Food File # 2

Food File # 2

Meal: Breakfast
Location: Nilgiri's
Ordered: Idli, Vada, Set Dosa, Masala Dosa
Price: Under $2.50 US for 3 diners
The Deal: Nilgiri's is quickly becoming my favorite close place to eat. Breakfast served 6am-noon, lunch until 3, first dinner @ 4:30pm, full dinner at 7pm.Here is a typical Indian breakfast. An idli, oval fermented-rice poof-ball is dipped in spicy veg sambar or the sweeter (and spicy) coconut chutney. I like to order vadas with mine. They are like doghnuts with peppercorns and herbs crammed in, then you dip it in the sauces. Round two consists of dosas. In the background lie a stack of set dosas which are like pancakes ready to dip. (see the theme?) The extra grease-fried masala dosa comes with a scoop of a sort of potato salad. Mmmmmnnnnnmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

--- aeryk ---

Desperately Seeking Shiva

It is difficult to put into words, and is probably the reason why it has taken so long to blog. We have been visiting 'local' temples, some a train and three busses away from our second home. Something is drawing us here, deeper now on our second coming as it were, and most of it revolves around Shiva, the destroyer and creator of the universe in Hindu lore. We have both experienced a series of mental/spiritual cleansing similar to peeling a couple of layers off the old psychic onion to reveal a bit more of the core, the true eye-tearin' truth. Not that we are ready to convert or anything... I don't even know if one CAN convert to Hinduism or whether that would change anything here with our obvious 'visitor' status. But something is gently nudging us in the direction of self exploration involving fire, stone, history, and symbols. This Temple was all ours, the nearest local was blocks away, the nearest visitor a half mile afar. With fresh jasmine falling from the tree and dancing in the wind, we too danced around the temple. The gate was locked due to structural instability so we were not allowed in, but as I said before, we were called to be there. I was able to get me camera inside for two shots, without which we would have seen nothing. Treasures are revealed for those who look without looking...

--- aeryk ---

Sign of the Times #1

This sign was spotted near a primary school. They are everywhere. I think this is a warning for the children.

--- Aeryk ---

In Motion

All India is always in motion. People won't stand still, cows won't stop chewing, scooters certainly won't pause for the camera. Once in a while the world slows to a near-halt for a moment, and if I'm lucky enough you get to see a bit of the magic I see daily. I love the way those cows were in a tighter step than the production of "A Chorus Line" that I was in. As our bus rounded the corner outside of Shravanabelagola, I saw the whole cow-line shift from the center of the street to the shoulder without ever looking frazzled. They were not tied together, either. That guy is good.
In the second moment there was an impromptu event at the Temple down the block. Nobody seemed to know what it was about, but it didn't matter. Everyone enjoyed the African-Rhythm youth percussion corps, then the fireworks. These kids didn't seem to mind that everyone was just hanging around. Most youth are very entertained in getting their pictures taken, mostly so they can look at themselves. I took a dozen shots and showed everyone. This was the first one where they are kind of serious. The 'reality' seems to spiral out of the front dude and the world gets fuzzy from there. We lightened up after that. I like the way they were willing to be real with me, and were not self conscious.

--- aeryk ---

Inside Looking Out

I am not the Eye
nor the I
irrespective of each other

twin galaxies swim in tandem
unison found in the assumed collective gravity created in the vaccuum of space and thought

I found my Eye
looking outwards

inside I sought
outside I hid
searching for a way in,
hoping to slip around a corner and stumble upon the truth before I am found out and made to go around the long way again

again I closed my Eye
and found my I
right where I left it

once inside it all seemed so clear
to touch a stone and feel the past
to hear the heartbeats of yesterday echo still

one finger quickly fell
marble column became the bell
centuries later the pillars still sing
my closed eyes opened to wonderous things

now when I close my Eye
I see the door
now when I open the door
I see the Sun
now when I see the Sun
I see my eyes are still opening

--- aeryk ---

Vivian's Page

Vivian's Page

A picture of me, almost unrecognizably happy, drinking a coconut, is a the closest image I have to describe my yoga practice these days in Mysore: Drinking in the raw simplicity of asana and finding peace and bliss in its elixir.

Aeryk and I have had the first time slot at the Shala for a while now, which is the most peaceful. All the yogis in that time are experienced at the shala, at least by a few months, but the vast majority are on second, third or tenth trips to Mysore. There is not much jockeying for placement, the hierarchy seems obvious, and most have grown beyond caring about a "good" or "bad" spot. The first group gets to chant the invocation with Sharath, the only ones who receive that privilege on Mysore style days. We do get up very very early. Most days I rise between 2:15 and 2:45 am to include my full cleansing and awakening before practice.

