kal ho na ho

well bindi was all puffed out yesterday upon receiving news that the hotel manager had called me into his office and asked me, "do you like traditional kerala vegetarian meal?" and invited to have a car pick me up and take me to his home in trivandrum where his wife is doing the food, you know, the palm leaf on the floor, thali with mountain of rice, mix together with hand, pop into mouth, meal. i can bring friends. as much as i want to do this, i'm so pissed at my expensive hotel cause for the 3rd time i have no water and have had to take a shower in the pool, which is a drag. other problems which i don' t want to get into cause i don't like being negative, but i've written a long letter to the owner who is in dubai right now telling him all the problems i'm having. can't even get clean towels and this is an expensive place. they want me to promote the hotel, but i'm real mad right now.

my new years eve was spent with arnold and scott at lonely planet, eating vegetarian buffet, than watching, "rumble in the bronx" (i adore jackie chan no matter what garbage he has put out lately) and was in bed by 11. not much to celebrate here. kind of somber. i feel guilty whooping it up with 6 digits of death around me, and as many in camps-there are over 20 in trivandrum alone, and water bourn disease coming to wipe out more of the population.

listen to your teacher. lino told us no massage with intensive astanga, eat only vegetarian and only at lonely planet, and drink only pure water. he has generously installed a water purifier in the shala for us, which is an amazing thing to do. i used to poo-poo at his suggestions, but i have been completely poison free since i've listened to him. trust your teacher, but never follow blindly.

also a person who i admire from afar who works at a frequented restaurant e-mailed me to compliment me on my writing style. bindi is puffed out about that. shucks. thanks, kimmie, for that. you have a massive heart.

i was invited to my friend sharaf's party last night, but i did not think i could deal with another night of young drunken indian boys. low key for bindi these days. she wants to stay injury and poison free.

yoga is good. peaking now, lots of people of all levels in there. lino is on fire. i highly reccommend this intensive. you can do 1 week or 2 months. of course 2 months is best way to get the most out of it. but i know most people can't do that.

happy new year to all
hug your family and friends extra hard cause "kal ho na ho", tomorrow may not be.

bindifry

donations/animal lovers

tomorrow's new years eve and there are many articles suggesting using the money you would spend on "festivities" to tsunami flood victims. you can do this online at:

donathttp://pay.hindu.com/thrfpay/thrfpay.

www.thehindu.com
is also a great source of detailed info about tsunami,(way better than what cnn and bbc and network tv will tell you) and if the donation link above does not work, the hindu online will guide you there. i admit there is little to celebrate around here and would feel terribly guilty doing so. there is no way to explain how this tragedy has affected south india. anyhow, if you can, please send as much as you can. a hundred bucks goes a way long way here, especially since most families make 300 per year.
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so here's something interesting in sri lanka for animal lovers especially:
SAVED BY THEIR 6TH SENSE
as sri lanka's human death toll surged, wildlife officials expressed surprise today that they found no evidence of large scale deaths among animals from the tsunami. "this is very interesting. i am finding bodies of humans, but i have yet to se a dead animal," said a spokesman.
the huge waves washed floodwaters inland and yala, sri lanka's largest wildlife reserve, but the animals apparently were not harmed and have sought out high ground, he said. "maybe what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense." the park is home to 200 elephants, leopards, wild boar and other rare animals.
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our power has been out at least 5 hours during the hottest time in the afternoon. i apologize if it takes me a little while to reply to the generous e-mails sent to me. i appreciate all the concern pouring in. our beach opened today first time, than it closed. i am fortunate to have a pool, however, usually don't think of going near it between 9:30am and night time. this south indian sun is a killer. i know all of you are probably popsicles right now and i'm not bragging, but intense heat without power can also be difficult. air, all india radio, came back on air yesterday and i'm smart enough to know about indian batteries. plus you can take your radio anywhere outside and entertain the men hard at work in their lungis as well as yourself.

happy new year
bindifry

toll-a-risin

so today we're at 77,000 dead from tsunami. my plans of travel beyone the confines of kovalam have dimished for this trip. it's ok, cause i'll be back again, and susanna finocci and petri raisanen teach the entire month of february. i have my full practice back, but i feel like i need a walker when it's all over. all is coming. swimming is definitely a plus, something about moving the limbs around in cool water helps keep the pain away. i am well on my way to overcoming 4 injuries.

ASTANGA YOGA IS VERY CHALLENGING
*it's worth the long haul
*it's worth doing with correct method
*there will always be lessons to learn

i am guilty of watching "encino man" and liking it. is this good or bad?

