I'm on a roll!

Of all the family portraits I took as special requests, this one inside the Madurai temple is my favorite. Este hombre es un cachondo y su mujer y hija contentisimas. I don't remember doing anything naughty for him to be waving his finger at me that way!

Que estilazo tienen los hoteles de los anios 60 en la India! Realmente, esta foto es mi "Las Meninas". Deep!

I've been so blessed in this life!

Those of you considering making career changes at this point could ask this gentleman about working in a weaving loom factory.

Bye bye, P. Theiventhiran (autorickshaw driver extraordinaire) and India. Bon dia Barcelona!

More pics

Lidia in paradise. Can you tell we're on vacation? The main town we passed through on the boat trip was called, Putona. Ha ha.

What a way to reproduce!! Bananas beat them all! Mejor que frezar, seguro (better than spawning, for all you angloparlantes.).

My favorite door in India. What could possibly lay beyond this threshold? A chick?

Symmetry in everything. Are these water buffalo waiting for pickup from a close encounter of the third kind?

No more ghee. Only first pressing extra virgin olive oil.

This is a self-portrait in paradise, the same day I was called not fit and bulky. One thing's for sure, check it out- I'm sweating!

Check out where Communism still reigns, in south Kerala, which was way more Christian than any other part of India. Here I dwarf a pair of twins who accompanied us all the way to the Allepey beach, let me tell you, a glamorous resort destination if I've ever seen one. (Note my sarcasm.) Allepey is considered the Venice of India, and, well, that made the beach the Venice Beach of India. The lifeguard, who materialized out of nowhere, was sure excited to talk to us, as no one was bathing anyway.

So, I'm back in Barcelona, back at work, finished traveling around and almost back to my regular yoga practice (tried to do everything again last week but I've realized that my last few postures are too strong and you have to build up slowly, slowly, slowly. Ow.)

It actually feels great to be back, thanks to friends and company and my king-sized IKEA bed with soft squishy pillows. I've deepened my yoga practice, and learned four things: 1.) Yoga is one of the most important things in my life. 2.) I don't necessarily need to be living in Spain. 3.) I should be spending more time with my family. and 4.) Being blond in India is like being queen of the world, even with all the nuisances and annoyances that it brings with it, including constant attention from pesados and having 10 pairs of eyes on you at all times, even on the highway inside a vehicle.

I thought Madurai was a fantastic dry, hot, pure Indian town with some fantastic food and four-plus hours of entertainment inside the temple. I think a study needs to be done on the art deco/glam 60s aesthetic of Indian hotels. Kerala was paradise, an oasis of coconut trees and watery bliss, but take good company and don't spend more than 4 or 5 days. And if I ever see the guy who did our river boat tour, I think I'll shove a dry coconut up his nose for telling me that I'm not fit just because I couldn't shimmy up a 40 foot tall coconut tree in one minute flat. He told me I was "bulky", and golly, I should've said straight out that he was bollocks. Not fit! He should see me in Kappotasana, or swimming a half hour in the ocean when most of his paisanos don't even know how to swim, or running for an hour just cuz it feels good. Just because I didn't grow up climbing coconut trees from the age of 4. The jerk.

Anyhoo, I promise to supply the link to some fantastic pictures as soon as the technical difficulties on my Picasa page are gone. In the meantime, content yourselves with these still images.......

While I'm at it......

Guess where I am right now??




That's right - a tea plantation and processing plant! Exciting!






These are not snowflakes that you see but tea flakes!!

It sure smelled strong!!


Yeah - you know I have to smell everything. I was blatantly ignoring the "this is a hygienic factory blah blah blah" sign on the wall.


This looks more like some kind of ritualistic dance but really it's just 2 men a-labouring.

Can you tell I got a total caffeine buzz while inside the processing plant??! I'm totally ecstatic about tea here!









Just wanted to include one picture from the recent Chaturdi Ganesha - the 14 day Ganesh festival here in Mysore. These are some boys, whooping it up for Ganesh! It was a super exciting moment that lasted about 30 seconds. You can see the truck pulling away - all these purple boys jumped on the truck to take the giant Ganesh to the river and sink it. Surefire method for removing all obstacles in life.


