Late afternoon on 24 December 2003, I was walking from my hut atop a cliff in South-India to the beach in order to fill up my 5 litre canister with mineral water. About a mile from my hut there was this place where perfect clean mineral water came jetting out of the cliff. It came from a five mile deep volcanic reservoir and it was believed to have healing properties. All the local Indians would queue to fill up their jerry-cans and plastic bottles on a daily basis; other people travelled from afar to wash themselves in the water, as it was also believed it was blessed water. An Indian version of Lourdes I can say.As usual I was dressed in my white yogini-habit, which I jokingly refer to as my bed sheet. In fact, I would use the lower part to sleep on every night. Anyway, I had just returned from the Netherlands where I spent a couple of months promoting the Dutch release of my novel Pantau in India. I had been speaking to dozens of journalists of newspapers and magazines, on radio and television, and some of these people had actually read my book. But I hadn’t been speaking to anyone who had actually bought the book in a bookshop. I was wondering what readers thought of the book, and this was going through my mind as I was on my way to fill up on drinking water. The sun was setting over the Arabian Sea in the West and the moon was rising above the palm tree line on the cliff in the East. It was a perfect picture. Was that Venus on my right, already visible in the light-blue sky? Oh, I did love my winter retreats in Varkala Beach in Kerala State, even when being totally alone on such a special day with no prospects for a shared Christmas meal.
What I also loved about Varkala was that nobody in this quiet Muslim fishermen’s town knew I was a writer and Free Tibet activist. To them I was just that woman dressed in a “bed sheet” who keeps to herself most of the time and spends the days in quiet meditation.
While making my way to the water spout I remembered all the recent attention I received from the Dutch and Belgian media, and suddenly I felt a bit lonely and alone on that Christmas day in India. So my list of “things to experience” started growing quite rapidly: speaking Dutch, speaking to readers, and sharing a Christmas Eve meal.
While making my way to the water spout I remembered all the recent attention I received from the Dutch and Belgian media, and suddenly I felt a bit lonely and alone on that Christmas day in India. So my list of “things to experience” started growing quite rapidly: speaking Dutch, speaking to readers, and sharing a Christmas Eve meal.
There were some tourists on the beach, mostly couples from Europe and some back-packers from around the world, but wouldn’t it occur as strange to them if I asked them: did you read my Dutch book and do you want to have dinner with me?
Getting closer to the water spout, I suddenly heard a man calling my name: Pantau! I turned my head and saw a couple sitting on the sand in swimsuits. I nodded. Who were these people? I walked towards them. The man and the woman stood up. “Is it really you?”
I smiled. “Yes, I am really me!” The couple was visibly shaken. “O my God,” the man said while his eyes became moist. “I now believe what you wrote in your book. That if you really want something, the universe conspires to make your wish come true.” And then tears started flowing from his eyes.
In the next half hour the couple explained to me that they were from my hometown in the Netherlands. They travelled to India after buying my book a few weeks earlier, but only started reading it after arriving in India. They both finished this lengthy work in a few days. They remembered the last chapters of the book that describe the scenery of Varkala Beach, but I deliberately didn’t mention the name Varkala for reasons of privacy. I didn't want my readers to find me there as I used the place for quiet meditation and comtemplation. The couple had no plans to come here, it was a coincidence. When they arrived in Varkala they realized that it looked very much like that special spiritual beach I described in my book. Maybe this was the place! They had just arrived in Varkala that morning and thought: If this is the place Pantau describes in her book, she might actually be here. Didn't Pantau write she’d spend her winters in South-India? And if she’s not here, we will travel all the way to the Himalayas in the North to find her in her hometown of Dharamsala. We want to meet the writer of this book that touched us so deeply...
Well, there was no need. I stood right in front of them. They invited me for dinner. So our wishes came true. They managed to meet me. In return I was able to speak Dutch, to speak to people who had bought my book in a bookshop (and liked it!), and have Christmas dinner with people from my Dutch hometown. Yes, they offered me a free meal and their company. I wouldn’t be alone on Christmas Eve.
At such moments I do feel a connection with the universe. This was not much of a coincidence, was it? What do you think?
Getting closer to the water spout, I suddenly heard a man calling my name: Pantau! I turned my head and saw a couple sitting on the sand in swimsuits. I nodded. Who were these people? I walked towards them. The man and the woman stood up. “Is it really you?”
I smiled. “Yes, I am really me!” The couple was visibly shaken. “O my God,” the man said while his eyes became moist. “I now believe what you wrote in your book. That if you really want something, the universe conspires to make your wish come true.” And then tears started flowing from his eyes.
In the next half hour the couple explained to me that they were from my hometown in the Netherlands. They travelled to India after buying my book a few weeks earlier, but only started reading it after arriving in India. They both finished this lengthy work in a few days. They remembered the last chapters of the book that describe the scenery of Varkala Beach, but I deliberately didn’t mention the name Varkala for reasons of privacy. I didn't want my readers to find me there as I used the place for quiet meditation and comtemplation. The couple had no plans to come here, it was a coincidence. When they arrived in Varkala they realized that it looked very much like that special spiritual beach I described in my book. Maybe this was the place! They had just arrived in Varkala that morning and thought: If this is the place Pantau describes in her book, she might actually be here. Didn't Pantau write she’d spend her winters in South-India? And if she’s not here, we will travel all the way to the Himalayas in the North to find her in her hometown of Dharamsala. We want to meet the writer of this book that touched us so deeply...
Well, there was no need. I stood right in front of them. They invited me for dinner. So our wishes came true. They managed to meet me. In return I was able to speak Dutch, to speak to people who had bought my book in a bookshop (and liked it!), and have Christmas dinner with people from my Dutch hometown. Yes, they offered me a free meal and their company. I wouldn’t be alone on Christmas Eve.
At such moments I do feel a connection with the universe. This was not much of a coincidence, was it? What do you think?
Varkala Beach, Kerala, India
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