stuff in my head

Now, I strike out on my own again for a breif stint in Chandigarh before continuing onto Rishikesh for ten days or so.

-----------

Chandigarh is one of the only master-planned cities in India. The contrast is striking. The city was apparently laid out by a pretty famous French guy. The streets lie in a grid pattern, intersected by roundabouts. Almost all of the roads are lined with large shady trees and bike/foot paths. I've hired a couple of bicycle rickshaws to take a tour of the place, and I really dig it. It is so refreshing to ride off of the crowded and dirty street, enjoying the relative calm and coolness of the bike path. That said, it is seriously hot in Chandigarh right now. Somehow, the locals don't seem to bothered by the stifling heat, and I feel like I'm the only one who is dripping with sweat. The disparity of temperature between here and Ladakh is shocking.

I visited the "Rock Garden", which was created by a local artist named Nek Chand, starting in the early 1980's. Unlike it's master planned host city, the garden is a sort of maze of sculptures winding randomly through a park, under the canopy of an urban eucalyptus forest. All of the materials are recycled and manipulated industrial waste, including broken toilets, steel barrels, flower pots, and cement beams. Integrated with this recycled waste are twisting tree branches, lotus ponds, high rock walls, and miniature temple-like structures. Apparently the artist began the project as a hobby while he was working as a road inspector for the city. Today, the Rock Garden is visited and appreciated by huge numbers of art lovers from across the globe.

Bicycle riskshaws in Chandigarh are one of the very finest places I've found to simply watch India happen. You'll silently and slowly pass a man getting a shave under a tree, a woman and her three children sprawled out on a blanket in some abandoned parking lot, another rickshaw carrying a motorcycle (very impressive), or a man sitting cross-legged on a wooden platform with two wheels being pulled by a mule down the street. And cows, of course.

I've traveled to many other places and often thought about how much change has recently occured or is bound to happen soon. Somehow, India is different. I think the way of life here for most people has been, and will continue to be, relatively the same for several generations. While I'm a proponent of progress, part of me hopes there will still be mule carts and cows in the streets in another fifty years. I intend to come back then to find out!

-------------

Ancient Native American tribes (specifically the Pueblo Nation) were convinced that without the performance of their sacred rituals, the sun might not continue to rise each day. On the one hand, this makes me wonder if all of mankind has always created some activity or another to legitimize or give validity to their existence. I guess we're all looking for a cause to believe in, something with a deeper connection. Life has meaning if there is some action we can take for the greater good. What if the "sustainability movement" is just humankind's current manifestation of that Pueblo act of helping the sun to rise each day? Maybe we don't need to do anything at all, and life on Earth will go on as it will, with or without my effort or that of the Pueblo people. The idea that we don't actually need to DO anything is a very scary prospect for most. What if the sun doesn't actually need the Pueblo people to help it to rise? What if the Earth isn't actually all that interested in the activities of humans today? That would deflate the spirit of revolution to "save our planet" or "make the sun rise". Perhaps things are going to happen as they happen, regardless of our individual interest in a certain outcome. In this case, I guess we are just left to live free and prosper, like every other species. Life seems pretty straightforward if all we have to do is survive.

This thought pattern could make one feel somewhat hopeless. Then again, some Buddhist masters say that finding hopelessness is the first genuine step on the path to liberation. Is there really that much difference between the "primitive superstition" of the Pueblo people and the mental games we play with ourselves now to justify our actions and our existence? Some people still pray to a (the) higher Being today, believing that their prayers might be answered according to their efforts. Others work to cultivate the God within. Still others choose a path of agnosticism or atheism, deciding that it either doesn't particularly matter, or that this single lifetime is quite enough to keep them busy and content. I say all paths are valid. It is the fruit they bear in individuals' lives that matters. Peace, Love, and Joy are three of my favorite fruits. That's the game of life, and whoever has the most good fruit is the winner. There is an unending cornicopia of possibility.

written by  Katy and Mark Lewis on June 28, 2009 from Chandigarh, India
from the travel blog: India and Nepal
Send a Compliment

comment on this...