'LEST YE BE TRANSFORMED AS ONE OF THESE...'

I'm writing this in Madikeri having driven in on the back of a motorcycle. In the morning air here the drive is amazing (I keep on using that word but its the only one I can think of!). A dear friend of mine who passed away a year or so ago once said that the quality of green in England is second to none. Well the quality of blue in the sky here is the same. I have never seen the like. And the night skies... Well let's just say that the colours one sees - blues, whites, reds - are unforgettable...

At the moment, I am sitting in an internet cafe in Madikeri typing this after two powercuts (great fun but an occupational hazard here). Madikeri is the administrative capital of this province of Koorg. I had been here a couple of times in the afternoon and had thought it pretty grotty - hot, dusty, noisy, polluted, concrete and, let's face it, for a green foreigner, pretty scary. But now being here in the morning with the sun blazing it is beautiful. Plus I have popped my cherry to do with wandering around an Indian city on my own. Its a great experience. All life is bursting out everywhere. Total chaos but total vibrancy. And once again, the people are so friendly! No-one queues, everyone just crowds a shop stall, whether its a clothes shop or a chemist and hopes to be heard. You get big smiles from everyone and it seems to be customary to be asked which country you are from as you leave. I am told this is a kind of 'collecting' of nations. Just as I love to meet people from different countries, so do they. Its lovely.

A tricky thing is getting used to the currency. Everything is very cheap here and even with the weak pound there are 75 Rupees to one pound sterling. You find yourself taking thousands of Rupees out of an ATM or being asked for a thousand or so for a SIM card only to discover you have barely taken out a tenner. That is odd, but also nice.

Everything here in the cities is on top or everything else. As you walk through the streets of Madikeri with tiny shack-like shops calling themselves optimistic things like INTERNATIONAL CLOTHES EMPORIUM or SHANTI ELECTRICS one suddenly discovers a bright green Temple to Rama in the fork of the road. And while everything else is rundown, this Temple is kept pristine and beautiful. Another lovely feature is the presence of holy names everywhere. One finds the Sri Rama Taxi Service, Shakti Bus Service or the Imma Durga Laundery. The spirituality of the nation is so woven into its fabric that even the most mundane things carry the names of the gods. It would be the equivalent of John The Baptist Car Service or Holy Spirit Electricians companies in the UK...

But back to the kids. Tonight I return to stay on the grounds of the school. I will be sleeping in a hut but its more than compensated for the presence of the children, the sound of whose voices and laughter wake you in the morning. Their English is stunning and they are a delight to have classes with. Even if one is exhausted by the end of the day a few hours just watching them play completely purges you of any tiredness. Yesterday one of the English guys, Will, taught a group of them how to make paper aeroplanes and they were all running around throwing these little things in the sky. They make little toys for you and drawings too. They love a good hug and nothing better than being carried around the gardens on your arms.

Apart from anything else they are just very, very happy. They sleep on the floors of the two main buildings here but never look uncomfortable and they never seem to lose any energy. What is also wonderful to behold is how they watch out for each other. If one of them falls over another one will go to look after them. They seem never to fight and if a new kid shows any violent tendencies, they quietly tell them off and calm them down.

This is in part to do with the nature of the kids, which is so lovely, but it is also a tribute to the atmosphere that the founders of the school, Michael and Aleli have created. All I can say is that they have genuinely created a real loving atmosphere here where the children feel safe and happy and surrounded by love. For a cynical Brit who wants to be less cynical, all I can say is its all real. I have not seen anything negative here. For proof, ask yourself why I would want to move back into a hut to be near everyone if there was any shadow.

All the teachers here, with the exception of myself, Tom and Will who are only temporary, are devotees of Sai Baba. Sai Baba is a living Indian saint, or at least a Holy Man, who has many followers all over India of all religious backgrounds and caste. In the West, he remains controversial in some quarters because of accusations of charlatanry and sexual abuse, but if the teachers here are anything to go by, this is most probably slander. This school and countless others exist because of Sai Baba, who is behind hospitals and similar establishments all over India. The teachers here speak incredibly highly of him and are wonderful people. It doesn't seem like a cult of any kind and nothing is pushed on you (ie no-one is being encouraged to follow Sai Baba). What can I say? I guess we all just have to see for ourselves! What is nice is that they all quite freely talk about life with a spiritual dimension, so you can have conversations of a certain type quite freely without being thought of as a crank or being laughed at. I am finding it a very healing experience. Just being with the kids transforms you. Whether I will suddenly become a hippie and follow Sai Baba is another thing, but this is a special place. They are always looking for people to come out and teach for a little while, so if anyone wants to come over for a month or a few weeks, feel free to get in touch with them via the website: www.childrensproject.org. Although they can't fly anyone out, they can feed you, put you up comfortably and look after you!

I say that. If you live on the grounds of the school it is pretty spartan but you quickly get used it. If you prefer something more comfortable, there is a house down the road owned by the mother of the two brothers who own the land the school is on. Its really nice - rather like a hotel - and the mother not only cooks wonderfully but is very loving and kind. Indian codes of hospitality are very great and staying there is wonderful. So you takes your pic! Wall to wall kids or wonderful cooking and a comfy bed. :-)

So what else? Well, we shall see. Next weekend I am off to visit the Tibetan Buddhist Refugee community nearby, the largest in India, even more than Dharamsala where the DAlai Lama lives. I am told it is a special place to visit. The weekend after that, Mysore, where Tipu Sultan fought the British during the Raj. After that, as I finish my time with the school, I start my travels in earnest, starting with Cochin in Kerala, home of the oldest Jewish community outside of Israel in the world...

So lot's to come! And more adventures to be had!