Physical Therapy-India style

The cool doctor's car that took me to the hospital



So, while at Everest base camp I awoke one morning with a terrible headache that was only on one side of my head. I thought that maybe it was the altitude and the reason why I decided to descend down. I descended and it didn't go away, but continued, only on the left side of my head.
I began to worry: I have brain swelling and its going to explode, its a tumor, or maybe I am thinking too much and that is causing them. So, I got a massage but they didn't go away so I just started taking lots of ibuprofen, like 5-8 a day. They continued on in India and when I got to Rishikesh and entered the ashram a friend of mine had been sick and went to an Ayurvedic doctor. Ayurvedic medicine is basically just natural medicine India style. Anyways, I went one day and the doctor was out. My friend Kaye told me that Bagri (the old guy dressed in white) is a doctor and that I should ask him. So, one day after tea I went down. I had resolved that it was connected to a slight neck pain that I had. He looked at it, put some tiger balm on it, and then told me to come with him to the hospital at 5:00p.m to see his friend. Oh, o.k. I thought. I returned at 5p.m. And we didn't leave until 5:45 but I chatted with some of the workers and we took pictures of the doctors cool car. Then, we drove to the “hospital” which is really more like a clinic. I entered and I saw his friend, no picture unfortunately. This man is the epitome of a workaholic. He is 77 years old and still works every day. His shoulders are hunched over, hair is gray and he has bags under his eyes that go down to his cheekbones. Poor guy. He told me that I need to stop sleeping on comfortable pillows and that I would need to go to physical therapy for a few days. O.k., sure. So I was sent to the physical therapy section. I entered and was told to come for 5 days, the charge would be 50 rupees ($1). My favorite thing about going there were the chats that I had with different people receiving Physical Therapy or the students that were there receiving their training. As they looked at me strangely, this white girl here for what? And as I learned more about Hinduism I understood why the entire time that I went there, the large cobweb in the culture, with a large spider in it remained. It was a reincarnation of something, potentially an uncle or a friend and so killing it was out of the question. I ended up going there for the rest of my time in Rishikesh, about 10 days where I learned a lot about Hindi's as I became friends with my doctor who is from Calcutta.







He had recently been married, the result of an arranged marriage which is quite common here. The Hindi's have a very different outlook on marriage. The family “arranges” the marriage in the sense that they try and find someone that would be a good husband and father and also that their daughter or son would like. In fact, if the two people meet and there isn't anything then they aren't necessarily forced into the marriage. Though very few marry because of being in love, rather for familial reasons. Such was the case of my doctor. I asked him if he was in love with his wife. He said no, but that possibly, with time he would. Ah, India. Regardless of all that, my neck pain went away and I also began receiving therapy for my rotator cuff injury. I ended up spending about $20 for two weeks of therapy. That wouldn't have even covered the gas that I would have used for a car in the U.S.


My doc and I

Ashramin it

Ashramin it.

So, what exactly is an ashram you may ask? It is a “spiritual place”. As most of you know I came to India for some spiritual else, some answer, something (else). I quickly realized that traveling around India in 110 temps wasn't going to get me any spirituality, just more pissed off. So, I decided, why not, when in India right?

The ashram was located above the city and you had to walk up a steep slope to get to it. When arriving, you had to sign in and then check-in at the office—quite official. When I entered I was greeted by an older gentlemen, sitting down, and dressed all in white. So ashram style, I thought. who could tell that I was hot and told me to sit down and relax. He then offered me a “refreshing drink”, hmm, I tried it and then looked at the label, buttermilk, disgusting, I told him I was sorry but that I wouldn't be able to finish it. And offered it to him if he wanted. He laughed and said “don't worry” and said something to one of the many workers there (in India there are about 5 people to do the job of one person because there are so many people in this country, jobs need to be created). The worker brought me another one, I looked at the label first this time. Mango, yummy, juice. Perfect. I asked him about the schedule, the rules and leaving. He said “follow the schedule, you are expected to attend everything but you can come and go, you are not a prisoner here, just be back every evening by 9:30p.m. He was funny, I liked him. Before I was shown to my room I asked him his name, Bagri, he said.
This was my schedule and I will
4:30a.m.--the morning wake up call for 5:00a.m meditation. I also had to set my alarm because there was no way I was getting up at 4:30 when the meditation hall was only 5 minutes away.

