April 2, 2009 (India Time) Mondays are a day off here at the monastery. This is the day to get your chores done, do your shopping, run your errands, go to Mundgod for an ice cream, or just relax. For hard working, never taking a break school principals, like Geshe Sangye, it just another work day. A couple of Monday’s ago I accompanied him and two of his teenage students to Hubli to get supplies for the school. When I say supplies I am not talking about pens and paper, I am talking about lumber, flooring, doorknobs, window glass, ceiling fans, microphones, cords, cabinets, and the list goes on. It is an all day event culminating with the loading of a truck (appropriately named “small elephant”).

Hubli is the nearest “big city” to the monastery. It is little over an hour bus ride from the small village of Mundgod (the village near the monastery). For us the journey begins with a short rickshaw (see picture below) ride from the monastery to the Mundgod bus station. The ride to Mundgod is only about 15 minutes but Geshe Sangye’s haggling over the price with the drive took just as long. This was just a taste of his shrewd financial skills. I would spend most of the rest of the sitting with his two students outside a store while he negotiated a price. He is relentless and I am sure saved the monastery a pretty penny.

Boarding a bus in India is not at all like the United States. In the U.S. you usually purchase a ticket and that ticket guarantees you a seat. The bus pulls up, people get off, and then you board and find a seat. Here buses pull to the side of the street with a man calling out the name of the place the bus is headed. In this case we are listening for Hubli. You do need to listen very carefully. Once Lobsang was headed to Bangalore and wound up on a bus to Mangalore which is in the opposite direction.

Our bus pulls up and quickly a crowd forms around the doors. Suddenly people are trying to off while others are trying to get on at the same time. Geshe Sangye goes to the back of the bus and hands some of our belonging in through a window to save seat. Meanwhile I am pressed into a crowd of people trying to push their way onto the bus. This actually becomes a test of stamina, will, and a fragile line of assertiveness just to a point that is not entirely rude. I did eventually stop trying to be too polite and got a little physical to allow an elder Tibetan woman get on. Once on the bus there is another delicate dance of positioning and pushing to get a seat. Ultimately there not enough seats and India buses will take as many people as they can fit on them. So seats full, aisles full, amazing no fights and we were off to Hubli.

Below are some pictures of our day in Hubli. I found the city amazing and could have spent a week there. However we were on a mission and Geshe Sangye got the job done – everything on the list at the price he wanted. We wound up coming back late at night in the back of the truck he hired to deliver the supplies. Quite a day.

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