Once more, I am in Mysore anew, living a few streets down from last summer, renting a room from Rima, the Indian homeopathic medical practitioner and reiki healer.
I knew I arrived in India (Calcutta, specifically) when I saw the scabby-eyed cat sitting around in the room with the luggage retrieval belts (a cat in the airport?) and I couldn't put my bag down in the bathroom because of a sorely-frightened cockroach that I'd scared (the only roach I've seen so far, thank Krishna) (that last bit's a joke).
All of my nerves were for nothing. Saraswati is such a nice, smily, grandmothery woman. What could I be afraid of, the heavy breathers beside my mat? Being kicked in the head and legs by some skinny girl with attitude who thinks she's all that but can't seem to keep her not that long legs on her own mat for postures like Janu Sirsasana or Marichyasana? What's her damage? The tailor's room in a cave two floors below the silk sari dealers' shop where I was measured for bright-colored tunics (the only way to keep semi-cool and covered so as not to be scandalous or attract any unwanted attention from all these men who think I look like Claudia Schiffer [their words, not mine!]).
The fresh coconut water is as sweet, cool and replenishing as in my memory and the coconut chutney, spiked with fresh zesty green chili is 1000 times better than I remembered. In fact, I had not remembered how good it was at all, and it came as a revelation like when you jolt upright in bed from your alarm when you don't know where you are.
I'm a bit slow on starting up the cooking because I've been busy moving in, getting groceries, settling in, etc but I'm going to learn how to make curd (yogurt) tonight. I know, I know, it's not that difficult and not something you have to be here to learn but it's a start.
The yoga is good. I already feel excellent and comfortable practicing in the shala (probably because I'm doing only primary) and I've miraculously grabbed my ankles in backbends after 5 days of no intense backwork (no 2nd series), and 2 weeks of no ankle-grabbing. If I can grab them that easily without any of the back opening postures in 2nd series, I should be fine next week when I start up with 2nd again. Doing only primary is a perfect opportunity to re-correct things that have been imbalanced and difficult to correct for years and work on core strength from a different viewpoint. The first day in the shala was cool, so much cooler than the extreme heat of Barcelona, but today was pretty warm. Especially with all those skinny girls on my mat hogging my mat. I wouldn't even care but they always have this look on their faces like, "I'm all that!", like they're the most important person in the room. So far I've been most impressed by the practice of a 12 or 13 -year- old British boy named Elliot who I must say, I admire for being willing to hit the mat every day at 5.45 am and who speaks at least some wisdom about the practice, is very observant of others' practices and at least doesn't speak the shite stemming from pure ignorance and vanity which some East and West-coasters are wont to do. More later- it's time to eat!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Saturday, October 11, 2008
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.
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.).
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.......
Friday, September 19, 2008
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
