Hesse's Warren

It's Albuquerque. I missed the "open mic" night of the accordion club and fell back on Jack Zipes's translation of The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse.

Wanting to share The Three Linden Trees led me to a copy of the story on this blog. 

After The Trees, I read The Beautiful Dream, written in 1912. 

Recalling that Hesse had traveled to India around that time led to the Hindustan Times and an article that mentions Martin Kämpchen.

Excerpt from Hindustan Times:

"Like his protagonist Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse himself was on a spiritual quest when he travelled to India in 1911. Despite his strictly Protestant upbringing in Calw in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany, India seemed to be a natural choice for him, explains German scholar Martin Kämpchen, who is currently based in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India and has written several books on Hesse and European Indologists."

Martin, of course, came next. In the EARLY LIFE section of the wiki article it says

"It was a dissertation on comparative religious study of Sri Ramakrishna, the 19th century Indian mystic-saint and Saint Francis of Assisi, the 11-12th century Italian saint that brought him to Santiniketan in 1980. He took an instant liking to the place and has never since left it for a long period at a stretch."

As a Geographer, I had to see where Santiniketan is and what there might be about it to make it attractive to Herr Kämpchen.

Checking Google Satellite, I noticed Bhitey Homestay. It's near the University and the reviews are favorable. I texted asking about rates. As Michelle likes to say, "You never know."

Further down in the Hindustan Times article is:

"Hesse set off on his journey in 1911, expecting to visit Java, Bali and Sri Lanka, followed by a trip to southern India, from where he would sail back home to Europe. But a severe stomach ailment after his trip to the Indonesian islands rendered him immobile, and he had to give up his plans to go to southern India.

Hesse's journey left him amazed but disappointed, explains Kämpchen, as the author did not find that idealized version of India during his trip to Indonesia or Sri Lanka (which in Hesse's view were part of India)."

I think it's in Jack Zipes's Introduction that he describes Hesse's disappointment as stemming from a feeling that the religions of India, including Buddhism, had succumbed to commercialism.