Namaskaram

I honor the place within you where we are one

Tuesday, 7 July 2015

A week already?!

Hello Homies (Or should I say...'Omies'? Tee hee hee)

It's Monday night at 8pm here in Mysore and I'm writing to you from my bed, exhausted and just about ready to get a good night's rest (I've heard the jet lag subsides within a week). Unfortunately I have to wait for my hair to dry because:

a) I volunteered to be a 'body' for my friends' Ayurvedic massage exam this morning. It's very common for visiting yogis to take any number of the courses offered during their stay in Mysore. Cooking classes, Sanskrit, Ayurveda, sitar, painting, even past life regression! For their exam today, my four friends had to give full body massages correctly applying the techniques from the course. By the end of the 2.5 hour long massage (you read that correctly, I received a 2.5 hour Ayurvedic massage for FREE) my hair was saturated with oil. A small inconvenience for a blissful experience.

Speaking of classes, I registered for Sanskrit and had my first lesson today. Some of it is review from when I first learned Hindi in high school but we also practice chanting from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika -- another ancient yoga text dedicated to Lord Shiva, the first guru of yoga, who bestowed His knowledge to His consort, Parvati (the first student of yoga). Six months ago, before I knew any of this about the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, I started learning to chant Sri Rudram which is a hymn also dedicated to Lord Shiva. I never really knew why I wanted to learn this chant; but somehow it just felt like a good time to start. Now, thanks to our Sanskrit teacher Lakshmishji, it's all starting to come together.

b) After the massage, I had to run to catch a rickshaw for another friend's farewell lunch in a district called Lakshmipuram. A woman named Sandhya is famous for preparing the most delicious and healthy meals for yogis. You have to call in advance as she cooks and serves you in a small dining room in her home (and she can only accommodate one party at a time). It's hard to describe the flavours of the dishes she makes; they're not typical 'curries' of the North and they're not quite South Indian either. I suspect they're probably closer to the kinds of more simple 'home food' that people eat here. Curried okra, tomato chutney, rice pulao, shredded cucumber salad with pomegranate seeds (that last one is probably not a household staple) and an ongoing stream of hot chapatis from the kitchen. I never realized Southies eat chapatis this regularly -- they seem to serve them everywhere (and they are certainly more common than dosas). Apparently Sharath used to (and perhaps still does) complain that some of the women practicing yoga here would get too thin and he would yell at them: "Eat more chapatis!" Naturally, they printed the phrase onto a set of t-shirts and it's now part of the many endearing KPJAYI quotes.

If I had to give this first week in Mysore a theme of some sort, I would probably say FOOD! It seems like most of our days are devoted to where we will dine next. In Gokulam there are several 'cafes' specifically for the foreign yogis practicing here. Some of them are even owned by foreigners and the menus contain many continental dishes (omelettes, pancakes, porridge, etc.). After asana practice each morning (done on an empty stomach), our trusty coconut-stand man waits outside the shala gates with his truck-full of coconuts! For just 20 rupees (or 40 cents Canadian), he will hack open either a coconut with just water inside or a 'meaty' one -- I am always impressed by how he discerns them from the outside as they all look the same to me. The yogis huddle around him, drinking and eating sometimes two or three of these lovely coconuts while making breakfast plans. Although most of the flats here come fully-stocked with all the kitchen utensils you would need for cooking (and the grocery stores here also sell most of the common ingredients we have at home), many of us end up eating all of our meals at restaurants and cafes (because of how inexpensive and healthy they are). I've only in the last couple of days started to cook some of my breakfasts at home on the mornings I feel like being by myself. My staple breakfast at home is a bowl of steel-cut oats with maple syrup and blueberries. Though I brought oats with me I've had to trade in my maple syrup for date syrup which is thick and dark like molasses and extremely sweet. I am very much a fan!

