A PASSAGE TO INDIA

'A TRAVELER IS BUT A PILGRIM ON A QUEST'

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

23. OUT ON A LIMB




The PC conked out, I feel as though I've lost a limb - my right arm!

I had withdrawal symptoms, I was falling into depression, I'm ready to climb the wall. When inspiration hit, no matter what time of night, I did not have my lifeline to plug into to vomit everything out.

Truly, it's the Age of Machines. Recognising the symptoms, I pulled myself together for I was talking too much to my dog. 


Before I start to fly over the cuckoo's nest, I had best straighten myself out, what better way than retail and spa therapy? But no, I found that unfulfilling, boring, sheer waste of time, money and energy. Being there, done that. 
Besides, my most therapeutic, holistic massage has to be from my ayurvedic masseur. All the fun massages I get are from the neighbourhood 'spas'- in Thailand and Indonesia.....cheap and good!

My daughter's boyfriend is still tinkering with the PC, he may take awhile, and no, I refused to let this machine rule me so he can take his time to figure out what's wrong with the damn thing. Meanwhile, I asked Baba what's a girl to do to fill her days?

After a recent yoga and kriya meditation class, a participant asked if I would like to go along to a Center to check out a Home where tuition was offered free to the disadvantaged kids of that neighbourhood. As I approached this Center, I saw its name and lo! it was set up and operated by the Sai Baba Organisation. Double lo! I met an Indian lady I traveled with once before to India to visit Baba. She needed a teacher's assistant. Teaching English to the young ones is right up my alley, it's something I do in an orphanage in India, so this was perfect for me. I befriended a 12 year old Malay girl, introverted and withdrawn, from a divorced single mother home. I took her under my wing. We will meet again this week. I hope she will take me as a friend, not another volunteer.

That same week, I got a fulltime job as an English teacher assistant in an international school. After almost a year hibernating, I was becoming quite the sloth.