

Ujjain - home away from home...
so you all know that i am not living in squalor - here is my brother's house...and yes, that is his Honda City (Civic for us in the U.S.A.) - we live in a nice part of town - in fact, it is so nice that the Hare Krishna's (who we all know and love, Hare, hare, hare, hare KRISHNA!) have placed their first temple in Madhya Pradesh (MP) (and currently the only temple in the whole state!) and let me tell you that is one NICE temple...ISKCON temple, the International Society of Krishna Consciousness - now not wanting to get in trouble and to tell you that i am open to all religions - but to be quite honest, Hare Krishna's are to India what Scientology is to America - but that is just my opinion - sorry if you believe in either...anyway, back to the point at hand - we live in a nice part of town. my brother's place is really nice - i have a whole huge room to myself on the top floor, with my own bathroom and all - hence the picture of the bucket bath - it is a sweet place. he has completely filtered - double osmosis (whatever that means) - water that i can drink so i don't have to worry about boiling water. the place is well kept (they have full time house servants, a gardner, a night guard, a huge german shepard, a little white dog that has a Napoleonic complex, full service delivery of their clothes after they are dried they are ironed, two cars, etc.) - yeah it is a NICE place to say the least...so going from here anywhere is easy - there is always a car available - this is not the peace corps life that i am used to - this is living in the lap of luxury...
but all of this is simply because my brother is a well known doctor and if you say his name anywhere, someone knows him and even more someone has gone to him for surgery. he is an orthopedic doctor - who runs his own practice and does surgery as well. my bhabiji (sister-in-law) is awesome - she takes good care of everyone - she makes sure that all things run smoothly within the household. jhini is 13 and is a trip - i think i have told you all of this. she reminds me ALOT of me when i was growing up - just always having fun and listening to music. she is a doll - she doesn't even think of me as her uncle (cause most of them are married with kids and at least 30 years older than her!) but as a brother - which is fine by me...
but life out here is good - with all of this, i can focus on my work and not worry about the little things - having such a short period of time out here, this helps out a lot - otherwise, my days would be spent doing my laundry, cleaning my room, ensuring that i had everything, on top of getting around and making it on time to the places that i need to be...
so yeah - i could get used to this! haha! but alas, i know that this is a nice little break from the reality of when i come back to the states and i have to start doing all the things on my own again! haha! i will be so spoiled by the time i come back...this is horrible! haha!
ujjain is nice - it is known as a religious town, so many people from around the area come here for religious reason's. There is a huge temple out here that people travel far from to do pooja in and now that their is the ISKCON temple, even more people will be coming out here. Already at night the place is packed near the house - the street is lined on sunday's with cars, not to mention the numerous people that walk to get there. It is amazing, here each tree has red marks, a sign that someone has come and done pooja. Insents are sold like crazy, people are doing pooja (prayer) every day, at sometimes twice. Each corner there is another temple or some sort of mandhir - someplace for a lost soul to find solace. here there is a blend of muslims, christians, jains, hindu's, hare krishna's and who know what other religion! there are some religions here that i have never even heard of or seen! it is amazing - each has their own dress, their own culture, their own way of doing things. each is known for a different trade - doing different things...it is a site to be seen! i guess i never really understood many things, but coming here makes me question that much more. it is amazing how religious people are. during this month, in the indian calendar, people quit their jobs or stop working and walk for miles to come to Ujjain to pray - it is a special holiday that last all month - what is it, i have no clue, there are so many of them, that it is hard to keep track of. no wonder being a pundit (hindu priest) is a full time job - you can make a living out of just specializing in certain types of marriages or checking out horoscopes. I didn't know people still did that - consult the religious people within the village to see when the right time for marriage or to have kids is. it is still done out here...
ujjain is a unique place. it is an interesting place. their are so many different people here. with the organizations i have had a chance to work with, i have had the ability to go to sections of the town that even my family has not been to - but then again, that is my line of work. what i will be doing. it is funny, i actually feel quite comfortable in the villages - where life is simpler. or tougher, depending on who you talk to.
life is ujjain is good, i enjoy it. i am off to bilai in a couple of days. life out there will be good as well. my whole family is out there. i will see them all for the first time in many years. all the kids have grown and i am a "grand father" - three times over now. i have one "grand daughter" in Ahmedbhad one in Bilai and a "grand son" in Bilai - of course, they are not my real grand kids, but when they see me, they will address me as Dhadaji - which in Hindi means grandfather...ugh! haha!
till later -
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