The space in between

Somehow nearly two months have come and gone and now it’s on to the next adventure.

For the love of India… I really don’t know what to say. She has rendered me speechless.

Running from here to there, doing all the last minutes things, I had to do before leaving my second home, saying goodbye to dear friends, packing my storage box, packing my backpack (somehow, the bag always expands, he he), delivering the last jewelry orders and finally 2 hours in my room before the taxi came.. I had a moment to reflect and to take a deep deep inhale and long exhale and create the mental space I needed to move into the next energy.

There is something quite magical about the space in between. The time between places, the movement of travel. It gives us a moment to transition the mind space and the physical space into the next place. I like that time when the bags are packed and there is nothing else to do except, look out the window of the taxi and say goodbye to the land, goodbye to the people and thank them both for their kindness.

I particularly like this when I am leaving India, as sometimes the ride is a bit more harrowing than desired. Like today… The practice of patience and loving kindness can be a bit more challenging in those circumstances, but there she is.. Incredible India, always challenging, always teaching and always loving me back!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

S. India tour; day 1, Bounty

Day 1.

Bounty.

Today is Shankranti, the harvest festival. A day to be thankful for the fruits of the labors of the cow. Kumar said, “We are worshipping the cow like our mother, because the cow gives us milk.”

It is day 1 of the 2012 S. India tour. We’ve had an adventure to say the least.
The ladies arrived from Bangalore around 11 this morning. They settled in and we had a meeting to go over the ‘details’ of this journey. We had a fabulous lunch with many Indian delicacies.. mmmmmm…..

Kumar picked us up at 3:30 for the beginning of what was to be a grand adventure. First stop; Chamundi Hill. The Goddess Chamundeswari protects all. We explored the top of the hill and entered the sacred temple hoping to receive her blessing for a safe journey. In my mind an auspicious way to start.

Kumar suggested we walk part of the way down to the big Nandi Bull and he would pick us up. We agreed it was a fabulous idea. There are over 1000 steps to get up to the top of Chamundi Hill. We did not climb them today, but it was fun to walk part of that path down to the sacred Nandi Bull (Shiva’s vehicle). Kumar was waiting there for us.

On we went to a spectacular event. The running of the ‘bulls’ of sorts.. During Shankranti, people decorate their cows in honor of the festival and bring them to an event where the cows jump over the fire. We drove down from Chamundi to an open field and Kumar said, ‘Here we will see the cows jump over the fire’. So we parked and thought maybe we should leave and come back, but suddenly, we heard drums and 20-30 decorated cows proceeded around a corner running toward us.. We all kind of hid behind the car and the cows ran past us. It was totally amazing. We followed them into the field and took photos. They stood throughout the field in their colorful array of decoration. Kumar said to me, “Samia, shall we go to the rooftop?” The owner of the building across the street invited us up to the best view in the house. It was quite amazing! We were so lucky and everyone was excited. After they lit the fire and the cows ran through, it was said and done in 1 minute and 45seconds. We all felt like we had to come down after that high.. Emily said, ‘Ok, now that I saw that, I can go back to NY.”

But, we had more plans for the evening. Kumar took us to the temple near his home and we had coffee with his family and then on to the palace. In Mysore the palace only lights up on Sunday nights. We drove there and as we were driving the lights disappeared ☹, we approached the palace and everyone was coming out. Kumar, convinced the guards to let us in. So, we swam upstream and saw the majestic palace, in the company of each other. Then, the police came and told us to leave.. We snuck in a few more shots and Kumar took us back to our hotel..

Phew.. that’s a lot for 4 hours.. Today we are off on another adventure..

land of magic!

I heard about it 2 years ago. It had been in my mind since then. A quiet island in the middle of the backwaters of Kerala. This year, the opportunity arose and I took it.

I stayed on the island only 24 hours, but it seemed like it was days, as time completely shifted to something slower. The taxi dropped me off, and the dirver said to me, “you take canoe taxi to the other side.” We waited for a bit and a man in a hand carved canoe arrived from the other side of the water, we put my luggage in and paddled to the other side. I exhaled.

The island does not have roads, or even motorized vehicles. It is quiet and tranquil. It has walking trails and they weave in and out of rice paddies and waterways. I felt like I was in a different world, at a different time. It was so laid back and so wonderful.