Aeryk and I are yoga twins these days. Our practice is essentially the same. Sharath now is giving us the same new postures at the same time. One day he even had us go back in tandem to demonstrate a posture for him we had already passed, and approving it, gave us both our next asana. Thursday he came up to us during our backbends and joked, who goes first? He helps first one, then the other, holding the ankles.

Aeryk is looking quite flexible these days with such a deep final backbend. Sharath still has different advice for us, "No fear" and "heels DOWN" for Aeryk, "Relax" and "relax your hands" for me. It is new for us to receive this attention at the end of our practice. Sharath has started moving my hands up higher on my legs, and it almost feels normal.

Important update for you yogis at home in Olympia: Sounds are not permitted at the shala. One lady makes some noise every time she holds her ankles. Sharath always says to her "No Crying!" and everyone laughs.

We have a friend here who was just working on dropping back. Sharath rewarded him with the first posture of second series, and told him he needs to stand up from of his backbend. One day, he was trying, but without success and plenty of grunting. Sharath said, "Stand up, push hard" Our friend replied "I can't!" Sharath returned with "Is possible... You don't go home until you stand up." and he walked away. Our friend stood right up. Now he does it every day, of course, because whatever you do here once, you must repeat forever.

Aeryk and I are still finishing at a place "lower" than our abilities in the sequence of postures. This is completely ok with me. We are not being stopped at all, we have a new posture added every week. Our practice is much longer now than when we started here. It has some intense asana. It is only a matter of spending more weeks and years here to get more postures added. As Aeryk says, we know who we are, and it is not defined by the postures we are "allowed" to practice.

It feels good to let go of greediness for postures, or even for the sensations of more advanced postures. I know when Sharath tells me to relax my hands, mostly he is telling me something specific about progressing my backbend deeper...Only a soft hand can let go of one place to climb higher on the legs. At the same time I also hear a parallel lesson for my practice. I don't need to grasp on to postures, but instead to relax and live in my body softly. Progress is a different space than I imagined it to be.

I feel that we have a good relationship with our teacher and with our practice. I have never felt happier in my yoga. I feel tired out and peaceful at the end of every day. I am recharged and enthousiastic upon waking.
Ashtanga yoga is a sweet life.

Yarrow's Adventure

Ahoy from afar! Laura and I have arrived safe and sound in India. We were driven to the airport, and waited an hour to board our plane. Once we got on, my recent excitement vanished. After the luxuries of Air Singapore, British Air is well, let me be frank...lame! Most of the flight attendants were men, extremely unlike the beautiful women that were oh so kind on Singapore Air! After that ordeal of the first plane (experiencing some rather odd food, like the "feel good cookie") we arrived in the Heathrow Airport. It's amazing even looking out of the airport at London. All the houses are duplicates of each other, the same house row after row of them! Me and Laura were exhausted, so after reaching our terminal, lay on the marble airport floor letting the heat sink in. I ate half a bar of chocolate, which once i got on I quickly regretted. The next few hours I will leave unmentioned, other that the fact that Laura continued to ask the flight attendant for more barf-bags for the poor child sitting next to her. I survived, however, and we reached the Bangalore airport ready for grand excitement. None came, however, for, although the airport has changed a great deal (no more bamboo poles seeming to hold up the roof up at places) the people still aren't all exactly what you would call...kind. We discovered this fact when I realized I had left my treasured book Breaking Dawn on the plane. The first person we asked was a man sitting behind a desk, looking professional enough. We approached and asked if it was possible to get misplaced luggage from the plane. He gave us a confused look, then, (I don't think he understood what we said) said in unpracticed English, "No." Disappointed, but also not satisfied, we went to the next man and repeated the question. He gave us direction of where to go, then his cell phone rang. Laura and I took the escalator down a few flights, got our luggage, and went to the lost luggage desk. A more kindly woman called someone who soon arrived with my book, which for a moment I feared I might never see again.
Ready to leave, we set off to find our taxi driver, and soon spotted a sign with the names Yarrow and Laura printed on the front. The man took our luggage and led us out to the street. The moment I stepped out of the airport doors i felt as if I had stepped into a bath, for the air was perfectly skin temperature, and you could not feel any difference in heat, which felt very strange after coming from Olympia, Washington, then going on to London, England.
The three hour taxi drive was full of giggles, squeals, and, "Whoa"s, which came from the backseat where Laura and I sat admiring the country side. Seeing the familiar Mysore was a relief, and getting dropped off at the house I knew oh so well from last trip was even more exciting! As we hauled our luggage out of the trunk my parents leaped down the stairs to meet us. Hurray! Greetings and hugs all around. Then we tromped up the stairs to our little house. The first picture of me and Laura was taken the day we arrived, jet lag finally kicking in.
My mom suggested we go to Tina's, a breakfast restaurant, if you could call it that. It's outside with tables inches of the ground where you sit on on a mattress. I had Rotis. The next few days went in a blur of memories, smells, and just getting settled in. Then was our trip to Sravana Belagola, a place where we were to go see a bunch of Jain temples of naked statues. Ick!
We met our travel companions at the coconut stand, who were a guy named Philip, and Laura. That made five of us. We got on a rickshaw (Indian taxi) and were driven to the local out-of-town bus place. All the adults had me worried to bits about getting on the wrong bus by accident because nobody spoke English. We finally settled in on what we hoped was the right bus, and prepared for a hour long ride. Unfortunately, the ride was three hours long.
Well, we arrived Sravana Belagola and felt the urgency to use the toilet. We went to where we hoped to find one, not along walk from where the bus had stopped, and found two outside ones, like two large outhouses. Aeryk went to the men's outhouse, while me, Laura, mom, and two other western women we'd met who were coming from Mysore (Philip's friends) stood impatiently outside the women's one trying to stare down an Indian man telling us we had to pay. "We just saw men going in and out of the men's room!" was our excuse. The man scowled and went the bathroom door. He pulled shut the gate attached to the door and walked off. We stepped up and pulled open the gate to see a terribly rundown stinky, restroom. We stepped inside and saw a two stalls which led to holes in the ground, no toilet paper whatsoever. I thought this was really, gross, but it was better than none.
We met up with Philip and were hungry. Philip told us he'd seen a restaurant while exploring during the time we'd been at the restroom. He brought us to the place, which was small, but nice considering. I ordered my favorite Indian breakfast meal, Idli and that spicy sauce. Me, mom, Aeryk, and Laura planned to go to the hill where the biggest naked statue in all of South India stood. All these temples were on hills. Philip and the two women all went to different places. We went to the base of the hill and removed our shoes, as all the hill was sacred. Barefoot, we began the journey up the hill. Schools were on field trip there, and lots of kids looked at me and wanted to shake my hand. We reached the top, despite the smoldering heat, and found ourselves within a maze of ancient statues and temples. We saw the big man statue last. Wow, he was huge!!!
Down the hill was much easier than climbing it!! We reached the bottom and happily set out for the second hill, which was smaller and easier to climb. There were dozens of tiny temples on top, where a statue sat in each. That is where the other picture comes from. It's me climbing down the treacherously steep steps that led to where another section of statues stood.
We returned home safely, though incredibly tired, and I conked out. The next days have been great. Over the holiday we will take a sleeper train to Chennai, and from there a taxi to Mammallapuram where we will spend Christmas and the rest in a hotel with a pool and other cool fancy stuff. Then we go on a couple day trips, and it will all be great! It's really exciting to be here! I'm loving the food, and everything else about Mysore. I'm also excited to blog. Everything Is super duper!!!!

