I woke earlier than Annie this morning so sat in the lobby typing. A few Chinese tourists began taking pictures of my working on my laptop with big cameras. I had a “captive” audience, so I took out my balloons (I had a few in my fanny pack) and made some balloon wings on one of them. Suddenly the whole group of about 20-25 came out with really BIG cameras and started shooting. I went through the rest of my balloons, took a bow, and went back to my computer. Then I saw I has a few extra balloons, made this last hat… and took out my small iPhone to take her picture as she was taking a selfie.
After yoga and breakfast- a veggie omelette which is the Indian style – Allynn and I hopped in along side of Sharon in her drivers car and we drove a few blocks to a studio where she teaches a Sunday morning dance class. I have never seen Sharon dance and it was an amazing experience. Three lovely young ladies showed up, wearing loose Indian pants and tunic style tops with a tie at the waist. The studio was down a flight of marble stairs and the room also had a white marble floor, double mirrors and a purple curtain at the opposite end. I wasn’t sure what to expect- never having been to an Indian dance class. The women all faced the mirror, with Sharon in front and she was the leader of the dance and the others copied her movements, to to perfect the hip,rib,feet and hand movements. It reminds me of Balinese dance. The foot rhythms were intricate and I wondered how many years it takes for the body to assimilate all of this exacting and specific style of movement! The class was an hour and a half and the group did many different dances, each with its own piece of music. Afterwards I asked one of the women how long she has been studying with Sharon- She said 8 years. Back to the house for lunch-lunch and Dinner are pretty much the same . First comes a fresh salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and carrot. -Sharon orders all her veggies -organic over the phone- which surprised me. They are more civilized here than I thought- Rice is next with 2veggi dishes with Indian flavorings and spices. It is always similar and delicious.
I spent the afternoon trying to sketch a costume for the stilt performer, of the Gypsy Slum Tribe-we are going to meet tomorrow!!? More about that!! I felt very klutzie trying to come up with something suitable – that could be packed flat ( for slum living) so bizarre- half the people in Delhi live in slums- Later Folks!!! Annie
Nov 10 Monday – our Big Day at the Slum, meeting Emma, who works as a travel agent ( thanks to our friend Eve Sheridan, from home. She introduced us to her friend Chris, a woman who has spent years living with her husband in Delhi! She now lived in Washington DC I was Excited to speak with her about Delhi, and she recommended I get in touch with her friend who lives in Delhi and sets up tours! Perfect – I thought. So- meeting her at the Turtle Cafe at the Kahn market was like a dream. We had a mishap with our driver getting back to Sharon’s but challenges add to the excitement! ( He vanished to get his car repaired but reached us by phone and all was well) And I reminded myself Don’t Panic!!! Continue reading “Thank you Sharon Lowen”→
One of the highlights of staying with Sharon in Delhi was spending time with her mother, Ethel… a woman who seems naturally happy with a beautiful smile. Sharon showed us pictures of her mother posing with the King of Butan, with the Dalai Lama…. Ethel’s been around!
Thus is our friend Sharon Lowen. I met Sharon at a puppetry festival back in the late 1970’s.
Many of us think of ourselves as living legends… Sharon actually is one. A Jewish girl from Detroit who traveled the world in her youth and accepted a Fulbright to study Dance in India. Then she spent the last 30-40 years becoming one of the most respected Indian dancers and teachers in India – embracing and celebrating their culture, starting as an outsider in every aspect and evolving into a major force that keeps this art form alive (I did mention she’s a Jewish girl from Detroit, didn’t I?)
Sharon lives an amazing life and after all these years it was a dream to visit her in her magical world and take advantage of her generous hospitality.
We woke up our first morning in Kathmandu – after the first night we were able to sleep thru without waking up at 2am, 3am, etc. I think our jet lag might be over and my night time hacking cough is under control.
The plan was to get coffee in our hotel then I’d start editing video as Annie would do her yoga – but the hotel coffee was instant coffee – Those of you who know Annie know this is a way to break a dream. Another guest at the hotel told us to make a left out of the hotel, go to the next “big” intersection and make another left…. and we’d arrive at a good, organic coffee shop. It took us a while (not because it’s a distance or we got got lost, but because there are so many things to look at along the way… so many vehicles to dodge, and so many street venders to say “no” to) but we found it. Annie was transported to the land of “bliss” again. When she saw the size of the cup, she ordered two. On a side note, the table next to us had two monks sharing breakfast with a few other people.
