Vedic times (1500 BCE) it was already well known, and in those days called, Kashi. There are countless temples, shrines and monasteries here and we photographed some of these in 2008.

INDIA'S CHILDREN Music Slideshow • 4:26

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 13:49:04 -0400

Children are everywhere in India. Young children play in the busy city streets as if it were a park. They run around villages helping with chores and laughing. They seem to smile a lot. The children here are affecionate, and that continues into adulthood as you see grown men holding hands or with arms around one another and women walking arms linked, often touching when they talk. Some children are curious and friendly and will ask you where you are from and will you take a picture. Others will ask for money for that picture. Some children are shy and some just stare. Most have beautiful dark eyes. In the north, where Pankaj can speak Hindi, the children ask him lots of questions. Where we come from, how we met, what Canada is like. Many children have some, if not good english skills so I can have a conversation as well. They are very direct-asking if we have children, how long we have known one another, etc. In the tourist places, some will want to sell you something or take you to shops where they get a commission.

In some parts of India, like Kerala, most children go to school and the province boasts100% literacy in the population. In other parts of the country, if the family isn't well off enough, then the children beg on the streets to make enough to eat. Parents work very hard to send their children to school but there is a large population and no social safety net. One mishap in your family and a young child may have to go to work instead of school. It makes me deeply appreciate our social services in Canada.

Most of the children I have met in India don't have "attitudes" like western children do. Even teenagers here are generally respectful, curious, open and often sweet natured. Pankaj talks about growing up knowing all the shopkeepers in his neighbourhood and having formed relationships with those people. So playing in the streets if you know everyone is not a big deal. It's one larger community of which your family is a part-more like a small town in Canada but with a community festival happening almost every week! So from one perspective, one can say there is a sense of the community being responsible for children so it makes things easier for the parents. On the other hand, there are entire families living on the street that would not be so easily accepted in places like Canada.

India is called a third world country in part because of the conditions in which many children live. However, there are things that children of India have easily, that children in the west often don't - like large extended families and a shared sense of belonging and community that goes back several generations. Indian culture is rich with human interaction and that shows in the friendliness and smiles of the children. ----- Sophie

Parvati Valley Music Slideshow • 4:02

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:43:12 -0400

In May, we stayed for 3 weeks at the village of Kasol in the Parvati Valley. Kasol is at an elevation of 1500 meters, just low enough not to get snow in the winter, though there are snow capped peaks all around. In May, when we were there, it was mostly T-Shirt weather and we enjoyed many walks along the Parvati River and its tributaries. These places are picture-postcard beautiful and sparsely inhabited. Along our walks, we would sometimes meet herders and their goats, sheeps, mules and horses. Often, we would be befriended by local dogs who would stay with us for much of the walk. They were very well behaved and we never felt any menace from them. Once, the dog who had accompanied us the day before met us at the patio of the restaurant where we were having breakfast the next morning. Of course, he got a thank you in the form of an omelette. Another time, we were accompanied by a little puppy who could barely keep up, but he did. Sophie had to help him up a steep grade once, but he was very happy for the company. We will remember Kasol for a long time... it was wonderfully restful and got us ready for our last week in India (New Delhi) before we flew back home to Canada.

We arrived in Canada at the beginning of June and have now settled in to our new home in Wortley Village in London. Our new home/office is a beautiful house with a lovely garden. We have both started seeing clients now and look forward to seeing you there... 15 1/2 Marley Place, London • 519 434 5503.

Himalaya Music Slideshow • 2:30

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:02:12 -0400

From April 6 to 23 we toured Spiti in an SUV. The scenery was magnificent in this sparsely populated, high altitude area adjacent to Tibet. We drove for several hours every few days as we made our way, staying overnight at guesthouses in the small towns/villages of Ani, Sarahan, Kalpa, Nako, Tabo, Kaza, Puh and Sangla.

At Tabo, there is a 1200 years old Buddhist monastary which has been designated a ‘World heritage site’ because of its beautiful murals. On a nearby mountainside, there are also naturally formed caves which have been utilized as meditation retreats. Nearby Kaza, there are two other 1200 years old Buddhist monastaries (at Ki and Dhankar), which are situated high up in the mountain spires. Dhankar was especially picturesque at 4000 Meters, looking down at the confluence of the Spiti and Pin rivers as they emerge from two different valleys of mountains ranges exceeding 6000 Meters. Spiti is a high altitude, cold desert and so there is a splendid isolation and quiet here. The scenery is moonscape-like with the scale being bigger than anything we had ever seen before.