Oh, and despite breaking quite a few of the 'clean eating' rules (e.g. use your own straws for drinking coconuts, don't brush your teeth with tap water), I've been absolutely fine in the digestive department. It could be all the probiotic-rich fermented food I loaded up on before leaving, or more likely the Ducoral vaccine I took at the travel clinic, but either way my tummy is very happy and healthy so far. For those of you planning your trip to Mysore in the coming months (you know who you are), I will say that I've been washing all of my fruits and vegetables with a special soap you can buy here and peeling them all before I eat them. I've been told that it's also a good idea to wash things like eggs and outer packaging on foods (like milk and juice) before consuming them. There are a crazy number of ants here so it's best to keep any opened packages of food in the fridge (even dry things like cookies).

c) I forgot to pack the travel hair dryer that mom pulled out of our 'India Trip' Box from 15 years ago. It's baffling to me that, exactly 15 years ago, I came to this country on my first trip with the family. I remember how afraid I was of, well, everything! The August sun baked us from the inside out, I ate every meal with hesitation and paranoia that it would cause illness, and nearly every toilet required us to assume a squatting position that placed me only inches away from the ground. Now, on the cusp of my 30th birthday, I find myself in this same country again and this time completely on my own. But it's not the same country. A week ago when I landed in Bangalore (at 1am) I remember walking towards customs and hearing instrumental Karnatic music faintly through the speakers. An enormous golden/brass murthi of what I think was a form of Mother greeted us at the end of the walkway. Even the pattern on the carpet reminded me of mehendi. When I texted dad to let him know I got in safely he wrote back with: 'Welcome to Bharat. Land of your ancestry. Yours to discover' (I don't think he realized that last phrase is the slogan for Ontario but in a way that makes it even more poetic). It sounds cliche and I know every Indian person says this about India but I really did feel some kind of peaceful contentment and connection the minute I stepped off the plane. For me atleast, this country has a heartbeat like no other I've visited. Oh and I haven't seen one squatting toilet. Toilet paper, on the other hand, is still a rare find...

One week later and it's still difficult to describe my thoughts and feelings about being here. Sometimes it reminds me of Trinidad; the tropical smell in the air, the palm trees, the dusty roads. Other times it feels more like home than anywhere else. Everyone here lives one life. We all go to bed at 8:30 or 9 and wake up before the sun, we all do our asana practice 6 days a week, we all want to eat pizza the night before a full or new moon because we know there's no practice the next day (and nobody needs to explain why). I think that's partly why making friends here happens so quickly. The friendships feel very pure; there are no egos, no competitions, no greediness. Everyone is here with the same intention: to practice and to immerse themselves in the experience.

And so far that has been one of my most favourite sights in Mysore. But below I'll leave you with a few others :)


Outside Sandhya's home. The white pattern on the floor is called 'Rangoli'. The woman of the house will typically use dry flour to create these elaborate patterns partly for decorative purposes, but also as a sacred welcoming of good fortune into the home. They must draw them extremely early in the morning as I've yet to see one 'live'. 


Our partly-finished meal at Sandhya's (not as pretty as when the food first arrived but at least this way you can see the damage). 


One of our many post-practice breakfasts at Santosha's Cafe. 


My breakfast OMlette at 'Om Cafe' (just three or four homes down the street from my place). I don't usually eat bread but this toast is made out of 'ragi' or 'finger millet' which is a gluten-free grain used in a lot of dishes here in Karnataka (58% of India's ragi production is here in Karnataka). Ragi is very rich in an amino acid called Methionine which the body does not produce itself. It is one of two amino acids containing sulphur which the cartilage in your joints require for proper functioning. People who suffer from arthritis, for example, often have far less sulphur in the cartilage of their joints than those without arthritis. Studies have shown that increased Methionine along with B vitamins can actually stimulate the formation of new cartilage tissue. You can read all about it here: Soeken, K.L., Lee, W.L., Bausell, R.B., Agelli, M. & Berman, B.M. (2002) Safety and efficacy of S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) for osteoarthritis, Journal of Family Practice, Volume 51, (pp. 425-430)

(I wouldn't be 'me' if I didn't include reference to some kind of dorky science info!)
  

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