Anjuna and Epicurus' problem of evil

So if you have struggled to endeavor on reading through my first post, I sincerely thank you for spending time on it and hope that it wasn't a waste of your time and that you laughed at least once or learnt one new thing that you didn't already know.

Anjuna

Somethings i forgot to mention that were nice about my experience with Ashvem first. I managed to do a little bit of hitchhiking along the coast. I've tried that once before in india in a place called Dharjeeling. It took me and my friend 3 hours before we got a ride. But once we got that first ride, we hitched rides for 60 km to the top of the mountain. Its the process of the travel sometimes thats more exciting rather than the destination. In the short span of time i managed to hitchhike, i learnt from a Russian that Spasibo means thank you and i came up with the theory that the easier it is to hitchhike in a place, the friendlier the people are. Hitchhiking in goa is incredibly easy and it so happened that my experience with the local people, consolidated my hypothesis. I suppose that it helps that it was in the morning, i was carrying a bag and a guitar and didn't really represent a conventional depiction of a shady character. Though i have to confess over the course of my life, there have been times where i'm sure a lot of people wouldn't have been caught dead being associated with me. I also forgot to mention that i spent some time in a beach nearby called Arambol playing Sitar. It was nice because randomly walked into a shop selling instruments, sat down, asked the guy if i play and he was like sure. Young kid from Delhi, been in Goa for a few years and he loved it. He left soon after i arrived and asked me to look after the shop for a little while. I said sure no problem and i was thinking whats up with this guy? I mean he doesn't even know me, we've only figured out what our regional backgrounds are like and i'm already taking over his job temporarily. Anyway his brother came and sat with me after about 10 ten minutes. Now none of these guys know how to play any of the instruments nor do they know anything about the instruments, like what kind of material it is made from or how to play something as simple as a flute. The brother hates music. But they've had the shop for 6 years. A business plan that was really well thought out. I mean it just couldn't have failed in a place like Goa. They were very nice to me though. Gave me a cup of tea for free. Made jokes about all the foreigners and i watched them in action trying to cheat people or entice them to enter their shops. A conversation would go something like this,

Brother: "Hello madam, why don't you take a look at what i have to offer,"

After a certain amount of skepticism, a caucasian woman walked in. She barely spoke any english browsed around and picked up an elephant Ganesha statue and asked how much it was.

Brother: "Madam for you I give you best price," he takes out a phone and types in 200.

She shakes her head and says no. She is almost ready to leave when our man says, "Ok you tell me how much you'll pay me"

She takes the phone and types in a figure of 50. Then he says, "No my friend, i cannot sell to you at that price. I don't make any money if i charge you this price. Are you Russian? Do you have a boyfriend?"

Goa is full of Russians. I don't know why but one theory i heard was the Russian mafia apparently moved into Goa. She says Bosnia and doesn't reply about the boyfriend question. Then Romeo, counter offers with a 20 rupee discount. She says no, and does the i'm about to walk away routine again. He stops her by stepping in front of her and goes further down and they finally agree at a 100. Im taking a negotiation course right now and this is a classic example of what happens with negotiations in India. When you go in to buy anything, your always charged by "skin tax." Basically if your white or if you dress in an opulent manner, you have to bargain much harder. No surprise there. What I don't understand though is people who go into a shop and take the first price quoted without even attempting to get a bargain. I knew this German kid who took a rickshaw from the international airport in Mumbai to the domestic airport, which is about 6 km away and costs less than 50 rupees. He got a tour of the city and told me that the meter at the end of the ride was like 500 rupees but he paid the first quoted price of 1500 rupees by the driver.

So I headed to Anjuna after a pleasant evening with some Spaniards, an Italian, a Swiss and a random group of poker playing Russians to whom I lost a significant portion of my money. In Anjuna i met Anand, Abhinav, Kim (a guy), Kunal and one more chap whose name is escaping me. Anyway i clicked perfectly with this group. Everyone is making jokes all the time and everyone loves music. Abhinav is studying classical music in Bombay. So when i brought this guitar, it was exposure to wonderful classical music again.