5-6a.m—Morning Meditation
This is the meditation hall

Inside the meditation hall (that guy in white is a swami, a spiritual master)
Meditation was challenging, but every morning and evening a swami (spiritual master) would speak for about 15 minutes about how to relinquish the mind, let it rest. Ha, he said that most of us either have a passionate mind, which wants new things, new places, new everything every other mind, or the idle mind, which is lazy and doesn't want to do anything. Both are obvious extremes and most of us probably waver between them. During meditation I did that but if nothing else it was nice to just sit with my eyes closed in a place where I was unable to make any lists!
6:30-7:30-Morning yoga
There were three yoga teachers: Pamil, Achilles, and Gorak—he was by far the best.
Yoga was great, but it was too relaxing. We would do one pose and the teacher would say “now close your eyes and feel the relaxation, relax” blah, blah and I'm like, been relaxing, just got out of meditation. And then we would do another pose, and again “feel the relaxation”. At the end of yoga they would chant and we would all say “om” and namaste and it was warm and fuzzy.

8:00am.-Breakfast
Breakfast always consisted of chai (the Hindi word for tea, masala chai is the yummy chai that in the states costs $3 but here only 20 cents, and it is much better here), so yeah chai and then some breakfast surprise served for a large silver container: it rained from adzuki beans, red beans and potatoes, sweet noodles, sweet porridge (my favorite), and salty porridge (yuck), but the tea was always nice. You had to wait until everyone was served and then we would all say a prayer chant together in Hindi that was written on the wall for us, nice, but sometimes it tested your patience when you were hungry (and you know how I get). And after every meal we had to clean our own plates.


9-11a.m./ 2-3:15 p.m.-Library
Ah, I loved the library. It was small, but perfect, full of books that ranged from self-help, cheesey romance novels, guide books or just simple novels. I read about 6 books while I was there and I always arrived early and stayed until the kicked me out. I finally read Tuesdays with Morrie! Such a sweet story, I love Morrie. I also read about Buddhism, people who have found enlightenment, and many people's views of death. One good read, though the writing is way cheesey, is “The Monk who Sold His Ferrari”. It has a nice message.

12:00-Lunch
yes, lunch was my favorite meal, I don't know why because it was always similar to dinner, but since breakfast was usually very uninspiring I always arrived hungry. Lunch always consisted of white rice, chapati (basically salt-less tortillas), dhal (soup which was almost always with lentils) and then some sort of deeply oiled vegetable usually with potatoes, ah, and then, yes, watermelon! So good. They also give you some and then continue circling and offering more of everything, except for the watermelon, which is, I guess, expensive.



After lunch is when I started going to physical therapy at the hospital which I will write about in another blog. I timed it so that I would be back for the afternoon library session, such a nerd, even in India.

3:15-4:00- Lecture
So, this was basically an open question and answer session in which we could ask any questions we had and a swami (a very small swami, I think that he was about 4feet tall) would answer our questions. Unfortunately, we usually only got through one question because his answers were looong and he tended to digress. Though I guess it is also difficult to answer such questions:
-what happens to the soul after death
-What am I?
-What are chakras?
-How does karma work?

I will not attempt to explain these things but he said some nice things which I will briefly note:
-Hinduism is not a religion, it is a culture, a way of life
-Religion takes you further away form God while spirituality brings you closer to it
-Every religion has a different way of viewing the same thing, which is o.k. Because we all have different concepts of things. Ultimately, we are all waves in the same ocean
-Therefore, since we are all part of the same thing, we should all be kind to each other, so compassion is the most important thing you can offer
-All you need is love (the Beatles stole that from the swami I think)
-Oh, I also learned why Hindus wear that red dot in the middle of their forehead, it is just a reminder to be more mindful and compassion, kind of like Christians wearing the cross or something, that's kindof cool eh?


4-5-Tea time
Ah, I loved tea time as I would also be starving after so much sweating and thinking. It would be 110 degrees outside but the hot tea somehow tasted really good. They would also give us a wee snack, usually sweet or salty biscuits or once we got tiny donuts, and I mean tiny, like pill size, but they were full of sugar and grease—yummy. This time also always consisted of analyzing what we had just heard from the swami. This is also when my friend from Spain, Anna, said something really great. I had a lot of aches and pains in my body during the ashram, don't know why, and I said, “oh, I am just getting old”. And she says, “But! You are energy and energy has no age!!”
Love that.

