a murder of crows

Sunny was my rickshaw today. He was the guy that wanted it most when I stepped into a crowd of drivers and asked for the lowest bid back to Ram Nagar. Indians don’t respond the way I would expect a crowd of New York cabbies to respond. They usually look puzzled at bidding for business. Which isn’t a bad thing just one of those occasions to remind me I’m not in Kansas anymore.

Anyway, Sunny stepped up and gave a decent bid and most of the other drivers just walked away. I jumped into his rickshaw which had a prominent image of Ganesh, the remover of all obstacles, on the front window and off we went towards Connaught Circus a bit slower than usual for a rickshaw but something I am learning to appreciate in older drivers.

About halfway there, Sunny pulled over and asked if he could do an errand. I figured it was ok as I was staying with the rickshaw. After a few moments Sunny was back. Carrying nothing, offering no clue as to his
whereabouts , the mystery intact as he started up the rig again.

Sunny looked up at the rearview mirrow and asked “are you married?”

As usual with most rickshaws, I supposed he was trying to find some common ground before he hit me up for the more extended full tour of Delhi.

“No” I yelled over traffic, lots of traffic.

“Why not?” sunny turned around and looked at me with a puzzled look.

I shrugged my shoulders and quickly turned the dialogue back to him.

“Are you married?”

This was beginning to feel a bit like a conversation with a churchlady from Arkansas until I realized he was actually sizing up my accomplishments as a man.

“Yes! I have 4 children and two wives. One with my children the other with the sexy.”

I smiled back at him in the mirror and realized we had struck some sort of equalibrium between his status as a man of family and his perception of me as a monied person yet with no family of my own.

When we arrived at the hotel I tipped Sunny handsomely and took a photo of him next to his yellow and green rickshaw. He was smiling ear to ear.

typing from a little

shop on a dark alley

where a nice young guy holds

everything together with one hot wire

charges 50 cents an hour

for the tourist with money to burn…

its all a lie

im not saying stop saying whats on your heart

but be prepared to find

its a lie

saying truth out loud

as much as i do

makes a fool out of me

my eyes have been turned inside out

your intuition knows more than

any words with their one single eye

can ever say…

note my first blog hinted at the

dark

i felt it

wrote it best eye could

folks here living in a way

that creates humility in my heart

i prefer to give even when i am be taken advantage of well….

aiming my arrow

better each day

better each day

i still remember the blinking light

k
www.kellymoore.net

laugh myelf silly

seain indias wereing tobogons and sweaters whe n

it hits 70 degrees

course i froze last nite in my room

when it dropped to 50

i have no heat inmy rooom….

rite now northern india is my path

something about goa

besides broken love told me to leave rite now

beer, kids, lazy layin in the sun

i gotta go now…now…gone baby gone for real

distance from sun and shallow love

gone baby gone
now im headed for the mountains

more sand more dirt here

dali lama in late month

will sit an listen

see if he is different than i think (all religions are just…full of men)

anyway

if the indians get a fair chance thay will out work the soft west in a minute

met a guy today who was going snow skiing

told him to get a lesson or i will sea him next month on crutches

(i got my own rite now)

lunch was $1 today (thats averagggggg ge)

k

blinded by smog, exhaustion and out right

disgust

eye have seen some lite

and a few lights

in in in indi inida india
if u think u have traveld by going to europe maybe u might take off your training wheels and com e east next time

i know more about the usa now thn i ever did afore

and it aint all bad

eye know more more about the india as well

and it will take awhile to say bout that

advertising can kill u in many shapes and forms but try 10 blokes comeing at yo in every 10 steps (pease kill me with commercials from here on in)

women, i love them but they are no where in sight on the streets of india

women, they come and go, find a good one that goes thru thic and thin

dogs, god they are really treated like shit hear

taxis in nyc are absolute pussys compare d to rickshaws here

culture will define your economy

as a white boy i routinely experience rascism here mainly thr the $

(it aint personal just feels that way)

nothing works here, i dont care what ny body says its all gloriously broke

the water aint as bad as folks say and the food is great

theft is a seriously big pasttime here

i have no idea wha ti am talkig bout now

but very sure shiva is all over my ass

k

as i was walking

down the road this morning

(which is more dangerous than mosquitos or food poisoning in india)

a dirty brown van raced up beside me

with its sliding back door wide open

the driver leaned out the window

towards me

and yelled

“shut the door please!”

and i did

and the driver sped away

as i stood

on the side of the road

smiling

wondering what the hell just happened

goa india
i am such a pussy…

came to goa

following my heart

image ing an idealic

paradise on the beach

in a cheap bungalo

for five dollars a day

and indeed

it can be done

if you dont mind living

like a college sophmore

with mosquitos, 85 degree nites, toilets that smell like the runs, no windows

and trendy euros partying

cuz thats all thay got to do

but me?

im an artist and i didnt come hear

to save money or party or none of that other stuff

so, i will be heading back up north soon enough

to places that require a bit more

and pay a bit more

cuz now

i can do what i wanna do

delhi

lots of smoke

chai for your thirst

wild dogs in the streets

cows wondering the alleys

curry for breakfast

rickshaws to take you where ever

they wish

cheap, real damn cheap

more smoke

crows outside my window

masses of things tangled up

no relief or rest for the weary

children begging for money

im very white

its confusing

this week

eye have spent quite a bit of time

at my familys home

walking in the woods

at nite

in some ways

its a perfect mirror

for my heart

when i sit down under a huge white oak tree

in the dark

a natural un easy ness takes over

that requires i listen very closely

and stay in the mystery

of the darkest spot in the forrest

this un loosening is good

as eye embark on this crossing to a place

that i had prepared for in a way

that looked like

i knew

what i was preparing for…..

but when i walked

out of the woods

each night

eye realized i had no idea

what i am preparring for

and the mystery becomes a bit more comfortable

for the fighting part of me

check back soon as my next post will be from india….

up to this point, i have surely spent more time on one topic than any other in prepping for india. and for good reason, malaria and mosquitos in particular are high on my list of things to think about. spending alot of time in northeast arkansas near cotton and rice fields i know a thing or two about mosquitoes and how dearly, dearly they love me. the key point here for india is to make sure thay dont love you to death.

malaria is a serious thing there and although alota folks dont take anything, my gut tales me to take the anti malarials (which are pretty damn problematic in themselves), wear a good set of clothes top to toe and smear myself with deet as well (u gotta wonder which is gonna get u first the cocktail of anti-malarials and deet or the little buzzers). i suppose the visual of that would be enough to keep tigers away but then thay rarely keep you awake at nite so im not nearly so agitated by them.

anyway, i leave on monday morning and arrive in delhi the next day around 9 pm at nite (18 hours flight) and we are arranged to stay there for a few days and then on to Varanasi. i have been told delhi has colder weather now and not so much a problem with mossies but Varanasi is on the ganges and further south. fellow travelors have told me there are mosquitos there that time of year and to be just be aware of it.

now that im officially on mosquito drugs though, im not nearly so freaked out about them but will surely replace that with something else very soon (uhhh…water?)

oh, one other interesting thing my doctor told me yesterday was that the brits made famous Gin & Tonic in india not so much for the Gin but the Tonic. it was anti malarials.