"Where?!..What's that say? ...I can't read?!"

In case you don't know what I'm talking about from the quote in the title, it's bacon. Anyway, currently, I'm sitting in the training room in Chennai next to Karthik, one of the trainees. He's becoming one of my good friends although we can barely understand one word the other says.

Karthik is learning guitar, but has never heard someone else play guitar before. He also doesn't know any famous guitar players. I'd imagine this makes learning guitar very difficult, but perhaps not. Since he has no preconceptions it may be fresh and easy to pick up.

Yesterday, I taught him about Jerry Garcia and Tony Rice. He liked both.

Today, look over out of the corner of my eye I see he's reading, with the greatest attention, the Wikipedia page for bacon. I couldn't help, but laugh out loud. I asked why he was reading it and felt stupid when he replied simply, "I don't know what it is."

I guess it's the same as when I read the Wiki page for Genesha. I learn a lot more in Chennai than the names of Gods and spices.

Happy Birthday Allen

Happy Birthday to Allen Ginsberg. Today he would be 93 which is really old.



On pg 64 of Indian Journals, there's a letter to Jack (Kerouac I assume) that is a perfect description of my life everyday for the past 11 days and next 12.



India flowing past the train window with huge plains & palm trees & cows & people shitting in the grasses & washing with their loin cloths in muddy rivers & waterbuffalos & the Ghats mts in the heat haze way off.



I ate a piece of cake with my lunch.

Why the funk not?

So basically Bootsy Collins declared that funk goes back to the begining of time. Bootsy is right! For this reason he has opened Funk University, an online degree program for bassists. I really can't think of a reason not to enroll in the program. As Bootsy said, "you gotta bring some funk to get some funk." So funk it, i'm brining it.

..seriously if I had money to blow on anything it would be The Bootsy Collins Funk University

http://www.thefunkuniversity.com/

"Its not about just playing a bunch of notes" Bootsy Collins

Happy Memorial Day

I'm shot and really have so much on my mind. I have a feeling this post will just be a list. This weekend I visited the Taj Mahal. Delhi where I saw Parliament, India Gate, the Lotus Temple, and some other places. Every experience was fascinating and moving.

This morning I visited the Theosophical Society and Musee Musical where I played guitar for 2 hours with the shop's buyer. He was awesome and trained in classical guitar, but loved the blues. I bought a guitar that I love.

I left it all on the field this weekend. Fear, joy, euphoria, peace, balance, anger, and now I'm here feeling sad. And Lonely and a little bit bored. I miss everyone and would give anything to share the things I have with you.

This is just a journal now, but that's ok.

Peace

TCS#1234

Now my sleep schedule is more messed up than ever before? Im working overnight but on US EST so when its 7 am at home its 430pm. When i got home last night it was about 3am, i ate slept and woke around 10 am. I ate again and then slept till 4:00 showered and went to work. I cant do that every day.

Mike says my body will soon get adjusted to the supplements and I will be able to sleep a few hours after I work out. SO I will try once again to stay awake until 10am, sleep till 4:30 and call that night.

This morning we are attending a wedding of one of the new trainees. Typical Hindu weddings take place in the early morning about 6am with the reception being the night before. During my last stay I was also invited to a wedding. The brother of my colleague and good friend Vinyak. I suspect that this will be similar and I am excited to share the day with my new friend Giri.

I havent had a chance to get any formal wear or even a kurta. I didnt bring any from home because i had llimited space to pace and I only have 1 formal kurta. The last hindu wedding I showed up in full formal indian garb and my Indian colleagues and the grooms brother was wearing a polo and khakis. Go figure. Thats what I will wear this morning and probably look silly.

Oh did I mention next week we are flying to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal? In case you didnt know it was build completely by hand to the last detail and took 22 years. It is the ultimate symbol of love as Shahjahan the emperor of the world built it for his wife who had died 2 years prior to the begining of construction

First day in the office.

