Jan 11 Update

Well…..we are not in Kansas anymore …..Thank God! (Apologies to anyone from Kansas.)


Watching a video on ted.com titled ‘East vs. West -- the myths that mystify’ by Devdutt Pattanaik, got me thinking about what I’m experiencing here in India. The difference between thinking of the one vs of the many; the fundamental difference in defining basic things such as your world, ambition vs spirituality.

The latest encounter was our trying to use a travel agent to book a visit to several caves about 5 hours outside of Mumbai this week. After visiting the agent and explaining what we wanted to do we haven’t heard back except when we call and then we are assured we will get the needed bookings that afternoon or tomorrow…..We have given up on that plan and book an alternative by ourselves. We needed an India credit card to book things ourselves, so thankfully Twyla has one so we reimbursed her and all is well. It is hard culturally for Indians to say no or tell us what we want to do will not work, therefore, the misunderstanding between me and the travel agent.

Through this I have become more familiar with the Indian train system and various airlines than I wanted to. Greg found a great explanation of the train booking system: http://www.indiamike.com/india-articles/indian-railways-rac-and-indian-railways-waitlists The system is set up for you to pre-book any possible train you might need 90 days in advance then cancel any unneeded ones 2 days ahead of the use date at almost no charge. This system is to ‘mazimize the train system useage’ according to the article, but actually it maximizes the use of the booking system. Therefore, when the uninformed, me, go online to book a train seat 3 or 4 weeks ahead of the date, I am usually 50+ on the waitlist and look for alternative transport that doesn’t involve trains. I have to learn to let go of the ‘I want this booking now’. To help me I now have my Ganesh in my pocket (supplied by Twyla in our India survival kit) to get over or around obstacles.

Thursday I had a train experience while traveling to the travel agent that was 2 train stops away. I mistakenly thought there was only 1 Central Railroad line so got on the wrong train. It was soon apparent that I had gone too far so I got off and looked at Twyla’s Mumbai atlas and made my way to the connection station and retraced on the proper line to the Dadar station. YEA! On the return I made it to the correct line…but got on a ‘super express’ that whistled through my stop and it went through 4 more stations until I could again retrace to the Bandra station close to where Twyla and Greg live…Overall I got a grand experience for 9 rupees, about 20 cents US. A good help in this experience were many experienced Indian train riders who always helped me to the correct side of the car for exiting and directed me to the proper train when I didn’t know.

While in the Dadar area I actually booked several plane flights and helped teach a new agent in the process. In all I think it took about 5 or 6 people to help in the process. Since I was the only client and there were about 20 agents working at the time, it was fun even though not quick. All were smiling.

I had to go to another agent several store fronts away to book a bus trip because the first one only did air travel. This time it was hard to book for tomorrow because everyone books for today! I didn’t even worry about the return in 4 days….I have my Ganesh….

Yesterday, Sunday, I booked the return bus trip with no problem and great ease. I asked how to do this at the desk of the hotel where we were staying and they sent me to the bus depo with one of their employees who walked be through the process in Pune. You even see the bus to check if it is ok with your expectations! (Probably a little help from Ganesh.)

Other questions from the video mentioned above about the differing world view:

• View 1: Why worry about an achievement or promotion when thousands have done it before?

• View 2: Why waste your life seeking spiritual things when you don’t have food for today?

The answer to why we are here probably encompases both views and more….