my gokarna

July 23, 2010

my gokarna

women in Karnataka wear a different style sari. it shows their shoulders and part of their backs. this simple difference to most other places in india, where women are much more covered, makes Gokarna feel more free.

woman selling lotus flowers

hippie, chilling, smoking, drinking chai. life is....this moment.

Shivkumar, my brave and sweet friend, who lives with polio and is completely paralyzed in his lower body. still, his eyes speaks of infinite wisdom. beautiful soul.

Gokarna town beach. most people here are of the Brahmin caste, which is clearly seen at the thin string that men wear around their torsos, indicating that they are "twice-born" (born again, to a higher caste)

bittersweet Gokarna existence. strong and soft, boring and entertaining. life and death. i spent 6 weeks sick with malaria here in 2005.

entrance to one of the little sweet town houses, this one just next to the town temple.

by the water tank, strong woman

reading the Gita? many people sit outside their houses in Gokarna town and chant from sacred Sanskrit texts. Sanskrit is no longer a spoken language; but all holy Indian texts are in Sanskrit, and is very much alive within the religious tradition. it is beautiful to walk through the dusty, cowdungsmelling town at dusk, and hear monotonous voices chant this ancient language.

everyone bicycles or rides motorbokes in Gokarna. teenage boys fly around the town like dizzy bats.

this poor camel is the biggest tourist attraction on Gokarna beach- for all the Indian pilgrims who come here to visit this holy town. i was also a tourist attraction to these Indian men.

the one and only...best chill-out-spot...best views...how many cows can we see slowly promenading past us while we lazily drink our one, two, or even three chais?