Anyway the day just flew by and in the evening we witnessed a phenomenal fusion performance. By a band called Kundalini Airport in a bar called Looda cafe. Imagine this, a french singer who sings in french, what i heard was maybe some latin or spanish and some indian language. Now he plays the harmonica, taps the tambourine and is a pretty decent sitar player. All of this is done with a mike that has this echo delay kind of effect. So it gives the sound a very spacey hypnotic sound. Also he dances to the music and moves his body in such a way that he is spiritually connected to the music. I felt as though the singer was the medium through which a higher being was communicating to the people. It was really quite a mind blowing performance. Then you have a super bassist, a guy who plays tabla, the western drum kit and a Didjerooo (i don't really know how to spell that instrument but its a cool Australian instrument if i'm not mistaken). Check out the north anjuna dream track on their myspace http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=386663234

By now its like 9 pm and we are all just grooving and getting into the mood of partying. Now just a quick background story. Goa was under potential terrorist threat according to sources from the media following the Mumbai attacks. So even though it was peak season, Goa was relatively more quiet than usual and people/media had claimed that there would be no beach parties allowed for new years. So these friends of mine knew of a party happening somewhere on a hill in Goa and they knew the Djs playing there so we headed for this party and it was absolutely dead. It was a dead scene there and i don't even particularly fancy psy trance music. So i had this bad feeling it might be an incredibly tacky new year. However after about 3 hours thankfully everyone started to see my point of view and we hooked off and went back to the main beach on Anjuna. We ended up parking our bikes in an absolute mess of a parking space near the beach. There was loud music going on from a bar called Curlys and we passed all these cops who were sitting around half asleep resting their heads on the end of the barrels of their rifles. Seemed like a dangerous way to nap. Anjuna had the craziest party i have ever seen in my life. All the freaks of the world had congregated for a mental party. I felt right at home. Everyone was intoxicated on a concoction of all kinds of uppers and downers. I begin to feel like i had walked into what was probably the world Johnny Depp envisioned in fear and loathing in las vegas when we walks into the bar. There were 80 year old men in diapers, transvestite whoppi goldbergs, pixies with the funny ears, centurions and princess gaiias, real gypsies, midgets, gentle giants, hippies from all over the world etc etc and everyone like myself, seemed to be having a great time. So the energy of this party was absolutely wicked. Goa is Great.

I'm taking a philosophy of religion course under a very good professor named Mark Nowacki and in our latest readings there is this argument from evil which i wanted to share with any of you. This is an argument a Greek philosopher named Epicurus presented regarding attributes such as omnipotence (all powerful), omni-benevolence (infinite goodness) and omniscience (all knowing) typically ascribed to God. It goes as follows

"Is He willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and wiling? Whence then is evil?"

Think about it and in my next post i will give you some interesting rebuttals to this argument provided i remember to.

Marvelous magical music - Goa 2008

Lets jump right into it. Forget the introduction of who i am or what my past credentials look like. Lets pretend we're old friends, we always have been and always will be. Or i could be your "single serving friend" in the words of a Mexican charolastra of mine. Single serving friends are friends you meet for a short period of time and they are just there for that moment in time. The assumption of a single serving friend is that you will never see them again. If you do accidentally meet someone you assume to be a single serving friend, it doesnt make them a double serving friend but then maybe you should step back and wonder is this a random coincidence or was this meant to happen. I only believe that, things are meant to happen for a reason and that there are no coincidences or accidents. Karma is a fundamental truth of our universe taking it as do unto others as you would have done to yourself or every action has an opposite and equal reaction or most simply you get what you give. The sooner you figure it out, the better you become at decision making. The better you become at decision making, the happier you are with the choices that you make with your life. And the happier you are the more powerful your energy becomes on impacting change on individuals or on your environment.

