Sri's Musings from Bangalore

Yes, it was a quiet and peaceful holiday – the last few days of December. Very peaceful, relaxing and rejuvenating it was, indeed!

No I did not read the famous Thomas Hardy book “Far from the Madding Crowd” of perhaps 1874?!! But, I’m reading another great book – a very recent publication – a New York Times Bestseller of 2007.

[“In vacant or in pensive mood”… View of the hills and the Valleys – Mercara…]



The book is “Three Cups of Tea” – One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time (in remote regions of Pakistan). It’s by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin, that a dear friend brought me. I’m only half way through it but I’am loving it. It reads fast at times, slower at other times. Very inspiring and motivating none-the-less.

I’d like to share a few passages from the book that very much resonated with me. I’d also like to share some pics from our recent holiday in Coorg – at a Home Stay in a coffee plantation. And I contrast it with a few pics of Bangalore traffic and Tall buildings (with parks and flowers within - quite refreshing) – the city’s new signature, so much different from the pensioner’s paradise of yonder years!

…..

Some where in the middle of the book “Three cups of Tea” the author refers to a book he’d recently read, “Ancient Futures” by Helena Norberg-Hodge, was much on Mortenson’s mind. Norberg-Hodge had spent seventeen years living just south of these mountains, in Ladakh, a region much like Baltistan, but cut off from Pakistan by the arbitrary borders colonial powers drew across the Himalayas. After almost two decades studying Ladhaki culture, Norberg-Hodge had come to believe that preserving a traditional way of life in Ladakh – extended families living in harmony with the land – would bring about more happiness than “improving” Ladhaki’s standard of living with unchecked development.

“I used to assume that the direction of ‘progress’ was somehow inevitable, not to be questioned,” she writes. I passively accepted a new road through the middle of the park, a steel-and-glass bank where a 200 year old church had stood… and the fact that life seemed to get harder and faster with each day. I do not anymore. In Ladakh I have learnt that there is more than one path, into the future and I have had the privilege to witness another, saner, way of life – a pattern of existence based in the coevolution between human beings and the earth”

Norberg-Hodge continues to argue, not only that Western development workers should not blindly impose modern “improvements” on ancient cultures, but the industrialized countries had lessons to learn from people like Ladhakis about building sustainable societies. “I have seen”, she writes, “that community and a close relationship with the land can enrich human life beyond all comparison with material wealth or technological sophistication. I have learnt that another way is possible.”
Just a few days away from Bangalore, the hustle-bustle of the city, neigh, the madness of the crowds here --- and it did wonders! It brought about a certain “grounded-ness” and a “connected-ness” to people, wilderness, nature. It brought peace and satisfaction. I’d like to share some of pics of the Coorg visit and others taken in Bangalore in my neighborhood at various times



[Cauvery River.. slow and steady flow …] --->

<--- [Village paddy harvest season - a Winter crop…]




<--- [Abby Falls – Mercara] [Forest land – not so dense] -->










Our Coorg “Home Stay” host’s parent’s house – in the middle of their 50 acre coffee plantation!


<--- [ And… the “Madding” Bangalore morning commute…]

[Off to school in Bangalore one morn.] -->

Just traffic...

<--[Just buildings – homes! [And More home in the making!!] -->

And all kinds of vehicles share the road...

Tall homes with beautiful small gardens and flowers...

High rises and low, and an aeroplane too!

Maybe I should read the book “Ancient Futures” by Helena Norberg-Hodge, that “Three cups of Tea” author Mortenson often refers to…

Here’s another quote that I’d like to end this pictorial narration with…

“ “Norberg-Hodge admiringly quotes the king of another Himalayan country, Bhutan, who says the true measure of a nation’s success in not gross national product, but “gross national happiness.” On their warm, dry, roofs, among the fruits of their successful harvest, eating, smoking, and gossiping with the same sense of leisure as Parisians on the terrace of a sidewalk café, Mortenson felt sure that, despite all that they lacked , the Balti still held the key to a kind of uncomplicated happiness that was disappearing in the developing world as fast as old-growth forests. ”

Wishing you much happiness.

Best wishes!

-Sri