Travel to India

I am going on the 28th of this month! That’s only 12 days away! I am SO excited. I’ve wanted to do this for YEARS.

India is a holy place of pilgrimage for me. I also need and want to scatter the ashes of my father and a grandmother in holy rivers there. That is so important to me. I will also get to visit two holy areas (Vrndavana in Uttar Pradesh, and Mayapur in the east). I will get to bathe in holy kunds…and be absorbed in a spiritual atmosphere. Oh I can’t wait! Leaving behind all my worries and materialistic tendencies for a month will be so good…and so relishable and sweet.

I also look forward to the food and some shopping. I do NOT look forward to the mosquitos!

I am considering doing this in March. You see, during March there is a short parikrama, holy circumambulation, of a particular holy place in India.

I am considering taking a week off of school and going with a friend of mine. She says she will keep my safe and show me the ropes about being in India.

Unfortunately, my mother doesn’t know about my plans yet. I should tell her before I go back to school. Now though, I am thinking it might not even work out, because how will I get the 1000 something dollars to go by March?

I hope to get my job again this semester and work a lot. However, my mother asked me, now that I am earning money, to buy my textbooks this semester. I am hoping to get good deals on them, and am trying not to buy them from my campus bookstore, which is very expensive.

Already I have 5 of the 9 books I need for my Shakespeare class. I went to a used bookstore and got all five for $12! So I am hoping to get similar prices for my other textbooks, and perhaps will be able to spend less then $50, or even less than $30, maybe, on all the books.

All I have to do is earn the money, get my mother’s permission, and be prepared to miss a week of school.

I know that some people may say it is not worth it to go to India for only a week, and that I should save my money and go to India at a time when I can go for, say, a month.

But school has always prevented me from going in autumn or winter, and summer is just not a good time to go to India. It’s too hot over there.

So this spring is all I have, really. There is a problem with convincing my mother, because she will say it is impractical, and also she has conflict with some of the people I plan to see over there in India.

I am an adult so I don’t have to have my mom’s permission, but since I was brought up in the Indian culture, I respect my elders and would like to go with my mother’s blessings. If she is favorable towards my going, hopefully she will help me go and then I won’t have to earn all the money for the ticket (Plus I need to have some money for over there).

Anyway…if I don’t go this spring, I hope to go next spring, save up the money and convince my mom early on. So…I’m getting closer and closer to this goal!