December 2010
2 posts
Feeling creative
It’s been a looong time since I’ve written any poetry, so go easy on me, yeah?
I’m traveling with a ghost,
She sits patiently in a corner in my mind,
Legs swinging and smile knowing,
And waits for me to stop ignoring her,
She doesn’t speak, or move around,
She is so calm for her age, so mature,
She doesn’t cry or ask for sympathy,
She just waits
I’m traveling...
Overcoming 'Heart-Shyness'
When I think about it logically it does make a sort of sense for me to call my journey a pilgrimage, as many of my fellow travellers do. There are indeed elements which make it very similar to a journey of devotion to a place where pilgrams hope to find enlightenment, though my path leads more to the metaphorical destinations of solitude, silence and the psyche than actual places of worship. I was...
November 2010
1 post
The Harshest Reality
Under a thick cloud of fog and fumes, alongside a Ganga choked by tradition, religion and pollution, stands one of the world’s oldest constantly inhabited cities; Benares. It’s a place steeped in history, touts, karma cola (purchasable spiritualism) and ritual, where stepping out one’s door requires careful mental preparation. You’ll be pushed and pulled, hassled and groped...
October 2010
2 posts
Everyday excitement
While the sights, smells and sounds of India are captivating as ever, it’s difficult not to become a little blase when sunk into routine. Although life here seems a blur of festivals (especially now that we’re entering festival season) there are, in fact, days, even weeks, in which we face nothing but 6 days of classes with children that at times make one hoarse with yelling at them.
...
September 2010
3 posts
Festive time...again
In India it would appear that almost every day is special. The Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Jains, all the different religions of India divide up the weekdays and spread around the festive vibe until life becomes a haze of incense and puja (prayer), feasts and fasts and, best of all, dances. Last week, on the night before the full moon, we celebrated the final day of...
Still breathing...
Despite the faulty internet connection and inability to use any technology without it mysteriously breaking (we’re blaming it on the eunich who cursed me in Agra) I am, in fact, still alive and loving life. Routine has been established, sprinkled with a fair amount of bad habits and rather boring activities, and time continues to pass without a great deal of excitement.
Days, weeks and...
natticus-deactivated20110412 asked: ELIOT IS AWESOME... not a question but you can respond to it however you please.
LOVE NATTiCUS
LOVE NATTiCUS
August 2010
4 posts
Compulsory Citing
So I’m just writing from the internet cafe at our hotel in Agra where we’ve come for the thoroughly neccessary visit to the Taj Mahal. We’ve already been offered the opportunity to ‘chill out’ by a guy with a ‘Hemp: for a cleaner planet’ sticker in his jewellery shop window and the touts have been persistant and patient, following us everywhere since our...
Finding Home
India is chaotic and organised, green and orange-red, happy and horrible, shocking and stunning and absolutely mind-blowing. It’s totally foreign and yet exactly like coming home and both nothing and everything make sense.
Shivpuri, a small town in Madhya Pradesh, seven hours from Delhi and two from Gwalior, is small, crowded and hectic and everyone, and I mean everyone, stares. I’ve...
Two (?) Weeks Later
Living very much in the present it feels rather odd to look back over the last few weeks in order to try and catch all of you up. I’ve not blogged during this time for a variety of reasons, including the sheer effort of trying to adjust, being busy with classes, being ill and confined to bed and of course the added obstacle of the internet being down. So there is a lot to tell you!
Since...
Dream-state
With the speed, and force, of a snail under anesthetic, the realisation that I am overseas is puncturing my psyche. I can go for up to an hour just doing stuff, getting from A to B, without the full force of it hitting me. Then, sometimes, I take a moment (which seems to happen more regularly as the concept becomes more substantial) and I find this massive grin spreading across my face. Standing...
July 2010
2 posts
Plastic Reality
Singapore is (go figure) hot and humid. The streets are pristine, the buildings brilliantly clean and all relatively new and the shopping is ridiculous. Walking down Orchard Road one is struck with enough major designer names to render one a victim of a consumerism-coma, and it doesn’t help that you start seeing double. In the space of two blocks there are 3 Louis Vuitton stores, 2...
In Transit
Malaysia is hot, humid and the most luscious of greens. Boasting the worlds best airport 3 years running, Kuala Lumpur International, with it’s brilliant sweeping windows and inter-terminal train, is supposed to be the height of travel…just don’t do it on a budget. The airport’s third terminal is known as LCCT or the Low Cost Carrier Terminal and as punishment for not...