Safe and sound - sort of

Arrived on schedule Thursday.  Westerners are concerned with getting sick in India; I solved this problem by getting sick on the way: perhaps not dysentery but the symptoms were in that direction.  Spent Friday in bed and am well enough now and hooked up with the retreat. Nothing like meditation and dharma instruction to help with perspective. India is a bit of a shock. The poverty and  squalor is overwhelming, the noise a little overbearing and the driving is totally insane.  The hour-long drive from Varanasi to Sarnath would qualify as a ride at a theme park in America. But, walking this small town, it is easy to get a smile from people.  Yet, it is also a spiritual tourist and pilgrimage destination so has all the usual trappings  of street-side vendors and beggars.  Still, my perspective changes...