Daily life in Mysore 1.0

journey2mysore
December 27, 2005

Everything is getting better every day! Small things – like getting cold at night or getting attacked by mosquitoes are history. To battle cool weather at night I bought a blanket (actually, a whole set with pillow cases and small pillows – don’t know what I was thinking). I also had have taken measurements and ordered dress pants and a shirt – all out of hemp. Go natural! If those cloths work out I’ll get couple more shirts and a pair (or more – why not!) of pants. The process is like this: you pick the material (all Indian made fabrics like cotton, linen, hemp, silk, polyester) and they got several variations on each, like stonewashed silk. Once you know the fabric, you decide what you want. Fazel, the owner, has been most helpful with my fashion decisions. I try to pick clothes I could wear at home as well as something more exotic. Least to say, I won’t be walking in the same clothes everyday. Boy, I feel like such a “fashionable” guy! The costs are quite reasonable – 1m of linen fabric costs about 200rs a meter, it takes about 2½ m for pants and tailoring is another 150rs, so the cost for pair of pants is 600rs which is about $12. And those are not simple drawstring pants – they are fully zippered, pocketed peace of work. I’ll pick them up on Wed so I’ll see. I think I want something more casual as well. Want want want want! Hahahaha, but do I need them?

Went to see an abandoned hindu temple at ???. It is about a 30km drive from Mysore, so I teamed up with another yoga student and we sprung for a car (Ambasador, of course and a driver dressed in white). First class, 750rs! Trip was good, temple was very intricately carved out of soapstone, It has layers of figures – people, gods, animals, and none are the same. There is even a portion where work is not finished yet (and it will never be). On the inside there are just elaborately decorated chambers with statues of gods. I am still not up the speed on different hindu gods – I know Ganesh (good luck), Shiva (the destroyer) and Brahma – god of all gods. Well, I’ll read up on gods and be better prepared next time. After the ride back we had a nice Christmas luncheon at the local hotel. There was a full spread of Indian curries and deserts, nice!

Deciding to expand my range of activities I visited Mysore Mandala, the “other” yoga shala. There are many classes but I am focusing on Ayurvedic massage, Pranayama and Asana practice. I think once a day yoga with Saraswati is just not enough. So Sheshadri will fill in some gaps! So the schedule right now is as follows: Saraswati asana practice at AYRI in the mornings, breakfast, do things around the house, lunch, then off to Mandala for massage class at 2. At 4 pranayama class with Sheshadri, and at 5 asana class with him as well. Jump back into an auto rickshaw and 35rs later be back in Gokulam, maybe have a coconut and then head for bed. On the holidays when there is no yoga I want to take Indian cooking course – local housewives teach it. So much to do and so little time! I’ll see how things are working out and modify accordingly. Wow!