A good friend of mine (Bart Roccoberton, who heads the MFA program in Puppetry at U Conn) who was having a time of unbelievable luck once told me “I feel like I’m walking around black and blue all over my body every day… not because I keep bumping into things, but because I keep pinching myself harder and harder testing to see if I’m dreaming because I can’t believe all this good luck is happening”
This experience in Kathmandu is living up to the visions we dreamt about it. It’s colorful, primitive, poor, happy…. In India one woman suggested to us that there’s nothing worthwhile or artistic in Kathmandu and we should skip it entirely. We haven’t been here for a day yet, but we are so happy we followed our instincts in this case.
Annie’s doing her yoga now…. I’ll try to edit some video.
Monday night I booked the flight for Kathmandu scheduled to leave Tuesday at about 4pm then went to sleep. I thought the jet lag would be gone by now, but between the jet lag and a nagging cough I didn’t get much sleep.
When we got to the airport in Delhi I thought we’d have plenty of time with free wifi to book our hotel. In the worst situation – we’d get to Kathmandu and find a hotel while at the airport. However Continue reading “time for Kathmandu”→
Another Sleepless Night! Goes on and on! But this day, Monday had a Lot of magic in it. Our driver picked us up at 10:00 am and drove us thru Delhi with all the usual traffic, which we are getting used to-and the streets suddenly became a lot more narrow and filled on either side with market places- vendors of fruits and veggies. And lots of street action- kids running willy nilly and motorcycles zooming around – everywhere honking. I forgot about being tired , as I knew we were about to enter the slum. I was a little nervous about what we might find there. Allynn had told me that half of Delhi is a slum! Such an upsetting idea! We turned a corner, pulled into an alley way and I realized we’d reached our destination. I was filled with dread , not wanting to jump out of the black jeep. Continue reading “A New Day at the Delhi Slum”→
Another nite, I cannot sleep. I wake at 2 and cannot get back to sleep. It is becoming a pattern. For Allynn too. In fact we are on the same schedule. I am finding it highly annoying. I hear a chorus of dogs so I put on the ceiling fan – which is really loud and then I get up and turn it off. Then I rummage thru my bags searching for my earplugs which I bought at Walmart. Then I find them and put them in . Then I notice how uncomfortable they are. Then I take them out. Then I decide to walk to the living room and take a picture of Sharon’ pillows and now I am hoping I can get the photo onto this blog and I am also thinking how kind and sweet my husband is- I would never do this on my own – you absolutely Must have a travel companion!!! We have been also mumbling in the dark about how to get to Katmandu and one large corner of my brain is SO missing Starbucks!! How am I going to take it?? Annie- Be a big girl – don’t whine!!! Feeling Pitiful.
On our first day in Delhi our friend Sharon brought us to a bookopening event for kids with special needs. Someone at the event posted a number of pictures on Facebook the other day. Here’s a shot of us sitting with Sharon watching the event.. and then a shot of me adding a little unexpected color to the event.
For the past few weeks before we left for India I was fighting a cough (mostly at nighttime). The doctor had given me antibiotics with a very strict schedule for taking them (several times each day). The timing on the plane (where we flew through the night and lost 10-1/2 hrs in time changes) was more than I really wanted to calculate to adjust the schedule of taking these pills.
I guess this was our third night here…. and we’re still waking at about 2 or 3 am – I don’t remember ever having this much of an issue with jet lag and time differences. At 2 am this morning I was busy coughing and Annie was busy rolling designs in her mind for this gypsy school’s stilt costumes (when Annie gets a creative idea going, sleep for her suffers). It’s now about 7:30am on Sunday and Annie’s doing her yoga. We’ll be spending today at the Crafts museum. This time we’ll make it further than the cafe and gift shop.
I hate to fly and I was feeling very nervous on our way to Paris and even more nervous as we flew over the Caspian Sea and we had So Much turbulence! I thought maybe we would crash. But we didn’t!
We found our name sign and driver after a Long search and were worried. Our luggage would not fit into his tiny car – but it did. After a 40 minute drive thru highways we made it to Sharon’s apt. A 3 flight walk up with emerald marble! We were captivated by Sharon and her decor of Indian puppets, masks, sculptures and mirrored pillows. We were grateful to find our own bedroom- with bath and ceiling fan- no AC- and slept Great.
