India Journal 2006- #55- May 4-5 Two Local Stories,,,One not so Pleasant...And Reiki Work Continues!!

Couple of Interesting Stories....One of them local politics and not very pleasant!

Strange morning today...went down for breakfast only to find the restaurant closed for some reason. Met the owner's wife, Tenzin Yeshi and we spoke for about 20 minutes. Long story...She was sent to English School in Mussoorie when she went into 1st grad (!). She is an only child, and her parents wanted the best education for her. She was very lonely as well as confused by the Christianity preached at the school and the Tibetan culture she was expected to follow at home, when she CAME home, once a year.

She now has 2 kids of her own. Her older son, 10, is in the monastary. He is the 10th reincarnation of some famous Rinpoche and HH the Dali Lama says he is here for a special purpose. He is 10 and does not speak! Very sad at what he sees in the world and so deosn't speak. HH says he will eventually speak. They are very sad for him as he does not seem happy, has no friends, but does well in his studies. He cries (but tries to hide it) when his friends are already teaching Dharma to others and he cannot speak, but when they ask him why, he brushes them away as if saying leave me alone, I will not speak. But their daughrer, now 7,

is bright and vivacious and now in 1st grade. Speaks both Hindi (which she learnt from the hotel staff) and Tibetan, but prefers Hindi and the teacher is not happy with her at school, nor are the elders. But she is very bright and happy child. There was lots more to the conversation but this woman just needed to speak to someone about this and express her concern over her son, who doesn't speak at all, even though HH says not to worry about him, and her daughter, who prefers to speak in a "foreign" language and has caused herself much trouble in life because of this.

Anyway, had to go find someplace to have breakfast as S was coming for a Reiki session so I went to Snow Lion to get Tibetan Brown Bread and boild eggs only to find they don't have the bread ready. so no eggs. Guess I wasn't meant to eat eggs yet. So, I found something on the menu which I had never seen anywhere here before, semolina porridge, and ordered it, hoping it would be farina. And it WAS! and was delicious.

So, now to the second incident. None of the shops or restaurants were actually open all day as it seems the tibetans are on strike. Why?
Well, the first version I heard was from Tibetans, and with much vehemence they explained that 2 days before, a Tibetan was hit by a rickshaw and when he yelled at the driver "can't you see?" or some such thing, a whole bunch of taxi and rickshaw drivers jumped him and his friend and beat them up and sent them to hospital. Even hit a local Tibetan lady who was trying to break it up.

the INDIAN guy at the hotel said it is so sad. the Indians hate the tibetans but it would be good if the Indians could learn to be more like the Buddhists and love and respect ALL beings as equals. It is very sad here in our town...too much violence!

Now, the other side of the coin. Met my friend Gill, Indian, the nice guy with the PHd who runs an internet cafe and who is one of the most gentle people I've ever met. He haslived his whole life in Dharamsala.

And he was with his friend, a local dentist and they were both furious. I could not imagien Gill getting getting angy ever but he was. The other side of the story, as reported to the police by the Westerner who was actually sitting in the rickshaw at the time and was report later in the local newspaper is:

The tibetans were drinking in the middle of the road on the way down fromBhagsu and when he beeped them and shouted at them to get out of the middle of the road so he could pass, one of them came over and hit him over the head with his bottle of beer. THAT'S when the fight began...

The angry words spoken by Gill and his friend about the Tibetans here was really difficult to hear and prbably much of it was right. They seem to look down on the locals (the Indians) and claim the only reason this town is so successful is because of them and the Indians could leave and no one would notice or care!. And they, the Indians, feel they are just as much a part of the local success story as the Tibetans. They also say the Tibetans, especially the younger ones coming the past number of years (and there is alot of truth in this, and these younger ones are the ones causing all the problems lately), are just using India as a transit camp, and looking for a wife to get them to the States or Europe or Israel. parasitic in nature and contributing nothing to the local culture.

It went on for about 20 minutes at which point I excused myself. But there is a lot of bad feeling on both sides here and this type of incident is just a symptom of something much deeper. It is not healthy for anyone.

Another insight I heard later on...the majority of the Tibetans speak no Hindi! Even the ones living here since 1959. And the younger ones, when they do speak, learn street language and cursing and never learn to speak proper Hindi and use the respectful form of addressing people etc. this leads to a complete lack of communication and with it, a lack of mutual understanding and much distrust.

although what the Tibetan drunk guy did cannot be condoned (even if an Indian had done it it would have been just as bad), but the reastion of the Indian locals was way out of line as well. Deep seated anger supressed over a long period of time just finding an excuse to explode.

The rest of my day yesterday, Friday, went interesting enough, as I found my way quite unplanned at a very highly recommended Vedic Astrologer. I will not be writing up the full report here, but sending it to those of you I think might be interested, but let it be said, that the whole thing was spontaneous on my part and quite amazing.

Had another Reiki session today with a new person, a Reiki Master herself, and she has booked another session tomorrow!! And I have an additional person on Monday. So as far as work goes, no complaints.

Will close here...
Namaste
Jane