Going out - going in

I was in Sri Lanka for the last 4 days. It was great. I have a 1-year visa for India, but it says: "a single stay should not exceed 90 days". That means I need a stamp as a proof that I was out of India every 3 months. Annoying but interesting to see another country - even though India is so huge and diverse. So I could as well arrive and take the very first flight back, but I didn't do that. I went there only for 4 days because I'm in the school.
But it was great! Clean streets, friendly people(they are mostly Buddhist, I think religion does make a big difference to attitude and mentality), less noise, less people, nice bakeries, very beautiful nature, fresh fruits, less taboo on sex, beautiful(ly) dressed girls,...
I give you a few stories:
One night I was walking round the lake in Kandy and a boy(maybe my age or younger) asked me friendly if he could suck my cock. I told him honestly that I was not interested but he kept asking in a soft voice, looking down(or at my "cock") like a school boy, holding his bagpack round his shoulders with both hands. I started walking of and he called me back. Then I started explaining him ,rationally and scrupleless , why I thought he shouldn't express his frustration(?) in this way or why this is a bad way of making money(is it?), and even before I could end my lection his disinterested face turned away and said: "ok, ok". So I went home. Oh my god, I have much more interesting stories but no patience to write them down. Maybe I should start writing a short text every day...
Next, my friends of the KSJ gave me a small Buddha statue and the mission to have it blessed in a Buddhist temple or monastery on my travel before I left. So I took it to a small monastery where a young Burmese monk told me to clean it properly and come back in the morning. So I looked for the right cleaning material and restoration material... it was difficult. I was in fancy stores, jewellers and glass-mirror shops... but nothing. In a Muslim jewelery shop the shopkeepers were sorry they couldn't help me because of the Buddha statue (they never make images of their gods), but a rickshaw driver there wanted to take me to an antiquary shop. I gave in and we went off. The first shop couldn't help, but the second, a beautiful, large shop with all kinds of nice items, didn't have any costumers(it was Sunday). I explained them what I was looking for and they all started helping me repainting the statue in gold and finding solutions for the missing colored little mirror pieces. They were all Buddhist except one christian who preferred Buddhism. They didn't charge me anything (obviously, because the statue was Buddha). Anyway, it was a great experience, and I have much more to tell but not the patience nor time to write them down properly. Excuse me for this half and careless work... it will be made up, but when? And where? Now you at least have something to read for now, and it's not to long so there is a possibility you read everything till the end... right?(stop staring, yes you, the ones who skipped the middle! ;-D. Family, friends, people: my stay in Sri Lanka was great, I feel very happy! :-)

to enhance communicablity

my phone number for who wants to call me :-)

00919791292622

Happy New Year etc.

Hi friends etc.
let me tell you some more about this new place i arrive at 8 days ago. and, before i forget: tomorrow is my birthday.
This school (http://www.kattaikkuttu.org/youthts.html) is founded by a dutch lady, Hanne De Bruin, who studied Indology in Leiden. The gurukulam ("guru-family") I studied Kutiyattam at in Kerala, nl. Natana Kairali, (http://web.mac.com/ludwigpesch/Natanakairali_new/Welcome.html) is mainly focused on a solid long term training and artistic-stylistic perfection. In the school where I am volunteering now, the social aspect of the training takes a much more important place. They have daily training in the art form which is implemented in the regular school system. the children have maths, science, language etc. classes from 7.30 to 1 am, in the afternoon they have kattaikkuttu, drumming, harmonium classes. Whereas the Chakyars (kutiyattam performer caste) are Brahmans connected to the temple (some temples have theater halls inside, "kuthambalam"), and perform a highly stylized and century old theater-dance, the kattaikuttu tradition is also closely connected to religion but the performers are low caste. The form is much more folky and seems to attract more audience.
I witnessed a one-night performance on the village main junction which started after the deity had passed all the houses on a bullock chart, preceded by drummers and blowers and a handful of drunk men. The inhabitants gave offerings when the deity passed by. Terrified babies started crying when given to the ceremony masters on the chariot and lifted up to see the god, adorned with garlands and balloons. A short pose under the strong spotlight and eyes of all present downstairs, for the photographer in front of the oxes. Young men would climb up the chart an pose, young married couples would give each other a garland and donate a golden neckless to the deity(or ceremony masters...?) and grey-haired women with backs bent like hooks would be led out of their houses to great the god with all sincerity old age can offer. Around 10 pm, the performance starts. It goes on non-stop till 6 am, telling a Mahabharata story(Indian epic), with many repetitive dance steps and melodies, musicians who sit at the back of the stage for 8 hours in exactly the same position. 2 light bulbs hung from a wooden frame light the scene. A smart butter-besmeared piece of newspaper next to the bulbs catches the flies and mots swingingly. Next to the stage is a tiny temple and all the villagers sit -some sleeping on the sand, others watching the character's fate anxiously or laughing with the clowns silly jokes- round the stage in a big circle. I am very tired and fall asleep all the time, sitting in an uncomfortable position(westerners are not used to sit on the floor, are they?). From time to time a drunk guy or an old lady walks up the stage and gives the present actor some money after praising him. The actor bows thankfully, gives the money to his companions at the back and proceeds the play.
This involvement of the society was never there in the kutiyattam i saw. Not even in the temple performances, which seem to have been packed 30 years ago. Has it become to boring? Is it to difficult to understand or did it become property of intellectuals? Does the uprising of television play a big role? What about religious life? Kerala is much more conservative than Tamil Nadu, but there I was in a mid-range and rich city, here the performance took place in a poor village on some distance from the city. brrrrrrrrrrr time to go
tood'loo (to the loo?)
hughug kisskiss have a great time!

