Why India?

Being a six-foot, athletic-build, blonde turning to white-haired caucasian American who spent the greater part of his life living in Austin, Texas, an obvious question has come up, "Why India?" It will be pretty glaring that "I ain't from around there."

So, why India?

Let me count the ways. Sitting down the other day while still in Antwerp, thinking about my upcoming journey to Madurai, I made a list of connections that I have had with India, either directly or indirectly, beginning with my introduction to the sub-continent in second grade by Shagufta B., who I will now add, I think was my first "kid crush." As it may be remembered from my previous post, I already had "Shagufta Cooties" according to my white-guy friends, so why not embrace my fate? I thought that Shagufta was a very sweet girl, with nerves of steel to be in such a different environment.

Briefly, here is what I came up with in about all of fifteen minutes (meaning, didn't have to dig too deeply), all of which I will be elaborating upon in future posts, or have already done so in the preamble to the formal welcome to "Indra's Net" a few days ago.

A distinct disclaimer, however, I feel is due here. I am not so naive as to think that India will be anything like what I mention below, or any of the blogs postings that I make before I actually arrive in India. I have met too many people, either from India or who have lived and worked in India, to know that India is beyond all expectations for better or for worse. I know that nothing will truly "prepare" me for that experience.

With that small disclaimer, these are self-admitted and acknowledged preconceptions and incidental or tangental ideas and experiences that I have had about or around the concept of "India." Before going into a new experience, I have found it best to Know Thyself , and to fully acknowledge to oneself such preconceptions and/or expectations.

So, here they are, in no real order...

• A presentation I did on Rasa, or taste/flavor in Indian arts in Graduate School
• The teachings of Krishnamurti 
• The misconception of Karma, and how that plays a part in my novel, Instant Karma Koffie
• The Vivekacudamani of Shri Acharyashankara, or, Advaita Vedanta 
• A paper I wrote on Shakespeare as the English Kalidasa, not Kalidasa as the Indian Shakespeare
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• Reading/Translating the first chapter of Kalidasha's kavya masterpiece, the Raghuvamsa
• The usage of Sanskrit in Joyce's Finnegans Wake
• The concept of the boddhisattva embodied as Avalokateshvara in Indian art/sculpture
• Working for 3 years on a manuscript collation project under  Patrick Olivelle and Richard Lariviere for a critical edition of the Laws of Manu
• Having Olivelle and Lariviere as my Sanskrit gurus 
• The The Razor's Edge by Sommerset Maugham
• Bertolucci's Little Buddha
• Kipling's Rikki-Tikki Tavi and The Jungle Books
• My grandfather in India for World War II
• Iyengar Yoga, and Bekir Algan, my instructor
• Indian Philosophy course with Stephen Phillips
• Reading Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha during several stages of my own life
• A photo from National Geographic that I have never forgotten
• Shagufta's presentation in elementary school
• All of my India students, especially Devi
• The teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha 
• The art of the Natyasashtra dance
• T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"
• Indian music, including Bollywood and classical
• The non-violence message of Gandhi 
• Translating and reading the Gita
• The caves of Elephanta and Ajanta
• Languages:Sanskrit , Tamil , and Hindi
• Teaching primarily Indian Students at AIS, in Antwerp
• The Dhammapada
• Zen 
• The concept of the boddhisattva
• The architecture
• Mark Southern
• Don Davis
• Edgar Polome
• Bekir Algan
• Indus Valley Script
• Kitaro in concert
• Dead Can Dance, The Host of Seraphim, Baraka
• Indian food experiences, Dublin, Austin, Antwerp...
• The concept of Dharma in life
• Reincarnation and Samsara, the cycle of life
• E.M. Forester's A Passage to India 
• My Indian colleagues from work
• Nick, my best friend in Graduate School
• Nagarjuna 
• Om mani padme, ...hum...
• Tattvamasi 
• Namaste

These are some of the concepts, people, and experiences that I will be bringing with me to India, to make comparisons, learn new visions on life, or just to see what is to be seen.

I hope that you will enjoy hearing about these and the real things once I am there.

Namaste