The Past is Always Present

More photos and entries from Bir









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(OLD SCHOOL ENTRY)

June 30, 2007 - Good Food Makes Everything Better

I managed to find my way into the kitchen scene here at Deer Park. I really love the food here, so I asked the kitchen staff if I could hang out and watch while they prepare meals. I’ve watched them cook several meals in my free time. This past Sunday the staff had a day off from cooking for the workshop people, so I showed them how to make a fried tofu in lemongrass and chili, banana bread, and oatmeal cookies.

The young guys that work in the kitchen are really funny, sweet and hard working. Chotu is the head cook, and he and his younger brother Dilep are from Bodhgaya, Bihar where the Buddha attained enlightenment. Bihar is the poorest state in India, and many cooks and laborers around northern India are from Bihar. Chotu has a delightful disposition. After spending some time in the kitchen I learned that Chotu is here working and earning money, and his wife, who is 5 months pregnant is in Bihar. She was just here and I asked him when he’ll see her again and he said maybe when the baby is a toddler. Then Chotu said proudly that he had a photo of his wife in his room. Chotu’s positive and happy demeanor amazes me. He’s the kind of person who is always smiling, and his smile evokes the kind of energy that makes you smile and feel happy inside too.

Arun, the second cook is from Nepal. He’s only 20 years old and left to come find work in India when he was in his early teens. He said he had to bribe the police on the trains so they wouldn’t beat him. Indian police aren’t paid well so many of them are corrupt.

Rejinder is also works in the kitchen, but not in a child labor sort of way. He just looks to cook, and he loves being with Chotu and Arun, who have become like his older brothers. Rejinder came from the nearby Indian village. His mother died and his father is an abusive alcoholic. Rejinder dropped out of school a couple of years ago. Prashant found him, and sent him back to school, but Rejinder failed out of school. He didn’t like the Indian school system and preferred to cook and bake with the other kitchen staff at Deer Park. Rejinder is extremely talented and bright. He has so much indigenous knowledge of the plants and trees in the area. He knows exactly how different plants or bark can be used to cure or treat illnesses, or used in cooking or teas. He also learns languages easily. He knows how to speak Tibetan, Hindi and English. And he knows how to bake different breads, and even how to make fresh cheese. He led us on the hike the other weekend off the trail, along the rocky river bank and he was hiking in sandals and was climbing up and down rocks like a monkey. It was amazing!

I’ve gotten so used to being here at Deer Park. I feel like this is becoming home. I almost forgot that I’m going back to Dharamasala next week. Some new professors arrived and some will be leaving mid-week. Ed, the astrophysicist invited me, Sangey, Eleanor, Hunter and Pema out to eat at City Heart. The food there is gorgeous. Everything is so tasty that it’s easy to overeat.

The other night Prashant invited me out to a birthday dinner for Pao, this Bhutanese guy. Aside from the workshop there are a handful of students studying Buddhism here and at their affiliate Buddhist school down the road. I’ll have to track down some photos, but it was a beautiful night. There were about 25 of us sitting around tables we had pushed together outside underneath the night sky and moon. After lighting Pao blew out his birthday candles, we passed around a lit candle to each person. It beautiful. As we sat out under the moon on a hillside overlooking the valleys of wheat and rice paddies, I looked down the table filled with glowing birthday candles, and realized their were 13 different countries represented at the table including the Bhutan, Spain, France, India, Tibet, Taiwan, USA, New Zealand, Australia, England, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Having just come to India and meeting all these people who have been in India either because they live here, or have been traveling here for a long time, I felt a little anxious like I was the new person. One of the major teachings in Buddhism is the impermanence of all things. The only constant is change. I’ve been reading a lot about this. While I sat there in the company of all these wonderful people on a night so lovely I didn’t want it to end I truly realized that I the only way to live is in the moment and in the present, because everything that has past and everything yet to come is as faint as a dream.