bindifry

tit bits and tsunami

TSUNAMI DEATH TOLL TODAY SO FAR
58,000 and rising
over 10,000 in south india. here's an approximate breakdown for those who know this area or are interested:
kanniyakumari-1200+
kerala-200+
nagapattinam-1700+
sri lanka-12,500+
andaman and nicobar islands-6000+
tamil nadu-3200+
pondicherry-60+
keralarose-190+
alappuzha-35+
kollam-40+
andra pradesh-115+
bangalore-40+
of course all the animals that have perished, who knows how many fish, birds, cows, cats, dogs,chickens, roosters, oxen......
heavy rains here have made things worse and the death toll expected to double from disease carried by the waters. australia is giving 5 crore (a crore is a million rupies). there are mass funerals and mass graves on the front pages of the papers, lots of little kids. kovalam beach and surrounding beaches have been closed 4 days, many beachfront hotels evacuated, tons of cancellations. i am living on a tall hill, my hotel is booked solid cause it's safe. they're expecting more quakes and the weather has been strange. there are more than 1000 people in trivandrum in relief camps, and my friend sharaf's village was destroyed, including damage to the mosque that is way up next to the lighthouse.
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plastic is a huge problem here cause it's not bio degradable and there isn't a recycling program. now india is cell phone obsessed and other electronic gadgets, what's the name of this new waste product that's even worse than plastic? E-WASTE

india offers visas to pakistan students!
india and pakistan today agreed to continue the process on a sustained and serious basis, narrow down differences, and work towards resolution of all issues.
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i confess to have been watching "rosebowl-the feel good channel" on the tele. i can indulge in hindi videos, beegees, john denver,the carpenters,abba,metalica,bob marley, bad clapton,ricky matin, worst of aerosmith (really were they ever good beyone "toys in the attic"?
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BRAIN BITES
1.who was time magazine's first female man of the year?
2.lindsay owen-jones is the ceo of which global brand?
3.which entertainment celebrity set up "data"(debt, aids, trade in africa) to create global awareness about the plight in various countries in the "dark continent"?
4.name the only indian film to win the palme d'or and in which year did it do so?
5.what happened for the first time in 456 years when john paul II became the pope?
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PERFECT;KNOW YOUR ENGLISH
"love me, love my dog"-when you say this, you mean that you want a person to accept you for who you are.
"chinless wonder"-mostly british, used to refer to someone who is weak.
"he has deep pockets"-a rich person, like a politician. they become politicians to make the pockets deeper!
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bindi apologizes for any misspelled words or poor grammar. in india, the power is unpredictable and i often don't have time to proofread. sorry journalists and big brains out there.

bindifry

turkeys are getting fat/for yogis only

friends, tailors, have 3 big turkeys that have been getting fed nonstop for the last week. they are getting bigger and bigger. little do they know they will be part of the new years celebration-tandoored on new years. eat up, turkeys, enjoy those meals.

well, the tsunami death toll is fast climbing to 24,000 and twice as many are expected to die from flood related diseases. it's creepy to be so close to this gigantic disaster (although i'm sure the US isn't paying too much attention, after all, it's only asia). our beaches are closed 3 days so far and kovalam feels like a graveyard. more disasters, fault shifts and volcanic eruptions are predictided to follow soon. how will the US fight this NATURAL terrorism?? i did, however, get a great deal on silver and copper because of the desperation of the shopkeepers (hi jim and debi), not that i'm proud of that or anything. it's just a fact.
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FOR YOGIS ONLY
*i was blatently hit in the head by a water bottle during pasasana yesterday by a girl who keeps stealing my mat space. no apology. cat fight or accident? she speaks no english so i'll just ignore her.
*if you know more about other people's yoga than your own, you are probably not doing yoga-many people performing gymnastics
*quote "you mind your mulhabanda and i'll mind mine"-sri k. pattabhi jois upon being asked if he taught muslims
*yoga is always one step forward and 2 steps back. just whenyou feel strong, next day you can be weak as an infant. such is the ebb and flow of life.
*yoga is the perfect mirror of life
*if you talk about your yogic "accomplishments", you will probably collapse and hurt yourself.
*if you buy into others competetion games, you WILL get hurt
*yoga is the cessation of the fluxuations of the mind-yoga sutras book 1
*"judge not lest you be judged"-bob marley and jesus christ

bindifry

asian quake

just a note to let you all know that the huge asian quake you will soon be hearing about did not affect us here, even though many have died in kerala, this area. could be a million dead-sumatra epicenter-sri lanka badly affected, chennai and other parts of tamil nadu, and thailand.

biggest in over 40 years-8.9, still counting bodies washing up on the shores, especially fishermen.

live each day like it's your last cause it might just be.

bindi
who is no longer feeling sorry for herself

happy holidays

so what do i do on xmas eve? try to see this new malayalum movie that opened, we get there and it's not open yet. india. so we go see my next choice, a different malayalum movie called "black" starring the biggest kerala film star mammooty. the theatre was filled with indian families, lots of kids, which is really funny, cause the non hindi movies don't have the same censorship laws, so the violence can be shocking (eyes getting gorged out, children shot, babies thrown down wells, etc.) yet they can't show lips locking. go figure.

xmas eve was pretty lovely. my moods here seem to vary between elation and bliss to anger and utter depression. perhaps india is cleansing me. the holidays mean nothing to me since my entire family had died within the last 5 years, don't have a family anymore. i also hate the marketing xmas overload in the states. here, they just go out in their fishing boats and sing praises to the sea goddess for their livlihood. it's nice, actually. and thanksgiving does not exist here, it's only a gorge fest and football day anyhow in the states, and new years is full of amateur drunks, so i don't ever go out anyhow. i am quite blessed to spend the holidays two years in a row here. if it was up to me, and i had the cash, i would be here nov-feb each year for the rest of my life.

