A day filled with emotions

Be aware, today's post and some of the fotos may be a bit disturbing if you are a sensitive soul like me. 🌱🩷

After morning yoga I met Katalin for brunch in the lovely secret garden cafe. What a green oasis of peace in this town full of concrete and construction! And the menu serves every taste from traditional Indian and Ayurvedic dishes to classic continental or vegan options. A place in the sun or shade at one's own choice. Perfect! After a delicious vegan Rainbow Platter I made my way up to the book store which also offers to ship parcels as I wanted to lighten my weight a bit, making room for more souvenir and gift shopping 😇

After this being done I felt like stopping by at the wedding where I had received an invitation to at the Ashram. Kata decided to come along for part of the way to do some Christmas shopping on the other side of the Ganga. So off we set. The first part of the way until Ram Jhula, the bridge to cross the river, is along the main road again. Horrible! Soo much traffic and pollution and beggars and taxis to decline - I was very glad to reach the bridge! Only to find more people all wanting something from me.😟 Luckily it got better on the other side. 🙏
Only until I ran into this young calf. It was sucking on a plastic bag, had a neck as skinny as my pinky finger and a severely bloated belly behind a chest showing every single rib. My eyes instantly filled with tears for it being all in its own in such an unnatural calf-hostile environment. Even now writing about it, my heart is filled with sadness and I have to blink away the tears. In my desperation wanting to help I walked into the next general store I could spot and bought a litre of milk in a plastic bag. Hurrying back down the street I could still find the poor thing and started my attempt feeding it by cutting off the corner of the bag and offering it to suck on it. Didn't work too well. A kind shop owner across the street saw my efforts and brought me a little plastic dish to use. Now I could see why it hadn't worked. I bought curd instead of milk!!! 🫤 I squeezed some out into the bowl and diluted it with my water and the poor thing eagerly drank it all. I proceeded with the entire bag and luckily found a tap to wash my hands afterwards as they were covered in curd 😅. I noticed some passer-bys taking pictures, probably thinking I was crazy. I didn't care. At least I had the feeling to have relieved it's suffering for a tiny bit.

When I reached the Ashram shortly after I sat down to relax and recollect myself a bit. It felt like a safe heaven in that peaceful, green and tidy courtyard surrounded by gentle souls. Walking around a bit I could notice preparations for a big event and many people in festive clothes. But it was obvious to only start later today. I decided to head back since I didn't want to travel back to upper Tapovan alone from here by night.

Strolling along the Ganga towards Laxman Jhula I tried to rebalance myself after all these impressions. How can anyone say cows are sacred here if this is how they treat them??

The next lonely malnourished calve got the remaining roasted chickpeas I had in my bag, and at the boat dock I handed out some dog biscuits to the strays, then there was nothing left to give.

Suddenly I noticed a lady talking on her phone and checking if the dogs here were neutered or not. I approached her to ask if she was anyhow involved in animal welfare. She was!! Turns out her name is LuzMa Gomez and she runs animal welfare projects here in Rishikesh and her home country Mexico. I ask her about the cows and she explains, that milk is a huge industry here (all the Chai and deserts they love so much!) but they don't need the meat so they impregnate the cows for the milk and abandon the calves all over the place, even tie them to trees in the jungle as live food for the wild animals. I am shocked. We exchange contacts and I promise to be of help how ever I can in the future. Hope arises.
The universe has it's magical ways 🙏💫

She seems are very kind and wonderful lady! You can check out her efforts at

https://www.instagram.com/ggluzma/profilecard/?…

https://www.facebook.com/share/12CxghKYDww/

For the evening we had planned to visit a Bhakti Kirtan. I was hoping for some comfort for my aching heart. At the second mantra my tears again started flowing for all those abandoned and helpless innocent creatures here and every where else. I sat there observing my emotions, happy I am still a feeling and compassionate living being. And this way we are able to make a change in the world.

Thank you for listening, may we all be grateful for the opportunities we have. ❤️Læs mere