Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Yer mum...

So I continue the India mission with a mother on hand to provide motherly support and to allow me to affirm exactly who it is I’ve become.

She travelled a long way from London to Delhi and then another domestic flight from Delhi to Dharmsala. On the day of arrival, I was there at 8.30am ready and waiting to greet her with big smiles and hair. She arrived many hours later at about 2pm. My taxi driver, a good Tibetan man, delivered to me by a cooperating God, on hearing that the flight was delayed for a few hours actually offered to wait for no extra cost. It was necessary he wait as the airport was so small there were no other taxis in the area.

And instead of just sitting around in the heat getting sweaty and impatient, he told me that he hadn’t showered this morning and would I fancy taking a swim in a nearby river? Nice one. Swimming was not actually possible, but he’d come equipped with towel and soap so I had a beautiful refreshing cold bath in a river.

And then mum arrived. Big hugs and reassurance to overcome jetlag and irritability. On the first night we ended up at Tal’s guesthouse where a rather large bunch of textbook India types were ready to greet my newly-initiated mother with love, attention and chillum.

“What is it?”

“Chillum. There’s some tobacco mixed with hash and you put it in this big pipe to smoke the oil from it. It’s very nice. Want to try?”

“Not today.”

Fair enough. But it was bound to happen sooner or later…

It's nice though, everyone is very accepting of a mother's presence here. When I write it like that, it seems ridiculous that anyone ever would be unaccepting of a mother's presence, but I was brought up in England and it is a country wracked with denial and suffering so, you know, these things can get confusing.

After two nights in our posh hotel which was actually a bit of a rip off and rather useless, we moved to Bhagsu and we have a nice place very central to the tourist action. We have spent a few days exploring, shopping, talking and drinking mint tea. Today she has ventured out to do some solo exploration.

The jam sessions at Tal's guesthouse have become something of a local phenomenon. Monday night’s jam had around fifty people gathered in a very small space to make an almighty harmony. Many people yesterday told me that ‘everyone’s talking about it.’ So I went again late last night and nothing was happening. People kept saying things like ‘we need to meet earlier to jam because it’s too late to make too much noise’. Still, despite noise warnings, we had a quieter but no less inventive jam and many songs were created out of the air.

Effie continues to be the perfect woman. After I joked the other day about Tal and Ben being always surrounded by the hottest women, she said that if I wanted to be with other women, it’s ok, just let her know. It’s one ingenius way to ensure I wouldn’t want to go near anyone else. No one else has this superhuman but ultimately reasonable level of personal understanding. Besides, it’s hard enough trying to juggle time with my mother, time with Effie, time with all my other friends here and time to myself. More hot girls? I don't think so...

Finished Life of Pi. It's lovely.

Currently reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Sounds heavy, but it’s surprisingly light. And maybe that’s the point…

So, I must go find my mother and eat some spicy food. Love to all…x

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