During our 2 or 3 night stays at various Spitian villages, we would walk/trek the mountain paths nearby. Walking at altitudes over 3000 Meters is slow going as one becomes more easily breathless. At Nako (3200 Meters) we walked up to a mountain ridge for a truly expansive view of the mountains, valleys and the river 2000 Meters below. At Kaza (3600 Meters), we walked along the Spiti river on its huge flood plain. From Sangla (3000 Meters), we drove up to the village of Chitkul (3500 Meters) where the nearby mountain tops were seemingly just a quick walk away... except they weren’t. We are getting better at judging hights and distances now. What seems a few hours walk away is instead a few days away. The vastness of the Himalaya is difficult to convey, the camera covering perhaps 10% of the area visible to the eyes... enjoy the pics, but come here sometime and see for yourself.

Himalaya

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:05:04 -0400

We are now in the Himalaya and will be here for two months. Above is a picture taken from our hotel room balcony in Vashisth (2000 Meters), the starting point of our Himalayan journey. There is a shrine here to the sage Vashistha to whom is attributed a very important text called ‘The Yoga Vashistha’. The shrine is built around hot springs and there are separate bathing pools for men and women. Nearby there are walks to streams, waterfalls, alpine forests and mountains. We will be in Vashisth for about 3 weeks before we head off to higher altitudes.

For a reading from The Yoga Vashistha go to deepyoga.ca >> Ayurveda-Yoga-Tantra >> Yoga Vashistha: Freedom and Prana.

From Vashisth, we will be going to Spiti, which is the Tibetan plateau on the India side of the India-Tibet border. After touring there in a 4WD vehicle for 3 weeks, we will head to the Parvati Valley, a cedar forest along the banks of the Parvati river.

Animals of India

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 06:38:25 -0400

Animals are everywhere in India. Cows, bulls, monkeys, pigs, water buffalo, goats, packs of undomesticated dogs, the ocassional cat and numerous variety of birds share the city streets, villages, and even beaches with the people who live here.

Cows and bulls nap on medians in the middle of roads with multi-lanes of traffic driving by. They routinely visit road side restaurants for snacks, eating the peelings and leftovers or snatching some fruit from an open stall. Some will be decorated with garlands and bells, some will have coats on in the winter. Occasionally a cow or bull is sick or injured and can have huge distended bellies often caused by the modern convenience of the plastic bag which are undigestible.

In many cities, there are iron bars on windows and porches to keep the monkeys out. We heard of one monkey who liked to raid fridges for mangoes, entering through any left open window or door. In Orcha, there is a large, long-tailed Macacque monkey that visits the temple and sits at the tables of local restaurants where he is served along with the other customers. In Ellora, we walked a path of Langur monkeys -- stepping over long tails while the mothers held their babies and the males watched our descent down the path. One young monkey touched my bottom as I walked by and was quickly chastised by an elder -- "don't mess with the tourists" was the message I assumed. We later fed some of these Langurs in the market near the monuments.

At times, we've hired guides to keep the monkeys away from our euipment while we are filming -- they are known for liking cameras and eye glasses. In Delhi, we were told about a monkey that stole laundry from the tenants of a building complex. People would find their pants and saris dragged through the dirt and left about the buildings. Another gang of monkeys enjoyed breaking into the government offices in Delhi and ripping up official documents. They had to hire a special guard with a big monkey on a leash to patrol the building and scare these smaller monkeys away.

In Varanasi, we were heading back to the hotel after a day of interviews at the University and there was a herd of water buffalo walking down the street (imagine 6 to eight "lanes" of traffic and about ten buffalo). I asked our Autorickshaw driver where they were going. He said 'they are going home". I asked where that was and he said matter of factly, "they make a right at the next street". Okay... I suppose it was the end of the day for the water buffalo too!

Packs of dogs wander the streets and villages. They are generally knee high. short haired (except for the long haired dogs in the Himalaya), sometimes mangy, flea infested, and often firendly once they get to know you (although dog bites are not unheard of). I've seen dogs in terrible conditions from injury, worms and skin diseases but they seem to somehow survive. If you stay in a place long enough and feed them, they start to get very friendly. In Hampi, the dogs would sleep on the porch swing outside of the cottage we stayed in, sometimes howling until we would get up and shoo them away. Many times though we would just listen to them singing.

I have enjoyed how animals are part of the daily life of people in India. I once witnessed a cow persistently approaching the gates of a hotel we were staying at. A man working at the hotel eventually came out with some food. After feeding the cow, he touched her forehead and then touched his own. It was a beautiful gesture of acknowledgment and respect.

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Auroville

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:14:21 -0400

Auroville is an intentional community of about 2000 persons from 40+ countries. There are schools, restaurants, stores, farms and lots of Guest houses each with its own character. We stayed for 3 weeks at Shranga Guest House because of its jungle-like setting (pic below). Auroville is a progressive place where groups of people are working together to advance projects including land & water management, organic farming, solar power, teaching, the arts and all within the context of Yoga. Here is a link to the Auroville website: www.auroville.org