This is the land of intensity! From Goa I took the overnight bus to Hampi. That was a bit of a trial – air conditioning blasting, the horn going almost non-stop, and the twisting and bumping of the road, not to mention a tiny “bed” that luckily I had another homeopath from the conference to share. Hampi was a welcome reward but it was a bit of a change of scenery going from the quiet and calm of a Goan resort to a bamboo hut where around the corner could be found a herd of goats, some meandering cows, a village of narrow winding streets, much of which is dedicated to the low budget traveler. The “garden paradise” hostel was pretty nice, though, and you could sit at the outdoor cafe and eat momos, drink pineapple juice and just enjoy the passing of the river below and the stories of other travelers.

The sites of Hampi are pretty incredible – volcanic rock and old temple remnants scattered everywhere you look.
After 3 days I decided to move on and head to the caves of Ellora and Ajanta.
The train journey was another trial and I tried to practice equanimity as the train stopped at a station 2 hours from my point of departure and stayed there for 5 hours before moving on. I was booked in the regular sleeper, which seemed okay, but is pretty basic compared to sleeper class back home (like… no comparison is possible!) and I would have chosen air conditioning this time so I wouldn’t have been subject to the hours of heat, smell and mosquitoes.
The train arrived in Hyderabad by about 5 a.m. and my next train was leaving at 6pm so I spend the day exploring Hyderabad. I’m not sure that I would recommend it as a purposeful stop, but it was interesting to see the bustle of another city, to eat biryani where it comes from and to see some tombs and the minarets where you can climb up and have a nice view of the crowds and markets below. There is a lovely buddha statue in the lake, but I felt a bit sad to see that the lake was so incredibly polluted and filled with garbage. I suppose the buddha would remain equanimous and compassionate in any case!
The train on to Aurangebad was a more pleasant experience. I was sharing the space with a family of Muslim Bohra women – 2 mothers and their 3 young school age daughters. They were friendly and sweet and I must admit that I did enjoy the curiousity and friendliness of the women in Hyderabad. Even behind the burka I had many young women smile at me, shake my hand and ask my name and where I’m from.
I arrived in Aurangebad at 4:30 a.m. and could not find a hotel to stay in. I guess everyone has the lonely planet. I finally landed at the pretty basic youth hostel which provided a cold shower and a few hours of sleep.
I took a crowded jeep later in the morning to see the caves of Ellora. By crowded, I mean about 21 people in a jeep which should seat maybe 10. You have to see it to believe it. Every time he would stop to pick someone up I would marvel at where they would go and somehow they fit somewhere and we moved on.
The caves are remarkeable. The main cave is Hindu and was carved out of the rock over 150 years. There are also some buddhist caves and there are Jain caves but those were not accessible today. I enjoyed the relative quiet of the buddhist caves and the man who sweeps them clean took me into a small rock shrine room and chanted the refuge prayer in sanskrit to show me how the sound would reverberate off the walls. It was a very moving moment for me.
I also haven’t been feeling well again today – I think I took some silly culinary risks in Hyderabad – so I took many breaks in the buddhist caves just to cool off and meditate a little. I was aware of bats hanging on the cieling above, though, so I couldn’t fully relax! I wonder if the monks that lived there so many centuries ago shared their little rock cave cells with the bats.
Tomorrow I’m hoping to get to the Ajanta caves which are older and are buddhist, and then I fly out of here on Monday and will be home by Tuesday evening. It’s hard to believe. I’m ready for a soft bed and a bland meal, though, and perhaps some cooler weather to clear up this horrible heat rash I have on my neck.

A few of the homeopaths at the conference had mentioned that they had seen dolphins swimming not far from the beach quite early in the morning, so yesterday I got up before sunrise and went down to the beach. I walked, swam, saw the sun rise, but no dolphins. I was just about to give up and leave when I turned back and spotted a fin! There they were, jumping and playing! I went back in the water and felt quite close to them. It was pretty magical. I wonder what it is about the dolphin energy that is so captivating, but I felt completely spellbound coming out of the water, having started my day with a brief visit from these wonderful creatures.

Even landing in Goa you can feel an entire change of air, of energy. It seems to be true that you don’t have to go far in India to see a whole different way of being, of living. Language and culture change. People here seem in no great hurry to get anywhere. The beach is stunning. The sand is soft. The water is warm. The air is clean. Of course, we are also here in a bit of a luxury bubble at these hotels where our homeopathy conference is. I have ventured out only a little, as the schedule is actually quite grueling and I was a little sick for a few days.

The houses are beautiful, Portugese influenced, and multi-coloured. There are small and large churches scattered about.

The beach dogs seem to enjoy themselves and are very friendly, approaching with a smile and a wag. Although I have offered them bits of croissant on my morning beach walk, which they have taken graciously, my friends were offering a dog naan one evening at an outdoor restaurant and she refused it, only wanting the attention and petting.

I am learning so much at the conference. We are watching case after case, learning different approaches to case taking, seeing cases of mineral, plant and animal remedies and learning how different homeopaths approach the different levels of human experience. Yesterday was Dr. Jayesh Shah and his expertise is to allow patients to enter a deep meditative journey where they experience the qualities of the remedy state that they are in. He was presenting cases of the noble gases and it was absolutely incredible to witness the deep state of isolation and despair of these patients, not to mention some pretty intense physical pathology, that was expressed in their case taking and that was cured from just one dose of the remedy. One patient had a resolution of long standing inguinal hernias and a nasal polyp. Another patient was on multiple psychiatric drugs and was able to come off of them all days after taking his remedy. Of course, not all cases can be so miraculous, but it’s always nice to be reminded of the power of our craft. So there CBC!
I’m hoping that all this knowledge will translate to a better ability to help my animal patients heal, but I am also hoping to expand my practice to include more direct healing for the human caregivers. When I think about all the cases I’ve seen and treated over the last 10 years, there are so many situations where I may have been able to help more by treating the entire family and I think this may be the next frontier!

Mumbai is an incredible city. Expecting that I would want to leave as quickly as I arrived, and with all the traffic here, arriving itself is an experience, I have been surprised by how much I have enjoyed this city. Every step is a different variety of sights, smells, sounds. The juxtaposition of wealth and poverty, classy coffee shops and chai stalls, 3 wheeled rickshaws zooming in and out of traffic while stray dogs loll and snooze on the side of the road all make Mumbai like some kind of modern discordant but mesmerizing symphony.

The workshop has been exciting and humbling. We’ve seen 4 different homeopaths each take a case with quite a different style and method. They make it look easy but have also demonstrated that some cases can be taken to a deeper level of expression than others. I know that from working with animals for sure! Some dogs and cats can express their states far more clearly than others, so I guess we’re not all that different.

Tomorrow on to Goa and the rest of the seminar.
I’m looking forward to giving my brain a day of rest and moving to a place that will hopefully be a little less noisy and crowded.

Ahh, back again in India. No place like it.
They say that Mumbai has its own rhythm and that’s for sure. Everything moves at its own pace and despite the crowding and honking, there are elements of the city that are in full relaxation mode in the midst of it all.