Outline

Time to give a general overview of the structure of my 10-month travel here:

1st chapter: Kutiyattam in Kerala

15- end of September:
looking for kutiyattam teacher in Trivandrum, Kalamandalam, Muzhikulam, Irinjalakuda
end of September till beginning of November:
kutiyattam lessons in Irinjalakuda, incl. 5-day kutiyattam festival in Trivandrum.
beginning-end of November:
Diwali at my friend Vivek's house in Delhi + visiting Delhi
end of November till beginning of December:
12-day visit to Nepal for my visa, Kathmandu, incl. a 4-day hike round Kathmandu.
beginning of December-mid of December:
a great time with Max in Delhi and visit to his Guruji in Hindi in a mountain village in Uttaranchal.
mid of December- round 20th of January:
more kutiyattam classes!12-day kutiyattam festival in the institution where i study. joy! and from the last days of December also yoga. total 37 kutiyattam classes and 20 yoga classes.

2nd chapter: Youth theater school in Tamil Nadu

round 20th of January - beginning of March:
voluntary work near Kanchipuram in the Kattaikkuttu Sangam.
March 3- March 28:
Brother Mathis visits me and we do a tour! yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
March 28- April 5:
go back to Kanchipuram?

chapter 3: the north and Hindi

April 5- round April 20...:
Anke, a friend from Ghent and i will travel for about 2 weeks
end of April - end of June:
Intensive Hindi studies somewhere in the north...

Appendix: A Cherry on the cake:
end of June- end of July:
My parents, my sister Anna an Sarah, an exchange student who lives with my family for this year visit me and we make a tour! wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

30th of july: i step into the plane in mumbai and look forward to a nice belgian beer, fries with yoppie sauce, a bar of chocolate and a croissant with cheese when i land... and oh yes off course, i will also look forward to see friends and family again... how could i forget hihihihi.....

Making progress...

"Today you bent for the first time!", followed by a slightly irrational laugh, I heard from the mouth of my good Aashan Sooraj, after standing in the basic Kutiyattam position (feet turned out 180 degrees, about 1 foot from each other, legs more than half bent, hip joint turned backwards and chin pulled backwards, so the spine is bent like a banana, belly to the front, and the head and hip joint would be at both ends of the banana. hands in front of chest, elbows on shoulder height and slowly make circles with fists, wrists turned upwards. ok this is a very bad description, but i will make it clear with a picture.) for 10 minutes, loudly repeating the sloka he sings to me. normally he sits on the stage, watching me quietly and giving me minor comments, but yesterday he was walking round me while reciting, which mentally makes a big difference. i had been put in this position , suffering the shivering and pain in the legs, but this time it was even longer. Its an inner mental fight not to run away from this uncomfortable position. When i am practicing alone i mostly just stop standing like this. But when the teacher is there its different. "bend deeper" his cool voice said. my legs started shaking and i wanted to run away but i didnt. as my "paining(another word in indian english vocabulary)" legs shivered so did the rest of my body and the reciting voice. but it went on... and on. And then he says: today you bent for the first time ... after two months of... bending? LOL! ok, but i can be happy that, appearantly, i am making a progress LOL! but after this excercise i come into a state of inner and outer silence, a special feeling. it needs perseverence, but this way it really becomes something valuable... in the beginning i came here i wanted as much as possible for the short period i would be here. this ambition was cracked quite early. on all the curious questions i mostly got the answer: "that is not really important", or "just wait, it will come", and yes, thats what it is about here. not about wanting, planning, understanding rationally, but about waiting and becoming one with surroundings and nature. its also about discovering (and expanding) the boundaries of physical limitation and mastering that with the mind. sinths a few days we started yoga classes too and that forms a wonderful complement. breathing, moving and thinking comfortably, one notices how mind and body, breath and thought are so closely connected. I've been dancing, doing bodily excercise and yoga-like things, but here in this context i am discorvering all that in a different sense. ok, enough of this today.

Electrical Cooking plate.

