I had never known I had become a specialist in the meditation techniques by now. I came to realize when I reached Khir Bhawani at a distance of around 27 km from Srinagar and rented a very big room, which could easily be called a hall, in a cottage at an unbelievably low price of 20 rupees (40 cents) a month. I was laughing when I paid my first month rent in advance. I wouldn't need opening my tent for a few days now, I thought.
As I took off my rucksack from my shoulders and kept it down on the wooden floor of the room, my peripheral vision sensed someone peeping in from the door. As I turned my eyes toward the door I saw a lady knocking at it. I started laughing at her action of balancing her peeping with knocking as an afterthought.
"I am sorry; I was clumsy enough to peep before I knocked. But I had got a little too curious and couldn't hold my impatience. I am Lara staying in the adjacent room. I have been here for the past one week and had started feeling quite alone. Good that you have rented a room too! How many days will you be staying for?" - She sounded to be quite welcoming to my checking in the cottage.
"I don't know how long I am going to be here. I am just roaming around for no purpose at all. Let's see!" - I said.
"That's what I am doing too! But no, I do have a purpose I came to India with all the way from Florida. I am here for learning the meditation techniques that India is so famous for. I have done my major in philosophy but I want to live it rather than academically grasp it only." - She smiled.
"You should have gone to Rishikesh then." - I started laughing again.
"Even I laughed at what they tried to teach me in Rishikesh. No, that's not for me! It was right for my friends who are still staying there and practicing what they are being told to. And they are quite happy. I was not! So I moved away and started roaming searching for something real or someone real who could show me the way to that something real..." - She broke her sentence in between and started looking at me silently.
I kept looking at her face without saying a single word for as long as more than a minute. Then suddenly words came to my mouth - "What are you up to?"
"… Getting bored on earth…!" - She replied crisp.
"And you think meditation techniques are going to take you out of your boredom?" - I became interested.
"I hope so." - Came her reply.
"I don't know about meditation, nor do I know about meditation techniques; but I know something about boredom." - I had started finding talking to her interesting by now.
"Do you?" - She looked into my eyes deep.
"I myself was..." - I stopped.
"What?" - She was getting curious.
"… Bored…!" - I had gone down the memory lane.
"… Of…?" - She went impatient.
"… Life…! Then I did something that turned me deeply interested in it." - I was trying to convey what I had gone through during my past few years.
"Tell me. That's what I call the real meditation techniques. Whatever it is, you seem to be having more of it than those professionals sitting over there in Rishikesh. Was it something that swayed me here just because you were drifting along these valleys too?" - She had gone ecstatic.
"I am wondering how someone can build up so much of trust on another in such a short span as you have done it on me within a few minutes only! It’s not normal..." - I couldn't complete my sentence as Lara suddenly stood up from the floor.
"I am abnormal... and I have an abnormal sense of reading people by what they say and how they look at you. I am happy I met you here. See you later." - She left the room as I started settling myself in the environment over there.
US $4.46
