When a travel day is not a day

The title line should say it all! The "day" started out with a three hour drive from Salida to the Denver airport, and following check-in I immediately tried to follow my new jet-lag regimen given to me in the form of a book by a friend at a Colorado Vipassana course. The book is the result of decades of research into jet lag developed at the Argonne laboratory and followed by the US Special Forces. I wasn't able to follow every single detail in the book, which should begin three days prior to flight regarding a diet of various proteins and carbs at various appointed times, but I was now trying to get in line with India's 12.5 hour time difference as I sat and waited for three plus hours in Denver... afternoon here, but early morning over there. I tried to quiet all my bodily and mental functions and actually mustered up the courage to lay down on the floor for a couple hours to stimulate the 3 am it really was in India. Then, as dawn broke in Bombay and we boarded the aircraft, I turned the dial on and tried to "wake up." I did some stretches out of my seat and watched three straight movies-- all pretty good :) -- and realized the only thing I could have remembered to bring (for the airplane at least) was some visine for the eyes and something else for the dry nostrils.

In London I walked into the terminal and almost immediately chanced upon a free shower room. They were bucket showers only, but it worked, and upon exiting saw the multi-prayer faith room, where I went in to sit my hour. But sheer exhaustion was overtaking me, alas, given my ardest efforts to trick my body I certainly was not in Bombay, it did not feel like noon, but I managed the painful hour, and opened my eyes to be surrounded by about ten Muslims standing around and kneeling on small prayer carpets. Then I followed the directions received from the wonderful website http://www.sleepinginairports.com/ and found the "Quiet Seating Area" section, an enclave hidden in the back of Terminal 4, and set down to eat my lunch of sandwich and celery+PB. After making a brief acquaintanceship with an Indian family also en route to Bombay (and asking them to make sure I wasn't still asleep seven hours from now when the plane was to depart), I drifted off and on to sleep in this chilly room, it wasn't ideal, but with no sounds and dim lighting it was about as good as you could hope for.

It was still the middle of a Bombay night when I boarded at 9 pm UK time, sharing the row with two oversized and rather silly Germans in their fortys who giggled most of the flight where they happened to be awake. "Our meditation is... we are drinking beer, go to the beaches, and riding the motorcycle" they explained after asking me what brings me to India. Later I was to see them stuck in hopeless Bombay traffic on the way to our hotels... With lights and food I stayed awake for a fourth movie (four more than I saw during my whole two months in Illinois last fall), the superb "Lord of War", then drifted into airplane sleep again. Got off in Bombay and barely took a sniff of air when I knew I was in India again... greeted with a warm and quiet smile by the customs agent who I found out is also a Vipassana meditator and knows Igatpuri too.

Into an 8 dollar taxi ride of about 2 hours into the heart of the city, immediately realizing I have packed way too many warm clothes and hardly anything for this hot tropical climate and exhaust-ing and exhaust-full city of cars and people.... unbelievable traffic and children hawking just-released book and bunches of limes... finally arriving at the recommended Chateau Windsor Hotel and getting a pot of hot chai tea with milk and sugar delivered to my room, turning on the TV with Oprah speaking, then going to a very nice restaurant next door and getting my first full meal and lassi. The waitstaff stood right behind me as I ate and whenever I was getting low on my plate, he spooned me some more of the delicious spinach dish from the bowl before me... felt a little odd being hovered over so, and so attentively, rather like the time in Thailand my friend and I walked into a bathroom and received back massages at the urinals... when the meal finished I was given a bowl with a fresh lime, and after asking what to do with it, dipped my hands in... good thing I didn't just assume it was for drinking!

Took a small walk and ended up in the former Raj building of the Asiatic Society (whose pioneers built the scholarship base that modern Buddhist studies are since built upon), and saw an absolutely exquisite library inside that looks like it has not changed even a bit since 100-150 years ago... really a remarkable place like you see in many Indian cities that is Old British + very many years of neglect + Indian tempermants and then you can visualize it. Was invited to sit in on a conversation between 81 year old man and a young woman in a beautifully colorful sari. He was explaining the history of the building and the great men of the Raj (their larger-than-life statues were all around us now)-- was none too happy the British left and say Indians have none of the discipline the Brits had and that's why the country has fallen to pieces. He went on to say (many subsequent times) he was from a farming family but self-educated himself in engineering, English, and the histories of Persia, US, UK, and India (as for my own history, Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin were the "great men"). Also a Vipassana meditator. We walked to another antiquated room where he bought me a chai tea and beamed when I told him I was a teacher-- "A noble profession indeed!" Went back outside into the main hall of the library where pigeons were still flying overhead, utterly exhausted now again, make my way back to the hotel and take another bucket shower and collapse for 11 hours sleep... Here are two diverse views of the city! One shows the new skyscrapers pushing their way over a city that still has no real refuse system, the second of the splendid and overbearing Victoria Station left by the British...

For photos of Bombay, click here!