A post-indian encounter

My dear Robert dropped me the following line:

"I googled my name "robert arn lundberg" a while ago just to see what I found and guess what...Its your flickr page which says "My Swedish boyfriend robert arn lundberg"...Thats great ;-) "

Conclusive remarks

Hi friends,

Hmm, it seems that I took my time writing the last entry. Well, I apologize you all, since I've found out that I got quite a few readers. It feels nice and also a bit strange. The blog seems to be a good way to keep in contact and share your daily experiences with many people you miss but you can't call or send e-mail everyday.

Which takes us back to the "new" experiences. After leaving Kolkata on 7th December we traveled with my precious Kaisa the South of India rather extensively. The route was roughly the following:

Bangalore-Mysore-Hampi-Vagator(Goa)-Panaji(Goa)-Gokarna-
Kanyakumari-Trivandrum-Keralanbackwateralltogether-
Kochin-Coonoor-Ooty-Chennai-Mamallapuram-Kolkata.

The last days we spent in Kolkata and met my dear friends from IIMC, saw the campus and my good old room and around the city, which Kaisa liked by the way. It felt a bit like getting back home. It seems that I liked Kolkata, despite all the poverty and crap. It's got a different ambience. And Flury's is still cool!

We boarded our plane early morning the 25th of January and thus came home nearly a month ago. Time flies, as did the plane and now we're here. Strange. But nice. (*

I had a great time in India, met great people and saw impressive and touching things and incidents. But the most important thing is, that I learned a lot of myself. I "grew as a person", as I might say. From all the contradiction I drew some consistency and from all the diffence some similarity with my life and life in general. It's the same people and the same world over there and somehow we're all one. Despite the phrase being so cliché. Many clichés are ultimately true and many bad love songs are sincerily written. It's just about the perception. The sick will to see filth in purity and betrayal in honesty. To find the black sheep among the white.
What's wrong with being naive anyway? Is it my good will or is it just this world gone wrong? (A hint for you all.)

Hmm, looks like I got a bit drewn from the original topic, but anyway, the point was that I got a lot from India and it changed some of me and my life as they said it would.

I'm very happy about the journey and now, after one month, already thinking about further trips.

Thank you for reading and staying with me through the whole episode. This was all about India this time and the last entry will be about life back at home. Sorth of an epilogue.

Namaste!


*) For organisatorial reasons the "life back at home" has been separated as an entry by its own.

Mysore

Namaste All,

Alive in Mysore, Karnataka, South India. Connection slow, so this will be it. It's great to be together again!
Hugs and kisses!

Kaisa & Jussi

6.12. Itsenäisyyspäivä - Independence day

Itsenäisyyspäivä,
originally uploaded by Jussi Nummelin.

Happy birthday Finland, 88 years! (6.12.1917)
Dear foreign friends, check out an outstanding website www.virtual.finland.fi!

Today I had my last exam, and I seem to pass all of them! Now, packing my stuff together for take-off tomorrow. And by 4pm, I'll be with Kaisa again!

Kaisa is here!

My darling Kaisa arrived in Bangalore airport at 5:00 a.m. and was taken safely to the nice hotel I had booked! At the moment, she's waken from her beauty sleep and ready to see the city and her first Indian lunch, with my friend Pradeep.
Thus, everything's fine - and tomorrow great, when we finally meet around 16:00!

Skype with Friends in Bonn

Friends in Bonn,
originally uploaded by Jussi Nummelin.

Thursday at 30.11.Kaisa's last evening in Bonn. She spent it with the people we both love, lovely.
Jacob, Sara, Alex, Evi - we really miss you already and looking forward to see you soon again! Please remember that you're always welcome to Finland! Or anywhere we stay!
We had a nice and long skype-date with each other and I felt so near with everybody when looking at the photo.

Pusipusi!

The Puppy

Dry him well and keep warm,
originally uploaded by Jussi Nummelin.

We have six small and incredibly cute puppies on the campus at the moment. I guess they are 3-4 weeks old, but the mother doesn't seem to care anymore. Luckily the Indian students do, but the odds are still against all of their survival.

This little one is unlucky enough to have LOTS of small brown worms. We tried to wash him (bad idea...) but it didn't help much. The poor guy is itching terribly and crying a lot. We gave them warm milk in the evening. Hopefully the mother comes back tomorrow...

As stated before, Kolkata is not the friendliest place for children in the world.

The Nepal Photos - Finally

The Hanuman temple on Durbar Square,
originally uploaded by Jussi Nummelin.

Enjoy, unfortunately for some ¤(//&%¤ flickr-reason, I can't rotate some of them. But, on the other hand, it will be good neck gymnastics for you!

Studying

Haven't been writing lately. The blog, I mean. Fortunately I HAVE written my term papers/thesis and soon I'm hoping to change to too many boring books that I have to skim through by next Monday.