evening at beatles restaurant for bbq and dancing, although they couldn't get the bbq pit going, so it was mushrooms and potatos for me. than a dj and plenty of dancing, even though there were only 2 girls and 20 indian men, they behaved themselves. i got a lot of respect cause they picked my brain about indian cinema, asking the question, "who is your favorite actor?" "kamal hassaan!" instant bonding and a discount on the bill.

spent xmas alone in my room for the most part. supposed to go with sharaf on a motorcycle to varkala and elephant sanctuary, but it fell through. maybe next week.

hope you're all having a wonderful holiday-
xxx
bindifry

take a big bite out of life

so time had come for another filum and i've been quite anxious to see the tamil remake of the hindi "munna bhai" starring sanjay dutt (whose role was supposed to be for SRK, but he was having back surgery), with my very favorite actor in the world-kamal hassaan (many spellings of this name for those who want to check him out). he's better than brando in acting, better dancer than astair, sings, choreographs, writes, produces and directs. he has done films in 7 languages, over 150 and he's only 50. the name of the movie was "vasoolraja mbbs." it took an hour to get to this theatre which is on the outskirts of trivandrum and when we got there, the movie was not playing. had not been there for a month! they never bothered to change the ad in the paper. this happened last year and it was an english movie i refused to see. this time i stayed, it was a 3 year old malayaylum movie called, "praja" starring the very famous and great fighter MOHILAL. not much of a love story, only fighting and revenge, some of it filmed where i stayed at in mumbai. it was fun anyhow.
anyhow, there are 21 theatres here and it's kind of hit or miss, mostly hit cause i love most of em. i ask everyone i know who lives here what they like, etc. and see most of the hindi ones, even though sharaf does not like those.
before the movie started, i took some pictures from the outside of the film projection booth, and it caused a commotion. sharaf told them we were filum students and that we could take pictures inside of the booth of the cameras, except only a man could go in there. lucky for me arnold was with me, so i got some primo pics of the indian projection booth from the inside, i'm sure some of you (hi jeff mintz) would love to see these photos. that was the biggest thrill. than to the "man" bar where you sit in private booths like an office with a buzzer and a man who brings little bags of cashews with 5 inside.
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yogawise, things are raising in intensity and i'm very close to my original practice again, strength coming, but afternoon naps needed and tons of water and coconuts to sustain the energy. i am so surprised this has happened so fast, seeing i have 3 serious injuries. these people working with lino are amazing, and tina is coming this weekend. can't wait. so much hard work, stamina, and patience, and the ability to push yourself to limits unknown before. fridays are still lead primary, which i love, tonight is pranayama. i am learning much about the basic pranayamas and they are really amazing and calming when done right and not pushing. of course i still miss gwendoline, i think of her everytime i do krounchasana (her famous pose that was on her business card and her picture which hangs in the shala), and get teary eyed during the meditation portion, but i don't think gwen would want us all to keep slobbering over her and just get on with life and help people just like she spent her whole life doing. if any of you have seen "harold and maude" think of the character of maude and if you haven't had the blessing of meeting gwen, that was her. took a big bite out of life.
many blessings to all during the holidays-
bindifry

swimfan/for yogis only/dristi dristi dristi

i moved out of my hotel couple days ago for a handful of personal reasons. mostly i desired a need to get away from the bustle close to the beach, more solitude, and mostly A POOL. i really do not like swimming in oceans and the arabian sea is no exception with it's dangerous choppy waves, unpredictable sand ground, the daily sight of dozens of deficating dogs right at the shoreline, and an outbreak of lice last year.
anyhow, i moved to what seems like a mile up lighthouse road where all the hoity toity places are, usually quite expensive, but since i'm in a place that's currently under construction, i'm getting a deal of sorts. the pool is immaculately clean and giant and gorgeous and empty (cept for me), which means i can swim after yoga and before bedtime. nothing like floating on your back in india in a pool staring into the moon and stars.
the place is not without warts. i had to have electricity installed yesterday, plumbing installed today, i need a new fan that won't keep me awake at night. but the view is spectacular, near a sri devi temple, which is SO loud, but lovely anyhow. i miss those temple speakers when i am back home.
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FOR YOGIS ONLY
spending 2 months with lino and gwendoline changed my practice dramatically, which is why i come back. however, it's definitely NOT for the lazy or prop lovers or those who like to do "research poses" like pigeon in the middle of practice, or splits after prasarita d. he is hardcore in terms of how the vinyasa is taught, each breath, each lift, each gazing poing, bandhas, and breath, doing the pose and understanding it more internally rather than externally, which is SO common.
i just keep learning and learning, last year more about bandhas, this year, dristi is my focus. if you don't even know what that means and you practice astanga, you better find out, cause it's more important than the posture. something else i've learned from maria paolo (who works very closely with tina-VERY strict) was one day she saw i was doing all my lotus poses with left leg first. she said, "NO! you do right first always in half instead of full with left." i told her i was injured, and this was the very beginning of my healing. within 3 days i was doing a comfy right first full lotus by NOT avoiding, confronting instead. no tricks, etc. it was quite magical, actually, and i'm almost back to my normal long ass practice. this after 8 months of shortened modified and avoided practices. i have to admit i was kind of hoping to complete intermediate cause i'm so close (lino makes you do all primary and second till you finish second) and it is exhausting and takes a long time. but, "whatever will be will be." i am no longer attached to my practice. having multiple injuries can be very good for you, in strange and wonderful ways.
the pranayama that lino is generously sharing with us twice a week is wonderful. i do 3-5 rounds of the first one only before starting my practice and it really kicks in the bandhas and breath. i wait till i fully understand the second part before adding it. (which involves kumbhaka with alternate nostril breathing without even sides). another reason for getting to yoga 45 minutes early is to get a mat space that is yours, or close to yours. i don't know what it is this year, but people are in there 90 minutes before their scheduled time. last year we all had our spots and it was easier for the different teachers and adjusters to get to know your practice. not this year. a girl in first row stole my spot in second row, so i whine a little to lino, who is fed up with that mess, so he just says,"so take her spot in front." this actually was where i was last year and it's good cause you face a wall and don't have to notice anyone else-pratyahara is something else i am trying real hard with-dristi dristi dristi.
bindifry

