Yoga in Alibaug

For the Easter weekend I went with Sharon to a yoga and meditation retreat at Mango Beach in Alibaug.  It was remarkably easy to get there - a speedboat from the Gateway of India.  The weekend was a good combination of lounging by the pool in the heat of the day, early morning and late afternoon yoga and meditation, and a bit of theory about the yoga sutras later in the morning.

A BIG Indian Wedding

One of my colleagues got married this month. The wedding was absolutely huge! Almost an entire Rajasthani palace was built (for just one night!) and it seemed as if thousands of people were invited and attended. Even my Indian friends said this was the largest wedding they had ever been to. The wedding took place over 3 days and I attended 2 of them, but all these photos are from the second day.

We started at school, and then were bussed a short distance to the grounds. We sat around in a sort of "holding area" for a while until the bridegroom was ready to leave. The idea is that the bridegroom's party go along with him to meet the bride - there is a lot of noise (drums and music) and dancing on the way and the bridegroom traditionally goes on a white horse or in a horse-drawn carriage.

Here comes the bridegroom!

As there was quite a lot of waiting around in the "holding area", a couple of us decided to walk straight to the wedding grounds when the bridegroom set off.  These grounds and the constructions in them were absolutely magical.  

Walking up to the entrance of the wedding venue

Walking to the wedding grounds.

Inside the grounds itself it was also amazing - for example at one end there was an entire orchestra on a stage.  All around the edge were food stalls serving very delicious Indian food.  

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A red wedding with millions of rose petals everywhere.

Amritsar in August: Morning chanting at the Durgiana Temple

This 16th century Hindu temple in Amritsar has been rebuilt in the style of the Golden Temple. It's much more peaceful and serene than the Golden Temple, especially early in the morning when I visited.

The Durgiana Mandir is dedicated to Goddess Durga, one of the many Hindu Goddesses. Bhajans (devotional songs) are sung here just after the temple opens and just before it closes.

The main temple is comprised of the Durga mandir that is set amidst a tank of holy water. Around the tank there is a walking path called the ‘parikrama’. This temple is also famous for smaller temples of Lord Krishna, Lord Vishnu, Hanuman and Goddess Sita.

Amritsar in August: On the trail of Duleep Singh

I wanted to find out more about Duleep Singh and the Koh-i-noor diamond while I was in the Punjab (this fascination comes from the fact he used to live at Elveden, close to my mother). To do this, I needed to know more about his father, Ranjit Singh, and how he came to possess the Koh-i-noor diamond. Where better to start than the Ranjit Singh Panorama in Ram Bagh, which was full of dioramas about the life of "The Lion of the Punjab".  First, however, I spent some time walking around the Ram Bagh gardens looking out for Ranjit Singh's summer palace.

Ranjit Singh, father of Duleep, was the founder of the Sikh Empire in the 19th century. As a teenager he fought several wars to expel the Afghans, and was proclaimed as the "Maharaja of Punjab" at age 21. He rebuilt the Golden Temple and gilded it with gold.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh's palace is now in a state of disrepair. The inscription above the door says Summer Residence of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Ranjit Singh was given the Koh-I-Noor diamond by Shah Shuja after he provided asylum to his wife and freed him from capture in Kashmir. The diorama below shows Shah Shuja giving the uncut diamond to Ranjit Singh in a velvet casket.

Ranjit Singh was popularly known as Sher-i-Punjab, meaning "Lion of Punjab". His son, Duleep Singh, was the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, which he inherited from his father when he was only 5 years old. A few years later, the British declared war on the Sikhs, and he was deposed and was exiled to England - along with the Koh-i-noor diamond.  This was then "gifted" to Queen Victoria, as one of the spoils of war.

The Koh-i-noor diamond really is "the jewel in the crown". After Queen Victoria died it was set into several other crowns, most recently the crown of the Queen Mother. There is a replica of this crown in the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Museum. Since Independence in 1947, the Indian government has several times asked for the diamond to be returned to India. In 2013, on a visit to India, David Cameron was heard to remark "They're not having that back".

Amritsar in August: The Golden Temple

The following day we got up really early and left the hotel at around 5am to go to the Golden Temple.  We'd been told that mornings were best and that it got pretty crowded after that.  Consequently we arrived at the temple when it was still pitch black!

Sri Harmandir Sahib (the abode of God) is the holiest gurdwara of Sikhism. It was founded in 1577 by the fourth Sikh guru, Guru Ram Das. The Harmandir Sahib was intended as a place of worship for men and women from all religions. As a gesture of this non-sectarian universalness of Sikhism, the Sufi saint, Sai Mian Mir was invited to lay the foundation stone of the Harmandir Sahib.

In the early nineteenth century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh secured the Punjab from outside attack and covered the upper floors of the gurdwara with gold, after which it became referred to by the British as the Golden Temple.

Ranjit SIngh's son, Duleep Singh, was of course the young boy who "gave" the Koh-i-noor diamond to Queen Victoria.

