Starving in India. Working in India.

Subject: Starving in India...

From: info@girlskirtmission.com

Date: Wed, October 17, 2007 7:13 am

To: Robert G

I'm so hungry. Hey, is this a theme or what?

Wasn't I flying around without nourishment when I talked to you by phone when I was in US?? I'm not underweight so this isn't a problem but it is a problem if you know what I mean.

Ok. a big eeewwwwwww! on your little story.

Yes, it's all true. Although I had no idea about the carrying on the head. yuk. (human waste) It is common to see men's backsides as they use the sides of the road, up close to a wall relieving themselves. These are normal men off their two wheelers (as motorcycles are known here) not street people.

When you see the masses on the road and sidewalk, the question does arise... where does one go? no wonder streets are ok for the men. Some of the coffee places don't even have public bathrooms.

I'm sick. 3 1/2 hrs. sleep didn't help. In my room all day today retreating from the chaos of life here.Some self inflicted. Manufacturing is always a tough one especially if you are starting wit new unit and... one in the corner of an unpaved corner of the world off the main road that is home to many parked lorry trucks, trash heap and just for kicks a nice coconut e tree in the middle of the narrow bumpy dirt road leading to factory gate.

I BOUGHT A NEW digital camera mine has been problematic for years AND OMG! It has...video feature. Yesterday on way to factory I was catching the whole passing scene from the backseat of the car (Toyota minivan). Including a mom in full sari and helmet and three children on a motorcycle with her (the norm) she has the youngest in front against the handlebars standing, two young daughters behind her holding on.

So a pancake stack of 4 zooming alongside us. When they spotted my camera they were all smiles and waves and "Happy journey!!" Was very funny. I passed them twice over long distance and then when we slowed to turn.... there they were... they pulled over and came to the window to say hi and ask for chocolates. I passed two chocolate bars through the window to a young girl in full burka while stopped alongside a big loud old bus. Only her eyes and head visible in the window. "What country?" she asked ...one answers with a pause.

Wonder how many of them hate us.

I can speak some fast Serbian and pretend I'm from the village of my birth.

Or from Mars my real hometown.

I document my whole ride to the factory including stills inside.

I'm going to post the wild ride on my "blog" someday.

Ok. Few things on the fast. (The house boy is running out to get me some needed nourishment and I write in the guest house on my laptop to avoid the work I have to maneuver in the next days with the production. It's a monster job is all I know. And I'm not at my best at the moment).

To answer a long ago question.

Another from sheer memory... I am as we speak holding a sample with a pocket for the pants based on a pant made by my Delhi lady. It is too good.

My website and resolution I have to ask my web guy. Yes, I have high res. Yes, I've seen the site on other screens. Especially in India on really old computers and it resorts to scrolling bars so it shouldn't cut off anything but just give annoying scroll bars to see the whole site?

Anyway these are things to attack when I am done with this hell of a job.

Bright spot is Cathy in Chicago sent me some needed samples I didn't have here AND they are really well sized (had some issues with last order in front rise being short). And just getting these good versions of the pants made my day. So many sizing spec issues going on for two days... 7-8 hrs. at the factory mostly sitting around.

Passed out the other night it wears you out.

I had fun with the people working there... if you only knew... it's small so all departments (sewing, cutting, finishing, are all in one big room) and as I walk in every head in long rows turns and stares at me.

I walk in to a sea of eyes. It is embarrassing and funny. I bought a big bag of candies and had the manager pass one out to each sewing machine. Since then it's all smiles and fun. Even... yes Love. I really do love these people. If I could I'd give them all an envelope with a bonus. $10-20 would be a big deal.

For now one little sweet was all.

But now I'm the star there. Although if they bring me one more tea with SO MUCH sugar I will have to explode in an epileptic seizure. Why am I writing all this to you?

I don't know but I hope you enjoy it.

Drought followed by a torrential rain. That is me.

I do appreciate all the efforts you are making on GSM.

Trying my pants on today, yes, again I could affirm, they are the coolest pants on the planet.

In fact I bought that domain name. To build just one cool page of pants another way to route people to my store.

