Road To Mysore

Last night we went to the Mysore Palace. On Sundays, the whole place is lite up. It's a really beautiful palace and the lights make it breathtaking. I went with Rema and Sara. Rema is Indian lady who grew up in the UK and Sara is my flatmate from Australia. Rema is one of my favorite people here. She speaks Hindi and knows the way of the land. I know I won't get screwed when I'm with Rema and I enjoy listening to her haggle with the rickshaw drivers or anyone she talks to. She does not speak Kanada but most of the people here understand Hindi. We walk around the palace and took pictures. Next month the lights will be on everyday from the 15th for 9 days and we'll be allowed to enter the palace. I'll try to post the pictures in my blog when I get back to LA.

Today I had my first Mysore class. I felt much better this morning. I knew Sharath would tell me to close in the Maris so I held all the other postures much longer. I was aware that tommorow is a moonday so I wanted to give it everything I had. I had a lot of help from Saraswati today. She is a small lady but has a strong and gentle touch. She even help me in Mari B which was my last asana before closing. I asked Sharath if I should do backbends and he told me next week. I was cool with that because I was really tired.

Shiva really hooked me up with a good landlord. They are a really good family. They have gone out of there way to make us part of their family. This morning Anita(our landlady) made dosas(rice cakes) for us for breakfast. She always serves us chai in the afternoon. Rema told us that we're really lucky because her landlady is not very nice. Rema and her flatmates are not even given keys to the house. Anita's husband even goes out of his way to feed Vivian's(my other flatmate) daughter, Rainbow(2 years old). Anita has two daughters who are going to teach us some Kanada. They're 10 and 7 years old.

Later this morning, after Vivian dropped off her daughter to a pre-school, we went to the Rashinkar Emporium in the city. We went to look for mysore mats and check out the different textile material. Sara was in textile heaven. You could see her eyes glow. The silk and cotton designs were really beautiful. Vivian bought some silk for a sari, while Sara and I chose material and had drawstring pants made. The pants cost us 230 ruppees each(about $5 each). We only had one made for now because we wanted to see how it will come out. I now understand why they tell you to bring an empty duffle bag when you go to India. I think Sara and I are going to be in the Rashinkar area very often and it won't be difficult to fill up that empty duffle bag.