I settled in, and they served us lunch, a beautiful tasty Keralan lunch. And yet again, I had to pinch myself. I had also heard the guesthouse led tours around the island and I wanted to take one. That evening we left on a wonderful 3 hour walk, learning about the plants, the culture of the island, the rice paddies, and much more. It ended with a canoe ride back to the guesthouse singing folks songs.

There is only one guesthouse on this island, it is still very very traditional. People take water taxi’s to get around and walk everywhere. It was an absolutely amazing experience and we are going here for the tour I am leading in January.

There are 2 spots still available if you are a woman and would like to see some of traditional S. India. Please contact me!

Tour to S. India
January 15-28, 2012

It's the little things

India! Everyday, I see something I have not seen before. Every moment is filled with creativity. In India they say ‘anything is possible’ and I love it because they believe and it is true. We have such a different mindset in the west. It’s the small things I see here that I love so much.

A man riding his bicycle down the middle of the street cleaning his ear with a Q-tip.
The sparkling sari’s wrapped around gracefully walking women.
Men soldering the finger grips on a pair of scissors.
Eunuchs dressed as women aggressively begging for money.
A horse + buggy, a street sweeping machine, a cow and a bus driving next to each other on the street.
Coconut stands on every corner

The list goes on and on. My point is, there is never a dull moment. Day to day life is full of color, is out in the open and never gets old. India shows me there is a different way to do things, puts a smile on my face and has given me so many blessings!

photos soon.

day 2. flow

Day 2.

Well, it all started with my early morning, 3 am. I did a little yoga and proceeded to read until it was time for breakfast at 7. At 10, I checked out of my hotel in hopes, I would find a place to live for the next month. It seemed it would happen as I had 3 people looking for me. One of whom showed me several places, none of them very nice. Quite dingy actually. I told myself, if worse came to worse, I would just take one of them. Around 1pm, I still hadn’t found anything and decided to go out on my own and literally start knocking on doors to see if there was a flat available. Of course, I started this adventure with a place in mind. I marched over there, the owner was sitting on his porch, I asked if his flat was available and it was.. It was that easy! It was on the low end of my budget and it had all the necessities I was looking for. What more could I ask for?

From there, I hopped in a rickshaw, and went to visit Kumar, I had not seen him yet and he has a new workshop, it’s so much bigger 10X6. We chatted for a bit, his son was there with him. Then he said, ‘Samia, come to my house and eat a little bit, and then I will drive you home.’ So, of course I did that. And the food was AMAZING. And it was fun to see his family + I got to meet more of his extended family.

He took me home to my new little spot and I got a call from the airlines, my luggage was on it’s way. So, on the way to pick it up (at the hotel, I had stayed at the night before), I stopped by the internet store to get my internet broadband card recharged. The man told me, it would work the next day, but I plugged it in and boom, it worked. I asked him why it was working and he said, “madam, I have no idea.” Ok no more questions.

I left, picked up my luggage with all my items inside, and took a rickshaw back to my new flat.

It’s interesting how the day just flowed perfectly, I was never rushed, it all worked out in perfect order and I got everything I needed to done.. I must cherish that moment in time as I know, it will not always be such.

I have a wonderful Kumar story to share soon. Keep on reading..

day 1. unexpectedly super chill.

12 hours is a long time to lay horizontal, but somehow I just did it.

After arriving at 4 am yesterday a big holiday in Mysore and spending some of the day looking for a flat, with no luck, largely due to the holiday, I came back to my hotel, had a rather large lunch and came back to my room to read and take a ‘nap’. I think this may be the first time I’ve napped in the middle of the day on the first day of traveling half way around the world. At home it would have been 2:30 in the morning. Here it was 3 in the after noon. I peacefully read for an hour and then, I fell asleep, uh oh. And woke up at 7pm. I thought oh I should get up and go out and do something so I can sleep tonight, but instead, I put my pajamas on and curled up with my earplugs and fell back asleep, until 8:30 when Kumar excitedly called… ‘Samia you are arriving in Mysore. This is very good. I have been busy with my relations due to a big festival function today.” I pretended I was awake and engaged, while listening and nodding, not that he could see me. We hung up and I went back to sleep. This time for 3 hours, waking thinking for sure it was at least morning and I could get up and do some yoga and be awake for the day. But it was only 11:30pm. What to do? I thought to myself, if I ‘get up’ now, I will not stay awake all day and I may make the same mistake I made today and ‘nap’ too early. So, I rolled over and took a deep breath in and tried to fall asleep and did. Yay! Until 3:30, which is what time it is now and I feel like it is ok to be awake, as I did actually sleep 12 hours.