My..food is here!

Ok.

Off I go to feed myself. Someday maybe the masses.

It really is a crime don't you think that there are hungry people in this world?

IT's crazy.

The world is crazy the only crazy thing is... it doesn't know it :)

Signing off from comfort of her discomfort in India.

Bestest regards,

Milijana

Letter to Krishna Das

Letter sent with gift of girlskirtmission Indian Kurtas.

11/17/2004
Dear Mr. Krishan Das,

I decided I really wanted you to have one of my shirts (or two). So I found you. And on your web site I saw that you will be in Germany, and Frankfurt.
Makes my heart take a thump. The years I lived there and in darshan of Mother Meera were the greatest gift of God. She gave me everything…even eventually passing me on to a life in India. And to those whom much is given…..

May I only and always be of Service to God. I love you and I want to dress you.

Your music saw me through the loneliest and hardest climb of my life.
Germany is a tough place to move and alone.

Thank you. And Jai Ma. The two of you saved my life.

And now I’m…. importing some of the colors and Light and Love of India to the West.
I’m just a start-up designing Indian skirts and yoga pants to the Yogis and Yoginis.

My mission statement:

“I want to take over the world. And do it with a skirt. To teach it Love”

And….they love them. They are infused with Love and the joy and gratitude I feel in my heart.

And….I resisted doing a “business”. I only wanted my Guru and my bhakti life and India. The night I decided I had had enough and was packing my bags to go back….My guru came in my dream, and I was on a dirt road in India with people all lined up for darshan and in anticipation I got up and found my guru sitting in an open “carriage” (chariot perhaps?) speaking to someone next to me.... with a leap when I had the opportunity with hands folded in prayer, I asked “Swami! What should I do?”. He looked me straight in the eyes and said “stay in worldly life” and then he told me the one thing that anyone could have told me which took away all fear that I was compromising my spiritual life. So what could one do but stay. And all the doors have opened with ease and I find a life and a community that is actually a joy. For now at least, it seems to be my dharma to dress Americans in Indian fabrics.

I hope you like them. You would look good in them.

At least wear them in Germany and the circle will be complete.

With deep bow,
Milijana

Buckets of Love

Christmas 2008.
Before and after photo (paint job) of Skirt Central for 2009.
Heating water for a bath by submersion of electric coil
in a bucket of water (plugged into the electrical outlet!).
Just don't put your hand in the water til the coil is out!
Or else ...ouch!


ASHRAM LIFE 2002

Buckets for baths.
Buckets for clothes washing.
One for soaking. One for washing. One for rinsing.
All in a row.
Oh how I love my buckets!
Buckets to carry rung out clothes for roof top hanging!
Buckets for toiletries carrying.
Buckets for water storage in case of water shortage!
Buckets for canteen vegetable washing. Many in a row.
Buckets.
Oh how I love my buckets!
And they come in every color of the rainbow.

Submission by customer of girlskirtmission: Janet Love!

"Lord, I crawled across the barrenness to You with my empty cup-- Uncertain in asking for any small drop of refreshment. If only I had known You better; I'd have come running with a bucket."

India in you India in me

(first six month stay in India
Wed, 17 Nov 1999)


Dear Lovely,

"Simular" close but not quite. Although I am
impressed with the vocabulary. And I can’t complain
about the spelling since I can barely spell myself.
And this keyboard has the "Y" back in the American
position so my German trained fingers are confused
again. My new residence is a shed so perhaps open your
heart out when it comes to my mail. I can’t imagine
it is so important since I have everything I need with
me. My rucksack my heart and my toilet paper. It is
sunny and hot everyday but not unbearably so yet. All
I seem to meet are Germans my countrymen here. My
neighbor in the shed was a German Homeopath doctor who
returned to Deutschland yesterday and is mailing a
package for me in Germany. See I have the whole world
working for me. But then again the whole world works.
It"s the way of the Universe. You should see it here,
about 50.000 people and it is very unreal.

Costs 6 DM an hour to use the internet! And there are
4 computers in a small room within this tiny typical
noisy village. It is literally in the middle of
nowhere with people from everywhere. Everywhere.

