ashtanga yoga

i decided to post some notes on the mysore life...hope you enjoy!

Wow Bangalore airport has changed - it seems super clean and organised - we wondered if India might be different ( no it's still a land of extreme chaos and contrasts) but it gave us a false sense of confidence and we jumped on a super flash new bus to the city. The bus was so clean and airconditioned it was like moving in a giant bubble through the chaos and pollution. I think everyone aboard had at least two phones or a blackberrry - so many cute ring tones and shouting. After an hour and a half we got out at the central bus station feeling slightly fried and it was getting dark and we were getting desperate wandering around in the frantic area between the bus stand and the train station. We found an overpriced murderous hotel for the night which looked better in the morning... plus they gave us a new twist on toast and omelette - the toast was hidden inside...
We caught the Shatabhi express train to Mysore in the morning which was super easy and only takes 2 hours and the food is great! We arrived fresh in Mysore which seemed so cute and fragrant (in a good way) after Bangalore.

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Everything is good - our little flat is lime green and pale pink on the inside and orange on the outside. It has a giant mortar and pestle built into the kitchen bench and it even has a fridge and a stovetop coffee maker. The bathroom has five taps spread around the walls so you can flood the floor from anywhere. It's constantly noisy here; so many random bells, beeping, kids shouting, dogs yapping, laundry beating, stainless steel dishes being washed, coughing, hacking and snorting, street vendors different calls - the garlic man, the marigold woman - the mini rubbish truck (so cute), scooters, reversing jingles, distant trains, morning prayers, the neighbour's pressure cooker venting steam, constant sweeping...

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So much yummy south Indian food! Pat's gonna turn into a masala dosa. My favourite thing is called pongal - it's like indian risotto with ginger chunks, whole green chillies and whole black pepper corns with alot of ghee and a side of sweet tamarind sauce! You can get it between 7-11am and 4-7pm and in some places only on mon, wed, sat... Other food highlights - vanilla sundae with chocolate syrup and roasted cashews, bhel puri which is like savoury spicy ricies with tamarind and raw onion and tomato and black salt, idlis which are little steamed cakes like a very plain muffin served with sambar, and the incredible pink papaya and ruby pomegranate.

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The yoga is great, there's heaps of people - it looks like the united nations of young beautiful bendy people - american,british, japanese, spanish, norwegian - quite a scene! At any time there's about 70 people crammed into the room so it takes a while to work out where to go when Sharath shouts "One More..." He is completely in charge of it which is incredible when you think how many people there in a morning - 200 or more!

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Sanskrit chanting class is now compulsory and it's included in the fees so we all have to turn up 3 times a week for about 45mins and drone and mumble our way through some chants. It's a good idea but in reality it feels like 200 foreigners murdering a sacred language and it's subtle pitches and intonations. Hopefully we get better.

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We've been adopted by a rickshaw driver Appu who has rented Pat the world's heaviest bicycle - the Miss India Gold. It has a basket on the front and a sari guard over the chain. One tyre is flat and the back brakes are stuck but he still passed the rickshaw on the way home. I'm not sure the Miss India Gold will get alot of use here though - the driving code is loose and scary - technically they drive on the left but practically anything goes except stopping. You can slow down but do not stop. Do not look. Do not indicate. And you can pass on the inside or the outside and corner to the right on the right...