5-6:15p.m. Afternoon yoga

6:45-7:45 Evening meditation

8p.m.-Dinner
Yeah, same version as lunch, but no watermelon, instead cucumbers, of which I always asked for seconds, it was the closest that I was going to get to a salad.

After dinner we would chat a bit and then eventually head to bed to start the same thing all over again the next day. On Sundays we had karma yoga from 6-7am. Which basically meant coming to clean the facilities in order to receive good karma, of which, we all went. Then we would either go to breakfast together and then venture off our own ways to just be tourists.

Most of the people in the ashram were either from Japan, Europe or Australia, but there was one Indian couple there as well, Raman and Sita and while there they celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary. They invited my friend Kaye, from Australia, and I to go with them to a Hindu temple for the occasion. We arrived and Raman proceeded to explain many of the gods. There are 33,000 gods in this religion, but what I learned is that they are really all incarnates of one God, so really Hinduism is monotheistic, but it's nice to think of different gods for different things, eh? Keeps it interesting I suppose. On a special occasion the Hindus do a ceremony called a puja, which is basically when incense is burned, a blessing is given as well as red dots on the forehead, which Kaye and I received on this day. We also were shown a Bodhi tree, which is where Buddha found enlightenment, very cool day.

On my last night in the ashram it also happened to be on a full moon, as well as the celebration of the day that the Buddha supposedly found enlightenment. I hadn't achieved enlightenment during the ashram, but I was trying for that anyway, seems kindof boring actually to be enlightened, too much sitting around.
Kaye suggested that we skip meditation and go down to the Ganges to make a puja for our own mothers (her mom died when she was 15 years old) into the mother of all mothers, the Ganges river. So, we went down and bought wee little alters made of straw bowls filled with flowers and wicks to light which are then put in the Ganges, after a blessing. After doing this, we placed our feet in the Ganges and listened to the chanting occurring on the other side of the river.







We waited for the moon, but it wasn't coming out so we returned to the ashram for our last meal,which we were quite happy about. The food became really bland and ugh. After dinner we found some stairs near the kitchen and went up to watch the full moon, so beautiful. A few minutes later a lightning storm started and it began pouring rain, it was awesome, a great last memory for my spiritual retreat.

Strangest thing that happened: One night I left meditation early, and decided to grab my computer and go sit where there is a nice view of the Ganges and write. So, I sat down, turned on my computer and began. I could hear the monkeys around me as well as the dogs but it is a common occurrence. So, I began typing away when suddenly, a monkey jumped on my back! I screamed! And the dogs ran over to me barking and scared the monkey off. I was in shock, nobody came out, the dogs just kept barking and well, I slowly turned off my computer and vowed to never skip meditation again.

Funniest moment: In my first yoga class the teacher, my favorite teacher, Gorak, told us to sit cross legged and to laugh “a deep from your belly laugh” and we all sat on the floor, in the classroom, and laughed, deeply, from the belly. Funny Indians.

Rishikesh, India

Rishikesh is located in northern India and considered to be one of the holiest places in India. It is also the yoga capital of India, perhaps the world. The town is built along the Ganges river and there are ghats, basically entrances via steps to the river where you can sit or bathe in its waters. It is very difficult to find meat in this town and impossible to find alcohol. It also completely shuts down by 9p.m. I spent one day there wandering around with a girl from France that I had met on the train, here are some pictures.
The town is full of people, steps, people trying to sell you something, beggars, cows, monkeys, yogis, people who want to be yogis, spiritual and enlightened people, and fake people who act enlightened in order to get money.

The Taj Mahal

It is called the most beautiful building in the world, and it's true, it is quite beautiful. but, I think what makes it even more beautiful is the story behind it. The Taj Mahal which literally means "crown palace" was built by the king of India after his wife died in childbirth. It took 22 years, 40 million rupees and was made out of marble and precious gems donated from different countries around the world. As it accounts for 75% of tourism in one of the most polluted countries in the world these non-polluting, battery-powered vehicles are used to arrive at its gates.



