
Before leaving Rishikesh, we wanted to make a visit to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram, where the Beatles and many other famous people spent time in the late 60’s. The only problem was on this particular day, it happened to be holi festival, a Hindu festival, which celebrates the beginning of spring, where the tradition is to light bonfires and throw coloured powder at one another. The coloured powder gets mixed with water and is more like paint, so it’s a rather messy affair, as the streets become a giant play ground of paint fights. Somehow we needed to navigate our way through the streets to the other side of town and to avoid getting splattered at the same time. This was never going to happen and in no time, we looked like multi-coloured goblins!
For now, I was ready to leave India behind. Short bursts in this continent of bedlam are enough. But for all its madness, it has beauty and appeal like no other place. Both times I have been to India I have returned, feeling as though deep internal shifts have taken place and my spiritual energy renewed. But i'm always grateful to be back on home ground to enjoy a very long, hot shower and to make myself my favourite thing in the world, a big bowl of fresh miso soup with seaweed, greens and brown rice. My whole body relaxes and says thank you very much!