Mysore Palace Tour

Namaste All,
Week six of the TTC finished last Friday night with another 120 Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutations), and after that not many of us course participants had a lot of ambition for the weekend. Another factor persuading me to stay close to home this weekend was the out of season rain storms. These are brilliant rain storms. All day you see billowing thunderheads accumulating overhead, and then when the air cools with the evening these clouds burst and splash a fantastic cascade over everything underneath. There is booming thunder and cracking lightning to go with it, and getting caught in a couple of these downpoors here took me back to Appalachain evening storms. Monday now, it seems the weather has cleared leaving the city refreshed, and me along with it. It's week seven of TTC, and I feel good.


Elle takes a short nap in Yoga India during our "5 minute break" after asana practice and before pranayama (breathing exercise) begins. It's a short 5 minutes. I think she's ready for the weekend...


To get some R&R I went to the Lalitha Mahal Palace on Sunday. There's a nice pool here that's usually deserted, so there you are, behind this magnificent palace, chilling by the pool like you own it. There's guards around the perimeter, guarding YOU. You feel like royalty with only a 200 rupee (5 dollar) entry fee. After maxing and relaxing poolside I strolled around the inside of the palace, you know, like I owned the place.



Behold the fantastic dining room. At lunch time there are musicians playing and there's a grand buffet spread. The palace is a hotel now, but you don't run into many guests.


It's easy to have an imagination in here, to pretend you're the Raj in 1924...


Lounging on the balcony...


Strolling through the halls...

What I'm not showing you are the slums you drive through on the way here. This is an essential Indian paradox: opulant wealth beside bottom tier poverty.


On to the famous Maharaja's Palace, Mysore's number one attraction.


To be honest, I haven't seen Mysore's number one attraction during the day yet, except from outside the gates. But the big draw is to the palace on Sunday night, where come seven o'clock they turn on a million and one light bulbs and give it the illusion of shining like diamonds. The above picture is the palace before it's bejewling lights are turned on. Note the portentious clowds blue in the darkening night sky.


Naturally there are boys selling stuff. This guy's peddling balloons.


The lights have just come on! I like the silhouette of the mounted police riding by. Funny thing though, the special lights came on with crowds oohing and ahhing, and five minutes later the rain began.


Far from being discouraged by the weather, I noticed the rain had a way of making the palace lights appear brighter.


The rain drove crowds of tourists under cover to take pictures of the palace from shelter. We thought it was raining hard, but we hadn't seen anything yet...


See how the light reflects in the wet pavement? Bad weather really improved my palace pictures...


Sure I was wet but I was having a good time.


A million and one lights all turned on at once. I think this is why they have to turn the power out in Gokulam three times a day, to save up the energy for this tourist draw!


Chaos!
The rain had mostly stopped, but then I heard commotion at the other end of the palace and turned and saw rain coming. It was coming so hard, a wall of water falling in sheets accross the pavement, coming right at me. I ran away from the rain, but it caught up with me in moments. Still, I got a head start running before other people, and lucky too. The place neerest me for shelter was a small cubby hole of a place, and when I got there people were already crowding in, pushing, squeezing against eachother.


We pushed and crammed and hustled and bustled. Luckily I got in, got my camera safe, and waited out the worste of the deluge under cover. That was a little taste of monsoon weather for me, what happens days on end here in June and July. All things considered, the night was a grand adventure ending with a soaking ride home through flooded streets.

And here's a metaphorical post-rains picture for your consideration. You make up your own metaphore.

Thanks for everyone's emails and comments; I'm feeling the love. May it come back to you all in blessings tenfold.
Cheers, Ethan

Howdy folks,
Well, there were a couple complaints that I hadn't posted any pictures of myself. Personally, I didn't see any problem with that; with no pictures of me I had nothing to be embarassed about. But OK, this post should satisfy everyone. There are two laughable self portraits of me here in my room (proof, Travis, that I haven't shaved all the hair off my body). I also made it a point to take the two cumpulsory, cheesey tourist pictures of me posing with someone else so I could post them here. Now that we can all remember what I look like I don't think we'll be needing many more of those. Enjoy!



Self Portrait 1: Prasarita Shirshasana. This one shows how Bharath has turned me on my head.


Self Portrait 2: Kaakasana. This one shows how my eyes are popping out in India.


In celebration of Shiva Ratri, the Hindu holliday "Night of Shiva", several of us attended a small concert given at the giant bronze Nandi (Shiva's Bull) at Chamundi Hill. The flute player gives lessons to my class mate Rishal, and he seemed to me a master. The music was interesting to listen to, very medative and unlike music I've listened to much before. There is rythm and progression, but it all seems to just occur without effort or performance. Having to practice early the next morning we didn't stay long, but I think the music went all night long.


