i know not of what i seek
misha pao #10
every city, town, village
has at least three nights worth of something
...
...
so this
slow hopping up the Indian coast
has turned out to be a good idea
village after village
beach after beach
ebullient greenery after dry barren upland
after ebullient greenery
...
i didn’t know it could work
if it would be easy
or tough
maybe too tough
yet the principle is simple
stay long enough to take a good look at everywhere
yet keep moving
...
the plan was
to land in Ratnagiri
chosen purely because its where a fabulous movie ends
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT
[utterly recommended Indian drama]
...
so the easily achievable plan was
to take the main rail line
to that somewhat random city
...
and then walk and bus and tuktuk 10 or K north
or south
every few days
and hop from aye to be to see
....
for, as i’ve said before
and very much believe
everywhere is interesting
everywhere is fascinating
everywhere has three nights worth of something
every city, town, village
...
no matter how poor
no matter how concrete
no matter how industrial
no matter how like a mall
or a factory
or a warehouse district
its still going to have its interestings
its worth-thinking-abouts
its beauties?
so why not go anywhere?
like anywhere?
so i do
so here i am
and there i was ...
...
...
the above lines do have a caveat
because some things are really dull
some places are no fun
...
like English industrial parks
and Spanish warehouse districts
are OK to walk through
as a part of a long schlep of diverse beauties
but you don’t want to hang around
and four-laned dust-blown Indian urban highways?
they can become a drag pretty fast
and you don’t want to do that for an hour
though i have
and will again
because hey
its all good
and if you’re gonna do this
walk walk and walk some more through whatever comes
then its gonna happen
and the rough comes with
before and after and during
the smooth
...
so why not go anywhere?
like anywhere?
so i do
so here i am
and there i was ...
Ratnagiri...
Jaigad...
overheating my head on a country lane’s upslope
between Tawsal and Naravan...
battling with some extra sticky thorns
on a cow-trail [?] West of Boria...
...
yet maybe
probably
if you sit and feel the place
an idea will float to the top of the head
or an impression will focus your eyes
... a huge-eyed doomed puppy will appear
... those scavenging birds are immense, are in fact eagles
... that firework box in the garbage is for... “Saddam Hussein fireworks”...
with a picture of Saddam?
and if you stand and circle
or sit and watch
then the oppressiveness of the straight lines
the squareness
the unhuman flat empty space
will slowly creep up on you
spurring the mind to words
or memories
or more words
before you stroll on
through the hole in the fence
or up the steps into the barren uplands
or down the lush green lane
into further fascinations and beauties
and unseens and unusuals
and ordinaries and unwordables
and new-normals and
amazings
...
...
so i have Maps.Me and GoogleMaps
yet no knowledge about what is great to do
do not ask or look online
and so have no idea where is meant to be nice
and just keep walking and looking
and turning and enjoying
though stopping is not my forte
...
and i have no language, which here is Marathi
and many many people have no English
in one friendly village
on my stroll from Hedavi
no-one i met spoke English
yet in the next
even friendlier place
everyone in the chai-shop spoke it well
while my attempts to communicate with the
nice old toothless guy
downstairs in this hotel
are a comedy every time
and i hope he finds it funny too
...
...
...
and you’ve heard of a place
where the streets have no name?
well i went to a place with no streets
a village with no streets
or alleys
just a tight cluster of houses
next where the river reaches the beach
with, errr, no streets
...
so
to get anywhere
you go from front yard to back yard
in this poor village
cleaner than most
for there’s nowhere to throw garbage
to small temple-courtyard to side yard
where you are always on someone’s property
to back yard to front yard
...
so i would have written this on my tablet
while sat on a wall or stood in a street or alleyway
but there weren’t any streets or alleyways
and i don’t want to be hanging around in someone else’s yard
...
so i found my way out
of this village
and wrote it perched and stood on the
porch of no apparent purpose
by the big-rocked seawall
...
