Everyone keeps asking me how was my trip to India and i think the only way i can best describe it is that "It was an experience"
We took Silk Air (which is most excellent) from Singapore which was scheduled to arrive in India at 12am. And in the flight my friend S told me bout this taxi uncle who told her that everytime he goes to India he falls to the ground and kisses it....and we had a good laugh about it
But i swear the moment i stepped onto that tarmac i had the strongest urge to fall to the ground as well. I mean i can't explain it but i felt i was home. And i have never felt that way anywhere else or everytime i get back to Malaysia from a flight.....perhaps i lived there in my past life...i don't know.....what i do remember was that the feeling was just sooo very overwhelming!
Anyway we got to our hotel (Alankar Grande) which was just lovely.....the food was just soooo excellent! But the weird thing is although our room was small we had this huge ass tv in it! Check out the pictures below!


Small room........BIG tv!
Weird isn't it?? But let me tell you i have never slept that well and peacefully in all my life....in fact we got pretty addicted to sleeping that we took several naps whenever we could :p
The next day we booked a call-taxi (which really is a rickety van) cos i wanted to visit Swamiji's Samadhi
* at
The Temple of Fine Arts. So we make our way over and we're just clueless cos there are no signboards anywhere and everytime i asked where his Samadhi was, they would all respond :
In the backside
Steps leading up to the temple : I never realised how unfit i was till i almost passed out from climbing them!!
We eventually found the samadhi in the
back-side of the temple and meditated there for a while...and it was just such an amazing experience and feeling. The energy there was just wonderful.
Note : I have to add this note here. I was very pleased that i had gone to Swamiji's Samadhi and couldn't wait to get home and tell Din about it cos he's the one who told me to go there. But when he looked at the photos, he told me that it was not the Temple of Fine Arts but the Marudhamalai temple!!!!! And this was more than 2 weeks after getting back from India and telling everyone that i went there. LOL!!! Felt like a total arse. I don't know who's samadhi that was but i offer a special thanks to you for the peace you blessed me with
Marudhamalai Temple
Anyway after that we asked the driver to drop us off at the bookstores where i bought a ton of great books that cost next to nothing! I bought at least 7
P.G Wodehouse books; managed to get the
Ramayana for only RM10; the 'pirated' version of The Lost Symbol for RM12....and my best purchase ever.... The
Bhagavad Gita translated by
Paramahansa Yogananda. It is a double-volume and cost me only...wait for it....RM25!!! My friend bought the exact thing in Kinokuniya for RM200! And mind you this is good paper quality!

Another note : I have been wanting to read/learn the Bhagavad Gita since i was 18 years old when i picked up the book in the ACS Library (a school for monkeys who were under the delusion that they were boys, where i did my Pre-U studies). But i couldn't understand it and since then i've been trying to either get friends to explain it to me or to attend Gita classes in Penang, all of which did not work out. But they say it has to be your time and i guess this is/was it. And best of all it is written by the author of Autobiography of A Yogi...one of the most profound books i have ever read

Anyway i think i can't or shouldn't go further without mentioning...respectfully....the traffic...or rather the driving in India.
There were SEVERAL instances where i thought i was seconds away from death! Especially in the autos. I mean people drive like they're in a hurry to get somewhere....
all the time! And it seems as if no one else is on the road for them cos they drive soo close to each other and almost as if they're gonna bang into everyone and everything!
I really thought we were gonna be smashed by a bus several times!
Oh and the honking....they honk at everything and all the time!
ALL THE TIME!
Or as
Prem suggested :
In India it's the other way around. Actually the hon is always ON. When they press it, it's to silence it
That really sounds about right!
In the auto.....we literally clung on for dear life!
But the thing about India is that the people here have it right you know. It's just lovely seeing how animals, people and vehicles live side by side in harmony with each other.
And their devotion to their faith is just very inspiring.....every street is lined with religious stuff and everything revolves around their religion.....it's almost like air to them.
Anyway we got back then had yet another nap, and after that we moved to the ashram
I'll continue that story in Part 2 since this is already so long :p
*Samadhi = the mausoleum of a saint or spiritual leader.
p/s : As you can see, there aren't many pictures......which should explain why all the pictures are supersized :p