Ok - I'm bored of uploading pictures. D'rather go lay in bed and read til bedtime.
Love, A.

For some reason I find posting pics very difficult...

This is Megha waiting for breakfast in the morning. That day we ate idlis, so it's worth it, even if you wait hours. (Note: I have the recipe for the possibly the best idlis in all of S. India and I don't plan on giving it out for nuttin!)









This is a town in Tamil Nadu close to Mudamulai....these clouds too shall pass...




The common giant flying squirrel is apparently so common in its giganticness and its flying ability that we didn't even see one in the national park tiger reserve. Maybe the tigers had eaten them all.



I'm a total pro at taking pictures of animal butts. Can you tell this is an elephant????






And this monkey has a toupee!!!! ha ha ha!





This is part of my blue series and is another self-portrait. And yes, I am wearing a hand-tailored chudigar. Yeah, sorry, you have to rotate your head to see this one.

We were riding the miniature train, like the Darjeeling Express. Here's a beautiful smile from another traveler onboard the same train. And another beautiful smile aboard the train....

All Ghee'd up and Not Ready to Go

Some year I'll start taking pictures in focus. This was the first mornings' chant - super intense - maybe I'll upload the video?






Let's start with an inventory of today's food:
Coffee to get started at 3.40 am.
2 coconut juices/waters, one with the gooey soft coconut inside.
Milk porridge with dates and 1 Masala Chai at Vivian's, (the Taiwanese single mother who makes the best porridge, sesame noodles, and Tibetan bread in the world). I added homemade peanut butter and ho-made pineapple jam to the porridge to make it even better.
Some pistachios.
2 chappattis with green bean, dal, onion palia, scrambled eggs with veggies'n'cilantro, mystery-leaf sambhar with glistening glee and rice, and some homemade yogurt to finish it off.
Another chai, this time accompanied by an apple cake ball with coconut (yummers!).
1 coconut cookie (also homemade in the bakery 2 blocks from my house).
2 mini-bananas (they're really small here).
A cashew banana chocolate smoothie.
Hmm, I'm done eating for the day, but as you see, anyone who had the idea that people come to India to lose weight are just crazy.

Musica karnatica y dioses variados

Pues escribo un poco en castellano ya que decia que lo haria y por si los que me lean no quieren interpretar mis notas en ingles.
Hoy he asistido un concierto de mrgantam, un tipo de tambor tipo tabla que es tipico de Karnataka. Karnatic music. Me gusta la palabra Karnatic. Pues fue interesante, muy interesante. Es un tipo de tambor que se afina para tocar el los 2 lados con tonos distintos. Tonos de "pitch" distintos. Fue poliritmico y muy expresivo. Muy bonito. Se me quedo corto. Sobre todo comparado con el otro concierto que asisti (un grupo que tocaban flauta de aki, sitar, otro instrumento de cuerda parecido al sitar pero no, tambor, etc). El otro tambien fue muy bonito pero me parecio largo a una hora y medio. Y eso que tengo bastante concentracion y no me cuesta escuchar conciertos de musica clasica, ya sabeis. Pues nada. Muy bien.
Ayer fui de excursion a Srirangapatnam para ver el templo de Srirangaswami ahi, mas el palacio y mezquita de Tipu Sultan, el sultan musulman de la zona en el siglo XVIII. Tambien pasamos por un santuario de pajaros para ver la vida acuatica (que vimos) pero por las inundaciones del monzon, no se podia ir en barco para ver muchos pajaros. Vimos muchos en un par de isletas en el rio y dimos un paseo por ahi. Me encantan los arboles aqui. Pronto pondre fotos de mi serie de fotos verticales y a lo mejor de mi serie azul que he hecho aqui.
Ya me gustaria escribir mas y poneros al dia pero tengo que usar el banio. Demasiados liquidos.
Queria decir que os hecho de menos muchiiiiiiiiiiisimo, sobre todo algunos americanos y algun lusitano. Y algunos madrilenios. Y algunos catalanes. Bueno, y algunos otros forenios viviendo en Espana, y algunos otros "aliens" viviendo en EEUU. Wait, no. Maybe I don't know any aliens in the US. Anyhoo, bona tarde y adeu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 10 - Reality sets in - in the quadriceps, and in the brain

