Mindfulness

Thank you to all who have emailed. Reading notes from home helps me keep some perspective. I got a great email from my dad today reminding me to be vigilant, even if I begin to feel comfortable walking these steep, dirty streets. What a great topic, and an excuse to write a top ten list, which I have not done in a while:

Top 10 Mindful Practices for the Road

10. Mind the water. If you are in a place with plentiful, clean water, be grateful. If you are not, exercise caution. This means brushing teeth with bottled water, avoiding nicks while shaving (or just not shaving), keeping your mouth closed during a shower, not eating fresh fruits or veggies under any circumstances unless you peeled them yourself, not eating any food with fruits or veggies unless it has been cooked at a high temperature (e.g. soup) to kill parasites and bacteria, never drinking anything with ice in it, and never swimming in, washing in or drinking from even the safest looking local water source, including "clean" mountain streams. I once camped in Montana with some friends, and one of them drank from a mountain stream against our advice since she thought such fresh runoff from snowmelt just had to be pure. She was doubled up in her tent with cryptosyridium for several days after that.

9. Mind the food. Same rules apply, and in a place like this, eating any kind of meat is asking for it. Most shops that sell meat to restaurants display their wares by hanging the carcasses in the shop window (if they have a window, and most are street stalls that do not) where the meat is visited all day by flies. Refrigeration is an expensive luxury.

8. Mind the monkeys, cows, and dogs. Monkeys are fun to watch, but they can be dangerous. I spotted some langurs in the forest below Temple Road this morning. They'd robbed a vegetable stand and were eating the spoils. There are also big troops of macacques that sneak into town and cause all kinds of trouble. Even big cities have trouble, as you can see in this article about monkeys in Delhi. Cows and bulls are not a big deal unless they step on your foot or get ticked off and gore you. They seem to be very laid back if you don't harass them. Dogs in undeveloped countries are most often not pets the way we think of them, with collars and tags and shots. Instead they live in packs in the streets and can carry rabies and lots of other diseases. T

7. Mind the traffic. The biggest street menace is traffic. I've spent so much time walking around and almost getting run over (no sidewalks, streetlights, lane markers or stop signs here) that by now I can tell whether the vehicle behind me is a Bajaj motorscooter, an Enfield motorcycle, a Tata Sumo mini-SUV or a goverment jeep. The good thing is, drivers warn everybody they are coming by honking their horns-- a lot! I have learned to take honking very seriously. At night, I mind a driffferent kind of traffic--robbers. I stay in at night unless I am in a group. I have seen people being robbed in my travels to Spain, France, India and other places . Better safe than sorry.

6. Mind your manners. I find that a smile and a please or thank you makes every transaction more pleasant and makes people more willing to help out when they can. I am surprised at how many Western travelers are curt, impatient or rude. Maybe they are not feeling well because they had some tap water and tandoori chicken and then got stepped on by a cow after the monkeys robbed them, but an important concept to know about is "face". It is important to phrase things in a way that shows you recognize another person's dignity. If you seem to assume they are not smart, honest, well-intentioned or kind, or you make it impossible for them to show these attributes, you are insulting them. This is a tricky one, very subtle.

5. Mind your body language. Learn what offends. I have to know when to take off my shoes, when it is not okay for me to have bare arms, when I should not wear certain colors (e.g. black in a Jain temple), when I should not sit so my feet are pointing at someone, what to do if I step on someone's foot (appaently a big deal in India). I also have to be careful of the most simple gestures, e.g. giving a double thumbs up in Tibetan culture means "I apologize." Pointing at someone instead of gesturing with your chin is very rude in Indian culture.

4. Mind your physical health. This morning I had tea with fresh ginger root to calm my stomach. Today I will lay off the chili paste a little. I drink even when I am not thirsty in order to avoid dehydration since this is a relatively dry, high altitude environment. I wash my hands with Purell hand sanitizer a lot, especially after typing on keyboards like this one. I get 8 hours of sleep as often as I can. It is easier to interact with people when I am not preoccupied with my own discomfort, so maintenance is a must.

3. Mind you mental health. I try to keep track of when I have taken in a lot of new, shocking, or important information, and I give myself a mental rest afterwards. Since so much of travel is new, it can wear out your mind, and then your emotions get all goofy. I try to pace myself.

2. Mind you mission. Remember that your top job is just to learn, to smile, to endure, to adapt. It is important to remember that you can do all of these things without sticking to an exact timetable, routine or set of assumptions.

1. That being said, LET GO. Travel only changes you if you are open to change. I have come to believe that a place like India can be a heaven or a hell, depending on one's own perception of it, and indeed it is both, sometimes from moment to moment. Thinking that the world will adapt to you leads you to hell, while letting go of how you think it should be opens the door to heaven.

This turned out way more serious than I intended. Here's a little more lighthearted top ten:

Top Ten Fun Things About India

10. Riding in a cab is a way bigger adrenaline rush than any video game.
9. Dropped a banana peel? No worries, the next cow will eat it.
8. Monkey show! Every hour of the day!
7. Walking across a street in Delhi is a great free test of cardiac health.
6. Several hundred gods, no waiting.
5. Bollywood ringtones provide carnival atmoshpere.
4. Dinner for four? Five bucks.
3. Betting on how high the thermometer will go in Delhi (114 by the month of May).
2. No need to explain where you are from. Almost every person you meet has a cousin who lives there.
1. Maybe it's important, maybe it's not. The universe will be here an awful long time, and we'll all be reincarnated anyway, so relax!