Category: India

books, India, writing, yoga

Leap: My Book and Photos About My Trip to India

Christa Avampato

In the 2 months since I returned from India, I’ve thought about it everyday. It has a hold on me unlike any other place I’ve ever been. It is in my bones.

Over these past two months, I revisited my journal and pictures from the trip. My memories are multi-sensory. I don’t just remember what something looked like. I also remember the scent, the feeling, the emotion, the sound. It was a hard journey. Much harder than I expected. And it was beautiful, too – sometimes in ways that I didn’t appreciate at the time.

To sum up as much reflection as I’ve done to-date, I wrote an eBook – In Search of the OM in Everything: 8 Days in India. I struggled to get it all down on paper. I cried through much of the writing because I changed so much during the trip and change is hard.

Had I just set out to write this book for myself, I’m not sure I would have finished it in two months. But I wrote it for a group of people whom I admire, love, and respect – my teacher training group at ISHTA Yoga and all of our beautiful teachers. The book was my final project for the program, which we completed yesterday. In order to graduate, I needed to finish this project so I pushed through the tears and get it all down on paper. The experience of the training and the experience of writing this book are just two of the countless gifts given to me by this amazing group of people who lent their support, love, energy, and time to one another.

So here it is – the link to my book, In Search of the OM in Everything: 8 Days in India, and my photo album from the trip. I’d love to know what you think.

India, writer, yoga

Leap: “The End” – the Two Sweetest Words for a Writer

Christa Avampato

Yesterday I finished my ebook about my trip to India. In Search of the OM in Everything: 8 Days in India will be available for download from the iBookstore for iPhone and iPad on Monday and as a high resolution PDF from this blog. The moment I finished it, I felt an enormous sense of relief. I didn’t realize how much energy the project took to sustain. Now that I can release it out into the world, I feel a lightness. I have more room. Finally those stories will be out of my head and in the world.

I’ll publish the links on Monday once I complete my final practicum and presentation of the book as my research project on the last day of my 300-hour yoga teacher training at ISHTA Yoga this weekend. Until then, I’ll be basking in the glow of “The End.”

adventure, India, travel

Leap: I Finished the First Draft of My Ebook about My India Trip

Christa Avampato
One of the many signs I stumbled across in India that let me know I was going in the right direction

Yesterday I finished the first draft of my ebook about my Indian adventure. I’m using it as my research project for my advanced yoga teacher training which wraps up next weekend. This research project was one of the main drivers for writing this ebook so quickly after my return.

I felt an amazing sense of relief writing that last sentence. It was difficult and wonderful to relive everything captured in my journal, particularly with the perspective of 2 months of elapsed time. So much has changed in that 2 months since I returned from my trip and I am grateful for every ounce of it.

More than anything, I am in awe of our ability to change our lot once we simply commit to making a change. Overcoming inertia is no small feat though once we get ourselves moving in the direction of radical change, the train will keep moving and take on a life of its own. It’s empowering and inspiring to realize our own strength and courage.

This week, I’ll be doing some very light editing of the ebook and adding in pictures. Then I’ll wrap it up in a bow, post it up on my blog, and set it free. I hope you’ll download it, read it, and let me know what you think.

adventure, India, travel

India Takes It To the Limit, Everytime

Christa Avampato
The store where people who live along the backwaters of Alleppey buy just about everything they need.

I’m not sure why I have Eagles songs running through my head as I’m re-reading my India journal. I’m sure there’s a cosmic reason for that but it has yet to strike me. I’ll get back to you on that.

India is a land of contradictions. It is at once limitless in its diversity and possibility and yet it tested my personal limits every moment of every day. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, or at least had figured out the tiny footprint of ground I happened to be standing on at any one time, it would flip head over heels into a different realization.

One concept of limits that India revealed to me was the idea that every object has a full life.

“In India,” Jose said, “we use everything until the end of its life.”

Indians don’t run out and get everything bright, shiny, and new because there’s a sale or just because they feel like it. They replace items when they need replacing, and not a moment sooner. In the mainstream throw-away American culture, we’re more likely to toss something away because we’re tired of looking at it than we are to use it until it’s used up. We’re changing our ways, some more quickly than others, but we’re a long way off from collectively using everything we have until it’s no longer useful.

