Hindi Summer Camp

India – Peace Village

Every once and awhile I get signs or reassurances of my ideas and passions in life which I don’t believe are coincidences. My ride to Dhamshala was one of them. As we headed on our maybe 5 or 6 long bus ride I put my head phones on to pass the up and coming night bus to Dhramshala. I made a nice playlist including the song that gave me my reassurance. It went something like this….. “I am on my way to Dhramashala to meet the highest Lama……..” trippy right? I thought it was wonderful and I instantly thought of Kelin, it being a song she put on my ipod and how wonderful it is to receive a little divine intervention. And in many ways that is exactly how Dhramshala felt like. The small city in the mountains was one of the most refreshing times during the trip, meeting the most interesting, wonderful, brilliant people; a place that will definitely be visited by me again in the future.

Hindi Summer Camp a.k.a. Anand Prakesh Yoga Ashram

Finally, we had some to stop and stay. No more moving after 4 or 5 days, we get to stay at the ashram for over 2 weeks! And spend Christmas and New Year’s. It was much needed peace and relaxation although we did have yoga twice a day morning and afternoon. But after a few days the pain and soreness from not doing much exercise in 2 months went away and I started to really see the effects – like I can touch my toes now! J

Ok ya’ll must be wondering why I have decided to refer the yoga ashram to a summer camp …let me explain. Basically because the main yogi who founded the ashram was not present….we didn’t follow much of the rules J. We talked at any point in the day, we stayed out later than we were supposed to. We laughed and fooled around in yoga class, left the ashram often, which was not advised either. We snuck the cute street puppies into the ashram and laughed late into the night. The ‘American girls’ were said to bring quit the entertainment and life to the ashram. It was easy to know we were the ‘American girls’ since we were the only Americans there!

As most of you know we spent Christmas at the ashram, which I wanted to make special of course. The three of us became Santa’s little helpers to make it a special day for the ashram. First, Christie and I went into town to buy ‘christmas stuff’ (poor Tina was sick) to give each person in the ashram a wee gift and decorate their doors with Merry Christmas. The night before Christmas…..the three of us raided the ashram with ‘the list’ of people who were staying in the ashram and in which rooms. We succeed in decorating each door with wrapping paper, handmade snowflakes, a Christmas note, and gifts at the foot of their door, including an invitation to hot apple cider at Christmas morning breakfast. I didn’t want anyone to know who ‘Santa’ was but most people found out and thanked us for the pleasant surprise. Christmas morning hot apple cider was also welcomed since half the people there had not had cider before in their lives. It was great!

During the afternoon a gang of us from the Ashram went into town to buy blankets and clothes for the local orphanage and families that live in shacks near the main road. After which we went to an orphanage down the street from the Ashram which was one of most special Christmas moments I have had – sorry to be so cheesy but it really was! The kids were, I believe, very well behaved for it being Christmas and we all say Christmas carols together. We would go back and forth they would sing one and then we would sing another ending with them singing us a Bob Dylan song…… ‘and the answer my friend is blowing in the wind…….’I was thinking where on earth am I? Christmas in San Francisco? Then I realized that the head mistress of the orphanage was an old white hippie lady…..a very nice one that could control 40 hyper children.

My time spent at the ashram was refreshing and energizing as well as gaining much needed strength. One of the best parts about the Ashram was the people we met, who ended up being more than just fellow travelers but friends. There was a great set of people who we met making up our minnie ashram gang. O! I forgot to mention the other aspect of the summer camp….drama. You can’t go to summer camp without leaving with some stories of he did she said and so and so likes so and so. The Ashram definitely did not get away from that aspect of summer camp either. It was quit comical I have to say.

We definitely had our adventures as well….a dip in the Ganga river on New Year’s day. That was exciting but extremely freezing considering we are not in the warm part of India and the water is coming straight from the Himalayas. It was refreshing and wonderful to think I dipped in one of the most holist rivers….don’t worry it was really clean, Rishikesh (where the Beatles Ashram was in the 70’s) is closer to the source of the Ganges unlike the other holy city Varanasi. No parasites for me.

After New Year the three of us decided we quit like the ashram and remembering we were hopping from one place to the next in the last three weeks of our trip we decided to stay at the ashram for almost an extra week. The best part about this story was since we decided to stay longer Tina and Christie wanted to move out of the ashram with our Swedish friend Puck to a hotel close by since all three of them didn’t go to both classes everyday and Tina and Puck never ate the Ashram food. Therefore, they found it cheaper for them to move out and I wasn’t about to stay there by myself, for me it would have been the same price. So, after an afternoon of hotel hunting we found a place around the corner from the ashram. We didn’t last long. The first and only night we spent there when we go into the hotel the lights went out when I was on the pot, and the girls were getting ready for bed. Then we jumped on our beds almost breaking our back, it was probably the hardest bed we slept on so far – we definitely forgot to check the bed before we booked the place. Then as we pulled the covers over our heads an amazing musty smell engulfed our nostrils while bugs started coming out of Tina and I’s blanket. Enough said. The next morning we woke up before 7 since none of us slept well, got out of bed backed our bags, left the hotel and were back in the ashram by 7:30am just in time for breakfast at 8 ….hoping that no body would notice we left….and planning on telling people we never left at all. After several sorrys to the manager and a ‘we will never do that again’ it was like we never really left!

The best part about staying longer in one place is you get closer to the people that are there long-term. Because of the length of stay we made connections with people that will continue once we live Rishikesh as well as India. It was nice having a good-bye party before the three of us left feeling like we really made a connection with the people there and nice to hear that we would be missed and that the ashram will be very quite after we leave J. Staying at the ashram was part of the India experience I wanted and received even though it felt like I was at summer camp it still was at the right stage for the three of us spiritually.