Yarrow

Drama on Second Street

As if out of a Bollywood spectacular itself, high drama unfolded outside our window for two full days. As dusk took hold, a small ring of red plastic chairs held quiet men tending a road-side fire out front of the white house's entryway. Occasional gesticulations and proclamations came from this ring throughout the night and they tended the fire still as we went to yoga in the pre-dawn haze. On our return there were more people gathered, and throughout the day more and more arrived. Oh, a funeral, we thought. Usually there is celebration, lamentation, and the regular amount of wailing and praising that accompanies the body as it is paraded around the neighborhood. But here there was only more and more people gathering, with somber moods engulfing the neighborhood. Then there were screams and shrieks, then yelling. This was no usual rite! From the safety of my window I saw a young man held back by 4 others as he screamed back at a group still at the door. With his red shirt ripped and fresh scratches on his face, he was put in a car and driven off. Emotions tense, arguments arose, voices were raised, more visitors came- now by the truckloads, and after an hour the man was back and fighting again, only to be escorted away again. Like a drunk frat plebe, he managed to get back in the 'party' three more times, ultimately running along the upper corridor of the house smashing windows. The cops were called, but they only stood around occasionally directing traffic. Through our landlady we found out that this was indeed a death situation. A young man has died and his family is claiming the property at the expense of his wife/widow and child, who are vehemently contesting this transaction as they will be out on the street. As feelings were running high the new widow needed some time to think and skipped town, leaving everyone waiting for her signature on the paperwork. Only one person knew where she went, but the elder constantly feigns lucidity and wasn't talking. More witnesses arrived to pay there respects and put their two cents in. For a day and a half this went on, and a dead body in the living room added to this urgency. Apparently pre-nuptual agreements are rare, but leaving a body lying around to help people resolve their issues quickly is common. By the second night the paddy wagon showed up with more brown-uniformed police, the crowd dispersed, and a relative silence fell on Gokulam once again.

--- aeryk ---

Yoga Update

I know many of you want to read more about yoga at the Shala, so here is your update...