I love the idea of honoring everything we have for the lifespan it’s intended to have. It’s caused me to think and re-think my own buying and tossing habits. In actuality, we don’t need much in the way of possessions to get by and what we do have we should use to its full extent.

This is the thing that stunned me more than anything else about India: in the smallest of moments lie the greatest of lessons.

adventure, generosity, India

Hotel India: You Can Check Out Anytime You Like But You Will Never Be Asked to Leave

Christa Avampato
View from my hotel room in Munnar, India, at sunrise

” ‘Get out’ is not a phrase in any of our languages. Indians don’t know that term,” Jose said.

Rob laughed loudly. “Well come to the U.S. and you’ll learn that phrase quickly. We use it a lot.”

“That’s a shame,” Jose replied. “If you are in a restaurant here, no one would ever tell you they’re closed and it’s time to leave. It would never happen.”

And I thought Southerners had cornered the market on hospitality. I was skeptical of Jose’s reply. Actually, I thought he was flat-out lying. Every one has a closing time and India couldn’t be an exception to that universal truth.

In Munnar, Jose took us to an authentic shop to get Ayurvedic massages.

“You can come by any time you like,” said the shop owner.

“What time do you close?” I asked.

The shop owner just stared at me and blinked.

“We can come by later on tonight after our tours?” I asked. A bit more staring and blinking followed. Ha! I knew I’d find a closing time in India.

“Sure, whatever is good for you,” he said.

“7:30?” asked Jose.

“Sure. 7:30 is perfect.”

“Done.”

Jose took us up the mountain to the hotel so we could check in. After they upgraded us to one of the private cottages (just because they could and wanted to), we learned we were going to miss the last dinner slot there due to our massages. (For the record, I felt like a complete jackass for having such a touristy excuse.) The proprietor said it was not a problem. They would hold a separate seating just for us.

“Yeah, right,” I thought to myself. Thank goodness I still had some chocolate chip cookies in my bag for dinner later on tonight.

When we returned from the massages (and that will be a separate post in and of itself!), sure enough dinner and the staff were all waiting for us with a delicious several course meal. I was floored. How could this be happening?

But this kind of scenario kept happening everywhere we went. Once again, India made a fool out of me, or rather I made a fool out of myself, to myself, by doubting her. Jose was right to an alarming degree. In India, they will always leave the light on for you. I wonder what the Eagles would think of that.

adventure, community, India

India Proves That We Can All Just Get Along

Christa Avampato
An example of the diversity of India

With the election season fast approaching, we’re already hearing the painful cries of what divides us. Religion, race, political party, ideology, money or lack there of. Anyone from the outside looking in on our politics would think that what divides us will split us apart.

Enter, India.

This photo is one of my favorite snapshots from my trip to India, not because the sign itself is aesthetically pleasing in any way. However, the principle it embodies is a thing of beauty. India is everything. If ever we wanted to see an incredible melting pot, India is it. Its multiple layers of diversity in every aspect of human life are overwhelming. If you are looking for your pack, it is somewhere here in India. You will have to root it out of the quagmire, but rest assured your efforts will be rewarded with like minds who invariably know other like minds. Seek and eventually you will find.

When I asked Jose how so much diversity can exist in relative peace, he was a bit confused by the question. “We don’t judge the opinions of others. We may not like them. We may not agree with them. But we recognize that they have a right to exist. I believe what I want to believe and so can others. All others.”

Not a bad principle to live by. Not bad at all.

determination, India, nature, travel

Leap: A Tree Grows in India, Where Everything is Possible

Christa Avampato
Tree growing on mountainside in Munnar, Kerala. India.

This picture is one of my favorite photos from India. After a torrential downpour high in the mountains of Munnar, Kerala, the sun came out and lit up the entire valley as my incredible driver and guide, Jose, wound us safely down toward the hotel. We pulled over to the side of the road to take in the pastures down below and the mountains up above.