Yes, getting used again to the life in Kerala; God's own country as they always say here. Living in the PWD(governmental) Rest House, quite big double room (they didnt have singles) for 100 rupees per day, which is almost 2 euro (1 euro = app. 56 IRS). Aruns wife and son came back so he doesnt have room for me anymore. pity, but beginning of a new chapter. and i still see him regularly -btw, my shoes are still in his place. During my first week here i was looking for sth else, someone to share a room with or a family which would like to take me in for a month, but it's not that easy. I asked around and they always say: ok, i will do my best for you and tell you tomorrow; or sth like; i will take care of it. They don't give information about how to find sth myself but they take care of it. Again; here from my point of view the tendency is more that other people (father, teacher, older brother/friend) will decide what is good for you and you have to follow blindly. Eventually i didnt find anything and decided to stay in the Rest house. But the Rest house is allright, close to Natana Kairali where i have my classes, friendly people and quite clean. I like to cook myself, so i bought an electrical cooking plate for IRS 760. When i entered the hotel, the friendly receptionist asked me what was in my bag and i showed him. he said its not allowed -i think especially because of the high electricity costs. Anyway, after many why-questions and trials to convince him, the laws of the rest house were not to be broken( i wondered what would have happened if i wouldnt have asked him permission at all, maybe that would have been more easy...). So, if anyone is interested in a brand new electrical cooking plate, i give it away for 600 IRS!!!

Ok. Since a few days I am back in tropical Kerala. Yesterday I was in a bookshop and bought a few books. On is "Temples in Kerala". Another one on Kerala's history and a road guide with maps of Kerala. I decided to start visiting more important places around here and to inform myself better by bying maps... if the wanted ones are available. After going to the bookshop I stepped into the "Reliane Fresh" supermarket next door. Reliance is actually a phone company owned by the now richest man in the world, Mukesh Ambani. They also have a petrol pump chain and... supermarkets! Of the phone company I was not to satisfied until now, there seems to be a problem to recharge the money with these scratching cards... network problem or so, but maybe it's just because of the old age of the cell phone I'm using. The daily commercial phone calls and messages are unwanted, although I don't know what Reliance has to do with that. An unknown number calls you up, and excited about the new friend, after uttering your first hallo, you hear a woman's voice talking enthousiastically on some background tune about again another disgusting offer. Now, when I see those numbers flashing on the screen, my finger pushes the red button at once. If I would not delete the tonguetwisting messages about babeswallpapers, cricket, winning motorcycles and christmas at once, I would have certainly given you one of those here for FREE! But enough of the unimportant details, one must say that the petrol pumps (with shop!) and supermarkets look much more civilised than others due to cleanness etc. So I strolled in- it was not the first time I entered one of those- and let my eyes gaze on the shiny white lanes, well-structured isles and the decently red-clothed staff. What would you think when you would see Lays Chips or Lindt chocolate for double to 5 double prices in comparison to a well-filling to stuffing average lunch rice dish in a normal "hotel"(indian restaurant) which is only 15-25 IRS? Nice imported luxury. My eyes were tempted buy an array of Indian Sweet 'n Salty cookies when this Blue-shirted thin guy walked on to me, and I could smell his alcoholic breath when he stretched out his sweating hand and asked my name smilingly. In the middle between his middle-upper teeth there were two little darker white pieces. It seemed as if something had hit him there and the dentist would have place two other little triangles of a slightly darker colour in stead. He was there with his two boys to collect his wife, "my wife servant here". "My sons" His boys were smiling innocent when I shaked their hands with an empathic look. His wife came round the other side of the sweet'n salty isle, decently dressed in the long red Reliance-servant-robe. She avoided my look, maybe because Indian woman don't look men in the eyes, or maybe because I was the white guy in lungi, or maybe because she was ashamed about her husband. They went out, I continued my goalless search and decided not to buy any of these unnecessary things. When I asked Arun later he told me that Normal products like rice, vegetables and fruits are cheaper indeed than in the normal shops on the streets. So the disappearance of small private shops will probably also take place here; the supermarkets are relatively recently built here. When I arrived at the counter I said no to the 120 IRS 100 grams of Lindt Chocolate and went out without buying anything. There our drunken friend was waiting for me again on the sidewalk -which is btw significantely better than in the rest of the street- and shook my hand again (Indian men like holding eachoters hands in all possible varieties and time spans) and asked 'staying...stayi..' using his non-cooperative pronouncing system. I said "yes...yes" and went off.
They all want to go abroad and work in Europe or other "leading countries". It would be wrong to blaim them to have this wish, but their direct way of expressing it and their instant friendships stink. I also came here... why? Because I thought this would be paradise? Or because I would find here what I found nowhere else? Or some other dark or totally uncomplicated reason. Or is there no reason for reason? Anyway, it is not obvious to dive into another culture, climate, totally different circumstances. It is not obvious to adapt instantly to other traditions, codes of conduct, other ways of thinking. And then, try to find out what you consider better or worse than the conditions you grew up in and wether to change certain convictions or the make other even stronger. It takes time, effort and courage to find your way in the new environment. Why do they want to go abroad? For the money and luxury, as also abundantely presented in Bollywood films? Or because they are not happy in their situation for one or another reason? In Delhi, Max told me that if 5 of the richest men in India would give a fraction of their capital, it would be enough to pay all debts which Indian government has. Not to mention the deeprooted corruption and lazy uninterest which rules in all governmental institutions. basta