Haji Ali — burial site of a Muslim saint. It’s in the middle of the ocean. When the tide comes in, the walkway is underwater. People of all communities — Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Christian… visit to pay their respects.
Bombay, India.
The last couple of weeks I’ve been busy traveling around and having the time of my life! It’s been a wonderful, dizzying, remarkable, and an incredibly amazing experience. There really is something about India! I suggest you all put it on your list of places to visit at least once in this lifetime!
I attended a wedding earlier this week and ran into a friend of mine from NYC who had been there on Sept. 11th. I caught up with her, and became fully entranced by the beautiful Zoroastrian wedding ceremony. Had a great time dancing afterwards. What amazing drumming and music!
I visited Haji Ali, which is the burial place of a Muslim saint built in the middle of the ocean. You can only walk there when the tide is down, because when the tide is up the walkway is underwater. The great thing about this place is that people of all faiths go to visit. It was so nice to see Hindus, Muslims, Christians, other Americans, and even other Zoroastrians there.
As you may know, right now is the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. I am amazed to see people fasting from sunrise to sunset, even with the heat in India. In Bombay it’s still over 90 degrees and humid every day. These people don’t even drink water while they are fasting, and still carry on with their work and everyday lives. Now that requires some willpower!
I am in Pune right now, where it’s not so hot. And in the US it’s cold now, so fasting in cold weather is probably not as difficult as in the heat. In the streets of Bombay, they had set up tables full of fruit (pineapples, papaya, apples, oranges, dates, green coconut water, pears, guavas, pomegranates) for the breaking of the fast each evening at sunset. It’s pretty intense to just stand and watch people break their fast with the name of God and thanksgiving on their lips.
I am planning a trekking expedition into the ghats in a couple of weeks. I am really looking forward to that. I am also looking into a jungle trek by elephant. I’ll let you know what happens. So far I’ve traveled around by camel. It’s fun…once you get used to the fact that a camel stands up with its hind legs first, so you get thrown forward.
My latest adventure involved a cow following me around because I fed it a banana and pet it for about 10 minutes. I proceeded to walk down the street and realized that this cow was following me. Then I stopped at street vendor to pick up some souvenirs and felt a wet nose in my ear. So after buying a bunch of bananas and leaving them with the cow, I ran so it wouldn’t be able to find me. As much as I would have loved to bring the cow back to my grandparents’ place, I don’t think the rest of the co-op society would have been too happy.
And speaking of the co-op adopting animals, I took that puppy back to the vet today and he’s doing fine. The kids are doing a very good job of taking care of him, and named him Boozo. I think I’ll take all the kids out for ice cream or some treat this evening. They’re all so sweet.
Stay tuned for updates about practicing ayurvedic medicine and TCM in India.