Just getting used to being here. The adjustment takes
a bit of time.
OM Sai Ram! I hope the skies stop crying for me soon.
I'm blissfully happy to have disappeared.

Please feel free to open anything that looks like it
wants to be opened. And if it is a love letter for
me, you’re a texter (copywriter), so write back something very
sweet.

More later. Alligator.
Bis Bald,
Love from Indian skies,
Milijana

http://girlskirtmission.com/home.htm

God incarnates from time to time

(India Mon, 17 Jan 2000)

Hello!

At long last, getting on internet here is no fun
and sometimes when we get on they loose connection so
it is an unwelcome distraction and....with more & more
time it becomes less of a motivation to use. So the
delay in my response.

Happy New Year. And what a year, to you and all
of yours. I am still in Puttaparthi but have located
outside I have a nice two rooms with one little burner
for cooking and the ashram is 10 minutes by foot where
I walk at 5 AM among the wondering mules and street
sweepers and little Indian ladies selling flowers and
normal waking village life.

And All is well. So well. It is a real time warp
the process of being here, there is little connection
to the outside, so it is like leaving the planet, like
being breathed into infinity one slow breath at a time
and it is the greatest joy and greatest pleasure.

Truly, all my wishes have come true. There is
no place I belong but here. It is my home. It is the
heart and soul of creation. And all originates from
the Source. And the Source has chosen to take form.
And it chooses to do so "from time to time" as is
stated in the Bhagavad Gita to help lead man back on
the royal road to God. Whenever man strays the Unseen
and Unspoken takes birth to provide leadership and
example of the road back to Truth, Peace,
Righteousness and Non-violence. To provide
leadership and example is the answer why the Avatar
vs. devotion to the formless. "Love all Serve All".
"Service to Man is service to God" And God has taken
form in Puttaparthi and lives in Prashanthi Niliyam
"The abode of Supreme Peace". And His name is Sri
Sathya Sai Baba. And he sure is Grand. And I haven't
even met him yet.

As you know people from all over the world are
here. But the most impressive is the Indian community
and the scope of what is being done. "It is not in
the nature of Avatars to fail" says Baba.

I could never even in countless pages explain what
goes on here, what is done here and what I am going
through here. It is beyond explanation. But oh my
God, Oh my God and oh my God. Two months and it has
just begun. And it all was and will always be. What
is done here. The unfolding is so manifold there is
no container big enough to keep hold.

There is no other. "There is only the One" and when
I am finished here there will be no container big
enough to hold me back. Such is the weight of my
devotion. Such is the faith of my heart. Such is the
joy in my soul.

It is said one must dive deep into the ocean of Truth
to retrieve the pearls of wisdom. And I would say
one is propelled deeper and deeper by the weight of
ones devotion and the weight of ones devotion is
determined by the degree of ones non-attachment to
worldly things.

Non-attachment is the only way out of the world.
Then one finds that what one called and named sacred
was but an illusion of ones ego.
"God first, World next, myself last"... Baba.

Infinite beauty. Infinite Joy. He is the Christ
Consciousness in human form. And he can manifest
anything by the wave of his hand. "There is no place
where I don't know the way". There is nothing He
can't do or undo. He is pure Love and he says
unaffected by either praise or criticism " I march on
alone undeterred". A living example for me. I too
march on alone undeterred. Because I have had many
lifetimes with teachers I have come to know
and in this lifetime it is the same. And the Gods are
among us. Thereby was my immense experience with Mother
Meera. Thereby was the complete destruction of all
that was old, unnecessary and rendered useless.
Thereby was my first contact with the keeper of my
Soul. The God's are among us. To teach humanity that
we are all Gods.

But this you know.

One of my ashram roommates was a grandmother from
Sarejevo who went through the war with many hardships
and lost two of her sons. She's been twice before and
had an interview with Baba. Out of the group he
turned to her first and said "where are your sons?"
then where is your husband. She didn't now where he
was at the time but has since returned safely
home. She also had private moments with him and as
all who meet him say, he knew every detail of her life
and he showered her with so much love she said it is
not to be described. She sings Bhajans to her
grandchildren in Sarejevo. I met a woman from
Macedonia that saved for 15 years to come to see him.

