Partying

Volunteers kept on coming and going. Nora and Neal were a couple that had arrived early in the past week. Though Nora is Spanish, she had a very good Brit accent. However, I didn't really bothered to talk much with her at the beginning.

One night, smoking near the mud pool at about eleven at night a taxi arrives and leaves some minutes later. We didn't know what was going on, but it didn't really matter. Someone must've been leaving or arriving, so we would find out the next day.

I meet with Nora the next morning and explain what I had seen the night before, all the story about the taxi. And she tells me that it was Neal. "Neal? He left?" "Yes" she answers. "Why? Where did he go?" "He left to Oman." "Oman? Where is that?" "Oman? The country?" "What? That Oman? I thought it was some place in India. Why?" "I'm not sure, something about his parents."

After some conversations about it with the rest of volunteers, we got to the conclusion that he was an MI5 agent. Absurd, but we had to entertain ourselves with something.

Anyway, on Neal's absence I substituted him with helping Nora water the plants and filling up the pool. I couldn't be bothered to be in the kitchen with all the American students. It wasn't as fun. And so, I was able to get to know her a bit better, and she ended up being a cool girl. So on the following weekend, Kobi, Eric and me were planning to go to Pondi for some beers and whatever the night might offer us, and Nora also came along. It turned out a fun night were Eric got totally wasted, Kobi got a contact for charras that would end up ripping him off and Nora exchanged numbers with an Indian guy that gave us a lift back to Sadhana from a party we don't even know where it was, and that called her 14 times the next day. And we got into our first Aurovillian party, which was, actually, kind of wicked.

The following weekend, Neal was back, and Kobi had left, but we still went for beers to Pondi. A dry day. Yeap, it turned out to be someones birthday and alcohol wasn't allowed. However, we managed to buy some beers at a bar that was miraculously opened and joined with the rest of the people at the bar to someones house. But we got kicked out by the police. So after a decoy stop at Mahatma Gandhi's statue, we went to another house to finish beers, and the night. By that time, I had already left Sadhana and was staying in a room near the beach, and Eric stayed with me too drunk to drive back.

On that week, another couple had arrived. Josef and Rotem. Man that girl got me nervous at the beginning. Her fabulous big green eyes were dazzling and stared at you glowing, curious, with plenty of energy, and I didn't know how to deal with them. I immediately liked them both. Though we all thought they were a couple, Josef fooled us saying that they weren't together, when apparently, they were. Anyway, back to the subject, the following day after Pondi, there was a party in a nearby community and some of us decided to go. Sean, Galie, Gary, Josef, Reza and Rembrandt.

I've already talked about Reza. Galie is a french woman with whom I hardly spoke to, but I think she ended up with Sean, who was a Irish guy, quite difficult to understand but funny indeed, specially dancing. Gary was English and he had arrived with Stephanie. They had been traveling together in Africa for some time and they were hilarious. Rembrandt was a Dutch guy that was checking out the place that day. He would end up staying in Sadhana later on and apparently, causing a lot of distress, but that is not my story to tell.

And finally, Josef, another good reason to go to Israel. I called him my bodyguard, as he worked as one back in his country. Both of us stayed until the party was nearly over, but headed in different directions. While I had to cross all Auroville to get to bed, he went to Pondi with Megan, an American girl that has trouble written in her front. I had met her before and knew all her story in India, not amusing I must say. I'll just say she fall as sleep and Josef was left hard watching a cricket match.

So there was I trying to get back to the road on my moped driving through sand roads at 3 a.m. in the morning. Fortunately, after getting lost the first time, I joined into a group of people trying to get out as well, and all of them were following the same person. Before that, you could see the bike lights going in different directions and you could tell you weren't the only lost subject in that sea of dunes and roads.

This last party wasn't as fun, but it was an experience, never to repeat, and my second Aurovillian party.

Moped

I tried a moped for the first time back in Diu. I did fine. It was a straight road. I tried a moped for my second time, also in Diu. And it was fine. It was the same straight road. I tried a moped for the third time, again, in Diu. And it wasn't fine. Xavi insisted on me driving with him as a passenger and in the middle of town. I accelerate, a car comes, I turn, loose balance, for the second time, turn again, loose balance, and, stop! "OK, I drive." All that was needed.

Goa, a vehicle was needed if you wanted to move around and to different beaches. I sought for a bicycle. First, because my experiences with a moped hadn't been that satisfying. Second, it cost 300 INR a day. Way expensive! So I ended up walking, taking lifts or rickshaws, as I couldn't find a bicycle and from where I was in Chapora, you couldn't go anywhere without getting into a very steep road, and I wasn't looking forward to cycling that either.

Still in Goa, but in Agonda I thought it was time to try again. And though successful, without a passenger and with very few traffic, but with curves and slopes, I wasn't sure of being capable of more.

And on that first Monday after my amazing, weird and deceiving weekend in Pondi, I tried it again. i had traffic, curves, holes, horning from everywhere, and I was successful, and almost liked it. And in that way I was free from Sadhana. I was liking the bicycle, but it was getting hotter and harder to make it back.

This was the place where I would finally learn. And it is. Auroville is the place where I learned to ride a moped. And now, I enjoy it!

A reencounter

Before Sunday meeting I was in the kitchen cutting some vegetables, when I turn around to see a bearded face talking in Hebrew. "What the fuck! Hey man!" I immediately stood up and went to hug Kobi. It's not that we had had an amazing relationship, I had hardly spend time with him, to be honest, but I wasn't expecting, by no means, seeing someone from my previous traveling in India. So I was excited to see him.

Kobi had had a a bike accident, so his foot obliged him to stay in Auroville for a while. A while were he would spend plenty of his free time with the 2 Erik's. And so, Eric and me were like a couple in Sadhana, Eric, Kobi and me were like a trio out of it. We met up constantly for whatever reason. Just hang around, party in Pondi, beers at the Tandori Pot, game of shithead, pizza at Pizza Roof or just a chai or a cold coffee at Richie Rich. Any excuse was good. And after this time together, I can say he turned out to be another good excuse to get my ass into Israel.