Saturday 15th May 2010
7.45am
In bed at the Dip Tse Chok Ling Monastery, McLeod Ganj
India
I find it amusing how many shopkeepers get so paranoid about bank notes here, if the condition of them isn't pristine they wet their pants and refuse to accept them.
Yesterday when I paid for a cup of tea, that cost 15Rs, I used a frazzled 50Rs note. The cashier didn't like it though so he chose to accept a crisp 10Rs note instead. His choice.
First thing this morning and last things last night I have been correcting Tensing's English poems and trying to decipher his hand writing. I'm trying to use some creative judgement and to just try and correct the grammar and punctuation as much as possible with poetry.
Last night I finish The Last Mughal.
I bought momos from a different vendor and they were inferior to the ones sold by the usual lady I go to. These others did not have the same good fresh filling while the texture of the momos was weaker and they didn't hold together well.
I thought about getting a Kit-Kat Chunky, they cost 40Rs (A packet of chocolate biscuits is 20Rs) but they don't know how (or have the means) to look after chocolate here, nothing is protected from the heat. The chocolate sits half melted and squashed in the counters and on the shelves and no one seems to buy it.
Yesterday I went to the opening of a Tibetan art and poetry exhibition, I'll give the details of it to Tensing. Some of the oil paintings were really great and all related to Tibet or Buddha. I got a small book of poems.
I had a tea in the cafe upstairs. Earl Grey.
Before that I used the internet for two hours but despite the time I spent online I inevitably forgot to check one or two things. Though I did correct some writing an old student from South Korea sent to me.
Across the road from the internet cafe was the Gu-Chu-Sum Movement (Gu-Cha-Sum - 9-10-3) which is named so because in September and October 1987 and March 1988 there were big protests in Tibet that were punished by the Chinese.
(Upon typing up this diary I've come across their website http://9103.org/)
Anyway, they had a very graphic photography exhibition of the suppression enforced by the Chinese. The exhibition didn't shy away from showing the gruesome treatment of the monks and the dead bodies of Tibetans killed by the Chinese. Pictures of dead bodies lying blood stained either in hospital beds or in some local street somewhere surrounded by people.
The earlier half of the day was taken up by helping and speaking to Tensing, who has taken to buying all my cups of tea.
We went to Dal Lake, past his old school and sat for a couple of hours outside a small Hindu temple. It turns out both his parents are dead, but he has a couple of aunts and an uncle an one step-sister. Though I am not sure how much of what he tells me is true. He went to school here in McLeod Ganj at the TCV - Tibetan Children's Village and naturally had some problems growing up without a stable family.
He told me he has had meaningful contact with just one of his maternal aunts who made an impression on him and knocked some sense into him; he talks fondly of her.
He mentioned his academic past to me too which had been a struggle for one reason or another, he moved to a school in Dehdradun and past an important exam there. A highly reputed school is there in that town and many Tibetans live there.
At one of our first meetings he told me he wanted to be a writer; he seems creative; he mentioned how he had enjoyed drama classes in the past; bunked off school to smoke; wrote songs and compositions that he wanted to record and had other such ideas about things he wanted to do. He's a quiet person though. He seems slightly aloof from the world, which is reflected in his body language and demeanour, which I perhaps comes from some his childhood experiences.
His distant relatives (as I suppose they are) he wants to get away from and he would like to obtain a scholarship, for which being published would help his application. A wave of apprehension sweeps over him when other young Tibetans come near him.
It was interesting to hear his story, from being bullied for wetting the bed to his previous experiences of visiting Delhi and Bangalore, which as a member of an ethnic minority, were indeed a struggle.
We'll meet again tomorrow.
....
Today is FA Cup Final day.
I'll get a Times of India later and head to the library and read all day.
Yesterday I failed miserably with the Sudoko, and lost patience with it.
The crossword was tough too.
Plus the answers to the other puzzles were printed on the same page so I couldn't help but notice them inadvertently, never mind.
I'll try again today.
Also, I found a local cinema, so may watch a film tomorrow.
Rovers have stuck 15 on the transfer list; can't believe that!
His distant relatives (as I suppose they are) he wants to get away from and he would like to obtain a scholarship, for which being published would help his application. A wave of apprehension sweeps over him when other young Tibetans come near him.
It was interesting to hear his story, from being bullied for wetting the bed to his previous experiences of visiting Delhi and Bangalore, which as a member of an ethnic minority, were indeed a struggle.
We'll meet again tomorrow.
....
Today is FA Cup Final day.
I'll get a Times of India later and head to the library and read all day.
Yesterday I failed miserably with the Sudoko, and lost patience with it.
The crossword was tough too.
Plus the answers to the other puzzles were printed on the same page so I couldn't help but notice them inadvertently, never mind.
I'll try again today.
Also, I found a local cinema, so may watch a film tomorrow.
Rovers have stuck 15 on the transfer list; can't believe that!