DUBAI DOO BE DOO

I'm tapping this out happily on a computor in Dubai Airport (which is HUGE by the way!), waiting for my connecting flight to Istanbul. Ay gevalt! What a journey! Six hours on a bus from Madikeri to Bangalore plus one hour in a taxi to the airport yesterday, a six hour wait for a 4.15am flight, and now an eight hour wait for my flight to Istanbul. But after two months of travel accross India in which I took planes, trains and automobiles (not to mention autorickshaws and knackered goverment buses, or even a few motorcycle rides!) I am more of a hardy traveller than Odysseus and so can take it in my stride!

My last week at the School was miraculous. As I said, the children seemed fitter, stronger, healthier and more wonderful than the first time round. When I arrived, with a magnificent feeling of coming home, they call came rushing up to the gate to greet me, crying out 'Jake Uncle!' and giving me huge hugs with massive smiles bursting on their faces. The light in their eyes was unforgettable. Even kids who I hadn't thought I had made any impression on ran up and pushed forward to say hello and have a hug. And then to top it all, the crowd suddenly parted and one of them, Bharati, pointed and said 'Baldy Suresh is sleeping but he is coming now'. Startled that he was still known as Baldy Suresh thanks to me I looked up and there was a little sleepy bundle being carried across the School by an older kid. Baldy was put in my arms and I gave him a big hug, but he was grumpy-tired and didn't recognise me. Nevertheless it was wonderful to see him and them.

A month and a half had passed since I left and the seasons had shifted, so the School looked different. It had clearly had a lot of rain as the foliage was rich and green and abundant where it had been arid and dusty in Feb. The whole place felt very full-blooded and confident. There were new Teachers there as well as Laurie and Aleli, both of whom it was wonderful to see. More of these new Teachers later.

It was great to be back and I sat in the main office with Aleli and Laurie and we chatted about my adventures. It was equally lovely to be back at Gungama's house with her wonderful cooking. Shame I had to get ANOTHER stomach bug which laid me out for a day, but I guess it was another purification process going on. AS before, there were people there to help and nurse me through, putting my mind at rest that I didn't have Cholera (thank you, J G Farrel's otherwise superb THE SIEGE OF KRISHNAPUR) and getting me on my feet. Phew! At least I felt I aachieved something only getting a runny tummy on my last week in India.

But what a last week! In Madikeri, the place which I had feared when I was first there, I was greeted as an old friend in all the shops I went into. Madikeri too was transformed by the weather and the greenery into somewhere rather nice... I fell in love with it in the end!

But the kids, the kids, the kids... So wonderful. So special. After a day or two I had given myself to them again and was feeling their warmth, love and vitality flowing through me. On one day, the skies opened and burst with a violent torrential rainstorm which suddenly gave way to hailstones as big as pearls or gobstoppers. Watching the kids shriek and laugh and run about in the rain was magical. It was like being taken back to one's own childhood again when the whole world was full of wonder and excitement. I realised once again how much we make ourselves lose as adults when we grow up and how we need to recapture that again if we are to make life worth living once more in this world.

We played games and I taught them songs and developed a little play with them for a presentation on my last day. Teaching them NOWHERE MAN by the Beatles and hearing their little voices sing it was like rediscovering something you thought you had lost. Going through it in detail its a work of genius. I found myself thinking how strange it was that the Beatles were the ones who opened up and popularised India for us in the West in the Sixties. I guess my time there is as much a product of their experience of the place as anything else.

We had so much fun, the kids and I. A highlight was stomping around with baldy Suresh and little Nandini wrapped round each foot like enormous slippers, their little faces a delight of fun and joy as they bounced around the School grounds. The final presentation and the gifts they gave me were lovely too.

The new Teachers were wonderful people - Jeanie, Gale, David, Roger, Peter and a slightly scary old German lady called Varina. We all found ourselves having those wonderfully rich and moving conversations that India seems to draw out of people. All of us were there for a the same reason - searching for something, seeking to escape what felt like the constricting materialism of the West. What was wonderful was, once again, the ability to talk about life, feelings, ideas which we felt we had to hide in the UK and America quite naturally. As we spoke, we all found ourselves enriched and strengthened by each other's ideas and experience. I learnt so much from them and found myself deeply inspired by what they were doing. I wish them all well on their individual quests and I hope we all stay in touch. To be able to make connections in this way, to meet people like this and pool experiences, is wonderful. As Jeanie said, in India one is allowed to be on a spiritual journey. Indeed its expected. Thus one feels free to explore that side of oneself without feeling afraid of being attacked or ridiculed or met with incomprehension. I cannot tell you the freedom that brings. One feels wounds healing and energies flowing which had only felt blocked and ashamed of themselves in the UK. Now I feel so much more whole, there is so much less doubt and I know that there are whole communities of people I now know and can call upon all over the world who are on the same journey as me and maybe I can help others who are asking the same questions as well...

So here I am in Dubai airport waiting for my connecting flight for Istanbul for the final leg of the Flight of Pegasus (for the time being). What have a I learnt from India? What will I take away? Well, three magical months of richness, learning, adventure and inspiration for a start. A new confidence in the knowledge that have actually done such a thing - cut loose, followed my heart and negotiated my way around India in one piece. I have seen things and met people I will never forget, and perhaps released an energy into my life which will always be nourishing. Highlights? Well the Taj, the Lotus Temple, the Ramana Maharshi Ashram to name but three. Best hotels? The Valli in Thanjavur, Biju's in Ernakulam and Sheela's in Agra. Worst? Well it has to be the shit-bedecked N S Lodge in Tiruvannamalai. Most mystical experiences? Sitting in the Meditation Room in Ramana Maharshi's Ashram, the Temple at Thanjavur, the Samadhi in the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry and watching the Taj Mahal in the sunset.

But most special? Well you know what I am going to say...

Those wonderful, wonderful children in that School - Siva, Rajendra, Navendra, Amitha, Anjinama, Manjanath, Kelyani, Baldy Suresh and all the other magnificent kids with their shining eyes, their laughter, their delight in the world in spite of the horror they have seen... They will stay with me always and I know that whenever I am down the memory of them will restore me.

I thank the Cosmos for this opportunity and this voyage of discovery. I have seen that there is magic in the world, that there is wonder, that there is love and that there is possibility. Its location is India. It is focussed, for me, on a mountain in Koorg, but in fact it is all over that wonderful, mystical, maddening, harrowing, inspirational country...

And I have been there and I am deeply grateful... Thank you all who have followed this Blog for travelling with me. It has been a pleasure and it has been fun to feel that people have been entertained or even inspired by this adventure...

And now, let us see what happens next....