In some ways it’s great, when I fell asleep I had had a sore throat that kept getting more sore as the day went on. I had bought some throat lozenges and drank hot tea before I took my ‘nap’ and now my throat feels totally fine.

Unfortunately, I slept through the ‘big festival function’ which I somewhat regret as I love new experiences. But it’s ok, Diwali is soon and I know I won’t sleep through that.

During my time away from the hotel yesterday, I recharged my mobile phone with 360rs, looked at 4 flats, none of which will work for me and drank one fresh yummy coconut. When I returned, Air France called me and told me my luggage would arrive Friday afternoon. Which is 3 days after I left. I hope they are correct.

I have 3 people searching for apartments for me. I absolutely LOVE looking at flats. So, I will keep looking until I find one I like and the price is right. So, today should be fun. Plus, I will go and see Kumar and start working on our jewelry.

India!!

I made it. Again. Although this time it is somehow different. It’s my 10th time to India. I’ve spent 2 years of my life here. I love it so much!

My luggage didn’t arrive, so I have to deal with that today in my jetlagged haze, it’s not that big of a deal, other than my sunglasses. I had a premonition before I left to switch my sunglasses to a different bag, I forgot and alas the suitcase with my sunglasses didn’t arrive. So, after, an hour or so at the airport talking with the Air France representative and the customs dude, I walked out to the crowd of people waiting and saw my name “Welcome Samia Shalabi” We walked to the car and off we went at 1 in the morning. After 40 hours of travel 3 more were small peanuts.

At 4 am we arrived at the hotel. We knocked on the gate, blew the horn and knocked some more. No one came. We continued. And suddenly a nice young man came to open the gate. I’m staying at the Green Hotel, it’s my first time staying here. I’ve been eating here since 2003, but always stay at a less expensive place in the city until I find a flat. I am sitting in the garden now enjoying the view, the blue skies, the perfect temperature.

Today is a big festival day called Dasara.. I don’t know what it is all about, it’s my first time in Mysore in October. It should be fun.

day of departure

It all started with a phone call on Monday morning. A random number, I thought maybe it was a client calling. But no, it was Air France. They asked me if I would be willing to switch flights and receive a $400 voucher for future travel. They gave me the details and it actually worked out in my favor, in terms of layovers etc.

I arrived at SeaTac airport early this morning, and checked in to my flight. Seattle to New York. New York to Paris. Paris to Bangalore. It’s a long haul. I was sitting at the gate to board my plane to NY and they called my name. I got upgraded to First Class. Somehow this upgrade karma has been working for me lately and I can’t complain. It’s great.

Now, I am sitting in the Air France lounge in NY. It seems strange to partake in such luxury as I am on my way to India, but again, I’m not complaining, just observing.

I am looking forward to this journey, one month in India. A time for me to ponder after a summer of difficulties. It will be wonderful to meet with Kumar and make beautiful jewelry. It will be amazing to sit by the Arabian Sea and make gold chains with Balan.

Sometimes, I have to blink and ask myself. Is this really my life?

The making(s) of a 'fine' gold chain

My trip to India was a great success.. And what I mean by success is; creating relationships, having fun and working hard. All of which I did and all of which were great.

My work in India is multi-dimensional, while it is stimulating to my creative side, I also produce a lot while I am there. I do buying, I design and I make jewelry with my two teachers.

One of my teachers is Balan and he lives in a remote part of N. Kerala. He is an amazing man with a wonderful family. He is 66 years old and works 12 hours a day hunched over a fire to make beautiful gold jewelry. One of my objectives is to learn from him, but another is to make jewelry with him, pay him fairly for his painstakingly hard work and hopefully help contribute to the well being of his beautiful family.

Here he is making a 20k gold chain from scratch, over a fire, using a blowpipe torch and coconut shells. This is the ancient way of making jewelry, it is a dying art. I have 3 available. Please email me if you are interested in a handmade 20k gold chain. 2) 17" chains and 1) 16" chain


making wire


putting tiny solder chips on the chain before soldering


soldering the chain


polishing and flattening a custom chain we made


beautiful gold chains

searching for the serene.. goodbye India.

I suppose, for me, life is mostly about trying to find the serene amidst all the chaos and ups and downs.

