h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Pika!
I saw in Mark's place that you asked him about India. So I was wondering whether you had some connection to India.

I lived in India for the last 5 months of 1999. I tutored Tibetan nuns and monks with their English. I lived at the nunnery. It was great, and I can't wait to go back. I got to go to the Dalai Lama's temple any time I wanted to. There is nothing like that.

Of course, I could write 12 pages on this without blinking? Was there something in particular? I'll try not to write too much.

Still, Pika

Well, I am currently living in India. So I am basically interested in everything about India.
I am staying in the South in Bangalore, but I thought of going to the North for a holiday. Are there any places you could recommend?

If you want to see the Tibetan community in exile, and the temples and statues and such, I think you should go to Majnukateela (sp) where you can catch a bus up the mountain. Don't stop in Dharamsala, go on up to McLeod Ganj. The nunnery guest house is clean and friendly with 8 rooms. If you can stay there you will awaken to the sounds of Puja in the morning. They will even let you sit in. If you want more luxurious accomodations, I think you can call up the mountain and stay at maybe the Chonor House, right across from His Holiness Temple and residence.

If you want to see more on your way up, I believe there is a train that goes most of the way, and then a transfer to a bus.

Stop in at His Holiness Temple complex and receive a Tibetan name. I suggest visiting the educational complex just down the hill.

If you have any technical questions, there are lots of people to help you.

Bangalore, huh. You must be hot. Take care.

Still, Pika

Thanks a lot. I will definitely consider to go there...if I have time...
Is it possible to get there all year round? I know of some places you can only get to during the summer months.
How did you get to work there?

Anyway, yes Bangalore is really hot (although my office is freezing at the moment due to the new ac), but I've been to Pondicherry recently and returning from there Bangalore is like heaven

I left in December and travel was fine, but it wasn't fully winter yet. I saw no snow.

It was easy to get me to help tutor in English. There are actual teaching positions available to volunteers. If you arrived with a lesson plan to educate the nuns and monks concerning why the sun appears to move across the sky every day, they would surely let you teach to any who would come. And many would surely come.

I've never heard of Pondicherry before? Is it further south?

And you, with an AC, I bet you could find a few students to tutor right where you are. Really.

Let me know if you go up the hill.

Have you visited many of the local temples?

Still, Pika

Pondicherry is near Chennai in the South-East. Very hot, but a beautiful place. It used to be French, so you can also get nice French food which makes a nice difference to all the rice you usually get with every meal in the South.
I actually have an Indian family here that kind of "adopted" me. So they keep taking me to the temples and things like that. Especially the Sai Baba temple on Thursdays and full moon days. It is also very nice to experience the family life. At the moment they are trying to arrange a marriage for their youngest daughter. It's also interesting to see the difference between their daughters and the girls I work with.
And the AC, well, actually I can't get the Indian students arround me to increase the temperature and it is really freezing in here, brrrr.
I would really like to see the North, I have met many students from there and they all told me it's quite different.
Have you ever been to the South?

New Delhi is the farthest south. That's not very south, I know.

I'd love to travel to many areas of India. I love the people and the sites. I especially love the history and the religious freedom.

I don't like the mess nor the disorganization. I find the condition of the cows unacceptable. All those man hours going to waste is unacceptable.

Somebody once said to me 'Who do you think you are?' when I put down the living conditions in India.

I said 'I think I'm a reincarnating soul on this planet, and I know where I don't want to be raised next lifetime, how about you?' He shut up. Nobody should have to grow up in filth in this day and age. Many uneducated people don't even know why you're supposed to wash your hands after using the toilet. Unacceptable.

So I have this love/hate thing with India. I want to fix India.

How about you?

Still, Pika

I feel quite similar. I love the people, most people are so nice and friendly here. I live with a lovely family and found very nice friends really quickly. I also like going to see the temples and markets etc.
But some places are just so dirty and the airpollution is quite bad here in Bangalore.
I also have problems with some of the structures in the society, like the way some people think they are superior or inferior to others. Or women rights or the trouble families have to go through to organise enough dowry to marry their daughters...
And of course we are all quite taken by the Moslem-Hindu-clashes right now. It's just terrible!

My computer was broken.

So my son is in college now, and to help his studies, he repeats the teacher's lectures to me. I also get to read his textbooks. He's currently taking world mythology, so I got to read the Ramayana.

By the time it was actually written down, it was acceptable to hold slaves, a somewhat repulsive practice. I believe it's against God's perfect plan.

So where might this idea of superiority complex come from? I'm going to take a guess.

In the beginning of the Ramayana it says the Solar Race came. Hmmm.

Many myths tell of a time when supermen and Gods were here with comparatively 'mortal' men. Even the Bible speaks of a time when the sons of God loved the daughters of men. Hmmm.

What if there are two KINDS of souls. Watch.

A heavenly body is one that occupies space in heaven. I believe they get a similarly sized piece of God's spirit.

Stars have big spirits and live a long time.

Asteroids have tiny baby spirit SEEDS and they live a different kind of life. When a meteor hits an atmosphere, the heavenly body gets burned up. A tiny spirit seed now exists. This is the basis of 'Fairy Lore'. These are the masses. We come up through plants and animals until we reach 'human' and then we can do jobs for our planet and for God. We have a deep love for Earth and animals. We are the meek who inherit Earth.

But we are babies, yet. So if something like a giant asteroid threatens to hit the 'crib', then measures must be taken to protect the babies.

So Stars take human form. They have Superior Spirits. A Superior Nature. They are Teenagers, to our asteroids' 'three year old' natures.

Star souls understand math and architecture and stuff like that. They build rocket and planetary shields to stop harmful impacts.

They came to help.

Do you care to know what I believe happened next?

Still, Pika (=

I'm interested to know what you think happened next Pika!

Hi by the way.