Sigh.
As I bid farewell last night to 3 friends (2 of which I'll see next month anyway) it was sad, but also crashingly patent that I'll have to go back to reality at some point, too.
This whole "not working and being cooked for, cleaned for and sinking deep into my yoga practice" routine is filled with joy, pleasures and wonderful sensations but I guess at some point soon will have to end. Mostly I find this depressing because I don't want to have to go back to work, so many hours, acting as a pseudo-psychologist for so many students and co-workers as well!!! But I won't think of that reality and I'll continue to bask in this reality (a sunny day, the first in a while), and munch on some of this incredible dark chocolate with dried figs. That should cheer me up if nothing else will. Since there were no clouds this morning, I actually could see the Milky Way above my terrace as I left the house at 4.15 in the morning on the way to class. Stunningly beautiful and makes me so glad to be able to see the night sky at this wee hour of the morning.
And yes, I also have a new reality in my quadriceps. It's a reality I'veready known since at least this past winter. The reality of Laghu Vajrasana kicking your upper thighs. The "little lightning bolt" pose is really lightning bolts attacking your knees on day 1 since you forgot how you actually have to fall into the posture, then lightning bolts in your calf muscles (both legs) causing charlie horse cramps (calambres) on day 2 (yikes!), then slamming lightning bolts on your upper thighs (this is supposedly a good stretch for upper quads but I find it more weight bearing than stretching!) on day 3, 4, ad infinitum.
I also had a lightning bolt realization in my practice this morning, which I won't even share here as I have to do more pondering on it...............hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.................

More pics to keep y'all entertained

Buddhist village camp - this is a private part of Tibet transported to India in 1958 - totally peaceful and full of bald men!




Monks in the Golden Temple in Bylakuppe (Buddhist settlement). Wow!

September already +time flies when you are not doing much!!!!!!!!!!

The blog for today will be of high literary value.
India is a county of such great contrasts.
Like, for example, I went to Tamil Nadu this past weekend, and spent the night in a government hotel on a tiger reserve-national park. Wow! Talk about sitting in a lack of luxury instead of the lap of luxury!! Crikey!! It was beautiful watching the sun rise and set sitting in the umbral of the hotel room, looking at the thick muddy water rush down the river and waiting for the tigers to come out. But they were staying in for the weekend. We did see lots of elephants, especially their behinds as they ran away into the bambooey forest.
One of my favorite things about India is the abundance of blue paint on all surfaces. I am doing a series of blue pictures, which is totally easy here, temples, building, trains, clothes, people. Just kidding.
I took a miniature train line this weekend, a la Darjeeling Express, and since I got sick with a cold later and actually was swigging bottles of ayurvedic medicine, I can totally understand how Adrien Brody felt in the movie! The train was totally blue, as were all the train stops, signs, etc. Blue has almost always been my favorite color, except for black, so it was great fun. I have some fab pictures which hopefully I can post within a month! Ha ha!
El tren bajo por la montanya y vimos unos precipicios y valles increibles y magnificos y unos paisajes con cascadas. Este es un pais increiblemente bonito + es alucinante y no lo imaginaba asi para nada!
This past weekend we tried to take as many forms of transport as possible, so that included. Buses, privately rented cars, the mini train from Ooty to Coonoor, a taxi from Mudamalai to Masinagudi ´ahem, taxis in Masinagudi are really jeeps, which is perfect for mountainous terrain and 36 hair pin bends climbing the mountain. No joke!!! When they say hairpin, they mean hairpin!! We also hitchhiked! Yup, that is right, I can say that I have hitchhiked in India, something I am not even sure I have done in the US, although I did in Spain on the rare occasion. I think the hitchhike was the nicest ride, although the jeep was the most beautiful and the mini train the most stimulating experience!!!!!!
Coonoor tenia que ser el pueblo mas sorprendente de la visita del fin de semana. Era superbonito, el mercado molaba mucho y no era como en Mysore, donde no te dejan en paz para comprar cosas. Tambien cenamos en un restaurante con la comida superrica y grasienta, a la Moha Raj de Buenavista en Madrid!! Estaba super rico + comimos un arroz de cominos, y un plato frito de patata y la hierba que es como espinacas. Esto y un curry de verduras con un poquito de paneer que estaba que te cagas!!! Buenisimo todo. Bueno, ya escribo mas otro dia, por ejemplo, cuando pongo fotos o algun video!!

