Crossplanet

Grita – She sells hair-pins on the water-front in Kanyakumari. Although we didn’t speak the same language, we manage to communicate and that was fun!

Scot – A young fisherman in Rameswaram. We had great moments, swimming on the coral barrier, watching fishes, having lunch prepared by his mother. Then we went together to Madurai, he stayed one day with me, sightseeing and playing with the remote control of the color TV at the hotel.

Petrina – A sweet silly 11-years old girl living in Trichy. Her family hosted me for 2 days, and it was a really interesting experience to share their life.

Rajan – He hosted me on my arrival and departure in Chennai. Smart young man, we had really interesting talks, and nice dinners. His mother cooked traditional south specialities for me.

I like travelling by train in India, especially the night train. The berths are really comfortable, it’s air-conditioned, and I sleep like a baby, rocked by the movements of the train. The best night of my last journey was from Madurai to Kanyakumari. I had boarded in the middle of the night, after quite a long wait at the station. After the usual good sleep, I woke up around 6am, when many people got off at some station in the middle of nowhere. I woke up in a complete different landscape. Day-break, the train was riding in the middle of rice-fields, palm-trees everywhere, a mountain here and there, the sun rising slowly, still some mist on the banana-trees. A moment of pure magic. I stood up by the door, enjoying the chilled air of the approaching sea.

Slumdog millionnaire... such a good movie. Made be happy, happy to get back to Victoria station, Mumbai, to the Taj mahal, to the qtmosphere of India. As usual the music from A.R. Rahman is really good, recently oscarized. It feels good to see this kind of low-budget movie be praised by the public and the film industry. Ok, it's not an indian movie, but it's got a real taste of India.

I wish you all a happy Diwali and a prosperous new year!

En cet fin d’après-midi du mois d’août, je me trouvai à Haridwar, ville sainte de l’Uttaranchal, point de départ des pèlerinages vers les sources du Ganges. J’avais passé la journée sur les ghats, ces marches qui descendent dans le fleuve sacré, au milieu des ces milliers d’hommes et de femmes, pèlerins, promeneurs, adolescents en mal de baignade.

Mon tour était venu de me plonger dans les Ganges, Ganga mâ, la « mère Ganges » des Indiens. Descendant les marches, j’entrai dans l’eau et je sentais l’eau gonflée mes vêtements. Deux jeunes couples se baignaient aussi. Une des jeunes femmes, reconnaissant mon « étrangeté », me tendit la main et c’est avec elle que je fis mon baptême. Une fois dans l’eau jusqu’à la poitrine, elle me dit : « la tête aussi, la tête sous l’eau ! » Je n’avais pas parcouru toute cette distance pour être timorée. Je pris une grande inspiration, et tête sous l’eau, plusieurs fois, au milieu des rires et des paroles rassurantes de ces jeunes gens. Un vrai baptême du Ganges.

Puis je remontai sur les marches et me laissai sécher au soleil de cet fin d’après-midi. Tout simplement heureuse d’être là.

I remember one day in Dharamsala, after lunch, I went for a long walk up the mountain, following the small road leading to Dharamkot, where the Vipassana meditation center is. It was a misty day, village and mountain wrapped in mist, creating such an atmosphere of "enchanted forest".

The road was climbing up quite hard, 500 m higher in only 3 km, I was walking peacefully, quietly. I was alone, but far away from being lonely...

Silence all over, allowing the nature to talk... Birds singing, branches cracking, trees whispering with the light wind, animals animating the forest, the rain chanting... I felt very impressed to walk among those fierce deodars, the Himalayan cedar trees, so tall, standing so right.

Every now and then the rain was falling, and despite my umbrella soon I was completely wet, but I wasn't cold. It was raining and I wasn't sad. I don't remember crossing other people on the road.

It took me more than one hour to go all the way up, to Dharamkot. On the way back, the rain started to fall harder. Walking with sandals became slippery. I took off my shoes, and continued to walk barefoot, all wet under my umbrella.

At some point I stopped. There I was, in the middle of the enchanted forest, feeling  the silence deep inside, every inch of my body feeling the atmosphere, every part of my being fully living this beautiful moment. At that moment, I had a glimpse of what awareness is and the happiness that came with it is forever mine.

Last summer I've spent a few days of peace in Dharamsala, an important moment of my travel in Northern India.

I didn't know exactly why I've put this place on my itinerary until I arrived. When I reached the village, after nearly 10 hours of a chaotic journey on a noisy lousy local bus struggling on mountain roads half-destroyed by the heavy rains, when I felt the chilled air on my face, when I smelt the atmosphere of the Himalaya mountains, then I knew I had to come. It was so peaceful there that I could feel a general different state of mind, a different "spirit" animating the people in the streets.

Right from the start, I felt at home there and it was funny to notice that in just a few days I had already picked up some habits : my favourite place for meals (Tibetan food is really delicious!), walking the Kora (the mani path around the temple) to start and end the day, meditating at the temple, a long walk in the woods around after lunch...

Right for the start also, I met some nice people, like Tom, a Dutch man living near Bangalore, who shared most of my days and taught me so much about life in Dharamsala and Tibetan culture, and Tashi, a young Tibetan painting teacher.

Many happy memories of the stay there. I've gathered some pictures in this album here.

More on Dharamsala and the Tibetan government in exile :

The government of Tibet in exile: http://www.tibet.com/

The official site of Central Tibetan Administration: http://www.tibet.net/

The office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama: http://www.dalailama.com/

Many thanks to Lou who sent me this link and made me discover Roger Bella, a talented photographer who published really nice pictures about a stay in Pushkar. More pictures are here.

I will definitely put Pushkar on my wish list for the next trip in India.

After 2 weeks in grey Paris, I miss the cheerful colours of Rajasthan...