Dispatch from India

Tomorrow is the most important Hindu festival of the year, Diwali, also referred to as the Festival of Lights. Diwali celebrates the victory of light over dark and it promises to be a really exciting day. The fireworks have already started, and Rishikesh has been decorated all over with colourful lights. Talking to one of my colleagues tonight, who was explaining the meaning of Diwali, she told us that Rishikesh is one of the best places to be during this holiday.

I have been in India now for three weeks, our teacher training is coming to a close and it’s been an amazing experience with ups and downs and many an early night. If I was to begin to describe the India I have seen, I wouldn’t know where to begin.

Maybe I should begin with the sounds, the music that is the constant soundtrack to our days, the bells ringing at all the surrounding temples, the songs and the chanting and the occasional monkey squeak that warns you that a pack of them are about to arrive.

The boys playing cricket in the school yard next to my room, the crickets singing at night, and right now, the constant sound of celebratory explosions near and far echoing through the green mountains.

I shouldn’t forget the drums. India is a noisy place, but it’s a noise that punctuates the days and the nights, with the rhythm of so many lives and a permeating joy.

If I only remember one thing about India when I leave, I think it will be the smell. The scents of jasmine, sandalwood and a heady array of incense that fills the streets, restaurants, cafes and ashrams everyday. Everywhere you go there is that constant reminder that you are in India, the land of essences, spices and herbs.

Maybe it will be the food that I miss the most. Here at the ashram, where I take my meals each day, the chef makes the most flavourful meals out of the simplest ingredients. We follow a Sattvic diet, which means not only is the food vegetarian and mostly vegan, but also that we don’t eat things like onions and garlic; two ingredients I would never have dreamt of leaving out of my own cooking back in Cairo.

I hadn’t considered becoming a vegetarian before, but here it took me two weeks to realise I hadn’t eaten cheese or eggs, so I couldn’t have been missing them very much. Saying that, I did feel a penchant for chocolate this evening, and seeing as its a holiday tomorrow I bought myself a slab of German chocolate.

Most of all I think I will miss the yoga. I have learned so much in these last few weeks about yoga, the philosophy behind it, the path of a yogi, the correct way to breathe, and to do a pose. I realised that I knew nothing at all before I came here, and that the subject of yoga is really quite infinite – just as I had suspected.

On the other hand a few things have been confirmed for me, one of those being that the end of this course is the actual beginning of my journey with yoga, and that I want to take this new found knowledge and deepen my understanding of many things. My hopes are taking a new shape, and there is so much more to come.

WE SAID THIS: Stay tuned for Nancy’s next post and read her last one here.