FIVE DAYS TO GO !!!!

I am ready.  I think I am ready.  The collapsible bucket is arriving on the 30^th.  It had to be ordered, as none of the camping stores had one.  I still have to put together a first aid kit, but that shouldn’t take me long.  This afternoon I am going to have a haircut.  I am not going to shave it exactly, but it will be short.  My husband would have preferred me to wait till the end of the week.

“It is better to see you walk around with bouffant hair instead of a toilet brush.”  He actually said that. 

You see, he knows how short I am going to have it cut, because I’ve done it before.  But I couldn’t leave it to the end of the week, because other than Monday, the only other days my hairdresser works are Friday and Saturday.  And Friday I can’t and Saturday I am leaving.  So that only leaves today. 

By the way, I am not cutting my hair very short because I want to look like a wandering Sadhu when I am in India, no.  But it will be more practical to wash and go.

And this is where I am going.  I will fly to Trivandrum in South Kerala.  From there, I will drive to Amritapuri, Amma’s Ashram on the Arabian Sea and on February 7th, the whole Ashram group will set off by bus for the seven week North India Tour as follows:

Kannur and Talassery  (North Kerala) ; Bangalore and Mangalore (Karnataka);  Hyderabad (Andra Pradesh); and on to the state of Maharashtra with stops in Washim, Vidarbha, an area that has been deeply affected by farmers’ suicides, Pune, then Mumbai before leaving Maharashtra and on to Ahmedabad  (Gujarat - Gandhi was from Gujarat) before continuing on to Jaipur the capital of Rajasthan.

Our arrival in Jaipur on March 7^th, will coincide with the start of the Global Peace Initiative Of Women, a global interfaith summit where Amma is due to speak on the opening day.  Women leaders from all faiths and from all over the world will convene in the beautiful ancient city of Jaipur, for a summit on peace that will be attended by women from all races and nationalities.  For more information on that, please go to: www.gpiw.org

After Jaipur come Faridabad and Delhi (Haryana) before going east to Kolkata/Calcutta (West Bengal).  My friend Nova will join me in Calcutta and spend a few days there with me at the end of the tour before I fly back home to New York.  By then it will be March 24^th, and while I will go back home, Amma will continue on to the Andaman Islands, and I believe Singapore and Australia.

But I do have to get there first and that is still a few days ahead.

Till then,

Esmeralda Williamson-Noble 

Ps.  I would like to post an itinerary map, but I am not sure how to do it yet.

       For more on Amma, please go to www.amma.org.

And for more on Nova's company (since many of you have asked me), please visit 

www.ihml.com