The next morning I awoke with a sense of gloom Continue reading “Flight to Delhi”→
I meant to post this picture of Annie doing her yoga at the airport in Paris while waiting for our plane:
Annie in Airport
We walked around a cute little park alongside Sharon’s home (Sharon’s a good friend who’s invited us to come to India for about 30 years). I surprised a kid with a balloon as we walked (what a surprise):
This evening we met with a friend of Sharon’s. She runs a special school for kids who live in the slums of Delhi… kids who come from poor gypsy families. (her web site: http://www.sterresharma.com ). Her school tries to teach these kids how to survive in today’s ‘real world’.
On Monday I’ll do a short show and Annie will perform in her Frog costume for them. In the next week or two we’ll return and I’ll lead them in some balloon workshops as Annie designs some new costumes for them (they’ll make the costumes, Annie will design them, guide their tailors, and select the materials).
Years ago I remember speaking at a career day in the Bronx for kids who had little hope of making it out of their “slums”. The Principal’s believed that these kids believed they only had three avenues of getting out of their poverty 1) sell drugs… 2) be a sports star… or 3) be a music star. He felt their odds of becoming doctors, lawyers, and scientists were much better…. and that being salesmen, store workers, accountants, etc… were all really possible, but the kids didn’t have any guidance. So he brought “professionals” into his school once a year to talk with the kids. There wasn’t much time for all of us, so each class only heard two or three professionals. When I’d give my “balloon pitch”, I figured these kids would go home saying, “I have four ways to get out of this life style, 1) selling drugs, 2) be a sports star, 3) be a music star, or 4) be a balloon man.
I’m now picturing India coming up with a bunch of Bug and Balloon performers in the next 15-20 years.
We were driven to this meeting in heavy traffic and felt we were going to be in one accident after another… however driving here seems to be like swimming with a school of fish or flying with hundreds of birds…. somehow there aren’t any collisions (well, we didn’t see any).
The flights from NY to Paris and then Paris to Delhi were easy.
We arrived just after 11pm on Thursday night. I was nervous getting through customs with all the balloons but I joked with the guards (they liked my hat and my stock reaction is “I like to be inconspicuous whereever I go”) – they didn’t even look at our bags.
We looked for the driver who had a sign with our name… but we couldn’t find him. Finally when I decided I better dig out the telephone number of Sharon (our friend in Delhi who’s kind enough to host us while we’re here), we saw him holding the sign with our names. Next we were nervous that our three big cases might not fit in his car… but he was about to squeeze them in… and we made it in as well.
Half an hour later we arrived at Sharon’s… about 1 AM.i
We talked for a couple of hours before we all needed to get to sleep.
This morning we discussed possible plans for the next few days, had breakfast, and then Annie did her yoga as I took off to get a chip for the cell phone.
In about another half hour from now one of Sharon’s friends will meet us to set up a balloon workshop/performance at a special school and have Annie design costumes for a group that performs on stilts.
Sharon also gave me several books of Indian tales. In February when Annie’s doing her Yoga in Southern India – Mysore – I might return to Delhi to perform some of these stories during a special celebration week about Indian cultures.
It took a while but I got my photo at Paul’s in the airport in Paris. I decided to bring my hat and costume (the costume’s in luggage) along with my balloons. I even had a little room to squeeze We take off for India in about 30 minutes.
We arrived in Paris at about 7:30am (1:30am NY time). We stopped to have some coffee and a quiche at Paul’s in the airport (Liisa’s suggestion). We took pictures of the two of us here… but for some reason only Annie’s is making it onto our blog. We’re still having issues posting photos rotating photos on the blog…. we’ll get it right next time I hope.
We have about another hour before the second leg of the flight to Delhi… a slightly longer flight.
Annie’s getting her needs packed… I’m getting mine (we’ll have about 55 pounds of balloons and one costume – the photo shows half the balloons and the Frog head)
We leave for the airport on Wednesday at about 2pm
7-1/2 hrs to Paris….
3-1/2 hrs at the airport
9-1/2 hrs to New Delhi, arriving just after 11pm (in NY it will be about 1:30pm on Thursday)
We’ll be staying with our friend, Sharon for the first week or so in New Delhi. We hope to spend February in Mysore (Annie’s dreamed of studying yoga there for years… which was our main push to experience India). We’ll leave our destinations for the rest of November, December, January, and March a mystery for now … we want to stay free to go where ever the wind blows us (I take my balloons as the guide to life)… and keep one foot outside the comfort zone.
If you’re wondering how we came up with the title – Annie will meditate and I’ll vegetate… and we’ll see who finds enlightenment first.