the planet is indeed lonely

so the lonely planet is a great place to eat, safe, yummy, and one of the only places to get a real indian brekkie on kovalam beach. however, it's also full of very very very very very picky people from all over the world. on the wall, there is a sign that reads:
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A CUSTOMER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON ON OUR PREMISES
HE IS NOT DEPENDENT ON US, WE ARE DEPENDENT TO HIM
HE IS NOT AN INTERRUPTION IN OUR WORK, HE IS THE PURPOSE OF IT
HE IS NOT AN OUTSIDER ON OUR BUSINESS, HE IS A PART OF IT
WE ARE NOT DOING HIM A FAVOR BY SERVING HIM
HE IS DOING US A FAVOR BY GIVING US AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO SO
SIVA
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a couple other ditties on the wall:
"one who looks for pleasure alone is done for"
"one must do some good to others at least once in a blue moon when you are above ground"
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SIVA STRIKES AGAIN IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
HERBAL FOOD FOR PERFECT HEALTH
-brown rice soup with pickle and papad
-green beans with steam rice
-succini steam rice
-tender coconut with rice and coconut water
-rice with bitter gourd and chutney
-pumpkin and beans and steam rice
-mix dried fruits and basmati rice
-mix hrbal fod
-dal kanji and pickle papad
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a brazillian man trying to sell opium at internet cafe tells owners "you need to learn more english if you want to get ahead in life"
-excuse me, but i wonder if this brazillian speaks english, tamil, malayalum, hindi, a little japanese, italian, french and german?
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FARM QUERIES (compliments of "the hindu")
"black elderberry"
what is the tamil name for the black elderberry?
-sambucus nigraisa plant of african origin is a known anti-oxidant. it is grown as an ornamental plant and not cultivated commercially
NOW, TO VISIT GRAVES ONLINE
sitting in her apartment, batool jaffer, a 70 yr old widow puts her wrinkled hand on a computer mouse, clicks on a website, then raises her hands in a muslim gesture of prayer for her husband's departed soul. on the screen is a photo of the grave at the wadi-e-hussain cemetery in karachi where her husband was interred last year-which she can visit online anytime thanks to a simple but novel internet service used by hundreds of shia muslims.
pretty cool stuff, huh?

bindi

perfect-and much much more

this is from a weekly column from "the hindu" called "perfect-know your english", one of my favorite columns.
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what is the difference between "childish" and "childlike?"

"some cricket players when they wiin a match take their shirt off and start twirlling it in the air. when a decision goes against them, they kick the ground repeatedly muttering to themselves, or run to the umpire and get into a heated argument with him. these kind of reactions we expect from small children, not from grown men. when you refer to an adult's behaviour as being "childish", what you mean is that he is behaving immaturely; he is behaving like a small child. the word has a negative connotation."
"the childish behaviour of the teacher had everyone in spllits."
unlike the word "childish", the world "childlike" has a positive connotation. it means having some of the attractive qualities that one normally associates with a child-innocence, simplicity, and sincerity.
*revathi took part in the activity with childlike enthusiasm.*
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9TH INTERNATIONAL KERALA FILM FESTIVAL
*fewer kurtas and faded jeans this year
*popularity of hollywood and bollywood films short lived
*indian films too long, too many (1000/yr), time has come to decided whether indians need so many films
*tsai ming liang, taiwanese director, prefers realism, but he has been critisized his films were nothing but an account of life and were dull
*only good and serious films will survive
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yesterday mr. bill was mistaken for arnold schwartzeneger, so he is no longer mr. bill, but gov. arnold. i am begging him to tell the indians who said that "i'll be back, girlie men."
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"every day is not sunday" direct kasmiri rug salesman quote yesterday upon bargaining for silk rugs for arnold
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big swedish lady laying on back completely topless yesterday(giant boobs). each man had someone watching his store as they took turns taking a look, her completely oblivious. we knew something big was going on cause of all the commotion here in boring kovalam.
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strange event at my hotel couple nights ago. a dozen post graduation students move into 3 rooms clad in backpacks. apparently the english do a pilgrimage each year after graduation to india. after all, they once ruled it. these kids were real young-18-21 probably. at 1:30 am i hear a blood curdlilng scream, this girl is part of this brit pack and does not stop screaming. i thought
a. raped? (it's pretty darn safe here)
b. tiger attack? (there's been many leopards wandering into people's businesses and property)
c. giant bear attack? (cept there aren't any bears in kerala)
she would not stop screaming, and i have to wake at 6 to do yoga, and i've been extremely sick and it's been brutal to sleep all night. so i step out and slam my door, to see if that works. no. than i stick my head out the window and scream "shut up!!!." after about an hour, it finally stops, the dozen of them all congregating, crying, screaming.

