sections are delicious, just like an orange!

section1- loss:
goodbye beloved camera. goodbye 250+ images of india. there are so many little things i should have done differently. damn. damn. dammit.

section 2- math:
a) as mountians get bigger, internet costs raise proportionally. b) as mountians get bigger, internet gets proportionally slower. given a and b, emails get proportionally shorter and fewer. sorry guys.

section 3- krishnam vande jagad garum:
i was walking through the market in shimla. all i wanted was some figs, ok? ok? the rain was pouring, me soaking and cold. all i wanted was some figs. OK!?!?!? then i was intercepted by a bunch of trucks pulling animatronic gods and animals, children dressed in tinsel loincloths and glam rock-style wigs and a sikh bagpipe band. and suddenly shop owners were doling out leaf bowls of food and throwing bananas to an unruly mob. my immediate reaction: "can't this country be normal for one freaking day!?!?!?" turns out it was krishna's birthday celebration. ok, fine.

section 4- a place i love:
manikaran is a town that bubbles. straddling the parbati river, it's not much more than a tiny market stuck between some big green hills. pretty normal, except for the fact that hot water spews randomly out of the rocks, leaching sulfurous fumes into the air and bubbling right through the centre of town. you head over to the shiva temple (everyday!) and RUN down the steps because the ground is scorching from the underground springs. a leaf bowl of tapioca prasad is thrust at you, cooked perfectly in a giant pot floating in a bubbling natural pool. hindus cook themselves some tastey chickpeas by dangling cloth bags into a well. then you scamper across the wooden planks up to the shrine and sit so peacefully on the cool black and white marble while steam rises all around. this is a place that i love.

section 5- aweh guru!:
congratulations, sikhs of the world! you have an amazingly cool religion. thanks for bombarding me with your culture, forcing delcious food upon me, shoving me into your temple, clasping my skull, blessing me, trying to kidnap me to kullu without my chappals or any other belongings and generally treating me like an honoured guest. seriously, good work. can i join? maybe i should go back to amritsar.... quote kerria gray: "i never thought i'd hear myself saying this phrase...but the guy in the pink turban is hot!" hmmm....

section 6- i can hear the fireworks echo echo echoing:
the town is quiet except for its rushing river. the fireworks are only in my head, keeping me from sleep once again. so many thoughts of the past and future, imaginary times that don't exist and yet seem to rule over the present. alone 2.5 months now. and it's independence day.

section 7- numbers numbers numbers:
i've said before that i'm not one for statistics... but here is this from the local newspaper: of indian women, 6 out of 7 are illiterate and 1 out of 3 is underweight. india has worse malnourishment rates than ethiopia. india is home to the world's biggest slum- take half the population of canada and put them into cardboard shanties on the outskirts of bombay. one lakh of farmers have commited suicide due to economic hardship. 40% of food produced in india spoils on its way between farms and consumers. and the numbers march on... that's all i could read before running back to my hotel room to cry...

section eight- the baby piece that hides between the other ones and you save for last because it's so cute:
that's it for now. i'm on my way to leh, feeling good.

peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall, if i can't have you all the time i won't have none at all

tastes like... CANADA! but also tastes like...INDIA? tastes like home and strangeness, not sure which is which.

riding through heaven on buses from hell. don't be afraid cuz you're already dead! even the angels do switchbacks in garwhal.

999 sikh men and me. how do old sikh men still manage to look dignified while riding garishly decorated ponies, have their pants tucked into their socks and are wearing showercaps over their turbans and ponchos the colours of easter eggs? i think it's cuz they carry swords. this was my company most of the way up a mountain. finally we parted ways, them to go to their pilgrimage sight and bathe in a glacial lake, me to run around like julie andrews at the start of sound of music. or so i had envisioned. not so.

a valley of flowers that floats on the mist, disappears and reappears at will. at one moment you're held captive by sheer mountain faces, the next you're floating in ether. a single rare blue poppy that you'd miss if you blinked. i didn't blink. a place so indescribably beautiful that it's almost a bit sinister. this is the kind of place that fairy tales warn us about. watch where you step, little girl. feelings of intense desolation, loneliness and then the sudden hot prickly sensation that something is watching you... eerie and enchanting.

no one told me that there would be fields of 2-3 m tall wild cannabis plants. it's just weird. it's like in south india where you see wild peacocks all over the place and your my mind says, 'hey! that aint right!' it's still totally illegal though. my question is this: you're making a centrepiece for the dining room table and include some of the local greenery. now, is that possession or is that a lovely bouquet? tough call.

a Polish mystic who can control the weather with his homemade dijjeridoos. sure, why not?

spent a day in joshimath shitting, reading the bible (...and bathuel begat mizrat who begat jazheel who begat...) and making crafts out of my belongings. it was a surprisingly good day. i finally got to use my $30 no-poo medicine.

living in a cloud. cold and wet right through you and out the other side. coughing up thin little wormies of mucous along my way. vultures on the ground, stretching out their loooong black fingers... badrinath, the northern compass point of india's sacred geography. i had already been to the southern point at rameshwaram. next time in india i'm going to the eastern and western points.

and away away and away. i wanted to stay longer, trek more. i wanted to see were Ganga first hit the earth (cushioned by shiva's dreadlocks)- seemingly so close to badrinath. 20 km as the crow flies, 18 hours as the bus drives... and there's something strange in them thar hills. i was constantly jumping, thinking i saw things, heard things... i can't say what it was, there was nothing overtly strange, and yet the mountains there were so damn spooky. i spent an entire week with a severe case of the heebie-jeebies and that's enough for now.