I never realized that Christmas in Mysore could be so much fun. The past two days I've had a full schedule and no time to rest. I passed out early last night.
The celebrations started with a Christmas Eve party hosted by Joseph at the Southern Star. Joseph is a long time yoga student and has been hosting a Christmas party for yoga students for the past 13 years. He is also responsible for coordinating most of Guruji's world tours. It was a white elephant party(my first, never knew it existed) which means we were all expected to wear white and bring a gift for exchanging.
I met up at Anthea and Graham's place at around 5:30PM. The women where still doing there finishing touches when I arrived(some things never change). It felt like prom night because we took pictures at Anthea's before leaving for the party. We were also getting into the Christmas spirit by singing Christmas carols. I think we screwed up the "12 Days of Christmas" because somewhere between the 9th and 11th day we mixed it all up. When the women were finally ready, we scooted our way to the party. Anthea road with me and we continued to sing until we got to the Southern Star. We got a lot of stares on our way to the hotel for a couple of reasons. First we were all decked out from head to foot in white and second, Anthea and I sang our lungs out.
We continued to sing at the parking lot where we bumped into Abi, Geraldine and others who join us singing. We still couldn't figure out the arrangement of the "12 Days of Christmas" but we tried. When we finally got to the party, it was just sweet to see about 150 to 200 people all decked out in white. There was obviously a few people who needed to stand out so they wore black(why doesn't that surprise me.) I'm so used to seeing everyone sweaty in yoga clothes so it was really different seeing everyone dressed up. I have to admit that Mysore has one of the greatest concentration of naturally beautiful women...sweet. Another reason why I love being in Mysore(ha ha ha). I'm sure a lot people would argue that LA or New York has more. I live in LA and there's too much silicon going on. I don't live in New York, so I wouldn't know. I think it also has the greatest concentration of "wanderers"(me included).
Dinner was served at around 7PM and as usual, I ate too much(when will I ever learn). The food was great and the dessert was even better(my weakness). After dinner, we moved our chairs close to the pool and started the gift exchange. One by one we got up and Joseph would give us a gift. We had the option of keeping the gift or stealing someone else gift. There was a lot of stealing going on. I got a tacky book which I used to steal a nice green shawl. I must have bad karma because the person next to me stole the shawl away and I ended with a stupid looking wall clock which I just gave away...oh well.
After gift exchange, most of the guest started to leave. A handful of us just hung out in the pool side while we listened to an Indian band sing "Hotel California". I was getting a little bored but didn't want to break up the party so I decided to join the Indian band and started to sing on stage with them. I convinced Graham to come up with me and the Indian band were so accomodating. Our first song was a Beetles song. I think the title is "I Want to Hold Your Hand" or something like that. We had a small mini-concert going on. Anthea then joined me and sang "Just Seventeen"(another Beetles song). Then Feather joined me for "Another Brick in the Wall" and "Careless Whispers". I'm not a drinker and I wasn't in the mood to talk so singing and dancing foolishing seemed like a better alternative. I think we entertained our audience though. For our final encore, Anthea, Graham, Feather and I sang "Silent Night". It was an appropriate song for the night. Just like they play "Last Dance" in the clubs(that's what they use to play anyway...am I aging myself?)I'm a terrible singer but I love to sing so if your in the area..run.
Our mini-concert ended around 11PM. Anthea and I followed Graham to Laksmipuram to drop off Feather. Anthea loves to sing too, so we continued singing on the streets of Mysore and all the way back home to Gokulam. I think we woke up the neighborhood...oh well.
On Christmas morning, Phil and I went to Anthea and Graham's to help prepare breakfast. They were both hosting a small breakfast gathering at 10AM. Phil and I prepared the fruit salad. Our fruit salad was the bomb. It had papaya, pineapple, jackfruit(my favorite), oranges, strawberries, pomegranite and bananas. We put a lot of love into it so it was exceptionally good. Phil was getting grouchie because he normally has breakfast at 8AM and his last meal the night before was at 5PM. Anthea would not allow us to eat until the guests arrived so he remained grouchie until then. There were about 12 of us for breakfast including Abi, Geraldine, Thomas, Lynne and some people I just recently met. Breakfast was eventually served and it was nice to get back Phil. Shawn and Karen brought a huge box of chocolates(I like them already...remember to invite them to all parties). After breakfast we just hung-out and played some charades. Anthea had prepared some gifts and prizes. Graham had also brought some Christmas stuff from Scotland. It was a nice intimate gathering. I noticed that I was again surrounded by the British. Thank God, they didn't serve marmite and cucumber sandwiches.
Later that afternoon, I scooted to Russell's for "Saturday Afternoon at the Movies". There has been a campaign to watch "Single White Female" so like the US elections, the voting was rigged. I haven't seen the movie so I was looking forward to it. I must be really simple to please because I was the only one who enjoyed it. Ten minutes into the movie, Geraldine was reading a book. I guess you can't please everybody. Next week, there's a campaign to vote for "Moonson Wedding". I think it's appropriate since we're in India.
After the movie, I scooted to Kevin's for David's last kirtan. David leaves for Bangalore today and for Seattle the day after. It was already 6PM and I was already tired and hungry(not a very good combination) but I just wanted to say goodbye to David. After the kirtan, Julia joined me for dinner at the Green Leaf and then we scooted to the rooftop dance party at Ken's. Ken was the one who hosted the infamous party early this year. It's the party that woke up the neighbor, was visited by the police and announced in the shala the following day. When Ken arrived a few weeks ago, Saraswati told him, "No more parties." Since then Ken has made peace with the neighborhood by bring each house a cake and made it known that the music will stop at 10PM. The party was actually really nice and the set-up was sweet. The chocolate cake he served was legit...no "space cake" was served as far as I know. In the spirit of Christmas, the coconut man at the shala was there giving everybody free coconuts. I think I got to the party at around 8:30PM and by then I was just exhausted. I tried to dance with Anthea but I was just too tired. I must have left the party at around 9PM and just crashed. Between the Christmas eve party, the breakfast, the movie, the kirtan and the dance party, I ran out of gas...oh well. I can't complain though...I haven't had so much fun in Christmas in a long time.