It is hard to synthesize India, especially now that a hangover has got me feeling shallow. I agree with Harris that I learn a lot from being with my friends. As long as we don't fall into the unchanging habits that Jack compared to bad kissing.
Lauren and I are meeting Jack and Kate J tonight, sleeping in a train station, and then chopping our way to Tribal Health Initiative with Machetes.

The backwaters were wonderful.
Lounging on a mat on the roof of our 2 bedroom wooden boat,
Lauren asks me, "Sasha, what is the meaning of life?"
I answer: "It is your question."
Jack smiles and says, "thats silly."
I tell them to call me when they find it.
Lauren says, "Its that bird right there," that just landed on a pier.
We then all watch it fly away.

We joke and say that nice restaurants and hotels here are abodes of "the oppressor." That is what I felt like when we docked this morning and I saw an old woman sleeping behind a pile of garbage. A talented young dancer/poet/dramatist/speaker named Maliveka came to an ashram where were stayed last week and performed an anti-american piece in which she refered to "white guilt." I don't think that it is a contructive emotion if it is left as that. There seem to be two main options that stem from this feeling: sadness and action. Frustration with discrepencies fall under sadness, whereas being ok with them I think can lead to action.
Maliveka's website is http://www.somethingconstructive.net/mali.

My dad told me that if I were a fish in the water, I should need to come out of its "skull" once in a while to look around but continue swimming. Is that what meditation helps us do?
Dr. Tekur reminded us of the transience of our emotions and thoughts: like waves they pass.

and to end with some Gandhi words,
"If we can see the mighty oak inside
of an acorn instead of seeing the acorn
as just part of the mighty oak,
we can change the world."