Mahabalipuram

I had the most amazing weekend; it was so surreal. It all started on Friday when I met Rajesh Vaidhya who is an absolutely incredible veena player - just an absolute joy to watch and listen to. He did a workshop for the KM students and played traditional Carnatic music as well as some really crazy english tunes like Michael Jackson and Beethoven and Mozart. He even played Fur Elise on the veena!! It was one of the best concerts I have ever been to hands down - of any kind of music. He has a certain effect that makes you stop and say "wait a minute, this is Waaay cooler than anything I do. I've got it all wrong."

Then , it was Rahman's mother's 60th birthday on Friday and the KM faculty were invited to a gala party for her at the Park Hotel which included fantastic north Indian fare, media cameras and involved fancy attire. I had just bought a really nice suit from Pantaloons that I enthusiastically showed off (I haven't had a chance to wear anything I've bought yet so this was especially fun) and I hobnobbed with a few people: the singer Sujatha who sang in Roja and Rahman's manager, Noel. I asked Sujatha about how to maintain vocal health in such a humid climate and she gave me some tips and told me about her ENT that she sees for vocal scopes etc. Anyway, I spent the night running away from cameras and uncomfortably sitting with the rest of the faculty who didn't know anyone. But it was fun. And I finally got to meet Rahman's wife and she is stunningly beautiful in person. What a woman!

But it didn't end there - we stayed up all night and early the next morning, Shasta, Robert, Eilidh, Michael, Liz and I jumped in a car and went to Mahabalipuram to watch the sunrise. I was so exhausted and was really debating not going but once we got there I was so happy I went because it turned out to be one of the best experiences I've ever had. We walked directly to the beach and sat on the sand while the sun came up. I don't know if I've ever actually watched a sunrise before but it was just incredible. After about 2 hours we walked back up and climbed the hills to see the rock carvings, temples and caves. It was only 7:30 am when we finished but it was already about 100 degrees outside and by that time I was just plain exhausted.

We got back in the car and were driving back until we saw a huge sign for Golden Sun Resort on the right hand side. We promptly stopped. We walked in and asked how much it would cost to use the beach for the day and it was only 75 rupees!!! I had brought my bathing suit just in case, but public beaches here are just so creepy and people just stand around and watch you so I never attempted to jump in. But the resort had their own private beach and at 8 oclock in the morning there was absolutely no one there except for a goat herder and scattered cows. The best part was that it was CLEAN. We ate a "continental breakfast" which was just eggs, toast and coffee, got into our bathing suits and jumped head first into the ocean. We stayed at the beach till 3 in the afternoon and I now look Nigerian. All in all, it was the best day ever. We came home and passed out for the rest of the day.

The next morning I woke up early at 7:30 am and went with Josh and Liz to the Sahaj Marg Ashram to meditate. Josh practices raja yoga through the Shri Rama Chandra Mission and is actually a preceptor himself. He's been having meditation sittings with all of us who are interested and it's actually quite nice. I definitely believe in the overall benefits of meditation in general, but I am suspicious of groups that say their way is the right way to gain spiritual clarity. The "master" only does sittings on Sunday mornings and it lasts for almost an hour. We sit cross-legged with our eyes closed and the master supposedly "cleans" out extraneous and potentially harmful layers of resistance that we have built over the years. I believe that that's true - we do add layers and layers of resistance to ourselves based on the experiences we've had, but isn't that just a survival technique in the darwinian sense? Don't we harden our psyches as a way to not get hurt again? I don't know how much I believe in this particular technique, but there have been a couple of times where I have felt incredibly potent surges of pure emotion like anger, fear, and guilt for no reason during meditation. So who knows? Maybe there's something to it. After the ashram, I went and sat at a coffee shop called Mocha and enjoyed a lamb panini, which I washed down with cranberry infused lemonade.

Seriously. It was the best weekend ever.

Some pics:

The sun about to come up










The sun starting to come up. It was a teeny bit foggy so the picture didn't come out as clear as it actually was

Eilidh and Robert watching the sunrise


The sun finally coming up




How crazy is this picture?? And it's not digitally enhanced in any way. Nuts.



There were these tiny little crabs running around all over the beach. They dig little holes and walk into them sideways.




The Shore Temple right on the beach. Apparently there are a whole bunch of small temples that have been covered by the ocean. And when the tsunami came and the water receded, all of these small temples were uncovered, so everyone went farther out to look at it and then perished from the wave.

All of us who went: from left to right, Liz, Shasta, Eilidh, Robert, Michael








Large rock carving








Remnants of a temple








A goat precariously perched on the rock wall








A random giant rock. I'd be a great tour guide wouldn't I?








Liz trying to push the giant rock








The view from the top







At the Golden Sun Resort







The view from the thatched hut








Oh how much fun it was!