Peyman is the best friend I have from Azarbaijain. That's us atop Chamundi Hill with the lights of Mysore in the background. This is compulsory tourist photo #1.


I don't know this fellow's name. He calls me boss, and I call him boss; that seems to be enough. One day I was waiting forever to buy a water can (a big jug of drinking water) at a shop where the shop keeper was missing. My young friend here came by and dialed up the shopkeeper and two minutes later I had my water can. Now whenever I see him I buy a garland of jasmine flowers from him which I take to a neerby Ganesh shrine and ask Ganesh to help open my hips. So hopefully, indirectly, this boy is also helping me with my yoga =)


I don't think the term "flower child" is applicable for him. Garland wala maybe? Here we are at the coconut stand. Whenever I ask him why he isn't in school he changes the subject, but his English is very good. This is Compulsory Tourist Photo #2.


Almost every weekday I go to "Shakti House" for breakfast. Bruno is always there to take my order and give me French lessons. His son Nalu is also always there. Nalu just turned two and he is so mischevious but he's so damned cute who can get mad?


The Deveraja Market has one strip that is nothing but bananas. Since I am unofficial president of the Banana Fan Club, there was nothing for me to do but... go bananas. (sorry)



The electricity in Mysore goes out with dependable irregularity, so while you can never plan for it, you must always be prepared for the likelyhood. You can count on the power going out at least twice a day. So, here we are at Elle's house preparing a splended Saturday Night feast by candle light. Elle organized a feast of Thai food, and being from Bangkok there was no better authority. Everyone helped, but the credit goes to her. It was so good!


I went out into the country Sunday morning to see what I could see, and at first I thought this truck was stuck in the river. No, he's just washing it. The truck is taking a bath. It's funny, all the trucks here are festivly painted and garlanded with great care; they look like driving temples.


The country side of Karnataka is often these marvelous green rice or sugar cane padis, and the roads are frequently lined with big dark trees that shade the road. In the morning and evening the light here is just fanatastic; it's beautiful country.


I went to Mysore's Cauvery Arts Emporium to buy some sandal wood carvings. The Cauvery Arts Emporium is government owned so you know you're getting genuine sandal wood and good quality, but it has the standard government inefficiency. The picture above shows all the people required to tally my bill of four items, what a laugh!

By the way, thanks everyone for your emails and comments! Keep writing and I'll keep posting! Much Love, Ethan

Reflections on one month in Mysore

Namaste All,
This is how time goes for me here: days go so fast, yet add up to more than a week, so a month's accumulation of fast moving days feels somehow like two months. Somehow the days are more full with so much yoga. Four weeks of the eight week TTC done and more sun salutations than I care to count under my belt has left me feeling deeply accomplished, exhausted, sore, and determined. I celebrate little victories: a 3 minute headstand, a foot going behind my head that never went there before, sitting without moving anything for 25 minutes- any little moment can be cause for a victory dance. I'm human, and I get tired and irritated, but somewhere inside I enjoy facing challenges here.
A month in, much of Indian life has normalized. I don't gawk at cows in the street anymore, although a horse galloping through town the other day raised an eyebrow. I don't get cheated by rickshaw drivers any more, and when I pay too much for something I do it with a charitable awareness. After all, what is ten rupies to me (25 cents)? I can order at resturaunts and have a good idea of what I'll get, I know to look for a good pallak paneer (spinach and cheese), and watch out for green chillis. Sweet lasi are yummy; masala lasi are lousy.
I appreciate everyone who has written me emails and posted comments. When you write me there is happiness in my heart and the lonely moments I have fade away with your words. Keep writing please!
And may Ganesh be the remover of all your obsticles, Om shanti Om.
On to the pictures...


In front of almost every gate of every house of Mysore, a chalk mandala is there. Some are bigger and more impressive than others. I could guess that they offer protection for people leaving home going into the world, but I don't really know and haven't asked Rani my landlady. The interesting thing is how you almost never see anyone drawing them; one morning there is simply a new mandala like the mandala fairy has left it there.


Bharath demonstrates "jala neti." He's pouring warm saltwater through one nostril and out the other. Next it's our turn.


Actually, I found this quite pleasant- not at all like getting pool water up your nose like I feared it might be. It's for clearing out your nasal cavity, and it works similarly to nasal spray I think.