On the side of the mountain, we found this tree. The roots entirely exposed and yet solid as a rock, healthy and strong. Jose said it had been in that state for years, monsoon season after monsoon season.

“How is that possible?” I asked, thinking of all of the tree that are routinely knocked down by storms in New York City’s Central Park.

“Miss Rose, this is India. Here everything is possible.”

As we made our way toward the hotel, Jose told me about his plans to leave his current job and start up his own bike tour business when his contract is up at the end of the year. He has been leading mountain bike tours all over southern India as a side business.

He’s become so passionate about it, that he’s undertaking his venture full-time. He sees the upside of this risk and wants to capitalize on it. The worst that will happen is that it won’t work and he’ll easily go back to working for a tour company because he is so sought after for his knowledge and expertise on everything South India.

Here I am fretting about my upcoming leap when we have so many more advantages here in the U.S. to change our lives for the better. Meeting Jose was certainly the Universe speaking to me loud and clear. “Go and see what you find. Learn. Explore. Do. Everything is possible. It’s up to us.”

adventure, India, travel

Leap: God Took My Picture in India

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

India revealed itself to me in snapshots. I think about it more in pictures frozen in time rather than as one continuous experience.

I arrived in Kerala, a state in the southwest region of India, at 3am to a massive thunder and lightning storm. My incredibly competent and kind driver, Jose, and guide, Rex, made their way to us (welcome garlands of gardenias intact!) and perfectly navigated the rain and windy roads that define this region. The storm was raging outside, lighting up the entire landscape down below.

“This is one wild storm,” I said sleepily.

“Look, Miss Rose, God is taking your picture,” said Jose.We all laughed.

(Everyone in India referred to me by my middle name as they often refer to one another that way by custom. Plus, my last name is a real bear!)

And that was my first insight into Jose and an indicator of all of the insights and perspectives that I would receive from him in the following days as we wound our way through Kerala. In India, no matter how grim the situation, there is always an upside.

adventure, India, travel, writing

Leap: India Was Everything

Christa Avampato
My first full glimpse of the Taj Mahal

K. D. Lang sings that love makes sweet and sad the same. What’s true for love is also true for India.

It was the hardest and most incredible trip I’ve ever taken. India pushed me to my edge at almost every moment. I had the chance to experience the full range of my emotions, sometimes all at once.

I would catch glimpses of ordinary, every day living like playing cards and sharing tea, only to turn and see that I was bearing witness to deeply powerful events: a woman in deep prayer at a temple and the first day of a newly married couple’s life together. I wept and then laughed out loud. I had profound insights with a deep sense of peaceful knowing, followed my massive amounts of confusion that made me question everything. India was nothing like what I expected it to be – it was more and it was less, in equal amounts.

I’m unpacking my journal and my pictures. The 8 days I spent there may have given me a lifetime of writing material. So much of it still needs sorting, tending, and reflection. I struggled with the idea of how I might make everything I experienced available through these daily posts and determined I couldn’t. India needs more from me.

As part of my advanced yoga teacher training at ISHTA, I have to complete a research project. I considered a half dozen different ideas until I realized that I was being handed the perfect opportunity for research and reflection upon my yoga teaching and my personal yoga practice – India. Just as yoga was born out of India, the country and her people gave me a new lease on life. And that’s worthy of extensive exploration.

By the end of July, I need to complete my research project and I am going to put together an interactive experience with writings, photos, and video footage that uses my time in India as a lens to re-examine my yoga. Pieces of this project will be published on this blog along the way and once it’s complete, I’ll publish the link to the full work. It’s the only way that I think of to really honor my time in India for all that it is worth.

adventure, India, travel

Leap: India, I’ll Be Seeing You (Again and Again and Again)

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

When I first began to plan this trip almost a year ago, my friend, Akash, told me there are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who come to India once to check it off their list and the kind who return again and again to take in its magic.

“You, Christa, are the latter,” he said. He’s right. India, we’ve only just begun to know one another. I am certain I will be back very soon.

I imagine by this point my cup will be running over with gratitude for all of the kindness and generosity we have been shown through this journey. It will be hard to express in words, but I will do my best upon my return. Namaste.