Upon entering it is quite overwhelming by the masses of people that are all there to view the same thing. These was my first glimpse:


The Taj Mahal is supposed to represent beauty and balance and it is completely symmetrical, the only thing that isn't is the mausoleum, the only thing inside the building where the queen's grave resides, symmetrically placed in the exact middle of the building. the king's grave was added later when he died, and is the only unbalanced part of it. Taking photographs of the inside was prohibited but entering it was quite overwhelming, seeing a husband and wife buried next to each other. The husband had obviously died an unhappy man after he had built such an amazing structure for his wife. Call him crazy, or eccentric, or romantic. Who knows, but there is definitely a feeling of love that emanates from the entire grounds of the Taj Mahal. Especially has the gems that decorate it shine and glimmer at sunset, like little stars from all over the universe. I was in awe, despite the crowdedness, the touristy-ness of it all, I was in awe of such an act of love. I keep thinking about what Ben said to me: amber, perhaps the book and the foundation are your Taj Mahal for Fede. Perhaps.



My pictures don't give it justice so I only included a couple--it is an incentive for all of you to visit it someday.


What does this look like???

Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Fort

This morning I left at 7a.m. on a train to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. On the train ride there I sat next to a woman from Japan, named Meg (the easy English version of her Japanese name). she was feeling sick so we didn't talk much but when we arrived she asked me if I was going to the Taj Mahal, yes, I said, and you? She was, and she told me about a tour that she was going to take of Fatehpur Sikri, Agra Fort, and the Taj mahal. I was feeling tired and knew that it was going to be an intense day so i decided to join her on her tour. We paid our pricey fee and got on a tour bus with three other people, also Japanese. Our tour guides name was Zameer.
-My name means, 'voice of the heart', he explained.

He was very knowledgeable and it was nice to learn a bit about Indian culture. The bus ride to our first stop of Fatehpur Sikri ('Fate' means victory and "pur" is a suffix for "place" used for the names of many towns in India) was an hour long, ugh. We passed more garbage and people and poverty, but also big open fields where barley, wheat and sugar cane is farmed during their respectable seasons. We finally arrived to Fatehpur which were the government grounds for the kingdom during a time and date that I don't remember. The kingdom lived there for 16 years until a water shortage led them to move to where the Taj Mahal was built. During that time th eking and queen tried to unite all religions so there were headquarters for Hindus, Muslims and Christians. What a great concept. I asked Zameer what happened, why there is no longer such tolerance.
-"The British empire arrived", he said. The following are a few pictures. The one of the ground is actually where the king and queen played chess, and they used actual people as their "playing pieces". The king and queen sat above in their headquarters and made their "moves" from there. In fact, the king and queen would never descend to the common grounds, as they were royalty and always sat above.









After that, we visited the tallest gate in Asia, shown below with my fellow Japanese tour companions.


After that, and lunch at an overpriced tourist restaurant we went to Agra Fort, another long drive of an hour and a half. We had to take a detour because there was a big traffic jam. Agra Fort became the new headquarters for the kingdom after the water shortage at Fatehpur.


At first, it just seemed like another monument and I wasn't that impressed. Then, we entered another area that resembles the Taj Mahal and I learned that it is also the place where the king that built the Taj Mahal was imprisoned. The king built the Taj Mahal after his wife died in childbirth. He was so stricken with grief that he decided to build it as a monument of his love for her. When he completed it he intended to build himself a Taj Mahal but black. The building of the Taj Mahal had taken 22 years utilizing all the resources of the kingdom. his son knew that building a second one would be frivolous, an unnecessary use of the kingdom's resources so he put his father in prison.
This is where the father was and where he could see, via a reflection of a diamond that he had, the Taj Mahal.



Ironically, as I said, these headquarters were made from the same material as the Taj Mahal, which must have been painful for the king. The Taj Mahal is layers of brick, sandstone, and then the marble of the building. What makes it so beautiful, and so romantic are the gems that decorate it. The gems were donated from different kindgoms all over the world as a gesture of honoring the queen that had died. Here is a small example of what they looked like.


Throughout the day I took notice of all of the beautiful Indians, especially the children. There were so many Indians visiting these historical sites and they were all dressed so exquisitely. however, I was afraid to take pictures, especially of the children as I didn't want to offend anyone. Here is one that I took of some women at Agra Fort. I wonder about their lives, especially their relationships with their husbands. Do their husbands love them so much that they would build a Taj Mahal for them?




As we left Agra Fort, we were bombarded again with more people trying to sell us things. I bought a lemonade and opened it and took a couple swigs. A little girl was following me, asking me for the lemonade. I don't know why, but I felt compelled to acquiesce, and I handed it to her. she looked so happy.
The little things.