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We got killed by our first led primary series today! Sharath has a way of elongating the count on everything difficult, and there's no rest, it's head down for five breaths and lift and jump back and head down for five breaths and lift and jump back... the headstand is insane and utpluthi is torture. there are some amazing practices here (and some very stressed out people too). There's a girl whose jump back is off the planet - she flies.
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When we arrived there was a mini monsoon bringing rain everyday but it's gone and now it is truly hot, a sapping kind of heat - lots of the locals seem to take a small siesta in the afternoon and shops close and it seems relatively quiet. Then the party starts again as the sun goes down. You can hear the hundreds of rickshaws two stroke engines bubbling and honking on the main street, all the shops open up again and there's usually a few deafening fireworks saved from some festival. The evening sweeping starts - so much sweeping! Then the kids start to play cricket and badminton on the street and the pug starts barking.
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Our food fest continues but getting the food we want requires turning up at the right time of day which I guess is true at home but here it is all about "timings". What timings for the thali? 12-3.30pm. What timings for the bisi bele bath? 7-11am. What timings for the aloo paratha? From 7 madam not before. 'Chats' are snacks like like bhel puri and they have timings from 12pm. I like the names of the dishes like idli, vada, and chow chow bath (breakfast timings) which is a dish with two small mounds of very buttery semolina, one salty and spicy known as upma or khara bath and a second mound of sweet semolina called kesari bath sometimes flavoured in a strangely successful way with pineapple and whole cloves! Also delicious is bisi bele bath which is kind of like a risotto meets minestrone meets butter chicken without the chicken? Pat tried a neer dosa - imagine a steamed pancake drenched with butter and served with a little dish of spicy coconut paste and another of toasted coconut, brown sugar and banana shreds! I saw this dish silence a whole group of men for at least ten minutes while they gobbled. There are always many mustachioed staff strutting around with stainless steel plates and dockets on dishes of fennel seeds.
Also at dusk the sari-ed ladies emerge to exercise in the park up the road. Really,they do laps of the little grassy corner park in the dark while talking on cell phones. Strictly ladies.

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We went to lunch in the old part of town 'Lakshmipuram' where the old shala is. The houses are much smaller and chalkier compared to the marble mansions here in Gokulam. There is a woman who makes lunch in her little house and anyone can wander in. It was really popular with the yogis; she was one of the first locals to cook healthy clean food for yoga students and a few people still go but mostly it seems to fill up with young locals now that the shala has moved across town. She is just known as Aunty and there is a tiny sign outside her house that says "Aunty's". There are cows in the house next door. Her hallway is open roofed and narrow and lined with laundry and every doorway is an opportunity for Pat to knock himself out. The room where you eat is just big enough for a table for five or six people plus a tv in the corner. Uncle snoozes on the floor though he wakes up occasionally if the cricket comes on. Space is so tight that to get to the far side of the table you might have to actually step over Uncle. Aunty smiles and laughs alot and brings out stainless steel plates with the most delicious food -buttery chapatti and vege curries and lemon rice and curd rice and a bit more of everything and anything else she feels like making. Then you wash your hands with a jug of water over the plates on the floor outside and pay $2.

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Pat has successfully returned the Miss India Gold bike and got his 3000rupees deposit back finally from our rickshaw driver Appu who said, "See Appu not bad man... no thinking good bad thoughts about Appu. See wife's smile come back! Look at beautiful smile. Wife is happy now. Appu good man. " - My smile was wearing out with this speech. Everyday Appu made a date to take back the bike and return the deposit but then failed to turn up. We would run into him later and it would start again, "Tomorrow, ok, tomorrow, ok 10... 8 ok... evening, morning, as you like. Tomorrow ok..."
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The led primary is fast but the led intermediate is so slow! Over 2 hours. Sharath has no mercy in inversions, yawning between "niiiine........ten." Sweat pours off everybody. I am one big cramp in the final headstand. It's fun! Yesterday's class coincided with the local rickshaw drivers' Grand Puja! We had a romantic soundtrack through all the finishing poses from the huge speakers outside. They decorated the intersection/corner with garlands of lightbulbs and flowers and when I walked by later at lunch time all the drivers were dancing around like a Bollywood movie, Ravi shaking his ass and Appu twirling his hands over his head.

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It's a nice life, a holiday, but I think as an experience there is also something confronting or intimidating about coming to practice at the new shala. There's so many beautiful people with breathtaking practices, and we tend to hang out in cultural cliques. And there is what I think of as "India Dilemmas" like haggling in the face of poverty, being ripped off and priveledged, basic health and safety concerns and the heat and noise and pollution! It takes a while to settle into the strangely normal, reactions can be closer to the surface when we are removed from our comfort zones. But it's good! There is time to reflect and slow down which we don't have at home. And I have met some wonderful people. Strangers have been kind and generous. We all have yoga and this experience in common and so much time. Pastimes are super luxurious; poolside naps, long lunches, shopping for gold, chocolate, silk, taking painting classes, chanting lessons, devouring books, receiving ayurvedic treatments and massages, eating cake and icecream...