...
and the way this is working out is that
i arrive in the new village noonish,
probably by bus which
in this part of Maharashtra
are especially decrepit
and no fun at all if you have to stand
so i head to my pre-booked homestay or hotel
all of which so far have had nice rooms
and none of which have issues
[though this one here has a hideously squealing young dog
hating its new cage]
...
so i arrive
check-in for three or so nights
get my bag down
and spend the afternoon writing and wandering
[i have an acutely total lack of actual physical books
and even a John Grisham or Harlen Cobden would be a godsend
fuck, i’d even read EAT PRAY LOVE if i had to
and i cannot think of anything worse]
...
then next morning, first morning, early
i look at GoogleMaps
and booking.com
looking less for specific places
rather for areas to check out
on an aimful wander
and then
after misha pao for breakfast
walk or bus, bagless, five or ten k North
in the rising heat
to scout out the next beach
or the beach after next
looking for the right spot
with a decent homestay or hotel
while nothing so far has been perfect
not Gokarna perfect
and if anywhere had been perfect maybe i’d still be there
...
while i’m not wholly sure what i’m actually after
“i know not of what i seek”
i thought i was looking for, most wanted, the beach
the beach and the...
beach
and i am currently right on and over the beach
yet i have most enjoyed the lush green country lanes
like in Neware and, particularly, Hediva
which i’m really not sure i should have left
a super-friendly cheapish homestay
whose name i never knew
with a nice room and great thalis
500 metres from Hediva beach
but hey, i’ve never been good at stopping
decades on i still regret leaving San Francisco so soon
New Orleans so soon
Prague Berlin Aubenas Rennes Coimbra Sighisoara so soon
Siem Reap so soon
Hanoi Songkhla Fez, and many more, so soon
while leaving too soon is kinda the
price you pay
for doing it this way
...
to get back to my way of doing this...
so i arrive for an afternoon or night
next day i go looking for the next
which might be a long day
then i make my way back
sometimes smooth
in a shared tuktuk
sometimes a long hot leg-weary trudge
then the next day i simply hang out and take it easy
with a long walk around the rocks on the head
or over the head
or into the green valley
or maybe all of those
then next day i move on
or maybe i don’t
...
...
and i can tell no foreigners ever do this
ever come here
walk these streets and lanes and heads
i can tell by the stares and smiles and calls from the children
the double-take from the farmers in the fields,
and the babied mothers in the doorways
the glance in the wing-mirrors from the guys on the motorbikes
the grin of the uniformed school-kids on the country lanes,
in the small villages,
and on the high headland trails
or past the crab-fishers on the black rock below the heads
where its clear
no white folks ever come here
...
which is kind of a liberation
for the wandering spirit
always, but briefly, tied to the moment
to this street
this chai-shop, this lane, this thorny trail
this temple-gate, this rocky downslope
to this infinitesimal fraction of this earth
this place which is a world, a universe, all its own
this village
this lush greenery,
or browned-grass rock-scape
this stone seat around the holy baobab
all a universe, a now, of their own
...
...
and i bet no foreigners
or tourists of any kind
ever go to Jaigad
on the mouth of the Jaigad river
for it is towered over by the enormous chimneys
of a vast coal-fired power plant
and has three if not four industrial ports
while still only a village
and a notably poor village at that
...
which poverty, i would judge,
further disproves that great con of an idea
the Trickle Down Effect
for those are big commercial operations
yet it doesn’t look like the money,
the wage, anything
has leaked out into the village in any way
...
yet Jaigad
an old Maharashtran fort
and a super-friendly village
with its own unique take on the meaning of the word “kebab”
[a meat-cake sandwich?]
Jaigad was a good place for two nights...
before the upping of sticks
and the wander on
...
next stop Guhagar
where
“i know not of what i seek”
an infinitesimal fraction of this earth
a place which is a world, a universe, all its own
...
...
...
…
in other news
...
one of the depressingly fixed things about humanity is
that there are constantly new definitions of hell
...
one newish definition of hell would be
a place where you have to
work out a NEW WEBSITE EVERY DAY
...
or if you were really REALLY bad in your life
maybe a new website every hour
...
The Horror, The Horror
...
and you’re not seventeen in that ghastly afterlife
no
you’re sixty-three
...
The Horror, The Horror
...
...
...
...
in other news
am now actually in Guhagar
more accurately Asgoli
which feels pretty marvellous
and i might stay a weak
...
...
...
...
in other news
i find the line
“an infinitesimal fraction of this earth
this place which is a world, a universe, all its own”
a bit too easy to say or write
...
...
...
in other news
veg thali #25
misha pao #15
poha #10
I can hear you speaking, Jem.