Wedding in Panaji

So i had gone to Goa for a wedding around 24th of december. For those of you who don't know, Goa is an awesome beach town along the west coast of india which used to be a portugese colony. My first cousin was getting married to a Goan boy and strangely enough, his entire family speaks only portugese to one another. There is a local language in Goa called Konkani. In Konkani to say thank you to someone, you say Dio bore kooru, which means may God be good to you. A very beautiful way of thanking someone i thought. I learnt my few words of Konkani from a remarkable human being working at the YMCA we were staying at named Cleto (pronounced clayto). This chap had a great energy with swashbuckling groovy afro going on mixed with the curliness so typically characteristic of indian hair. One of the first things he said to me was, don't go to the shacks in Goa cos they are absolute rip offs. I immediately took a keen liking towards him because i can appreciate anyone who castigates the filth that tourism brings in raping an environment. A Goan shack is basically a huge open air bar/restaurant on the beach where they serve everything at thieving prices. They setup only during the peak season, during which they pay heavy rent and pack up when the monsoon kicks in. Anyway the wedding was cool, big celebrations of eating, drinking and laughing for a week, quality family time spent a wonderful introduction to classical music. Now i have a classical guitar named Gabriella which i had picked up from mexico last year. I was carrying it in Goa to bring back with me to Singapore (where i currently reside). Although during my possession of this instrument for the last 10 months or so, never has it occurred to me to try to learn how to play classical music. See when I travel, i like to pick up "musical toys" aka instruments. In mexico i was walking down this street and while passing this music shop, the light of sun shone on the wooden body and there was a glint from gabriella which seemed to call me and i instantly knew without never having touched her that she and i were meant to be together. I went in picked it up played 4 chords and bought it. It turned out to be one of the best decisions i made in 2008. So Gabriella was with me and so was an American cousin, named Sarah, who was classically trained. She picked up the guitar and played some classical pieces and then said ok now you show me what you've got. I blushed. U feel so mundane and talentless when someone 4-5 years younger than you picks up your own musical toy and demonstrates magic. Playing chords and classical music are in completely different leagues. Anyway i would have to say the highlight of the wedding was the day after the wedding where we had a gathering by the beach for dinner and a spontaneous music session. Where people from both the groom and the bride's family were coaxed/forced/encouraged to go up and display their singing talents. It was absolutely wonderful romantic magic and ill try to post a beautiful piece sung by a beautiful american indian girl of a jazz standard called my funny valentine. There is one more character i have to mention about before i carry on to Ashvem. Well the most wonderful thing about travelling are the characters that you meet. Some of them can change your life in an instant, some of them make you laugh and well Sushil was the prime example of absolute stupidity and ignorance. I can't remember how the conversation started but a bunch of us cousins were sitting outside, having a drink and we laughed for 4 hours straight thanks to Sushil. First of all he came out with this outrageous comment branding african people, or in his words niggers as the bottom trodden people of society. He went on to elaborate the nickname that he uses for them as being riggens (pronounced raygens). I cant remember if he said that he hated them or whether he was just pointing out that they dont do well in society relative to the "white folk" but the comment was just one of many basking in ignorant stupidity. He went on to tell us also about the incredible fights he has been in. According to his definition of fights, if you are standing around and a fight breaks out between people you have never met and never will, you are a part of the fight. Regardless of whether you hit anyone or not, you are an active member of the fight. Sushil had never hit or been hit in any of these fights. A definition that stunned me profoundly. I am positive 10 year olds have engaged in more violent affairs than Sushil has armed with their toothbrushes. He then went on to say something like rich young Punjabis driving fancy convertibles are drug dealers. I was like what if their parents are just rich and he said well then they come from a family of drug dealers. So according to his logic all rich Punjabis are drug dealers. Some point later during the night, he went on to say, he had a girlfriend. I asked where is she from, he said Punjab. Alright lets carry on.