Now Bharath is demonstrating "sutra neti." "Sutra" in this context means catheter. Can you guess what we're supposed to do with that little cord?


Peymon was the first to successfully complete sutra neti by inserting the cord up his nostril, up his nasal cavity, down his throat, and through his mouth. Then you do a flossing action, if you don't gag first. Did I do this? I sure tried, and I got the cord about 5 inches up my right nostril and into my throat, but not out my mouth... maybe next time?


Gokulam, the "suburb" of Mysore I stay in, is mostly very upper class, but there is a poor area accross the river running through town. The river smells like poop, by the way; I think it's actually the sewer not the river. I took a walk through this small scale slum to see what I could see...



Beauty has many forms. I could not decide which picture of this pair to post, I love them both...


Curious girls...


I was admiring the light, thinking what a classic picture this was, until my camera was spotted and suddenly...


...I was swarmed by about 20 kids. It was novel and exciting at first, having all these children yelling around me ("photo! photo!")...


...but after ten minutes of being followed, tugged, grabbed, and led I was pretty frustrated. I couldn't take any more pictures with my tag-a-long mob of kids because as soon as I aimed, they'd rush in front. It took some doing, some evasive dodging, to escape them. Whew.


All around Gokulam you see this tall orange temple on a hill, and you wonder, what is that? I'd been told it was a college, and one weekend morning I decided to take a walk towards it to see what I could see. Indeed it was a college, a place of religious study, and I was warmly welcomed there. It was a very quiet place, and a man studying for 7 years to become a monk gave me breakfast and coffee and talked to me about the place. He made sure I knew their message was one of tolerance; he told me about their Christmas celebration singing carols, reading the New Testament, and worshiping a shrine of Jesus Christ. I was never asked my religion.


The college grounds were beautiful. There were bright flowers everywhere, and for a minute I imagined I was back in Mom's garden.


There were flowers carefully placed on every shrine.


People who knew me at Sage Walk will understand the significance of this spectacular lotus blossom for me (at Sage Walk, my earth name was Blue Ridge Lotus). Other's can just appreciate it's bright magnificence. Lotus blossoms are a symbol of enlightenment. Cool.


This was one of the strangest flowers I've ever seen. The middle part looked like it belonged on a coral reef, like a sea anenome or something. So wierd, so cool.


This is an Enfield Bullet 350 CC, the national motorcycle of India. I can't help but romanticise what it would be like to tour India by motorcycle with the wind in my face, mountains ahead, and a free path to destiny.

Coconuts and Crocodiles

Please enjoy some more pictures of life in and around Mysore.


Peymon decided to try the art of coconut chopping. We all thought he would lose a finger learning.


Sweet success. "Coconut is good. I like."


Eve, part of our TTC group, has a true Swiss sweet tooth. This is our favorite lunch desert: roti (like a small tortilla) + ghee (clarified butter) + jaggery (unprocessed sugar). It's delicious.


Empty bowls are all that's left of Sandia's never ending buffet after we hungry TTC students get at it. So much yoga makes so much hungry!


Food at Sandia's is prepared on the floor in her colorful kitchen. She's been cooking amazing meals for yoga students for years now. (Sandia not pictured)


This is it for many Ashtanga yoga students and teachers: Shri K. Pattabhi Jois's Ashtanga Research Institute of Mysore, India. Although Pattabhi himself isn't teaching any more, yogis come from all over the world to practice here.


It's best not to give begging children money. Most of them belong to "begging circles" and the money they get might be put to bad use by the leaders. Better instead to give them food directly, especially if that food is a coconut that you get to see them drink and eat.




You have to do something...


On Saturday Rishal drove us out of Mysore to a neerby bird sanctuary. Migrating Herons, Cranes, Spoonbills, and Stork were nesting in great numbers. I'm afraid without a telephoto I won't be able to provide very good wildlife photos, but here you can see a crocodile eyeing a couple Painted Storks.


The little white dots are exotic birds... everyone should be really impressed.



Rishal and Peymon heckled the boatsman for a turn at the oars. Their antics were for me one of the best part of the boat ride.


"We can't stop here... this is bat country." Oddly enough, there were as many bats in this bird sanctuary as birds. With the crocodiles, storks, and bats the place really made me think of Australia and Kakadu.


The Green Hotel, once home to Sunday's fantastic organic market, tries to be environmentally friendly. Government owned, the proceeds go to environmental funds, and renewable energy is utilized wherever possible. Food is really good here, but you can expect the typical Indian service whic is uniquely, sometimes endearingly, and always utterly, atrocious.