The grandmother works for a German relief
organization volunteering to distribute food and goods
to the Bosnian community. They helped her financially
to come here for three months.

We were in a group together with two women from
Belgrade one is a Professor at the University and a
published poet and author who found Baba some 20 years
ago and wrote a heart wrenching book on her journey all
over the world and to him as she was searching for a
cure for her sick son. Baba told her to let him go.
And funny enough my roommate was reading her book
during the war with the limited amount of kerosine
oil they had and crying and ended up meeting her while
here. Her roommate was a professor and painter with
long hair and a sense of humor. Jagoda was her name.
There was a Croatian professional Sailor who wanted to
marry me cause Baba told him to make children.

The other night I had dinner with a Malaysian doctor
living in Australia who after 24 hrs. was fed up and
leaving but was loveliness all loveliness and at the
end she had tears in her eyes and hugged me tight.

I could write pages just on the people I've had the
pleasure of meeting here and am very fortunate to have
access to the whole world without moving.

There is a community of people that are staying for
extended periods of time and I love living here. All
of it. I helped a photojournalist from LA ( and art
model and astrologer...it's LA) take pictures around
the village for a book that is being done and was
commissioned by Baba himself. It was pure bliss. I
art directed a lot of the shots and took her to the
locations. And realized that I always have seen all
of it as art. Great art. Even the poverty. There is
such great beauty in all of it. God is all of it. She
is having a show in LA called "India : The Light
Within".

And I only tell you this to show you the variety of
people here. The whole world is united in
Puttaparthi. It is a global village of transformation… personal and global.

I couldn't explain the experience of being here even
if I tried and it is such a distraction to write andto get on line that I won't be in touch much.

But I will be checking my in-box from time to time.
Just as God incarnates from time to time :)

Please know that I hold you in Light.
Love
Milijana

http://girlskirtmission.com/home.htm

Goats

(Mon, 17 Jan 2000)

Dear Pamela Dearest,

Warmth and kindness sound like some lovely qualities
in a lady. Not something the old Pamela would ever
take refugee in as I seem to remember. But those
were days filled with much more hair jell if you get
my stiff drift.

And I am drifting away. E.mail is loosing it's
interest more and more so I fear I won't be too near
in the near future. But feel free to write when I do
make it here it is a treat to hear from your home.

If you're feeling restless India is just around the corner, pay
us a visit. It's getting to the point of boiling hot
by 10 AM. And in a long dress. Or long trousers AND
a dress. Oh my.

I have a small flat outside the ashram now and a
few pet bats, tiny ones are making their residence
behind the screen of my little ventilation window
above my door. That explains the droppings on the
inside of my doorway in the mornings. They squeal in
delight at some time in the early twilight and my
landlady who lives next door has promised to get them
out but in India that could be a while. So I've
gotten to liking to watch them move their peculiar
little forms around and count how many seem to spring
out of one dark shadow cast from the sunlight. They
have webbed feet or are those wings? And
tiny little fingers. In another life I may have
squealed in fright but hard to be scared of such
little things when you have all sorts of human beings
all around you all day long. All sorts of deformities
and I may write a book about the teeth. No one has
seen nor imagined such teeth. Oh my.

SO I awake at 4:30 and am in the darshan lines by
5:20 or so. I walk in the dark morning to the ashram
gate in the village with wondering donkeys (mules) and
little Indian women selling flowers and street
sweepers throwing water from buckets, to clean off
yesterdays spit I would suppose. Spit and nose
drippings are freely spewn about with a swift blow.
And the westerners are all rushing with their folding
chairs that support their backs when there isn't a big
round Indian woman, that is, to lean against in the long
lines which we form every day. Twice a day. In the
afternoon the men sit in the sun while numbers are
pulled to see which lines get the privilege of going
in the first rows. We ladies have cover and when a
row picks number one the shrieks of delight are
quickly hushed by Seva Dals (service workers) who
come from all parts of India and volunteer their time
to help the ashram run. Indian woman of society with
husbands that have money and poor women together
unite and even clean the floors and some the toilets
of the hospital. I told you about that hospital. I
cried again while in there. No greater living example
of selfless service to humanity that I know.
Loveliness. Beauty manifold. Unspeakable beauty.
Untold Joy that is the identity of one they call SRI
Sathya Sai Baba or Swami as he is known.