next day i see they've all gone away and the manager of my hotel is hanging out. he said, "very sorry about last night, madam." i said it was ok, but if it happened another night, i would have to tackle those brits." apparently what had happened was a butterfly got into the girls room. yes, i said a butterfly. they're migrating right now cause of the season change, and india has some of the most beautiful ones i've ever seen. the manager told me butterflys only come to girls, not men. "they are incarnations of our dead ancestors," he tells me. i've always believed if one lands on you, it's good luck.
perhaps these kids should have waited a few more years before taking the plunge into the strange world of india.

bindifry
who feels better and hopes to stay that way for awhile

for yogis only (or interested parties)

i know i pledged off the blogging, but some interesting topics have arised worth discussing.
1.don't give up hope
2.take what previously injured people tell you with a grain of salt
3.strength returns
4.anything is possible (including squeezing india into your life if you focus your energy in that direction)

i currently have 3 injuries. one in rotator cuff and peraformis (caused by over adjustment-cuff for 1.5 yrs, hip for 9 months) and a jammed ring finger and sprained right hand from scooter accident, which is healing well. actually, everything is healing using the method of slowly slowly-guruji, sharath, and lino's favorite saying. i also took the advice of my good friend cheekoo who knows many things about life who told me, "lisa, you're not gonna want to hear this, but maybe you should stop yoga completely for awhile." i decided to heed her advice because i was traveling all over india my first month, so that was easy to do. all i had to deal with was a tighter body, a little crankiness, complete detachment from my practice, and constipation. however, 2 weeks into the yoga, along with having the common intestinal/cramping/vomitfest twice in two weeks already. idly is my friend and i will now only eat at lonely planet in the morning. there are 2 amazing adjusters in addition to lino who i have met for the first time, a lad from copenhagen named jenz, whose touch and adjustments are very beautiful and safe, and maria paolo from rome, who is an almost carbon copy of tina-lino's wife. superb. when tina gets here it will rock so much cause she's the shit.
lino has decided to teach the first pranayamas each tues and thurs for 45 minutes at 5:15 in the evening, which is going really well and is just enough for me, cause too much messes with my head. and it makes me feel very calm before eating and bedtime. he has also chose to make fridays lead primary day, which i'm quite happy about (many are too attached and won't attend) because it really re-enforces the exact breath count, which most people i know in chicago (and many in the room here from all over the world)do not know cause no one is teaching it with perfect counting of the vinyasa. this is a problem. the system of astanga yoga is completely based in the vinyasa system and how you move is of utmost importance. guruji and sharath teach 2 classes each friday of primary and on sundays, one primary and one intermediate. i think it is a fantastic idea, it also detaches you from having to do just mysore. i feel it is very very important.

so if you are injured or sick or lazy, just do what you can do, lie down. lino always says, "yoga is forever. tomorrow you can do more yoga." "don't be in a hurry."

patience is a challenge to cultivate, but it is a huge component of yoga. today is a good day.

bindifry

blogged out

hi all-
just a note to let you know i have been sick a couple times and there's not much happenning lately worth blogging, so i may take a break for a week or so unless something interesting happens.
please feel free to e-mail me individually.
bindifry

sanjay dutt is my hero

ok-so i broke down and went to trivandrum cause i've been waiting for weeks for "musafir" starring anil kapoor (who is virtually unrecognizable since he shaved his moustache and has light straight short hair now) and my pal sanjay dutt to come out. he produced it along with the india mtv people. very fresh, very fun, lots of action and definitely worth seeing.

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2004/dec/10musafir.htm

sanjay is the first bollywood actor i have ever seen in person. him and maduri dixit were at the chicago indian independence day parade on devon earlier this year. all the shows were sold out and seats were assigned-first time here in kerala, but done all the time in bombay.

bindifry

the hindu

1)god lives in india
2)spray and wash stain stick is my friend
3)it's easy to get your own subscription to "the hindu"

LEOPARD STRAYS INTO BUSINESSMAN'S HOME
the action packed drama unfolded when the maid spotted the the beast lounging in the bushes, shell shocked to witness the wild cat entering through the bathroom

YOUTH HACKED TO DEATH
the right arm of the victim was hacked off and taken away by the assailants and thrown on the railway track (this is where your poo and pee also go)

EVEN EMPLOYED LIVE IN POVERTY
2.8 billion employed globally in 2003, more than ever before, half living on less than $2 US a day, 550 million on $1 US a day

MARRIAGE AGE
the age of marriage under the hindu marriage divorce bill is likely to be retained at 18 yrs for boys and 15 for girls, instead of 21 and 16 respectively