More photos, I keep on erasing them from the blog

These were the punky monkeys who were tearing apart someone's motorcycle. Talk about Hell's Angels!
A que sorprende que puedo sacar yo una foto tan buena del elefante. Elephants are very auspicious, you know...... they love water, and with the monzoon comes more fertile land and an abundant rice crop!

This flower is the Queen of the Night and was blooming (only at night, of course) in the Raghuram family garden, where I'm staying. My photo doesn't do justice. And no, it doesn't smell as good as it looks. Showy flowers never do.

I'm becoming a specialist in self-portraits.

Can you tell I had super-explosive diarrhea this day???? It looks like I'm on top of the world!!!! Ha ha! Let me tell you - it was a fun climb up, holding it in!

Just a sneak peak of the tallest monolithic sculpture in the world. Impresionante! No puedes imaginar la belleza y mayestad de esta estatua, la mas alta de una sola piedra en todo el mundo. Es jainista. Una paz increible ahi arriba. La figura tiene colinas de hormigas y plantas que trepan por las piernas del hombre, simbolos de su increible capacidad de tranquilidad y paciencia. En su meditacion ni le molestaban las hormigas a su alrededor.

I'll post more pics of it soon!

xoxo

More photos, since nothing really eventful is happening....

Ok. Here's me and Sharath. It's a shame my eye is the same color as my sari. God I look awful!!!!

So, this guy is even uglier than I am!

Thankfully, he wasn't in attendance at Guruji's party. On a sadder note, Guruji went back into the hospital today - getting old. And because my teacher had to take him, Sanskrit class was cancelled.

This is a cow on top of Chamuni Hill, one of the seven most holy of hills in Southern India. The temple on top is a big deal, so much so that the blessing for the car that took us up to the top took 15 minutes. Asi es, los indios tardan mas en dar la bendicion y puja para el coche que para los humanos (como humanos hay muchos, y coches no tantos). Era una noche bien extrania,

todo nublado y mucha niebla encima de la monte, y un monton de vacas por todas partes, muchas mas que por la ciudad. Una mezcla de pis de vaca, niebla subiendo, olor a incienso y arroz sagrado con mucha ghee y muy picante que estaba buenisimo!! Lo comimos en la oscuridad y he de decir, era el mejor arroz que he probado aqui, y he comido muchos arroces buenos!

This is how close one of the elephants got to us on safari! He was a handsome bull elephant.

Finally, some long awaited pics

This is my terrace and the view from it. Nothing too dramatic, but at least I've got a nice bit of space.

This the family I live with/above, o por lo menos una parte. La madre es Ratna (short for Shivaratna, which means the pearls of Shiva, a beautiful name). Las ninas son Bhoomi (la mayor - 9 anios) y Megha (6 anios).

Check out their dance moves!!!!! Racy!!!

And check out my first full moon in Mysore from my terrace!! Psychadelic!!!

Riding the rickshaw with Hayley and Fabio to Guruji's birthday party! Look now cuz this is the only time you'll ever see me in a sari! Or in pink!!!!!

And with the eye infection to top it off!

Me and Barbara, my Mexican friend. She looks much more glam in her sari, but I have to say, this was my worst day in Mysore, so it's ok if I looked like crap.

Guruji looking handsome and youthful at his 93 years. I got so nervous when I greeted him, I could hardly get up with my sari and all, shaking and heart pounding.

Me and Mega in the park one street from where we live. I've visited a lot of parks in Mysore, some are pretty nice.

This is a pic from a naive artists/artisanry of India museum I went to. Pretty cool.

Here's another shot of me and Mega playing in a different park. I have done more things in Mysore but these are the first pictures I took.









Here's a shot of the Mysore palace at night. Sunday nights they light up the lights. This is one of the temples where I later had puja. So at least you see something more touristy. This uploading pictures business takes a long time so I'll put more up later.

Lotsa love, Andrea