Feb 16, A Day in the Life

5AM wake up and head to the shala, listen to Lalita Sahasranama on Ipod. Tired feelings, unable to sleep due to afore mentioned ear-trauma.

7:30 home finished, take rest on floor and pass out for one hr.

Sightings: the usual crows and one falcon on the rooftop. Chipmunks in the coconut palms.

9:30 Soak yoga clothes soak in plastic wash bucket, head to Drs Corner for Chai.

Sightings: Yoga students trash bag ravaged by local dog. Ladies sanitary products on street. Japanese ladies buying papayas. Ganesh buying veggies for his wife’s cooking class. We discuss seeing eachother tonight at Kirtan. He plays Tabla. The chai man is painting the roof of the stall red. He is quite happy when I say, “Red color! Nice.”

“Red color,” he says with a huge smile and points up. He makes best chai and begs me to pay with small change. You know this, anywhere in India, small change is always at a premium. The westerner who pays for chai with a 500rs note should just stay home.

Purchases on the corner this morning:

o One small notebook for Sanskrit homework. I have been using my journal, which should I leave it somewhere could prove embarrassing.

o Unhomogenized regular milk in a 500ml plastic bag (Regular milk is 3% fat and not homogenized unless you buy that kind which tastes like crap and turns to toxicity inside us. One can request, and I do this for occasions: Special More Fat Milk at 4.5% fattyness. At home I believe whole milk is 5% right? So what pray-tell happened to that o.5%? Stuck to the side of the bag? Skimmed off the top for the Gods, more likely. And when the Gods are done receiving the subtle essence of the offering, of course one can drink this. They don’t sell cream or half-and-half. It wouldn’t be right anyways as the tea and coffee are made with grounds boiled in pure milk. It’s always a latte in India!! Hooray!

o One papaya “for today” which means ripe. One kilo chickoos my absolute favorite fruit (aka sapote, it grew on Maui). Two daikon radish.

10:00 Cara B declines my chai invite. Here is our text dialogue:

“Chai. Chai. Chai. Drs Corner.

Toast. Toast. Toast. At Santosha, taste of home.

You are only here one month. You are not eligible for toast. Meet me tonight at the shala 5 regular time.”

10:15 Rinse and hang the yoga clothes on the rooftop line. The cool part of the day is finished.

Sightings: Girl orphans across the way sweeping the street. What are the boys doing? They’d better be doing chores.

Vegetable cart man pushing up the hill while calling out his wares. Cilantro, tomato, onions.

10:30 Blog with you all until my chai wears off and I let the day unfold. Planning a trip to “Stand Up.” Stand Up is a restaurant called Sri Durga Bhavan which is wonderfully famous with locals and students alike. There are a few high top tables where we all crowd around with our metal plates and eat standing up. Very unlady like. This is my first trip where I go unaccompanied. I am finally getting and accepting that western women are no longer expected to cleave to certain local customs. They don’t mind me at the stand up, and they don’t leer. They just watch me eat my idly and check out if I have nice shoes and gold. I have a modest amount of gold, you’ve seen it on my face and ears in Boston. My shoes are local plastic flip-flops, bright blue with pink flowers. Nothing to see here. I take Idly Sambhar, two steamed rice cakes floating in spicy tomato soup.

Toast- humph. Taste of home after 2 weeks? Those girls are going to get a dinner to remember tonight.

3:30 Sanskrit, Bhagavad Gita, and Hatha Yoga Pradipika class.

5:00 I will take team Boston to the Greenleaf for Neer Dosa, which is only served on Fridays. Dahi Puri which is only served after 5. And a number of other local chats. Perhaps you can read about this part of today’s Mysore Life in Cara’s food blog.

6:00 Go say good-bye to George, Jean and their daughter Isabel who are quite gladly heading home to Ashtanga Boston in Cambridge after a long 4 months here.

6:30 Kirtan on the rooftop a block over with Annie Pace.