PM LOOKING FORWARD TO BUSH VISIT
new delhi, 2005, dr. singh welcomed the peaceful conduct of elections in afghanistan and expressed the hope that polls would be conducted in iraq (yeah right)

KEY WITNESS TO CARNAGE SET ON FIRE
bibi beno, who survived the naroda patiya communal carnage losing 8 family members, including her husband, was set on fire for being one of the witnesses to the massacre. she is fighting for her life.

bindifry

prana(life force)preserve it* take it VERY seriously*

so another journey to filumland yesterday, not such a great ending. went to see the same tamil film sharaf saw the previous night starring the famous AJITH, who i loved last year in the movie RED. (i know yesterday was supposed to be malayalum day, but i'm easy). i think this has happened only once before, but i left halfway into it. the reason? the whole first half was comedy, and if you watch a movie for 90 minutes (at least half an indian movie) and you do not understand what the hell is going on and everyone is laughing cept you, it gets irritating. here's the story for you filum freaks:

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/review/7007.html

i did realize, though, that i'd seen 3 movies in 6 days and maybe i should slow down, so no filums, if this is even possible for me, till i rest under an umbrella with a book for a few days. i have been running all over this country since day 1 and it might be a good idea. i have a laminated india mat on my wall carefully planning my next state invasion. STOP IT!!!

anyhoo, thoughts drifted towards gwendoline once again, i think i'm still in mourning, and went to the market in trivandrum and bought her a nice bouquet of marigolds-the kind the indians hang over the pictures of their lost loved ones, went to talk to her a little, showered, and made it just in time for lino's pranayama workshop. i like his and dena's because they are basic ones with little kumbhaka (retention)and it dosen't go on too long for me. if you've ever taken manju's pranayama before, it's about as intense as it gets. i've fled the workshop during that part more than once. lino did have many revealing things to say about pranayama. first, it IS meant to be done after practicing, only you wait an hour till your body fully calms down from the aggressive astanga. however, he did say that it's also ok to do some pranayama, simple pranayama with bandhas for 4 minutes to 30 (depending on your ability for it because pranayama is WAY more dangerous and intense than asana). this was news to me, cause i thought there was only one way.
the other thing was i have been nursing a bad injury in my right peraformis for 8 months and could only do the lotus with left first. well, they forced me to do half lotus with right first in uth pluthi instead of full with left. soon i am doing full lotus right first. see how things work sometimes?
tomorrow we begin our mysore practice. instead of lino asking everyone when they want to come, he simply assigned our positions. i am in group 2, which will start at 6:15 this year, first group 6. mantra at 6:15 and i'm totally thrilled to be coming in early enough for that part. last year first group, which i was in, started at 4:30.

the other item i bought was a simple screw top plastic container. why? cashew season. they sell em raw, salted and roasted, and masala, 3US dollars for 2 lbs. oh my goodness. if you've ever tried the fresh macadamia's in hawaii, you know cause of the fat content that they must be eaten fresh to fully enjoy them. same with cashews. fattenning, but good fat and very healthy snack to have around. i triple bagged my first batch and there were millions of ants in my room the next morning. luckily i had that "hit" chalk that kills roaches in one second, so i got rid of those bastards no problem. and i won't make that mistake again.

lino will teach the second pranayama tomorrow, and has been holding question and answer periods, which is good cause the room is very diverse in terms of levels. i like that, cause last year the room was totally filled with "advanced" snots, grunters, and show dogs. maybe they are on their way from mysore?

so from now on, i do my own thorough investigation of the movies online before venturing out to pollution land. love the cities, but gotta stay put sometimes. keep the prana, maybe?

lino also talked about not eating fish or meat at all, not drinking anything but coconuts and purified water, no sun 10-4, no spices, no eggs, no milk. sorry, but i can't agree with all of that. i know many people who never get sick here and eat all of those things. he even brings his own pasta from home. it's the refridgeration problem, and he does actually have a point. but nothing at all? i haven't advanced to that level yet or ever.

i love lino, the way he teaches, his assistants are also great. but it is not the same at all without gwendoline. i miss her SO much.

bindifry

!!!!!!SIMBU ROCKS!!!!!!

so i saw my tamil movie yesterday-manmadhan. the plot was so complex, there's no point in me telling it, but it is very good, fresh, and it basically rocked my bum. here's the link to the review if you are interested:
http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/review/7092.html

the reason it was SO good and totally action, music packed (i think at least 15 songs, which is about triple the average) was because of this hot new actor everyone here in the south loves, this huge tamil star named SIMBU. if you want to read what people are saying about him, and it's GREAT fun, go to:
http://forumhub.com/tfilms/6298.18939.04.37.44.html

after the movie, we went to a man"bar"(no such thing as woman bar or woman parlor, only man parlor) which is basically a secret place with little private rooms with a fan and buzzer for the waiter. it's SO shameful to drink here, they really try hard to hide it. anyhow, of course as the men pass by our "stall", they see the bottem of my skirt and each one HAS to peek in, and i'm rather covered up now that i know the proper indian way a woman should dress in the city. i love the part when the waiter comes with a napkin covered plate with a tiny plastic bag containing 5 roasted cashews, carefully tears open the bag, and plates them. this is for 3 people to eat, so we each take 3 bites per nut, like the buddhists in the caves who live on little food.

