I went on a spontaneous weekend trip to a beach called Varkala. It was just one hours train ride from the ashram so it was perfect. I left my big backpack in my room at the ashram and brought only my small rucksack with me. It was so liberating not having my big backpack weighing me down and making everything complicated.
I went with a Indian guy from the ashram, he has known Amma for his whole life and has now been living at the ashram for the last six months. It turned out that he comes from a royal family and is some kind of a prince. It is nice to talk to local people my own age. They are brought up in such a different culture that I see my own life with new eyes and appreciate all the freedom I have. Just by being born in a privileged country as Sweden I'm born with all the possibilities and choices that everyone should have as a birthright. Basically they make the same money in one month here as one or two days back home. That makes it almost impossible to travel or go outside of India for a Indian. They still have arranged marriages here and you could get kicked out of the family if you fall in love with or marry the wrong person. It is such a different reality that it's hard to imagine how it would be like growing up in this culture.
We spent the whole weekend in Varkala and enjoyed doing nothing at all and eating pretty much the whole day long, going from café to restaurant to café and then watching the sunset on the beach.
Even though the ashram is a peaceful and nice place it was good to get away a bit. People take themselves a bit too seriously sometimes and all the rules are extra strict when Amma is not at the ashram.
On our way there the train was so packed that people were pushing themselves into the wall of bodies with force and we had to fight our way through when we were getting off. On our way back we thought we would find a carriage where we could at least breath, so we were walking along the train looking for a carriage with a tiny bit more space. Before we managed to find a good place the train starts moving again. Apparently it's illegal to board a moving train, even though everyone does it, but there was a cop watching so we didn't want to take the chance and we let the train pass by us with increasing speed as it left the station. The next train came an hour later, but we got some food in the meantime so it was alright.
The next train wasn't as crowded either so I sat down by the open door and let the dark night air cool me down. The moon was watching from above the treetops with a warm yellow glow and looked at me with a different face than back home.
From the train station back to the ashram we got a tuktuk. My Indian friend was talking in rapid Hindi with the driver while we were speeding through the night. It was scarier than usual, maybe because it was dark or maybe because the drivers attention was not fully on the road as he was chattering away. We cut reckless corners and swerved past obstacles with millimetres to spare, we dived down into huge potholes and bounced back up again and zigzagged through traffic while loudly honking the horn. We arrived at the ashram after eleven pm and I had to ask someone to let me into my building because it was already locked for the night.
I have decided to leave the ashram tomorrow, so that makes my stay exactly one week here. I will take a boat to Allepey tomorrow and then probably head to Munnar from there.
Hugs and sunshine!