Getting Old(er)

Who is that lovely lady who I have my arm around?  Met her in Goa, India, January 2017.   My first trip to India. 

ON MY FIRST TRIP TO BOMBAY…I remembered thinking how chaotic  this area of the city was: Now I live a couple  blocks away.

I remember seeing this billboard (left side) but sadly the air quality has not improved (191):

But I digress…

So, I met this kind and dynamic older lady a couple days after I met Smritika for the first time and long before I had any inclination of moving to Bombay.  It was one of those hippie vibe beach towns where a lot of Europeans come and do nude bathing and time is suspended.  You stop looking at your smart phone and can just enjoy.  My happy place.  A year later I returned there with Smritika for New Years.   (Smritika and I last year in same place)

I was having dinner with a couple friends and some English women our age and their mom joined us.  The mom, 60+, turned out to be the coolest person at the table.  She was  a pianist that had played with all of the biggest rock and roll stars across the world.  From Eric Clapton to Pink Floyd to Queen.  She had such a vibrant spirit, great stories.  Humble and captivating and was laugh out loud funny. A discussion came up about physical age vs. the age we see ourselves.

She mentioned she most sees herself as a 29 year old.  I always think about that conversation around this time.  How we see ourselves translates how others see you and determines generally what we react to, what we perceive, and how we behave.  That’s probably why, no matter where we go many of same challenges and triumphs repeat themselves.  With some self-awareness you begin to realize the conflict that exists between “how you see yourself” and “how others see you.”  Can I change the “less flattering” aspects of my self?  Damn not sure.  I can at least become aware and keep making tweaks to be a better version of my core self.   Blah blah blah.  

Getting Old

Science says that starting at 36 you lose 2% of your muscle mass each year.  That means I have lost 4% or have 96% remaining…  I continue to lose my hair and have even started to use shampoo and Ayurveda oils that will stop this, but I think nature will win this battle.  Still, I work out at an outdoor gym across the street from my house and am in good shape.  I have grown my hair to have my first pony tail.  Anybody want to join my pony tail club?  I just learned how to put on a scrunchy.

November 17, 2017: Last year at this time… Having drinks on a cold fall night in Chicago.  Comforts of close friends and home.  We had a blast and really miss those nights.

WHAT I DID THIS YEAR:  November 16 – 18, 2018

Markers of time and the holidays have changed.  There are few routines and rituals left from Chicago.  Fall and winter is what I think of summer.  Summer is sorta winter but just rainy.  Life is foreign  and moving fast.   Very few reference points.  I guess you create new ones.

AJANTA AND ELLORA CAVES:  The shit they don’t teach us in history.  Buddhist and Hindu history from 200 BC.  Please read about this place and visit!  Was incredible.   

Quick context from Wikipedia: 

Ellora Caves: One of the largest rock-cut monastery-temple cave complexes in the world,  featuring Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monuments, and artwork, dating from the 600-1000 AD period.  Features the largest single monolithic rock excavation in the world, features the gods, goddesses, and mythologies summarizing the two major Hindu Epics.

Ajanta Caves: Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 200 BC to about 480 AD The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures described as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, particularly expressive paintings that present emotion through gesture, pose and form.  

A lot of the reason the caves are preserved so well is…Hemp!  Yup.

Also, the guide told us the french kiss was stolen from the Indians.  Was awesome to see these spiritual erotic images have been preserved.  I can only speculate that the English or other colonial powers came in with their purity nonsense.    

My Mom and I goofing around

Smritika gifing around (get it?)

Lee and Smritika at “mini” Taj Mahal (Bibi Ka Maqbara) trying to do the thing everyone does but not working out so well.

Happy Thanksgiving.  Much be thankful for.  This year has been a wild ride with new challenges and celebrations that has brought more layers of perspective & lots of discovery.  November 2017, spent in the comfort of the Chicago fall, my favorite time of year. This year grateful to have my Mom and Lee visit and bring some of that comfort to India.  For the rest of you.. Come and see the place.  It’s only a flight away.