It is hard to imagine sitting in a well ventilated room with the wind sauntering through while you meditate, that you would also be sweating up a bucket full. But there I was doing just that this morning. The silence is a wonder as you wander into the sensations in your body while also surrounded by the sounds of birds in the yard outside. If you let your mind wander, as I regret I do sometimes, you can also hear the daily funeral processions in the background.
After meditation, we wandered to one of our favorite Sunday brunches with a wonderful array of Indian food. The problem with buffet anywhere in the world is the self discipline to say enough. Thank heaven there was a chai in offing which persuaded me from wandering back into the line. Costing 190 rupees or just under $4, this is an unmitigated luxury!
It is quite evident that tourism is down. The guest house that we are now at has ourselves and one Italian couple. Cash flow is a strain. You can see it all around. There are definitely fewer tourists – noticeably so. This is true here in Auroville but also in Pondicherry.
On the flight from London to Chennai, we noted that, if you took off the Indians coming home or to visit relatives and looked at the pure tourist business on the flight, the plane would be not a quarter full. We also noticed that it was a smaller plane versus the one this time last year.
News of the American credit rating downgrade is all over the papers. The price of gold here is skyrocketing. Westerners who have lived here a fair while talk about the impact that the economic crisis is having on tourist traffic. This is admittedly not the high season of travel in India – that comes from around December to late March. But one does have to wonder at this point.
Our bedroom
The welcome frog at the door
There is some sentiment here that the American economic crisis is a manufactured one by large American corporate interests who seek to ensure that Obama will not be re-elected. Interesting that such thinking would be around here.
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