Russian Guests vlog: meditation and cooking with Nicole Jaquis

guided mediation and cooking demo…

It’s been more than two years with no guests visiting me at Taptkund. The pandemic / lockdown shut down tourist entry in India since mid March 2020 and only reopened in February 2022. During Navratri in October 2022, my friend Tara Giri brought his two Russian guests to stay with me, relativelyLocal style.

This was their first time in India.

It was their first few weeks in the Himalayas, and my first time having strangers as guests at Uma Giri Kutir at Taptkund. I set them up with a room at my neighbour’s house next door. They came to my place throughout the day for meals and hanging out. Initially I didn’t realize they were starting their YouTube channel on this trip (having left Russia to escape the war and potential draft).

This was the first time I was documented in my home.

Not understanding Russian, I am not even able to understand their commentary of their experience hanging out here. At least you can get glimpses into what life is like, for two Russians in their mid 20s, traveling in India for the first time. And hear their impressions having their first guided mediation with me. Staying at Uma Giri Kutir at Taptkund was their fourth stop on their journey. In this video I lead a guided meditation and they document some cooking in my tiny sit down kitchen.

Guided Meditation Description:

• The water bottle represents our container body.
• The clean water represents our soul, consciousness, intuition and clarity in mind
• The soil, sand, leaves etc. represent the clutter of impressions that swirl in the mind (when we shake the bottle / when we move our body), having taken in through our senses all the impressions we are bombarded with all day through the media we consume.
• Pratyahar is the practice of closing off or controlling the senses to maintain / manage the amount impressions we consume in our waking life.
• When we sit still (when the bottle full of dirty water sits still) the muck cluttering the mind eventually settles to the bottom and clarity resumes.

Russians in India VLOG: teaching and learning in a Himalayan school in Northern India [Government Primary School in Sumgarh, Bageshwar District, Uttarakhand)

Format: English / Hindi / Russian / Russian Subtitles