Kerala |
Jaisalmer |
Himalayas
If you're going to India looking for a sense of adventure, well I'm afraid those days are long gone. The differences between our two cultures is disappearing by the day. The same things you can buy in America, you can buy in India. Cellphones are rampant. The products they use are the same products we use. Colgate, Duracell, CocaCola... it's no different. You can get cash with your ATM card. If you're bank is empty you can use Western Union to get some sent from the west. If you want to gain weight you can eat at McDonalds or snack on Mentos. Televisions show the same junk - Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Wide World of Wrestling, and of course the News. Speaking of news, since when did talking heads with a ticker on the bottom and a ticker on the side become the international standard? I guess having once source of bad news wasn't enough, the networks decided that instead of having just a persons' face on there spewing out negativity, the exec's wanted to write some depresssing words on othe bottom and some dismal news on the side as well. Regardless, the world creeps on towards uniformity.
If you really want to find adventure coming to India might work, but you're better off just messing up or by being careless. Do something stupid, put yourself in an annoying and unusual situation and then you can find adventure in your hometown. And there's always crime. Crime is full of adventure and excitement, but it's a royal pain in the ass. And actually adventure is too. Most 'adventures' really suck while they're happening. They are only enjoyable afterwards when you're telling the story.
I initially thought that the month I spent in the ashram was my first initiation into meditation. But after having spent a month there doing what they do, I realize that I've been meditating for years. The difference lies only in style. Spending hours everyday painting, sitting, thinking, and staring is pretty meditative. But due to the aspects of fun and enjoyment, I never saw it as anything other then just 'hanging out.' To me, I was just doing what I always do, I never tried to label it as a deep meditation. If you approached me I wouldn't say, 'Hey man, leave me alone. Can't you see I'm spending hours in deep meditation, I'm trying to glimpse the universal wonder of infinity.' I would be more likely to say, 'Hey, what's up?... I'm just trying to paint those rocks and trees over there, but it's taking me forever.'
In the ashram people spoke of living this way or that way. They talked of living life with a spiritual practice. Living as one with God. That's fine and all, but I found a lot of it to be too much talk. The reality they lived was different from that which they spoke of. It seemed as though some people were just hiding from the outside world. One can learn a lot through reading and studying, but learning through doing seems to be a more legitimate way to go. It's easy to talk about doing good, but it's much more difficult to actually 'do' good. Ashram life is good for for short periods of time, but it's just as important to go out into the real world and test yourself. It's easy to be patient in a peaceful ashram, but try being patient standing for hours in the customs line trying to get back into the states.
I've also learned that you don't have to be an artist to learn all that stuff. You just have to put 100% effort into whatever you do. You could bake cookies all day, but if you want to have the best cookies in the world, then you have to be present and focused. You can learn the same things from cooking cookies that you can from painting. I just happen to choose painting as my path of learning. It's different for everyone. And who knows, they may stop making paints one day and then I won't be able to paint anymore. So I'm not going to be one of those people whose entire life revolves around painting. Painting is what I do, but it's not who I am.
After Kerala, I spent time in the desert town of Jaisalmer. I've visited this town before, so I was anxious to revisit some of my old painting spots. My daily activities were pretty much the same throughout the month. Every morning, I'd head out into the city and just wander. No direction, no goal. Just walking and looking. Whenever I found an interesting spot, I'd stop, sit and sketch. The discipline of my daily activities helped give me focus and structure. I think it's hard for some people to find purpose when they don't have a constant job to do. People need something to do or else they start getting into trouble doing things they shouldn't. Painting keeps me going in the right direction.
Some people seem suprised that the people living in India are just like the those living in America. 'It's so dirty over there. They don't speak english. They don't have TV. They aren't christian. Don't they worship cows?' It's as if these superficial traits define a people as being totally inhuman. What some people fail to see is that the country is full of mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, friends, strangers, coworkers and everything else. People are just people everywhere in the world. They share the same goals, the same fears, the same joy and the same sorrow. We're all scared of dying and we all want our children to be happy. We all like babies and we all like to smile. People are people. The fact that they sit on the ground while eating or live in villages doesn't mean they are so different. Overall I think Indians are kinder, more generous and hospitable to complete strangers then the people in western countries, but I didn't meet everyone.
