Bangalore revisited

I had two missions in Bangalore; the first one being to visit my host family from the time I was there doing fieldwork for my master dissertation, the second one to do the Art of Living level two course.

Madan, my guest teacher from university, is like a brother, so it was very good to see him again. He is always at least one step ahead of himself! I cannot keep up his enthusiastic pace even for one day, but I did my best to accompany him on a tour around town visiting a few people. Then he went off for work in Singapore. The family has two adjacent apartments, Madan has the one, where my room also is (yes he insists it is mine!) and next door are his sweet parents. They too are like family, I even call them Amma and Appa. Happy to see they were both in good spirit.

Ever since my first Art of Living course, which I did here six years ago, I promised myself if I ever do the advanced level course I do it at the main ashram outside the city. It is situated in a beautiful place on top of a hill and down a valley with lots of trees and flowers everywhere. The Art of Living organization is represented worldwide (even in Malmö!) and besides yoga and meditation ‘adjusted for the 21st century’, they have life style changing programs for drug and alcohol addicts and do a lot of good social and educational work. But it has turned into a big business too, and do I feel awkward about that. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the course and it felt like well invested time. When we arrived the teachers told us that there we had nothing to do during the whole course, which was true. Basically only sitting for meditation and being quiet. It was very good indeed, silence is very powerful. My main problem with it is that I do not want to speak even after! ‘Guruji’ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (no, not the Beatles one) was not at home but his smiling presence was still around.

My retreat at the ashram ended with the beautiful Monday morning puja (ceremonial offering and chanting). The mantras that were chanted created intricate webs of sound, serving as keys to different levels of consciousness. You can travel with trance music for sure, but you can travel longer indeed with mantras!

Back in town I revisited a few of my old hangout places and went for walks, checking my inner Bangalore map. I also acquainted myself with a cold, so I was not on top of my energy. Anyway, one of my best places is the informal café in the back yard of the Fabindia store in Koramangala. The store itself is highly inspirational with good quality fabrics, interior design and clothes, all mixing tradition with the modern. Not wishing for anything more than inspiration, I sat down with a mango lassi and a magazine like I used to do. Perfect on a warm afternoon when the streets feel too busy and dusty.

The traffic situation in town has really gone from bad to worse since I last visited three years ago, infrastructure has not been able to keep up with the rapid population growth. Already in this short time I had enough of air pollution and traffic that does not even move. Anyway, missions were completed.