Some days and some places, this practice is more difficult than others. North India is one of those places. It shoves all that chaos right in your face and puts it on spin cycle, with its extremes and it’s non-decibel regulated horns. Ugh.. It’s my last few hours in India and let’s say, I’m having a difficult time finding the serene, here in Jaipur. The north of India is so very different from the south. Cities are so much more full on than the villages. Maybe you can tell, I’m having a rough day. It goes along with being in India. There are the amazing ones and then suddenly, there are the difficult ones, both being full on extremes.. Maybe I’m feeling sad because I am leaving. I know I am irritable because I’m not feeling well and now I just returned to my guesthouse to rest, but there is a screaming baby outside my door.. Oh India, testing me for the last few hours, making my practice very difficult and never dishing out the expected..

I remember, I wrote before I left.. There is one thing to be expected in India and that is, the unexpected.

My parting words are of love and once again, I want to thank Mother India for all she is and has..

As I sat on the back of the bicycle rickshaw today, I did find some serene. The stillness within the loudness, the chaos and the dust. I sat with the wind in my hair and smiled.

don't worry. it is no problem

Everything is possible…Yes yes, don’t worry… It is no problem..

A few of my favorite, often heard Indian phrases and somehow, it’s true, everything just seems to work out. In the final hour, at the last minute, just when you think there is absolutely no way in hell this is going to happen…Then, suddenly as my teacher Kumar says, “magic is there.”

We were on the road, driving the motorbike up up up, through the lush and winding coorg hills. And suddenly, the bike stopped, we were (at least we thought) 40 km away from anything remotely, village like. So, we pushed the bike into the shade and I said to Steven, “First let’s have a snack, and then, we will worry about the bike.” So, we stood in the shade on a beautiful road, and snacked on the snacks our Indian family had packed, homemade potato chips, chat, and a large ball of something sweet. Mmmmm…

Then, before we actually even looked at the bike, we made a plan. It seemed as if the bike was out of gas, although it shouldn’t have been because we had filled it just before departing. Our plan A, we would switch it to the reserve tank and it would make it to the nearest gas station (ha, pretty optimistic). Our plan B, if no reserve, I would hitch a ride to the nearest gas station while Steven waited with the bike, get gas and hitch a ride back. Our plan C, if it wasn’t a gas problem… well we didn’t think about that.

So, Steven turned on the reserve tank, and bam.. it started. Yay!! Part 1 of plan A worked, but we also knew we only had 1 liter, didn’t exactly know where the nearest petrol station was and knew the bike was guzzling gas at a faster rate than 30 km/liter. We also knew the biggest town was 40 km away. We crossed our fingers and hopped part 2 of plan A would work. About 10km from there, was a lovely little petrol station. Yay!!

We then, called the guesthouse we were staying at to tell them where we were and when we would be arriving. About 30 minutes later, we arrived, in the town nearest the guesthouse. We pulled over to figure out what we were going to do about lunch and suddenly a jeep pulled up next to us and the man inside said, “ Hello, Steven?” OMG!… It was the guesthouse owner. I guess he was just hanging out in town waiting for two white people to go by on a motorbike. He lead us to a little restaurant, we ate and then we followed him through miles of coffee plantations, to his own. We spent the night as the only guests at a gorgeous guesthouse high in the hills of Coorg. We wrote music and sang and played and had a wonderful time!

It is no problem. No problem at all.

Amama

Amama was 95, and healthy.




It’s been one year, since she passed away peacefully





There was ceremony



There were prayers

And now Her soul is now free.

click here for a little story I wrote about her last year, just before her passing

Kerala..

Several days have passed and I have a lot to catch up on, but here is a glimpse into our second day of riding.

We traveled from the lush hills of Coorg through the rice paddies, and coffee plantations along the tiny windy roads, with no traffic, and beautiful scenery. How do I describe how I felt on the back of the Enfield? It may be indescribable. It was definitely a moment of freedom, and happiness.
We drove down down down out of the hills of Karnataka and into Kerala, and even though we were amongst the subtleness of simple life, India did not disappoint. We saw, more than one person, carrying a tree, yes, a tree, an entire tree trunk of bamboo, which is used as a ladder, to help with harvesting pepper off of the vine which grows high on trees. We saw overloaded, wagons carrying hay, we saw a man walking over 100 baby ducks. As usual, the unusual made me smile. Seemingly in a remote area, there are still people at every intersection, always in the right spot for us to ask if we were going in the correct direction.

