Evening adventures

Two nights ago, I walked to McLeod Ganj, which is the slightly bigger town about a kilometer from where I live, at 11pm with my friend, Ben. We were bored and looking for some fresh air and stimulation. Ben is fun to walk around with because being half Israeli/half American and doing a good job of learning Hindi, he understands pretty much everything that is going on around him. Every Israeli who makes a comment about us, every Indian who takes the piss or begins debating how much they want to rip us off – he can translate it all and of course whip out the secret weapon of actually being able to speak in their tongue.

While we wandered aimlessly about, at one point, three bored policemen, patrolling the streets and doing a good job of making everyone feel on the whole a little less safe struck up the usual imaginative conversation. “Which country?” etc. We told them invented lies and generally took the piss. They began asking us for passports. We laughed in their faces. I have begun to develop a real contempt for the police in India. The corruption and violence I have seen them deliver is sickening and I have heard many reports from the Tibetan boys here about persecution from the cops.

Eventually these three explained that there was actually a curfew in McLeod and we couldn’t walk the streets after twelve (or face harassment from them). They told us to be on our way but then calmly decided to search Ben’s bag and my pockets before letting us go. Cheeky fuckers. I think that under more normal circumstances I would have told them to fuck off and walked away but we were looking for adventures and besides, we had nothing to hide so we let them search us. Despite being amusing, it was also kind of creepy.

Eugh.

And last night I had an almighty jam. I had been enjoying a quiet evening with an American friend, Rhythm, and just as we decided to head homewards we thought we'd go explore and see if we could find a restaurant still open to get one last chai. Well, we found chai but also a big outdoor jam of epic proportions. It's rare that the sound of a jam session excites me to the point of quickening my step, but as we walked towards the sound I could hear various voices improvising, Pepe on Spanish guitar, harmonica, subtle drums, and to top it off there was my two friends playing their Hang instrument. This is the percussive instrument that looks like a UFO and sounds like Heaven. It's truly a wonder. Here's a picture of one.

So I dropped myself firmly into the middle and got stuck in. We made some beautiful music.

And when I got to bed it was 5am. Oops. But to make up for it I am making a trip to the mountains today to spend a couple of nights in a cave with some friends. Should be grand.

So it seems I am kind of stuck. I have a lot of good friends here, some of the most interesting musicians around and little will to put my rucksack back on. Besides, I need to find my mum a good place to hang out and smoke pot (ahem, do yoga).