SO don't imagine it is a love fest cause you could
walk in and see nothing going on except a man with an
afro and orange robe walking in a crowd filled with
all faces imaginable. And lots of people moving
about.
There are people here from everywhere. Even islands I
have never heard of before. But that aint too
difficult as we know.

So the village is my home and my flat is a real find
it is clean and high up so I get a breeze and two
rooms is a luxury (after all I am a queen) It costs
60 USD a month. Yes Franny it's true. I have one
little coil burner for cooking and the ashram canteen
or for 300% the price the outside restaurants. There
is so much building going on now it looks like little
Manhattan. I helped a woman from LA take some photos
for a book commissioned by Swami himself on the
building up of the village. She's a freelance
photojournalist and an art model and an astrologer and
need I say from LA. It was such a treat because I
art directed a lot of the shots and took her to the
locations (very tiny village) since the search for
the apartment made me the resident expert. But I
came to realize that I see all things here as art.
Even the poverty. There is such beauty in all of it.
Each an individual expression of the ONE infinite
beauty that makes up all of it. The colors the faces
the homes did I mention the teeth?

There is no time here. It stands still and there is
no contact with the world. Sure you don't want to
come? Really it is a complete time warp and I have no
sense of the worlds reality. It's like getting pulled
more and more into a cosmic realm that renders the
worlds disorder and disease impotent. It is leaving
the planet. And you were the first to point out that
that is the most logical place for me. Because you
see….Lady of Tripoli.

Now Be Good Do Good to quote the most photographed man
in India. Should I send you a pic. And so take care
of your woman friend and send her some big greetings
from me.

Baba has predicted that there are some difficulties
coming up in the first few months of this year. There
are a lot of changes coming. A lot of people are
feeling restless and things aren't fitting as they
used to. Because the planet is shifting. It's been
preparing a long time for these things that are
coming. And even if there is tough times it has been
forecast for ages and Baba has said that this will be a
very important year and in the end will be a very good
year in spite of early appearances. Through March he
said it will be tough. So hang on to your little
Pammy pants and don't let the tornado spin you off
your Pammy seat. Hold on tight let the winds carry
away the debris and don't worry for the future because
it is a cleansing. A lot of the old has to go to
usher in the new. And we sure need new. Those with
the weight of their devotion and the strength of their
faith will see beyond the appearance of these things.
Even in the form of catastrophes. All will be well.
Just keep the faith. How things feel now are no
indication of things to come. It all may seem bleak
but Baba has forecast that there is a shift in the
sun's rays and there will be some strange happenings
in the atmosphere (and with computers) and people so
perhaps that is some of what you are feeling.

As far a Barb sometimes success is the road of least
resistance. Long ago I remember writing that all of
life is a process of "allowing" and I am just
starting to understand this more fully. Nothing can
be forced. What we resist persists. Sometimes the
key is just letting go and surprisingly that is when
things begin to flow. And differently than we have
imagined. Allow the Universe to direct the show.

And what do I know about it, I can only speak from my
own which is that I never planned any of what I am
experiencing today and yet it unfolds by way of having
continued the process of letting go and holding strong
to faith.

I will ask Mr. Swami my little friend (5 ft tall!) to
help you. He is so lovely. As are you.

Don't forget hold on to your Pammy seat. Let the
tornados winds take away the debris even if you have
to grit your teeth. Nice teeth they are. Here you
would be a star.

All will be well in the end. Beginning without end.
The truth of You never dies. You have done all this
before so try and enjoy the show.

And get out more! A directive from the strawberry
headed Yugo who is breaking out and actually has
friends. Not counting the goats at the nearby shed.

Lots of Love and Light all over your little Pammy
head!

