Ok, we've been good so far in writing clean and neat reports of the places and travel, but this time we can do it a little different.
My second day in India; the heat of New Dehli. I woke up early with my friend Chris who is now travelling with me. We stepped into the heat and trash, and people sleeping on the roadside and under bridges, alone. We caught a 3-wheeled rickshaw and headed to a temple to meet our new Indian friend. Our friend was going to take us to his temple to pray. I considered it an excellent opportunity and was as excited as I could be for 6:15 am as the hazy sun rose in the distance. Its not hard to have a laugh with my friend Chris, but upon perusing through my pictures I showed him a picture I had taken in Tanzania, and he laughed and said "oh gross.........."
I have to first explain the picture. I have been travelling by myself for 7 months through South America and Africa. Sometimes I have spent times with others but many times I have spent by myself. I have read between 7-10 classic books. I have a lot of time on my own for self reflection. On my last day in Tanzania, upon exiting the shower, I looked at myself, naked in the mirror, smiled a goofy smile, and decided to take a picture.
"Oh gross," said my friend Chris, so we laughed and I turned off the camera. We soon met my Indian friend, a middle-aged business man with a mustache who kindly offered to help us orient to India because of a mutual friend back in the good old USA. He smiled a big welcoming smile and welcomed us in to a circle of 8 other people who were devoted to the same divininity. We smiled and sat down and followed the prayer rituals.
Chris and I soon realized that we were being welcomed as honored guests at this ceremony. We had the opportunity to light the fire that we sat around, pour oil (called ghee and made out of butter) on the fire, and were later showered in flowers by a devotee as others chanted to connect to the GOD.
Between meditations, I looked over and noticed my Indian friends taking pictures of Chris and I with his camera. I thought that this experience would make an excellent picture so I handed my new Indian friend my camera. He turned it on and I closed my eyes to return to meditation.
Soon I remembered, the picture of me, without clothes. Since it was the last picture that I had looked at, it would be the first picture that would come up on the screen. I was so embarrassed that all I could do is laugh.
Luckily our new Indian friend was a good-natured spirit and we laughed about it at dinner after Chris asked him "what did you think of Phil's picture?"