Aeryk and I are greatly enjoying our practice here with Sharath and Saraswati. We have registered for our second month...how has the time gone so quickly?! We have had our time consistantly bumped up and are now sitting at the 5:45 time slot for Mysore class. We have been moved into the first group of led classes that begin at 4:30 am! I have enjoyed "sleeping in" for a while until 4:00am. Those lazy days are over now. We must arrive early to get a spot at that 4:30 class, and I still require a hot shower, jala and sutra neti, and a nice cup of hot coffee before practice, so I am getting out of bed EARLY, even by my standards. Not that I am complaining, I've been hoping to get an early slot since I arrived here.

Sharath has graced our practices with additional postures, which is also something I like, but added asana come like many gifts, with some price. For now our practices are still stacked, meaning longer. Also, any posture added one becomes responsible to practice every day for a scrutinizing audience of two very busy master teachers with eyes at the back of their heads. One cannot decide that today is a good day to take things "easy".

Amidst the power and beauty of the practice at the Shala, there is also a final exam sort of energy present most days. Some of the newer students here are struggling to stand up out of their backbends, a requirement to begin second series practice, and I think this can be a high pressure place to learn that "trick". More advanced students are performing their personal final posture before backbends often as if it were a test to be passed. Yesterday a man in front of me practiced kapotasana with such beauty and depth I couldn't help noticing him off the edge of my drishti. He came out of it, I think hoping he would receive the next pose. Sharath did not see him...so he did it again. The reality is that achieving the posture is only part of the advancement process. Sharath does not like to see too much ambition or grasping at postures. Students are forced to develop patience like any other asana...a little more gracefully over time.

Sharath is treating Aeryk and I like a matched set. He adds our postures often on different days, but he is keeping us even with each other. He helps both of us hold our ankles in our backbends daily, but with different instruction. For me now he tells me not to straighten my arms, but to leave the elbows bent and to relax my hands so he can move them higher. This is mostly just preparation and just once a small lift. It is counter to what I am accustomed to doing, which is straightening everything so I can attempt to balance on my own. I have done that only once since I have been here, with Saraswati's guidance. I had a really different feeling with the elbows bent, and I know that is helpful. Backbends only improve I think with new sensation. If one gets stuck in a groove, even a flexible groove, the spine looses the alive quality necessary for deeper bending.

Somewhere in the Shala, and in India, pure contentment, happiness and peace are coming to me and to my practice. When I stand at the front of my mat at the beginning of the day I feel my body breathing the prayer to the sun. I can feel myself emptying out - all the inner complications of my mind and emotions giving way so that a more pure unobstructed energy can move through. When I finish, as we do in the cool darkness of the ladies bathroom, I feel so soft and complete. I practice a long shoulderstand sequence, and one hundred breaths of Sirsasana daily. I don't lift up for long at the end. Sharath will keep us suspended long enough on Friday.

Vivian

Halebid and Belur, Bookends to Hassan

Dora Samudra, razed in 1311 and renamed Hale-bidu or 'Dead City' was once the capital of the Hoysala dynasty spanning the eleventh through fourteenth centuries. It survived the sacking of 1141, but the Hoysaleshvara temple's original deity of worship is unknown. The temples of this period feature a star-shaped plan, a main hallway with many carved or lathe-turned pillars, carved ceilings, and a series of steps leading up to the structures which rest on the platform. Surrounding these are individually carved reliefs depicting the gods in their various forms. The lower 'rings' circumnavigate the temple and illustrate scenes from various Hindu epics such as the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and the Bhagavad Gita. These are some of the worlds oldest (and heaviest) graphic novels. Down the street lies the 13th century Jain complex featuring the Adi Parshwanatha temple and it's 16th century counterpart, the Vijayantha temple with it's 30' pillar out front. Hidden nearby in the trees awaits the smaller Kedareshvara temple, built between 1217-1221 for Shiva.

Not to be outdone, Belur was the previous Capitol before Halebid, and holds the still functioning Chennakeshvara temple built to celebrate King Vishnuvardhana's victory over Chola forces, independence from the Chalukyas, and his own conversion from Jainism in 1117. Just inside the walls near the impressive gopura (gateway tower) stands the original water tank full of green water, fish, snakes and turtles, and is also still in use. The golden gopura can bee seen looming over the main temple from inside the complex in the second picture.

--- aeryk ---

Food File # 1

Here's a typical pile of dinner fruit. We purchase this from the guy down the street, soon to be featured in an upcoming "Who's Who in the Hood" series. I just checked Ralph's Thriftway online to compare prices. Bananas are .50 /lb., Pineapple on sale for $1, Limes run .79 each, Pomegranates are a whopping $6 each, and the $4.99 Papaya is probably half the size of the smaller of these pictured. All spent at home, approximately $29. Here on the street is $2. Sorry, folks. You've got to go to the source for the great deals...
Join us soon for an Idli and Dosa breakfast in Food File #2.

Bon Appetit!


--- Aeryk ---