To encounter great moments, you must mostly be in motion!
Mehmet Mura
This particular moment certainly had a bunch of us moving, and at great speed, going against the clock to meet the man of the hour.
On the morning of December 13, 2016 (my nephew’s birthday by the way), I took full advantage of the moon phase (rest-day), by staying tucked up in bed, scrolling aimlessly down my Facebook news-feed. I was in Mysore, India, practicing Ashtanga Yoga. It is a tradition in Ashtanga to not practice on full- and new-moon days, as the potential for injury is greater. So today was a no-school day and I was enjoying my lazy lie-in past 8 am, when I came across a post that immediately caught my eye…
Ha! No need to apologise, I thought. Thank you for sharing this much, and all the way from good old London town!
I noticed the post was published 8 hours ago and my now silly lie-in probably meant I had missed the grand event! Luck prevailed, I quickly discovered that the ceremony was to commence later this morning. It was time to round up the troops (aka my buddies!)
The news of the Dalai Lama giving a talk at Mysore Uni had spread fast. Some of my friends already knew and were ready to head out – I like to think they would have been kind and told me the goss! The others, however, I surprised and possibly woke up. An hour later, Laura and I were standing on the corner, just as it started to piss down, trying to decide the fastest and cheapest route either in an Uber or tuk-tuk.
After some frantic hand gestures and settling on a so-so price, we set off in a tuk-tuk in very high spirits. We spent the majority of the drive imagining all kinds of scenarios, the best being coming face to face with him! 10 minutes or so later, the tuk-tuk turned into posh, official-looking grounds; this must be it! As we followed the wide paved road, I noticed the area looked pretty quiet, certainly not the type of scene you would expect when His Holiness is due. I couldn’t see a mob of foreigners, let alone one police officer. This could not have been the place. Shortly after, our man pulled up outside a building with several men dotted about. Laura asked them if they knew where to go, but they just looked at us blankly. We told our man we need to keep moving, post-haste! Here he wanted even more money from us to continue searching, to which we replied along the lines of sod off, paid him, and went out.
Now on foot, piss wet through from the rain, we headed back out onto the main road in urgent hope of a sign to tell us what to do next. We were running out of time, so we jumped into another tuk-tuk and drove to what seemed like round the corner. There, before us, stood a large, decorated building, with corridors full of well-dressed people and a heavy police presence out in the front. We recognised a small group of people from our yoga shala gathered in front of an entrance watched by a policeman. We jumped out on the spot and walked over to join them. They told us it is a ticketed event, a convocation ceremony, and that the policeman won’t budge.
Every-man-for-himself time!
Clever Laura had forgotten her coat, so she quickly gained access by the guard, who probably felt sorry for her looking like a drowned rat. Yeees! I thought, now she can get me in, too, as we had come together – and you know: don’t leave a sister hanging… Umm, no, the guard seemed quite happy splitting us up, so too did Laura, as I watched her hurrying away.
“Bye then,” I cried aloud, to which one of the guys from yoga laughed. Only people with tickets were allowed to pass this man until, out of the blue, he let the two guys I was with to enter, but stopped me again! I was running out of options and time. Manners clearly would not win over this stubborn man’s heart. I pulled down my hood and flashed my blonde hair – you can imagine one of those Aveeno hair-whooshing adverts. It worked. He shoved me through after a minute. Now to find the others, traitors.
I somehow managed to find the two guys straight away, shortly followed by Laura, among the excited throng of people. We got carried by the crowd up some stairs and into a long corridor with many doors leading into the auditorium. Every bit of space was taken up by Indian families, but we still somehow managed to get pulled in by the very welcoming crowd and squeezed ourselves into a gap among the people. We were told the Dalai Lama was to receive an ‘Honorary Doctorate of Literature’, bestowed by the Uni, address the crowd, and present students with their awards.
You could feel the buzz in the air. It was very exciting and I couldn’t quite believe we had made it inside; and seated too! There were so many people standing up, sitting, or balancing on anything to get a look. I saw a few familiar faces in the crowd; they seemed so happy to be there.
The Dalai Lama and other important-looking people entered the hall and took their seats on the dais. I can’t remember if the place fell silent or if there was a round of applause. The national anthem was played by the Karnataka-Police band, which was followed by students singing the State Anthem of Karnataka. After the Dalai Lama had accepted his award, he then, for the first time, spoke to us. I think we all held our breath. I would love to tell you what the Dalai Lama said word-for-word, but I can’t remember. Please believe me when I say the room filled with laughter every now and then and there were wide smiles all around. It was very special and I remember feeling very inspired at the time. Afterwards, some people said they noted down phrases he said… what a great idea! One of them was:
Usually I prefer to begin by greeting my brothers and sisters, which is what I believe we are. All 7 billion human beings on this planet today are physically, mentally and emotionally the same. We need to recognise this whatever our nationality, colour, background or status may be. Too many problems we face today derive from focussing on just such differences between us. The only way to overcome them is to see that we are the same. We all want to be happy and that is our right.
Dalai Lama
Once the Chancellor declared the convocation closed, we waited for the crowds to ease. Then we slowly made our way out and down the stairs. Again, we bumped into more people we knew! Talk about timing, we somehow managed to find ourselves nearly crossing paths with the Dalai Lama as he was leaving the building. Shame about the camera crew getting in the way.
(You can see him)
Five of us caught an Uber back to the centre, went for a thali, and digested the day’s events. What a random, rainy, rest-day!
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