Vrindavan, India Today was Vrindavan day. Mellow morning hang at the Gusainji casa, then noon time a bunch of us took two cars down into full Loi Bazar lila. I was happy to ride down and enjoy some car time with David Premdas Haberman, a Pushti scholar and colleague of Shyamdas—just a sweetheart of a…
I’ve been digging through some of my old travel photography, being instantly drawn back into past adventures the way rummaging through old photographs allows us to do. When people visit my Dharma Boutique shop they often comment on the smell as they come into the rooms (“Oh, it reminds me of India!”), as so many…
5:30 a.m. Once again, not sleeping well—this time barking dogs waking me at midnight and mosquitos doing their damage in the 1am – 5am window. The upside being that I get to once again enjoy the mystically redolent pre-dawn call to prayer from the local neighborhood mosque. My time in Afghanistan several years back really…
Vrindavan, India 9:25 a.m. Now this is an unusual and wonderful farewell from Maha Vraja: a major thunder and lightning storm sweeping over Vrindavan right now as I write on our last morning. Not sure I’ve ever really seen anything like this here in the Jan-April months—a refreshing change of pace from the dust and swelter…
Vrindavan, India 11:30 p.m. Maharaj ji’s son, Dharma Narayan, speaking with Shyamdas at the ashram in Vrindavan Radhe Shyam! A fine day here in Vrindavan: began with a slow morning at MVT and a quick check of e-mail at the webjoint across the way. A cycle rickshaw wala took us down the road and in for…
New Delhi 11 a.m. Can’t say these have been the most inspiring of days. (Though there’s been a few moments.) I quasi-tweaked my back in Jaipur—just one of those funny movements where I felt a sheath of muscle in my mid/upper back suddenly tense and contract and serve notice that any more bad moves would likely…
Jodhpur Rajasthan (late-posted, and with no photos, due to India interwebs issues: haven’t been able to upload pics for almost a week, from multiple venues, sigh.) I’m not the biggest old fort guy, I guess, but Jodhpur’s Meherangarah Fort had some fairly spectacular elements to it. Some photos [not] here. Oddly enough, I was even…