My location is Love

Sunday September 19
10 pm

    After two weeks here there have been some times when I wish I could just push an OFF button for Kolkata, or rather, a button that controls a box that rises up around me--both giving me personal space and silencing the chaos around me.  Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love it here; however, the complete immersion into non-stop erratic chaos of 14 million people in one city of India can get to ya.  Everywhere you are asked to take a taxi, rickshaw, you want dees apples, ma'am ma'am! look at dees beautifil kurtis!!! buses flying at you at god knows how many kilometers an hour, bikes jingling bells behind you, shouts, stares, more vehicles, people, ma'am i have big size dress for you…..AAHHAHAAHHAAHHHHHHHH! Anyways, this morning I really wanted to wear a bag over my head.   However, this day turned out to be the perfect remedy for the "cardiac arrest created by calcutta's chaos conundrum" (that was for megan sargent and whitney fornaris.)  Yes, so Collins and I set off at noon to the New Market to look around (which never works because you are bombarded by vendors who inevitably show you something you MUST have)…. We arrive at the famous Sudder Street---attraction to budget tourists and hippies alike due to some cheap hostels.  Everytime I saw a hippy/tourist I'd point and say to Colleen "Look!! a white person!!"… we truly have become sheltered in our homogenous neighborhood off Tollygunge road.  There are many more beggars around this area due to the prevalence of foreign visitors….just FYI.  Anyhoo, we walk and look around before braving the cramped maze of colored fabrics, idols, jewelry, and over-eager-to-sell-to-white-people-vendors.  First we took the way thru the meat market….PHEW! ***insert dry heave here*** and began looking for some stuff to wear for teaching this week. (We have to wear local dress like a kamees salwaar…in a nutshell…a long shirt with leggings that are tight or loose--as I like to say "Princess Jasmine style."  We actually escaped pretty painlessly and were referred by a new vendor friend to "the best Bengali food" at a restaurant called Prince.  Fish is popular for Bengali cuisine so I went with the waiter's recommendation of aier fish (in a spicy sauce like everything here) with a side of 2 roti (essentially and Indian tortilla…use it as a vessel transport saucy food from plate to mouth as you are not provided with eating utensils).  Aside from my accidental ingestion of several needle-like fish bones… it was GREAT! I have no idea what an aier fish is, or where it comes from--I can look this up later but as you guys have probably figured out my internet access is limited and I write all blogs when access is not, well, accessible…thats neither here nor there---anyways…I'm getting used to having no clue what I'm eating sometimes… I typically just order something and hope for the best.  It's a good method.  I feel I should mention the famous pani puri too.  For 2 rupees you get a hollow thin round dough thing, filled with some spicy, chivy, minty water, and some veggie somethin' or other.  I guess I should look that up too but take my word for it that its LEGIT.  I'm getting so off track here.
    Ok, so what I really wanted to talk about is the fact that I woke up this morning wanting an OFF button really badly and it happened 3 times today!  After the market and Bengali fish experience, Colleen and I headed towards the Mother House, or Mother Teresa's Mission.  Along the way there (and after we got to experience a public pay and use bathroom…lets just say there was a lot of love left in each stall) we stopped at the South Park Street Cemetery.  It was open from 1767-1790 for people to be buried and now is just available to visit.  We signed the guestbook and entered into what seemed like an enchanted moss forest in the back mountains of Ireland.  It was cloudy, damp, with slippery dirt paths winding between these massive gravestones boasting varied structures and eulogies.  When I say massive I mean 20 feet tall!   It was quiet and eerie weaving between the glistening mossy stones, reading Beloved Father, Husband, Brother, Sister, Wife, Mother, Son, Daughter.   It was crazy for me to think that I was in the presence of people's graves from 300 years ago!  I even saw one for a one-year-old :(  All gravestones were in English, and many had suffixes like Esquire.  Based on this and the fact that 1.Calcutta is the former British Capitol of India, 2. Calcutta had established a trading post in 1690, and 3. It was a hub of the East India Trading company… we figured that it was a graveyard for wealthy English merchants of the East India Trading Company.  Asking the doorman for confirmation was not an option considering my limited knowledge of Bengali.  So, I'm just going with the educated guess here.  We explored the graveyard for a bit, inhaling the thick, humid air with our heads tilted back, mouths agape in awe at the pyramids and pillars beneath the jungle-like canopy.  It was peaceful…

    We continued to the Motherhouse.  This is the Missionaries of Charity's Motherhouse where Mother Teresa worked to relieve poverty from 1953 until she died in 1997.  Tiny nuns of all ages, clad in white and blue, scurry about the different levels of the building.  Voices echo between walls that lead up to the open air sky ceiling.  I followed a flight of stairs up to Mother Teresa's room.  I felt honored to be there…I was looking into the room that such an amazing woman lived in day after day of serving the poorest of the poor.  The tiny room, with a tiny bed, and a tiny dresser and table emanated with a calming serenity.  At the foot of her bed, to the left, was a piece of paper taped to the dresser.  It said, "My location is love."
    There is also a small museum that displays different boards full of pictures, facts, and peoples affected by Mother Teresa.  They even had some of her things beneath a glass display case---some were: her handkerchief, pin, toothbrush, tube that was put in her lungs when she was sick (I wasn't sure how I felt about that one), and her sandals.  There was also her pen box that held 1 pencil and 1 pen, accompanied by 1 notebook.  She always insisted on having only one of these things out of respect for the poor.  Next to the museum is a small room with her tomb in the middle.  The room appeared to be a set up for small church services and mass for volunteers and nuns.  (There was a service happening when Colleen and I first walked in.)  The tomb is a rectangular marble structure decorated with an array of gorgeous flowers.  Again, it was truly an honor to be there.  I tip toed out of the room,  slipped on my sandals, and turned to leave.  The air seemed clean and pure, and left me with an uplifting energy.  
   
    Believe it or not, there is still one more OFF button experience left!  Colleen and I had read in our handy Ionely planet India guide book (thanks Barb Ryan :-) about Aurobindo Bhawan, a religious center that has guided mediation on Sundays at 7pm!  We went there not knowing what to expect.  About four other people (all looked like retired old men) came and we all sat in darkness and silence for about a half hour.  It was an interesting experience….it felt powerful to be among such a strong silence… I know Im being deep about all this stuff but really!  We all sat cross legged on little roll out mats.  I wouldn't have described it as "guided" meditation like the book indicated; as there was no verbal guidance.  But, that was ok.  I felt good about the whole thing….my leg did fall asleep and I kinda felt like Liz Gilbert from Eat, Pray, Love in her initial efforts to sit still and meditate for long periods of time (itchy and fidgety)…but afterword I did feel much more relaxed… and less likely to slap the next Indian man that told me he had dresses in "big size" for me.  I should probably go again :-)

    First day of teaching tomorrow!!!!!  My location is love :-)