parvati, its not all about drugs.

Parvati valley, home of the Gods and the highest of India’s Holy Gangas is being poisoned.

“What would Shiva say?” was a question posed to students at Challal primary school as we sought to educate this next generation on the challenges their land faces in the name of progress. And a question you might wish to ask yourself also.

Without infrastructure to manage waste, an influx of tourists, guesthouses and plastic, the natural beauty of the Parvati Valley suffers. Poisonous waste has been thrown in to the precious rivers contaminating the purity of drinking water, the stomachs of grazing animals and the beauty of the valley. The future of these dramatic mountains is in the hands of India and yet in a time of economic growth, one might ask what does this say about the future of this nation?

If there is one thing I have learned about India; its where the heart lives and that is in and of its people to create change. A country that can’t have faith in its government. But can love and support its fellow man in the desperatist of times. And yet I see a familiar change on the horizon...

Coming from Britain, I have experienced the virtues of growing up in middle-class surroundings, living in a welfare state, getting a good education with high standards of living. Yet India spoke to my heart, she made me realise that we are not alone, the value of family, compassion and patience. And that we don’t need as much as society leads us to believe in order to be happy.

In England, we tend to have a mentality of ‘each man for himself’, we are separate from one another, don’t hold eye contact and our economy is maintained by the dark shadows that wonder through grey cold streets in London donning black suits climbing the ladders of perceived wealth. I love the sobering irony of having a nose in someone's armpit on the rush hour tube while avoiding any form of communication with one another at all cost.

"Money is the world's second God" A Himalayan Babaji explained to me. I've seen that in the West. How we buy. We buy. We buy. Blindly subscribing to the latest fashion, buying the latest gadget, believing the ideas that create an addicted nation through fear. But, don’t trust me, I also worked in advertising and in corporate finance :)

Kali Yuga, an old baba told me, is a time of draculas. Apparently that time is now. And what could be more symbolic than the life we suck out of mother nature around the world? Thankfully, in Britain, we can still turn a tap in the kitchen a drink clean water. We can shower with our eyes open and set the temperature to our skin’s comfort. We can walk the streets and not witness lines of degrading waste and smell the rotting garbage. And we can climb our comparatively feeble mountains and not find garbage that will live longer than we and our children stand to survive while polluting the rivers that flow through it.

But India, you are different. Where else in the world can a man wander the streets bare feet in a yellow robe and be offered alms? And you have such devotion to your Gods. How you demonstrate worship by making such sacrifices! The cues to make puja (prayer) in the temples would not last the patience of an Englishman. Your respect, devotion and faith inspired me. It inspired me, but, alas also let me down. Again I see the hypocrisy of man. You’ll pray to Sakti and in the same life carelessly throw poisons in to her land. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" I was taught in school. How fear can make us lose our way.

The constant duality of devotion and destruction was hard for me to accept in Parvati Valley.

Parvati Valley was my home. I found myself roaming in the Himalayas, studying yoga and learning about survival amongst the beautiful people and wildlife that live there. And while I accept impermanence as a constant, in my heart I have faith that people might wake up and realise that if they really love God, then they might try, a little, to be inspired by the wonderful selfless idol they pray to daily and do something to protect Mother India’s land in his/her name.

Plastic takes over two centuries to degrade and with big companies such as Coca-Cola, Parle and Good Day increasingly residing in these mountains the land is being destroyed and the river, the life source, contaminated. Glass takes an Ice Age to degrade, burning plastic releases dangerous toxins in to the atmosphere which cause cancer and so the question needs to be asked – what can we do to protect prakrti (nature)? These substances are poisonous if they're not disposed of properly. And they say "Time is running out."

Unfortunately, in the holy mountains of India, too little is done.

Parvati Valley. Attempts to be more green.

A group of foreign volunteers organised clean ups along the riverside, on one occassion with the President and village Mayor we watched the transformation of the land as years of plastic and glass was dug out from the ground.

Caste pride had to be swallowed. I wondered whether caste pride was swallowed in the name of politics as I watched these honory members in the community. I respect the caste system of India but personally, I don’t see truth when it instils pride, judgement and discontentment to the extent where one cannot pick up a piece of mindlessly discarded plastic without feeling shame. Creating an illusion of separateness.

One day I shook the hand of a small child and gave her an apple; on-lookers were agasp. She was a ‘rag-picker’, akin to the young boys of Slumdog Millionaire, collecting plastic in exchange for rupees, essentially removing recycleable waste left to decompose and damage the land and yet in the eyes of the villagers watching, she was filth and whatsmore untouchable. In my eyes; she was an angel. At least someone was respecting mother nature even if it was unconsciously; in order to survive.

Drugs, deaths and dramas.

As the rave party season hit Kasol, Parvatti Valley, many of India’s youth from Delhi and Mumbai headed to the mountains to dance under the sky, enjoy the gushing sound of rivers and move to musical trance beats.

This year a darkness swept over the valley as chemical drugs, a rape case and deaths saw dramas unfold in the village of Kasol – Parvati was not amused and neither were the locals.

This infamous music scene of India that has the propensity to bring like minded hearts and souls in to ‘Oneness’ under the stunning backdrop of the Himalayas drew a different kind of attention. Parvati valley came under the spotlight. Media quizzed police narcotic superintendents, police stop and searches all perpetuated an image that Parvati is a valley of darkness, for drug barons and young people to dance with the devil.

It was dark believe me. I was there. Having been there in the low season thawing my finger tips in the belated winter snows - I witnessed this 'darkside' approach the valley. People I knew became paranoid. Locals became uncomfortable. Tourists scarpered.

And so one of the biggest experiences for me on my travels was living in Parvati Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India. I saw the law of cause and affect quite clearly. I saw the corruption and materialistic mindedness that slowly works its way through remote India and of course, I saw, smelled and listened to a LOT of absolute garbage while witnessing its destructive impact upon India's holy Himalayas.

Indian people ask me “Where’s your country?”
“Everywhere and nowhere” I respond. I get a smile.

“Who are you working for?” watching as I colour in another "Nature is God" sign.

“Nature” I respond.

“Where’s your husband?” I am asked. I am nearing 28 afterall.

“Shiva is my husband” I say and I get a laugh, a nod and a knowing smile.

When I looked at the world from afar, I realised how short life really is. And there’s a love I have for those big giant hills that speak to the wind and brush the clouds. Nature was my teacher and I was put to work. Although if I am honest, all I really did was listen to my heart; something that I was forced to do when I left life in Australia.

As for Parvati Valley. Well that place is certainly not all about drugs. While apparently the best hash comes from there and the turbulent chemical romance takes place during the festive season, it has much much more to it than meets the eye. India's Hindu God Shiva lived there, with his wife Parvati, and I can understand why. They weren't just good dancers...

While we might live in times of vampires, of ego, war and destruction, we also live in a time of constant change. We have our own way of learning. Mine evidently was cleaning garbage. On the inside I did much more. 

“Be the change you want to see in the world” said Gandhi. 

Realising that we all share responsibility whether we want to live in a Western individualised  money orientated existence and take the weight of the world on our own shoulders or whether we share it with our family, community and pray to a temple. We all are a part of the whole. 

Meanwhile mother nature, the hand that feeds us, is getting bitten... least we can do is show her some respect especially in the land of the Gods.