For instance, if I was painting people usually wouldn't try to sell me stuff. For example, one time I was painting and this salesguy came to try and sell me a fiddle or something and the other sales guys that were in the same courtyard scolded him for bothering me and made him walk away. And if a group of children came up to me, they would intially ask for rupees, school pens or chocolate, but once they saw what I was doing, they would quiet down and just watch. The group would attract other children and the newbie's may ask for some treats, but then a member of the initial group would yell at the newcomer - basically saying, 'leave him alone, can't you see he's painting?' The kids would offer to hold my palette or they'd want to see my other works and there was genuine interest.
Having sat back and reflected on my trip, I've realized just how important painting is to my progression as an individual. Dedication and discipline in one avenue of life, will find it's way into all aspects of your character. So by experimenting and learning with painting, I'm learning about life without even trying. Plus my art opens up so many doors for me and allows me to meet such a variety of people. When I'm out painting on the curb, I'm hanging with the homeless, when I'm at one of my exhibitions I'm schmoozin and boozin with the highrollers. I learn equally from both. It's these little trips to foriegn places that knock me out of my comfort zone and show me things I didn't know about myself, that help me grow as an person and an artist. I suppose if you're mature and wise, you can learn all this in your hometown. But for people like me it takes a variety of experiences and a few foreign countries for it all to sink in.
And like I said before, painting isn't the only way to learn all that stuff. These same ideas and philosophies are required to do anything right. It doesn't matter if you want to be a good artist or the best project manager. You can do whatever you want to do and learn what you need to know as long as you are present while doing it. I think that's why people appreciated seeing an artist sitting on the curb. People enjoy seeing someone being 100% present.. So many times people are thinking about the future or the past that they fail to realize the importance of the present. An artist out painting can remind someone about the beauty that is all around them at this very moment.
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Everybody has different reasons for travelling. Some people come to India to live life on the cheap. Some, (mainly older folks) like to blow big bucks with tour groups visiting all the latest 'secret' places. Others come searching for some lost spirituality or as a means to find themselves. Travelling for a taste of a culture that is thousands of years old is popular. And I even met a few people who came looking for adventure. These are all legitimate reasons for others, but that's not why I went. My reason for going to India was because I wanted to paint. Nothing fancy, just simple painting. By focusing on that, I learned more about all those other things then I ever imagined.
At the beginning of the trip, I stayed at an Ashram in Kerala. Early to bed, early to rise, lots of yoga, a little meditation, healthy diet and all that. Day in day out, no change. One might expect a very spiritual type existence living in an ashram in India, but I found it to be more like a boot camp for yogi's. Too much authority in a place I assumed was for peace of mind. I did appreciate the amount of information I leanred, but I wanted to spend most of my day painting, so I'd have to sneak off and paint when I was supposed to be somewhere else. Any place that makes me have to be sneaky in order to paint isn't for me.
Through painting I've learned more about life, then I could ever have learned at any ashram or church. You can learn lots of positives through organizations like those, but in order to come into full realization, one needs to practice what one preaches. Through painting I've learned what is important versus what is superficial. Characteristics like preserverance, honesty, integrity, humility, and a host of other positive traits have come to me through the discipline of painting. One of my favorite lessons painting has taught me, is to just 'be.' Through painting I've learned the importance of being present in all you do. Life is so short and so unexpected. If you live your life in a blur of repetitions and habits, then you're not present and when it's your time to die, you'll ask where all the time went. If you create a body of work that is based on repetitions, habits and neat tricks, you'll come to the end and ask where all the real art is?
Everyday would bring new experiences, new paintings and new friends. I found my interactions with the locals to be entertaining and always different. Some spoke english, most did not, but there was always a feeling of friendship shared. Indians in general are extremely open and generous. I was offered to share chai with complete strangers time and time again. People would invite me into their homes, offer me food and hospitality almost daily. Some were interested in just seeing a white guy, others were interested in seeing my paintings. Through all of these interactions I was able to witness the positive side of human nature. It was good to see. When one reads the news or watches TV most of the time, the positive side of life seems to get lost amongst the violence, tits and advertisements.
With a billion people living over there, you're sure to come across a few unsavory chaps. People are always trying to sell you something. In the locals' eyes, the western tourists have never ending pockets. Every tourist has a certain button that will make them empty thier pockets in a heartbeat. It's the Indian shopkeepers job to try to find that button within the first minute of introduction. "Internet-phone-chocolate-water-pants-dinner-breakfast-No? That was the constant chant one heard when wandering around the shops. There were many times I had to deal with this nonsense, but when I was painting, I found that I wasn't bothered at all.