So, after months of fun, the reality bites and we're all serious with the work. Feels good though, because occasionally I'm even effective.

Nepal-photos coming soon. Now some prioritazing...

DAY 84: That's quite a lot!

Blääh, I blame my youth! "Not nerdy, but definitely not hip", it says... The truth is painful, but I'll take it as a man! Or actually I should take it as a woman, since I think they are better at coping with bad news. Maybe I go and by some chocolate and call my best friend and analyze my current relationship, which I'm a bit concerned about; "What did she mean with THAT few weeks back?!?!?"

No, I don't think so. Rather I play some sports with my buddies, which takes me neatly to today's agenda; sporting event, exchange students against crazy Indians. We're screwed on cricket already... I hope the Indian guys take it less seriously than before. (The traditional sporting event with another business school in October when the other party left after first days after a huge fight, breaking a 25 years old tradition...just too much temper on both sides.)

Oh yeah, I'm back on campus, by the way! Nepal was cool. Petri, Kaisa, Nannajussi, Isä, koska mennään isolle vuorelle?

Back to Shamsara

Namaste friends!

Finished with the mediation course today - a great and very useful experience. In fact, more questions arose than actually were answered, but that's exactly how it's should be. The course was held by American lama Yeshi, giving it a neatly applicable western context. We're not Tibetans, after all, and most likely will never become either.

The course program was not too intesive, not too loose either. A day might look like this:

6:30 Morning meditation
7:00 Morning tea
7:30 Yoga
9:00 Breakfast

10:00 Teaching
12:30 Lunch
14:00 Teaching
17:00 Yoga and meditation

19:00 Dinner
20:30 Evening meditation (after which silence until the morning meditation)
20:15 Silence = reading, getting to sleep.

Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Center, where the course took place, was a small friendly bunch of huts on the outskirts of Pokhara. Meaning that we were away of the tourist hassle and people trying to sell us something until we drop dead. Nature was quite close and the views to the lake (not to the Annapurna-range) though was picturesque. And again, as so many times on my travels before, I met some great people and we had good discussions about almost everything.

Most of the people taking a course like this never become practicing Buddhists, but the great thing is, that the philosophy behind is so universal, that it's beneficial to everybody to understand and research. For a long time, it's about learning about yourself and developing one's (whatever it means to different people) mental abilities; most importantly in the beginning - concentration. The surprising (maybe?) thing is also that Buddhist thoughts go to great extent hand in hand with the modern (western) science and psychology. In fact, another funny thing is that whereas the western psychology, as a science, was born in 19th century, in the East it's always been engaged with philosophy.

Ok, that was our daily insight to eastern thinking. Tomorrow I'll take the bus to Kathmandu again, and on Wednesday the Indian Airlines flies me safely back home. To Kolkata, that is :-)

Heippa!

Tourist money

That would be me.

Sitting and having a breakfast on a nice lakeside garden restaurants. A group of kids attacked me and begged me to buy them bread. What can you do after having a great breakfast in the sunshine?

After that buying some Tibetan handicrafts (very beautiful, though, watch out Father Christmas...) from a nice Tibetan girl of my Kaisa's age. Almost us beautiful even.

Today I will disappear for a while again, since I've committed to a 3-day meditation course here in Pokhara. Got some good recommendations for it, and off I go. I don't know how strict the schedule will be, that is, if I'm able to communicate before Monday, but don't worry - everything's great! (btw, phone there will be +977-61-522923)

Good to get rid of tourists once again. These places are not for me for a long time. The whole Lakeside exists only for tourists who spend the average monthly income of a Nepali family on a day. Of course this money indirectly goes to these people's pockets, but it also means that everything is fake. It's difficult to find the balance between an open mindset and the "no thank you, I don't want your very cheap and good room/dinner/taxi/trek/guide/hashish/whatever" attitude.

Ok, I'll be in touch latest on Monday! Have a nice weekend!

Jussi in Pokhara, Nepal

Rollin' on the River

The kayaking trip was amazing! Now, I'm really tired and going to sleep. But, alive, well and back in Pokhara.

Puss

Kayaking course day 1

Namaste dear friends!

A very brief report: today was the first day of my four-day kayaking course - superb! We stayed on the lake learning basics skills. Yes, including the eskimo-roll!

Tomorrow we head to Seti river for three days (that is, back on Thu). Really looking forward it and the company is extremely reputable and responsible, so no worries anybody!

Right now I'm sitting in a Internet cafe and listening to my new song "Another life" that Alex sent from Bonn! Thank you Alex, sounds terrific. Miss you and Evi a lot and especially our music sessions!

And now some sleep, since it's been long time since last long one. Btw, mobile isn't working, but no worries once again... :-)

Jussi