India Intro--A country of So's

"Welcome to New Delhi, India where the local temperature is 39 degree celsius". Yes, that is 102 degree Fahrenheit. After I found my bag I was picked up by a driver from the airport, yet we had to walk about 15 minutes to get to the taxi because he didn't want to have to pay the airport fee. As we began driving an intense hot breeze entered the car and the driver told me that this is the low season in India because of the heat, great. 102 degrees doesn't sound that hot actually but it just seems so much hotter, in fact everything in India is just so much more soooooo.
And it is a constant so.
There are so many people, rickshaws, cars, and SOOO much garbage.
There are so many sounds: cell phones, music, both Indian and pop rock, chanting at mosques, women and children begging, men trying to sell you something "hello m'am, how are you? would you like to buy something?"
There are so many smells: urine, garbage, petrol,shit, and this sour smell that I can't explain, probably a mixture of all of the above, that comes without warning and lingers for a bit, kindof pierces you, and then it leaves again. But then every once in a while there is a also a nice smell of sandalwood or jasmine incense burning.
The constant professionalism of con-artists is also apparent. When I arrived at my "hotel" i decided to quickly go and buy my train ticket for Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal where I wanted to go the following day. The reception desk guy told me to "walk straight down the street and the train station is there, then go to the first floor to buy your ticket". Simple enough. So i walked down the street and easily found the train station. But, I didn't know how to get to the first floor so I asked what looked like an "official", and who had just helped another foreigner with directions how to get to the first floor to buy my ticket. He said "come with me", and we proceeded to leave the train station and cross the street. Hmm, he walked ahead and me and we kept walking down the street but the "go the first floor of the train station" was echoing in the back of my head", so I stopped. "This isn't right", I said to the man who was actually leading me to a travel agency to get commission. So, I left him, he followed me insisting that where he was taking me was correct. I ignored him and told him to leave me alone and crossed the street again. I tried to go up some stairs but another "official" asked me for my train ticket. "I don't have one, I want to buy one, on the first floor". No, he said, you have to go down the street (the other direction from where the man told me). He also said "don't listen to anyone trying to tell you differently, there are many people who want to get commission off of you". I got frustrated with him as well but his argumetn was convincing so I went down the street to look for this place. Another guy followed me there and when I got there, I saw a sign saying "tourists, please go the first floor of the train station to buy your ticket". Oh yeah, I forgot, there was one more guy in the midst of all of this who also told me to go down the street. Anyways, after I saw this sign I knew that the ticket office was at the train station and I would find it. So, I returned and went to the train police post and asked what really was an official where to go. And, he said, yes, just go up those stairs over there.
Damn, they were good. When I went upstairs I was a bit shaken and the ticket vendor knew it.
-"Take a moment, and breathe", he said. I did and proceeded to try and purchase a ticket. And then he asked me for my passport.
-"What? I don't have my passport, why do I need my passport, I didn't want to carry it around with me."
-"I'm sorry, you need it to purchase the ticket."
I took another breath and walked, quickly, looking down for most of the time to avoid the "hello, where do you want to go", "hello, do you want to buy something?", hello, where are you from?"

I entered the hotel, got my damn passport and walked back, with the same background noise and pestering.

So, yeah, got the train ticket as well as a train ticket out of New Delhi for two days from then.
And then, I did some wandering through the streets of Patchanj. I don't know if the pictures do it justice. After, I took a tuk-tuk to another area that said they had coffee shops. I just wanted to sit in a place and write. The area is called Connaught place and it is strikingly different to where I had been. shopping malls with fashion shops. Ah, India.
What will I see next in a country that is so big, so diverse, so intense.
I am so anxious and excited to find out.

Sorry, it has been so overwhelming in Delhi that I haven't taken many pictures.

Pokhara and Nepal

Wow, I am not very good at this blog thing. I left my Thailand days on April 1st and landed in Nepal on April 2nd. Yes, it was a long journey for such a short distance but that's the way it goes on a budget. I left for my Everest base camp trek on the 4th and you can see pictures and some information at www.elfede.org. The impetus for going to base camp was to do some research for the foundations efforts to improve mountain rescue on Aconcagua. It was an amazing experience wherein I met many people who support me in my endeavors. Unfortunately my camera battery kept dying so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have wanted.

After I returned I decided to go to a small lakeside town called Pokhara. I was there for 8 days and did a lot of writing for the book. I stayed at a wee guesthouse called Guari Shankar where I would wake every morning at 6a.m. and write in the gardens.