After a few hours, we came to a road block where we reached the border, between the two states, Karnataka and Kerala. With an approving head wobble, they raised the divider and let us through. The temperature immediately changed from pleasant to oppressively hot. Welcome to Kerala and our heat and humidity…

The drive to Kannur was not as pleasant, but still an adventure, more traffic, more towns, and a lot of heat. We drove through several villages looking for a shady place to park and have something cool to drink, but somehow all the shaded places were welding shops. India is so funny. Finally, we just stopped and it felt good to get off the bike, walk around and drink a 7up.

We also had to pee, but it is always sooooooo unsatisfying to pee in India, especially as a woman. First, asking, and finding a toilet is not an easy task and then when one is found. It’s all hold your breath, close your eyes and get the hell out of there as fast as you can. So, I found a toilet and yes, it was unpleasant and Steven went after me and came back and said with a giggle, “ I don’t know what you find so unsatisfying about that.” I could write a whole book on Indian toilets and if you have not been, it’s impossible to understand in this short paragraph, but if you have been, then you know exactly what I am talking about.

We finally made it to our destination after 4 and a half hours of driving. It’s amazing here and I will write more about it later.

blowing in the wind

We made it. Our first day of traveling by Enfield. I decided half way through, it's my favorite way to travel. Well, I have always loved being on the back of a motorbike in India, but this is the first time we actually have done an overnight and will be doing more over the next 10 days. We drove from Mysore to Bylakuppe, the Tibetan settlements in S. India. There we met our good friend and monk, and had a lovely lunch with him. We briefly attended a special puja (ceremony) and were back on the road.

And up up up through the hills and windy small roads of Coorg, the coffee region. Oh it is so green and beautiful and it is harvest season. We saw the coffee being harvested and laid in the sun to dry. It's quiet here.

Right now as we get ready to sleep, we can hear crickets, the moon is bright and the stars are shining.

I feel as if I have exhaled and really started to relax. Mysore is such an amazing place, but somehow, I always run around like a crazy person, working, doing this, doing that, making jewelry, etc... Now, it's chill out time, observation time. Time to breathe and ride, ride into the wind.

new adventure! new jewelry!

As we get ready to go on our motorbike adventure to Kerala. I am finishing up here in Mysore. Phew... The last days are always hectic, it seems as if it will not get done and suddenly, miraculously, it is finished, and perfect, just in the knick of time...


So, we will see. We leave here on Wed. morning and will journey off on our super ride. The 1993 Royal Enfield Bullet 350 (with carrier, of course)... oh I am excited..

Check out our new pieces and the Bullet! The pieces are limited and are for sale. if you are interested, please contact me via email.

sneaking a peek... golden goodies 2011

This trip I am making a lot custom orders and a friend of mine gave me a gold and diamond ring. She asked if we could melt the gold and use it in her piece and she wanted to give the diamond to Kumar as a gift.

The other day, as I was sitting with Kumar in his shop, he asked me, 'Samia, you remember your friend? The one who has given me the diamond as a gift?'

I said, 'Yes, Kumar, I remember.'

He said, 'Well, I am thinking of also giving the diamond as a gift.'

I replied, 'Wow, Kumar, that is so kind. Who are you thinking of giving the diamond to?'

Kumar then says, 'Samia, not like that, not like that. There is one Goddess, her name is Saraswati. She is the Goddess of Wisdom and art and culture and there is one temple. I am thinking, I will make a nose ring or a pendant and give it to the Goddess Saraswati at the temple.'

How i love India. How I love Kumar.

So, I asked Kumar, 'How would you feel if I told my friend your idea?" he replied, "you MUST tell your friend my idea. It is necessary."


Kumar and I have been working very hard this week.. Here are a few photos of what we have been up to.

a thing of beauty.

The other day. A long time friend, inspiring person and beautiful woman, came over to my little flat and created a work of (temporary) art on my hands. Oh how I love henna(mehendi)!

She squeezed the black mud type paste in gorgeous designs and voila 2 hours later. My hands were decorated with her creativity.

Manjula is amazing! She told me, about one month ago she attended a wedding and had mehendi on her hands. And she got soooooooo excited about it, she decided she wanted to learn how. So, for the past month she's been working hard, using her spare time to learn this art. I am so impressed she only started doing this. It is not a simple thing, but as you can see, she has talent.

After the 'mud' dries, little flakes of it fall off, the henna has at that point (one to two) hours later absorbed into the skin and become a temporary natural tattoo, and changes to a reddish, orangish, brown color. Henna comes from a small tree. It is from the dried leaves, that the 'mud' is made.

Thank you Manjula! I love it. And I am sooooooo happy for you.