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!!