i wanted to see "hero" today with sharaf, but it left the theatres. i had seen it (an unbelievable jet li movie) on dvd, but not the big screen. too bad. tomorrow's malayalum movie day, about 10 to choose from. yes, i'm a freak, but between 1:30-5 (which is when i go see the movies) is the most dangerous part of the day, the sun is unbearable unless you are a south indian who wants to keep their skin nice and black.

bill, who is mr. bill here, for the first time got violently ill-you know, the same kind we all get (mine averaging once a month). he desperatly needed parcel coconuts (parcel here means "to go" and they cut enough so all ya gotta do is puncture when you get home). first of all, i have boycotted babu, the thief who sells outside of the shala cause he still owes me 500rps from last year, so i go to the couple on the beach. "coconuts not coming for an hour" so i call my friend sharaf, he picks me up and we head towards trivandrum. i learned that babu has been hoarding all the coconuts around this area and charging 15rps!!!(going rate here is 10) anhyoo, we stop for the special yellow coconuts from sri lanka, cause they are highly medicinal, more enzymes and electrolytes. but listen to this one. the coconut wallah has about 20 sri lankan coconuts, but "knife not coming till after 9." how do you run a coconut stand without a device to open them? SO we move further towards trivandrum, which is a half hour ride, find a nice big strong lady and buy our coconuts, get the fair price, of course sharaf has to buy one cigarette. it's weird here, cause many of the chain smokers (millions of chain smokers here and they start REAL young) only buy one at a time. he said he buy his pack of gold flakes after he eats. i often encourage his habit by bringing him several packs, he appreciates this a lot. he does SO much for me.

bring mr bill his medicine, which i encourage him to NOT throw up, just breathe deep. gotta keep it down, drink gallons of water, etc.(i have plenty of experience with the food/water poisoning getting sick 5 times last year, once in hospital 3 days)and once this time.
i left for my leisurly brekkie overlooking the arabian sea, watching fishermen net fishing, when i suddenly realize why i did not need to go to a bollywood movie today. i watched one on the beach. this white girl in a string bikini with 3 pubecent indian boys carrying her towel and 4 bottles of water, find her a place to lay down her towel and just stand around her. what is always amusing about these clueless people (the girl-either she's an exhibitionist or an idiot)-is they walk around over 100 fishermen TRYING to work! this girl suddenly had at least 25 men and boys surrounding her from every corner of the beach, and the poor fishermen losing their minds. this goes on like a movie for an hour before she has her lackys pick up her things (it was like she was modeling cause she never sat down and kept turning her body around, sticking out her butt, bending for boob views), and proceed to another part of the beach to either show off some more, or be left alone, cause she finally covered up a little. this kept me amused pretty much throughout my lonely brekkie. i've lost justin cause he's moved to another motel, and i have no idea what it is and where, bill is sick like dog, but it's ok cause i got a stack of great books to read and lots of internet research.

a big warm hug to all of you-
bindifry

morning at the peacock

hiya blog readers, whoever's still with me. today was first day of the yoga with lino. almost all italians from lino's studio in rome and 2 fellow chicagoans, justin and bill. of course lino had to talk a little about who was missing this year, i assumeed everyone knew, but someone did not know. i would have hated to hear that news in that way. it's very hard for lino to even talk about it, anybody who knew her (gwendoline hunt), for that matter. lino has worked with her many years, in kovalam with her for 10 years (they took over from john scott who started the kovalam retreat, and gwen was one of his faithful students). i missed her so much. her picture in her famous pose, the one i always kept on my alter, of her in krounchasana was pasted on the wall in front of me below guruji's. i'm sure this will be an incredible experience anyhow cause i love lino so much, and his wife tina will be here for a couple weeks, but it's definitely not the same.
lino had a wonderful story for me yesterday about when him and gwen went to dhamma giri in igatpuri (where i am going to go for vipassana) and it gave me great insight into what to expect. coincidentally, this book i'm reading spent many chapters documenting her experience. all i can say is hardcore. not for everybody, but i'm gonna do it anyhow. however, lino told me sri lanka is quieter, less people, and i've always wanted to visit sri lanka. he says you sit on top of a mountain with 8 people, and at igatpuri, the main center, 250 in a room at once! and the rooms you stay in are all concrete just like a prison cell. however, i calculated the percentate 10 days is in one year, and it comes to about 3% of a year, so if ya think about it like that, i'll survive.

today back to trivandrum for another filum-today is tamil day-movie called manmadhan. next time movie will be malayalum, than telegu, back to hindi-in that circle cause i like em all. but my favorites have always been the tamil ones.

my hand is badly sprained and yoga is hard, but better than no yoga. i also got my monthly loose motions/puke fest last 2 days. no details beyond that, but this year, no fish here me thinks.

