Win free passes to see Eat, Pray, Love

This Video Friday, BreatheDreamGo is featuring the trailer to the movie Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts and 70 free passes to give away to the August 11 preview screenings in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Winnipeg. And 10 lucky winners in Toronto will also receive a prize pack along with their passes comprised of  a “pray” t-shirt, mala bead bracelet and bookmark.

To enter the contest, click Read the rest of this entry and follow the instructions. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo of the Week

Andrew Adams, photographer

Photo from India by Andrew Adams, Katha Images

This is a story by guest blogger Andrew Adams, who has traveled in India and is one of my favourite photographers. Andrew loves India, too, and does a lot to support Asha Canada. He is amazing at capturing moments that speak to the soul of India. As you can see.

A friend of mine thought this was a picture of a spiritual leader or guru, rather than of a homeless woman. I think that says a lot about the presence of god in India.

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Help Passports with Purpose

Passports with Purpose is a collaborative online fundraiser created in 2008 by four Seattle-based travel bloggers: Debbie Dubrow, Pam Mandel, Michelle Duffy and Beth Whitman, the bloggers behind Delicious Baby, Nerd’s Eye View, WanderMom, and Wanderlust and Lipstick.

Each year, they choose a charity and leverage their online presence to help raise funds for it. This year, 2010, they are building a village in Southern India with Land for Tillers’ Freedom (LAFTI) and their non-profit branch based in the U.S., Friends of LAFTI Foundation.

Watch this video about the founder of LAFTI – a real modern-day hero. It’s a very inspiring, very moving story about women empowering women. Yay!

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Aarti (evening ceremony) during Kumbh Mela Festival in Haridwar, India, 2010

The Kumbh Mela Festival in India

“No,” said the khaki-clad policeman. “You don’t have the right pass.” It took me a moment to grasp that I was not going to be able to join my colleagues on the media platform. The spectacle of hundreds of naga sadhus parading into the centre of Haridwar, India was the pinnacle of the Kumbh Mela, the largest spiritual gathering on earth, and I wanted to see it

That morning, I rose before dawn and walked 13 kilometres into Haridwar with a group from the ashram to take a dip in the Ganges River. It was the most auspicious moment to bathe during the festival, and millions of devotees were streaming into the city to take part.

After bathing, I separating from my ashram group to join my journalism colleagues on the platform. When I was turned away, I was stunned. The sun was climbing in the sky, I didn’t know the route back and the city was completely closed and packed with pilgrims.

Buoyed by the intense devotional energy, I somehow found the winding route back to the ashram. Arriving, I felt exhilarated and realized I would never be the same.

That morning, I discovered the truth and power of ritual. It’s not about the achievement. It’s about how a peak experience can change our idea of who we are and what we are capable of. Which is a lot to get out of a long walk on a hot day in north India.

This post has been entered into the Grantourismo and HomeAway Holiday-Rentals travel blogging competition.

Video Friday

Graceful dance, with hoop, to kirtan music

Every summer, ISKCON (International Society of Krishna Consciousness — otherwise known as the “Hare Krishnas”) holds a picnic on Toronto Island called the Festival of India – Feed Your Soul. It’s a wonderful event and I never miss it. Everything is free — even the food! — and people of all ages attend. You can join a free outdoor yoga class, have your astrology chart done, enjoy the vegetarian feast, buy Indian clothes and trinkets and best of all, sing and dance along to incredibly happy, joyful kirtan (sacred) music. The event wraps up on Sunday late afternoon with a rousing kirtan session that everyone joins in. It’s basically a celebration of god, a spiritual rave — and no drugs or alcohol are needed to send everyone in a frenzy of joy. I took this video while everyone else was in the kirtan tent chanting along to the music. More pictures from the event follow.

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Photo of the Week

Naga Sadhu at the Kumbh Mela, Haridwar, India

Naga Sadhu (naked holy man) at Kumbh Mela, Haridwar, India

I took this photo in the Naga Sadhu’s camp during the Kumbh Mela in April 2010. I went into Haridwar for the day with two men who were also staying at Aurovalley Ashram — Lalit and Jean-Pierre. We spent an amazing day together, hanging out with the sadhus, swimming in the Ganges and having a lot of fun. I could never have had these experiences without the help of Lalit, who is a large, gregarious Punjabi man who speaks Hindi (and English and French). We spent a long time in this camp, where I bonded with this incredibly sweet young man (but I don’t remember his name!). I wrote about another Kumbh Mela day — the main bathing day — in Alone, and at home, at the Maha Kumbh Mela, the largest gathering on earth.

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

The biggest question of our time is not do you believe in god; or is global warming real; it’s where do stand on Eat, Pray, Love? The book about Elizabeth Gilbert’s quest to find “everything” in Italy, India and Bali is a publishing phenomenon: it was an international bestseller with more than seven million copies sold worldwide; and in 2008, Time Magazine named Gilbert one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Today, July 18, is Elizabeth Gilbert’s birthday. She is 41. And I want to salute her.

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For Video Friday on BreatheDreamGo, I have a video I took while riding in a bicycle rickshaw on the way to the train station from my hotel in Haridwar during the Kumbh Mela. I was staying at the wonderful Haveli Hari Ganga, which is located deep in the bazaar – where the streets are too narrow for cars and too crowded with people and stalls piled high with brass figurines of the Hindu pantheon, pyramids of vermilion kumkum powder and neatly stacked wafers of pastel sweets. The hotel has its own bicycle rickshaw for transporting passengers to and from the train station.

Taj Mahal, India

India is a vast and beautiful country, filled with world heritage sites, throbbing megalopolises, sacred pilgrimage routes, tropical beaches and snow-capped mountains. But along with the ubiquitous tourist draws such as the Taj Mahal, the forts and palaces of Rajasthan and the intricately carved temples of Tamil Nadu, India is home to a very well-trodden backpacking trail.

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Video of Kumbh Mela ceremony

This is a video of the aarti (ceremony to honour the Ganges River) that happens each day at dusk in Haridwar, India. I took this during the Kumbh Mela, the largest religious gathering on earth. I was standing on a media platform in Har-ki-Pauri, the sacred centre of Haridwar. Notice how the Indian authorities set up the media platform with a electrical wires marring the view of the aarti! But still, I think I got a lovely shot of women int he crowd when I panned down across the river to the side I was on. Of course, a modest video like this in no way captures the heat, the smells, the enormous size of the crowd and the intense devotional energy that was palpable in the air. It was an amazing experience to be there. A privilege, really.