devamitenblog

the road to ljubljana part five

and last but not least, the legend in-the-flesh, the manager himself, rajen (sanskrit: king) born in england

here’s rajen in his younger days (second left) at the osho ko hsuan school in devon england, which is a school i proudly founded along with 5 other hardy souls who had the vision of an alternative education for osho’s kids.
also in the picture left to right: niranjana, anugyan, safaalya, and asho.

rajen has taken care of us since 2002 and, surprisingly, is still going strong!
here he is having a spiritual moment in a church in st. petersburg – rock on our kid.

stay tuned!
love
m

the road to ljubljana part four

manartha – sankrit: meaning of heart - born in england.
manartha takes care of our cd sales.
in stark contrast to jalal, the digital world has passed him by.
he’s the only guy i know who doesn’t own a mobile phone, a computer, or a digital camera!
life is very simple for this zen monk.
he has a successful gardening business in london, which is his passion (along with chelsea football club, but we don’t hold that against him), and loudon wainwright.
manartha communes easily with nature – and cd buyers.

another of osho’s young ones, manartha is famous in the osho sangha for his dedication to the simple things of life.
maybe it has something to do with this (see below)...i mean, you can’t get zapped like this by osho and expect to be...normal!
manartha in the 70’s:

manartha spent many years in the ashram washing pots.
if you know any zen stories you will know how transformative this can be.
he is also a great photographer (film of course!) - i hope he doesn’t mind me sharing a few of his beautiful and poignant photos, taken when he travelled overland to india in 1975.

one day i hope he will publish a book – his work is so beautiful.

the road to ljubljana part three

and now, let me formally introduce you to our trusty crew.
here’s sakha, our sound technician (sanskrit translation: friend) born in germany.

sakha loves to dance – anywhere, anytime.
his main passion is tango, which he demonstrated with sabina, our translator in ljubljana (who, by the way, is a great salsa dancer)

...in the car park...
he’s a fine musician in his own right, playing flute, didge and djembe and has his own sound equipment company.
he was also a part of the tibetan pulsing family in osho’s ashram (any sannyasin will know what that means!).
he loves mixing our sound and is just a great guy!
dance on, sakha!

here’s jalal, our road manager. (translated from sanskrit: glory)
osho sure has a way with names.
born in england, arrived at the ashram at the ripe old age of 17, and left in his 40s!

among the many jobs he undertakes is driving the second van, so he gets plenty of massages.

one of jalal’s jobs is tour photographer...so you can thank him for most of the pix you see here.
when he’s not touring with us, he is a genius in the digital world – working as tech support, programmer and web host etc (too technical for me to understand – but very impressive nonetheless!)

the road to ljubljana part two

we had a great concert

a blissful workshop....

and time to explore this ancient city

the road to ljubljana part one

our first glimpse of the austrian alps – it rained non stop on the drive

we found this very picturesque old village called gumpoldskirchen and stayed there for the night.

deva took this great shot of our bollywood movie star

stopped off in graz to find an irish pub where i could watch my favourite football team (arsenal) play manchester united...!!

my sweet friends did some rather boring sightseeing while i indulged...

for penance i drove to slovenia - happy with a 0-0 draw!

and eventually we arrived in beautiful ljubljana in bright sunshine

so nice to be back here...one of the most beautiful cities of the tour

nbg/chemnitz/prague part three

as for the concert – blissful!
another shot of the theatre before ‘showtime’...

om shanti om

view from the balcony...

...and flowers to end a beautiful evening...

bye bye prague...next stop ljubljana!

nbg/chemnitz/prague part two

the laughing buddha watches this beautiful old theatre fill with bhajan wallahs

...and I do mean beautiful – this is the chandelier that hangs in the centre of the auditorium – a perfect mandala

back stage our friend alan lowen and his new wife martina visited us.
alan, as many of you will know, is the founder of the art of being foundation.
check it out.
it’s amazing.

if you find yourself in prague, be sure to visit maitreya – it’s the best vegetarian restaurant in town.
deva happened to mention it during the concert and they were overwhelmed the next day!

nbg/chemnitz/prague part one

hi friends – this blog is becoming a challenge.
how do i write about our tour without repeating myself?

the very nature of a tour like ours is that it continually repeats itself, and yet is constantly in a state of flux.

pix of concerts – pix of smiling faces – pix of sound checks – that’s it!
so now, as you can see, our life is pretty boring after all!

we hardly get much time to enjoy any of the cities we play in.
we catch glimpses when we are driven from the airport to the hotel, and usually, it’s manose who ventures out with his new found friends to see the sights - and to party.
deva and i spend the time together, although she does take more time to explore than myself...usually we answer emails etc...and use the time preparing for the concerts.
our focus is to make sure the mantras are shared.

so, excuse me if you find these pix boring.
it’s the life i lead!

here’s something you won’t have seen before...we signed his arm a year ago...!

so..where were we...oh yes, nuremberg.
our preferred mode of travel while on tour, is by road.
planes are ok – but it’s more realistic – and fun - moving around by car.
so, we left nuremberg for the mysterious east...eastern europe...in our trusty rented vw bus - first stop, chemnitz!
unfortunately we forgot the camera, so you are spared another concert pic.
well, almost...
here’s deva introducing a mantra from the ‘mantras for precarious times’ cd.
she likes to sit in front of the instruments and chat...

next morning we were on the road to prague.
oh yes, we love prague.
on the way manose became inspired...and insisted on filming deva sing the gayatri in this rapeseed field

manose as you might know, is a constant source of delight, whatever’s happening!

we hit prague before sunset – and what a sweet city it is.

there’s nothing quite like it...

...see what I mean...?

nuremberg part two

the workshop was equally blissful – more intimate of course, and some great singers...

like I said, nuremberg has become my ‘home town’ - here are two of my best outlaw pals, nadeesh and rainald

and our sweet little mantra girl...devayana

deep space in the morning satsang

lunch time...

like obama says – we CAN do it!

in the light of love...

...we are whole...

it was a beautiful day.
next up – chemnitz.
namaste and love
m

nuremberg part one

nuremberg – my home town...

dressing room..warming the voice...camera rolling...

concert time – how it feels to play for friends...

the meistersingerhalle is a big, big auditorium...

but the sound was sweet...and we had some fun along the way...

some people told us they preferred the smaller venue of previous times...much more intimate for sure.
...so we invited everyone to come up and sit on stage with us...
the security guys hit the roof, but it was worth it!
it felt so nice to see everyone’s faces as we sang together...