Om Sai Ram,
Milijana
Queen of Lithuania


http://girlskirtmission.com/home.htm

God loves you

(India to Germany Mar 2000)

My dear beloved Eric,

I'm so excited I could pee in my pants. Not only
to get your e.mail but I'm on a real live computer
that works and doesn't take hours to connect. I’m
out of the village and in a real town. The big
computer capital of India , Bangalore so there are
only three terminals but..... no constant loss of
connection and sad faces waiting to reach their many
homes. Their lost lives. Their forgotten places.
Oh woe, I really didn't think I could be this excited
to be in front of a computer screen.

Your Thompson (ad agency) line really cracked me up. Don't
blow it up I want to come and put a wreath of flowers
at it's feet for it has given me the greatest
adventure a girl could dream. Seriously, I will
forever thank that glass palace full of crazy smoking
drinking swearing German speaking freaks. Meaning you
too. You cute freak you. DON'T SEND the mail
PLEASE you as usual are much smarter than me. I've
moved along and won't be at that address. So it
waits. I think I'll be coming back through in the
next two to three months. AND.....You wouldn't believe
what goes on here. Wouldn't believe. So I haven't
traveled around India but have traveled to some very
unbelievable and strange places in other realities.
And my life will never be the same. Do you hear me
Eric head, never ever the same. So call off the
rescue team. Refund my parents the cash. And
redirect the paratroopers headed my way. I'm in
heaven and bliss and can't believe what that Sai Baba
is doing to my life. I have a bit of a secret
but can't tell right away, ok? But if I ever write a
book or make a movie about it you were always the
first to know about it.. And if I settle into an
ordinary life in the West you can still come and visit
and be my first guest.
We probably come from the same part of outer space you
and I so stand up and sing a Hare Krishna!

Did I tell you how many Germans are here!? And
Croatians like crazy. I met a nice Serbian girl from
Bosnia here for 3 weeks and she is my new sister. I
visit with the world. But they all go home and I stay
cause I'm hard core. I go all the way. And many
people from around the world actually live here full
time. And I can only dream a bit of such things...

That's why I lived 4 months in a small village where
the garbage dump is right next to each little
apartment building. And the donkeys and even some
pigs and all the stray dogs come and go through it
before it is burned. That is when you close your
windows and quick. Did I tell you I haven't had warm
water for 4 months or heard a telephone ring?

Now I'm in a suburb of Bangalore in a very small
ashram of Baba's where there aren't 20,000 people
gathered at a time. And it is really great. And
there isn't a person I know that doesn't wonder why I
don't travel around except the ones here, they know.
What is here is so big. What is done is so grand,
that there is no other place I would want to be til
the process I'm under is complete.

It's like Richard Gere, shaving his head and going
into a Buddhist monastery with the Dali Lama for a
year. I’m completely immersed in the thing that feeds
my soul and makes my heart sing. And it is the
greatest joy and the biggest adventure and it's nice
to leave the world for a bit. I have no idea what's
going on out there but I'm so looking forward to
coming back and embracing all that I see. Meaning big
hugs and squeezes so get everyone ready.

Really, I am that happy.
See how much nicer my e.mails are when I'm not sick.

I haven't written or sent anything to the FFF (TV department) it's
impossible from behind monastery walls to do such
things but I'm in a small place and reconnected so I'm
going to do that. I need to send a thank you for my
ruck sack (backpack) gift.

Glad to hear your independent adventures in work are
working still. But there is no doubt. Richard
always seemed to be a legitimate advertising
guy. So that’s not a bad guy to have on your side.
And it may be news to you but you're actually a
likable guy. When you're not cranky that is. How
about personal adventures? As for travel adventures,
I can't predict what is going on here so I can't make
travel plans at all. I'm completely taken up with all
of this.
But I shall be back in Frankfurt and in many ways it
will always be my home. What crazy things we lived
through there. What a life.

Please always be my friend. Come visit me wherever I
land when I leave Spiritual land. And don't smoke too
many cigarettes it's bad for your health.

Ok? Big Love from Saint Milijana who is orbiting
somewhere in the holy land of India.

http://girlskirtmission.com/home.htm

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