Christmas in India

Yesterday started with the waking up at 2:00am. Today, slept till 3. Thanks, jetlag! Overall my new place is not too bad except for 2 things: mosquitoes make it inside, and there are little ants in the bed. They don’t seem to bite, but mosquitoes do. Maybe a net would be a solution, burning a coil would be another, although I am not ecstatic about breathing smoke all night. I attended my first yoga class with Saraswati, Patabi Jois daughter. On Saturday she started at 7:30. No class on Sunday, then go back on Monday. During the first class she already made very useful adjustments, according to other senior students that’s the best way to go – I would get much less attention from Guruji. For example Haley, who’s been attending PJ class for past month, has not been adjusted at all, and she does not expect to be. Basking in his aura does add a certain charm.

For breakfast I had an omelet and a chapatti, then some ovaltine – all cooked by Jena from the house near by. Cost -70rs. After breakfast with my new acquaintance James (from London) we went out too take a look at motorcycles. There are Honda and Yamaha dealerships just down Gokulam road, and Yamaha seems to be much better stocked. You can have a decent bike for around 50000 rs. Hondas seemed to be another 10000rs higher and there was nothing in stock, just demo models. You would have to order one, and wait, while Yamahas were ready to roll. At this point I don’t need a bike, auto rickshaw is just fine. From Gokulam to “center” it costs about 30rs, so there is no need to get fancy unless you travel far every day. Renting a scooter would be 1500rs a month, and that’s a lot of rides (50 to be exact). Minimum fee on rickshaw is 10rs, and that gets you around.

I spent couple hours trying to find out about wireless internet. At my house there is no WiFi access point visible. So my other option would be internet over GPRS via cell phone. Airtel supports that, up to 56k. They want a 3000rs deposit and I would have problems getting it back.They suggest I just get DSL (according to them it takes 3 days to install). DSL is about 1000rs a month. Huch is another mobile provider I checked, their speed is about 15-20k. 150rs for the voice plan, then 499rs for 100mb. After that it is 5rs for 1mb. So I might get a prepaid plan – no deposits – and have a basic internet on my phone. I could check my emails that way in a pinch. For blogging and uploading files I’ll use café near by – 15rs per hour. And I will write all my stuff at home, just do the uploads there. I think that’s going to be the ticket!

Through the grapevine I found out about Xmas eve dinner at the Metropolitan Hotel. 285rs got you a nice meal and a desert to boot – ice cream and flan. But what’s really good was meeting of new people. I met Tom and Haley, and was shown a good tailor shop. I ended ordering hemp pants and a short sleeve shirt. I just want to find out how they will fit! I think I will get linen pants just for daily wear, and couple more shirts. They got silk, linen, hemp, cotton, polyester; tailoring is cheap – for pants and shirt it was 350rs, the hemp fabric was 1200rs with discount. Linen would have been much much cheaper – fabric would be 200rs a meter vs. 500rs for hemp.

Today the plan is to look into pre paid phone cards with internet, check out new food places, meet new people. Also, mosquito net would be nice. No yoga today, so I’ll just stay busy with other activities, which are plenty here. Life is great!