I have been losing serious steam with the blogging already. Work is very busy and I don't feel as motivated here to jump on blogger. Plus I've learned that a personal blog, with no real direction, on blogger is like singing in a vaccuum. It's all good thought. My actual journal, the one on paper with ink, is burning up I can't stop writing and whatnot.

Also usually at home I try to write these little blurbs in word then edit and revise. I think I have abandoned that approach permanently and I will from now on just write and write and not read twice. So what you read is what you get i guess. I hope that doesn't cause me to lose any readers or followers. Ha!

It's our first day of work and for the first 2 hours all the LAN was down so we basically did nothing and now its 12:12 am about mid way through the shift. Once I get home Ill have to determine how I will schedule my weeks. IN 2008 we would work unti abour 430 -5 so things were different now we will be home by 3 i guess so i may just sleep right away and wake for noon. Last night i started taking a new workout supplement and was wired like an animal for hours.

I was however focused and had plenty of time to stretch and pactice asanas. My knees hurt and my legs are very very skinny.

Have you ever seen the rain?

I wanna know why I am half way around the earth but thinking about a farm in Manchester, Tennessee?

Today was the first day I've ever listened to Creedence Clearwater Revival for over an hour and I knew every song. And I loved each song more than the one prior. It made me think about Bonnaroo and how this year I will be returning home the day after the festival ends. One of the artists that is performing is John Fogerty and man I would love to lay on that lawn Sunday evening and feel the spirit of the 60s with all the ccr songs.

It may be hard to imagine why I would wish I was going to be in Tennessee in the hot dry sun with a bunch of smelly, intoxicated, and sometimes deceitful people when I am in a country whose civilization is over 2000 years old. I think it's because once someone said that India has so much history and culture and spirituality and the US is so young, a melting pot of borrowed culture, with a shameful history.

When I am here I am not searching for anything ancient or spiritual. I am searching for part of an american spirit from the 1960s that was left by harrison, ginsberg, alpert, and jerry!

It rarely rains in Chennai, it rained 3 days ago now. At bonnaroo it rains every Saturday night, at the pinnacle of the night during the peak of the festival. I think it's because 80,000 plus with 80,000 emotions each are chanting, dancing, loving, fearing, freaking out, plugged in, turned up, whacked out, passed out all at once and there's nothing the earth in that place at that time can do but pour down one everything all at once. It's a reminder that under the blanket we are all connected to everyone on the farm and under the sky. Even me over in Chennai.

Here again!

Shahir just called me from work and it was great to hear from him.

Today I ran the gambit of emotions, but am feeling at ease now. Reading Ginsberg really helps. Honestly, I can't understand why anyone would want to read Indian Journals. To most people it is nonsense. Some of it to me is nonsense, but I'm reading along and enjoying it. This is the first books I've picked up and actually understood literary references. He speaks about Coleridge and I remember Kubla Khan from freshman year English. When he says Jack and Neal I can actually put a face and voice to them.

I feel lonely and traveled. Naive and wise. Comfortable and anxious. I felt kindness today and so I feel more at ease.

Tomorrow will be a good day and hopefully I will have a guitar to play for a few weeks.

This is not Ginsberg's India

Hey, I am in India and my laptop wont charge so I wont really be blogging. The flight was long and lonely and I am not really looking forward to the flight home. I just found out I will be traveling alone again in three weeks. Entering the Chennai airport is a cinch, but leaving is a hassle with customs and all.

Well, nothing about this place has changed other than me. I am a very different person than in 2008. I guess back then I didn't have so many goals at home and so this place was new and open and I loved it easily. I do still love it, but am actually missing home.

For years I was filling the jar with with the small stones. They didn't amount to much. but they were fun and easy to carry. Over the past year, I have smartened up and started filing my jar with the largest stones. They are very hard to carry and sometime the fight is so tough I want to drop them. Once I place them though, and see how much closer I am to only have small stones to carry, I feel lifted and free and ready for another big one.

I received all A's again and Dee has just one semester of classwork to graduate. Hard stones to carry, but worth it. I know that I will one day be free to find peace, but now I have to practice balance.