Over 100,000 people visit the shrine daily for worship, and are able to get a free meal from the community kitchen.

The storming of the Golden Temple in 1984 by Indira Gandhi's troops, and desicration of the holy shrine, led to her assassination 6 months later by her Sikh bodyguards.

This is a really beautiful place, and somewhere I've wanted to visit for a long time.  I'm happy I finally got there.

Amritsar in August: The Wagah Border Ceremony

On Independence weekend I went to Amritsar.  On the first afternoon there I went to Wagah - about midway between Amritsar and Lahore. This used to be the only road crossing between India and Pakistan until recently.  The Wagah border ceremony happens at the gate, two hours before sunset each day. The flag ceremony (Beating the Retreat) is conducted by the Indian Border Security Force and the Pakistan Rangers.

So here is the Wagah border between India and Pakistan. The Pakistani gates are bigger and more dominating, but there are fewer people on the other side.  Here you can see the gates are open.

The Indian Border Security Force getting ready for the closing ceremony and on the Pakistani side of the border the Pakistan Rangers are also getting ready.

Lowering the flags simultaneously. Really quite touching.

Rocking Around Rishikesh

For our Spring Break, Lex and I went to Rishikesh.  Rishikesh is a town in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, in the Himalayan foothills beside the Ganges River. The river is considered holy, and the city is renowned as a centre for studying yoga and meditation. Temples and ashrams line the river banks.  

We arrived at the end of the International Yoga Festival, which has been taking place in Rishikesh since 1989.  Yoga teachers, students and seekers come from every corner of the globe to participate in this program. There were certainly a lot of them around, including Mooji.

While I was in Rishikesh I decided to explore some yoga and meditation apps on my iPhone.  I did the "Fear of Flying" one on the way there, and then regularly stopped to do other mindfulness meditations in and around the town.  One day we hiked up to a waterfall where I did an outdoor meditation.

A weekend in the wineries

For the second year in a row, we travelled to Nashik, around 4 hours outside of Mumbai, for the Sula Fest.  This is a 2 day musical festival in the Sula Vineyards.  As well as the music, we were able to spend a morning in the town of Nashik itself.  We also went to visit a mineral museum - Nashik is one of the highest cities in Maharashtra and lies on the western edge of the Deccan Plateau which is a volcanic formation, and many interesting minerals are found there.  

The city is situated at the foothills of the Western Ghats mountains on the banks of the river Godavari. There are many Hindu temples around Nashik, as it is a site of pilgrimage.  The Kumbh Mela takes place here once every 12 years and attracts over 100 million people.  The city also features in the Ramayana story.  On the Sunday morning we went there were many people immersing themselves in the water, and others using it for doing the weekly wash!

There were all sorts of weird and wonderful things on sale as we wandered around the streets.

We ate at the Sula Vineyards and also did a vineyard tour and sampled some of their new wines.

The Australian Band, The Cat Empire, were my favourite band at the Sula Fest, however all the bands we saw on Saturday were great.

The following day we went to another vineyard (York) which was actually much more picturesque than Sula.  We again had a nice tasting, followed by lunch.

A weekend in Varanasi

I made a visit to a school in North India that is going through the process of being authorized as a PYP school, and since I was in the north already Sharon flew up for the weekend and we went to Varanasi.  Varanasi is on the banks of the Ganges and is one of the oldest, continually inhabited cities in the world.  It is the spiritual capital of India.

Varanasi is famous for silk, perfumes and incense and as a place where the Buddha gave his first sermon (at Sarnath).  It's a major centre of pilgrimage, also a place where people bring their dead to be cremated and have their ashes strewn into the river.

We spent much of the first day wandering along the ghats - the steps - where the pilgrims perform their ritual bathing and pujas (prayers).  

Varanasi has at least 84 ghats, most of which are used for bathing by pilgrims and spiritually significant Hindu puja ceremonies in the morning and evening, while a few are used exclusively as Hindu cremation sites.

The Jantar Mantar observatory, constructed in 1737, is located above the ghats along the Ganges, and is adjacent to the Manmandir and Dasaswamedh Ghats.  It has a huge sundial.  We stopped for coffee in a rooftop restaurant right next to this observatory.

The extensive stretches of ghats in Varanasi enhance the riverfront with a multitude of shrines, temples, and palaces built tier on tier above the water's edge.

Other ghats were used as washing ghats (dhobi ghats) and the brightly coloured saris were laid out on the steps to dry.

The first evening and the  following morning we went out on a boat ride to watch the pujas. In the evening a group of priests perform "Agni Pooja" (Sanskrit :"Worship of Fire") as a dedication to Shiva, Ganga, the sun, fire, and the entire universe. In the morning we got up at 4 in order to get to the river while it was still dark.  We were able to take part in the morning puja at sunrise.

The Manikarnika Ghat is the primary site for Hindu cremation in the city. Adjoining the ghat, there are raised platforms that are used for death anniversary rituals.   Fires are kept going day and night as it takes around 3 hours to cremate a body.