Ashvem

After the family left, i went to go meet a spanish friend of mine Eva, who was on a beach called Ashvem with some other Spaniards and an Italian friend of mine. Now this was actually a pretty cool beach. Only tourists but quiet. I had come here with one bag and my guitar via local buses and hitchhiking. Now i have to point out that Goan people are actually quite wonderful. I discovered this through cleto and through the ease at which one can hitchhike in Goa. The easier it is to hitchhike in a place, the friendlier the people are. Piece-a-cake to hitchhike in Goa, especially along the coastal area. Anyway i had no place to stay so i landed up on the beach and first thing i saw was Babu's huts. Walked in and Manish was keen to greet me. "how are you baba come sit down," was the warm greeting i received from Manish along with a cup of coffee. He was from rajasthan and he had a business of running a couple of huts on the coast. Now i have to tell you, i am hopeless at negotiations in general. I am taking a course right now that is about it so its quite a useful tool to be good at. Anyway i got to the point and asked manish if he had a room. He frowned and he said yes but we only have one family room available. Ok im gonna make this easier and recap our conversation

Me: "Can I see the room please"

Manish: "Sure baba come this way. (Then as we're walking towards my hut he points at the neighbouring huts and says to me) These huts are filled with homosexuals. These tourists are mostly france."

A truly bizarre tactic to entice potential inhabitants. Or curiously enough did i give off any signals to make him assume i might be gay. We get to the room and he opens it and there is just a mattress on the floor, without any linen or furniture. Im thinking to myself oh ye this is a cosy family place indeed. How could they have ever called it anything else other than the family room. Curious at how there was no linen and God knows how many homosexuals have fornicated on this mattress, i enquired about the lack of family touch associated with this charmless brothel.

Manish: "Areey baba, when i came last year, we bought 15 pieces of linens but none of these foreigners used it baba. They come and stay for 15 days to one month and they bring their own linen. They are not like us indian people, we are much easier when it comes to using other people's things"

I took a step back at that shady comment and quickly switched topics to where the hell is the loo. The loo was next to the room which was next to mine which was occupied by a homosexual couple. Now we walked in and the toilet seat was hanging off the bowl, there was a flood in the toilet and the shower was a tap which was at the height of my elbows. There was no bucket. So i would have to bend like a hunchback to take a shower in a flood. I said "what is this nonsense, did you get hit by the tsunami when it came about?"

Manish: "haha areey no baba these foreigners sometimes dont know how to shower properly" then he went to where the drainage hole was, stuck his hand through this murky water, started pulling out what i imagined was hair and unclogged it.

By now my expectation of this place during off season is about 100 rupees a night. So now we're at the pinnacle of peak season, 30th of december and im thinking well maybe now its 300 rupees a night. So we go outside the shambolic bathroom and i ask how much is the room.

Manish: "Well baba i have to tell you that this is peak season time and there are lots of tourists and for all of them im charging 1500 rupees"

I gasped and said "does it come with a woman?"

Manish: "ahahaha no baba, you are a funny boy"

Me: "i cant afford that for sure"

Manish: "how many days will you stay"

Me: "I dunno, i could stay one day or 3 days or one month it depends, but most probably 3 days"

Manish: "ok you tell me how much you can pay me"

now i hate this question. he has opened with what is undoubtedly an exhorbitant opening offer and then asking me to choose my counter offer is always tough in negotiations. cos your worried u dont wanna quote too low cos then business might be over and u might not wanna go higher after u go low. u dont wanna quote too high in case he accepts the first offer after which you think im an idiot. why didnt i say something lower. so i took my money and counted it infront of him and said "listen i dont have much on me, only 1800 and if i wanna stay here for 3 days or so i will need to spend like max of 500 rupees for one night."

Manish: "ok i tell you what. because you are indian i am indian ill charge you 700."

By now im tired of walking around with this bag and the guitar, the sun is starting to burn my skin and im alone so i was just like what the hell, lets take it. Just before i left for Anjuna beach the next day i met the neightbour opposite my room. A british woman who was taking a holiday after spending sometime in nepal writing a book on reflexology metamorphisis (or some weird shit like that) told me that she paid 500 for her room. I couldnt help but think tacky shit.

Alright thats all for me for now. Next post will be on the magical musical experience in Anjuna on the 31st.