more soon-
bindifry

babie's very first indian rain

this is my 5th month total in india and it's pouring rain outside for the first time in my life. it's so cool.
this territory-kerala-is very familiar since i spent 2 months here last year. your senses get reaquainted, one person at a time is remembering me, tattoo girl, bindi, i am trying to remember theirs as well. i have vowed to never set foot inside the german bakery again because it's outgrown it's numbers and it's charm. and there are so many restaurants that serve food as good or better for less than half the price, less than half the wait. and who wants to hear a bunch of westerners bitch about the service and how small they want their food cut, and there's ants in the jaggery, and this isn't hot enough.....anyhow, i hit 3 places for good coffee and juices and some kick ass banana upuma with baby roasted indian peanuts (i love those-and the purple curry leaves).

my favorite restaurant called "beatles" cause the guys who own it love the beatles band, added a bamboo second level for sunset watching. nothing could have made me prouder. now i don't have to sit in that overpriced horrible "fusion" restaurant-the other one owned by german bakery owner. i actually got my first food poisoning there and it's the most expensive one on the row. it was on bindi fry, hence my nick name.

i wasted no time and decided to go see "hulchul", a hindi movie starring hunk akshay khanna, the ever wonderful amrish poori (sorry for poor hindi spelling), and, of course, kareena kapoor, who is starting to grow on me. she plays good lawyers.
what's funny is i was about to just catch a bus down to "new theatre" when i was locking up my hotel, turned around to see my rickshaw pal sharaf standing on a little hill, arms crossed. there was no way in hell he could have known i was going to see a movie, and at 10am! promptly walked me to his same rickshaw wth the 2 posters (crying baby in army fatigues with quote "don't worry, be happy) and the other one of "red rum" some famous racing horse. it was great to see him. that's india. it works in very mysterious ways.
hulchul was fun, hulchul means "secret wedding."
off to watch the non-sunset-watch my very first indian downpour.
bindifry

why don't you come with me, little boy, for a magic rocket ride...to kerala

so i officially signed up for my very first vipassana course last couple weeks of feb, so it looks like i'll probably be here till end of first week of march. that way i can go to elora and ajanta first 2 weeks of february and maybe hit film city since i gotta get back to mumbai anyhow. oh, vipassana is a 10 day buddhist meditation course without talking, 10 hours of meditation per day, no yoga, reading, or occupying your mind in any way. i've been wanting to do this since a good friend of mind taught me how to meditate with the wall stare and i like it very much, i've also done the mauna (i think they call it-not talking) for 3 days before and the benefits were outstanding. the place is called dhamma giri, and it's in igatpuri, a couple hour rickshaw ride outside of mumbai. the monestary was built for that purpose only. i won't be able to blog during those 10 days, i will when it's over.

so i got a 2 hour ride to margoan, where i had to catch my train to trivandrum. my map made it seem like it would take 36 hours, and that's what i expected, but i was on a rocketship-an express. 18 hours to train over half of the country of india!! a knock on my door at 4am for breakfast, by 5am i was here in kovalam. my room on the train was steller, totally private with the glass sliding door and the curtain, full on a/c with cozy fluffy wool blanket, perfect view of the western ghats. 2 lovely fresh red roses and 4 meals!!! 3 thali's and a pile of pakora to feed 7 indians and a mayo sandwich-hmm-had to pass on that one. i asked for ice cream and they brought me strawberry jello. i made them stop feeding me and they didn't get it-mango juice, please please please, only mango juice!!! no more thali! no more kerala rice!

no room at my old standby the sky palace, but i can move in there dec 5th for 20 days, i'm across the street at hotel palm garden till then.
so if there is any kind of emergency, krishna forbid, till the 5th of dec. i can be reached at
hotel palm garden
lighthouse beach kovalam
tel:04712481951

after the 5th,:
hotel sky palace
lighthouse beach kovalam
tel:0091471-2487906

bindifry

alone again...naturally

last day of november and you wouldn't know it here in goa. the most perfect weather. i even missed thanksgiving, not even sure what day it was. jeff left this morning at 7am on a 12 hour train to mumbai, where he'll stay till dec. 2nd, which is good cause he can eat his muslim brains fry and all the other repulsives and smoke more beedies, which i am now free of that stank-those things smell like rotten cigars and i absolutely hate them.

since i'm alone, i plan to lounge on the beach with an umbrella cause i'm keeping my ivory white skin. that's what i was born with, i keep it. i had stopped suntanning after visiting places where is simply could not go outside between the hours of 11 and 4. skin cancer sucks. besides, all the asians use skin bleach cause they hate their darker skin-if you notice in bollywood films they are so white you can hardly tell they're indian! and all the ladies use black umbrellas and scarves to filter out the dangerous rays. the indians think the westerners are totaly crazy cause we lay in the sun with our snow white skin.

we couldn't go to the capital panaji yesterday cause we're still sufferring from wounds, bruises, and sprains from the scooter accident and the idea of getting in a hot taxi for an hour to take us to a city was not appealing, especially after mumbai and agra. i've had enough of cities for a few days, but look out trivandrum, here i come. for movies only, of course. my shopping is done, so my rupies will last.

so we found silvio, the italian bollywood poster collectors mansion and visited him last night. wow. it's in apporva. most of his stuff dated from the 1800s up to the 1970s. unbelievable. i actually went for the evolution of gandhi and a picture of an indian moghul from the 20s. jeff got a couple larger ones from the 60s/70. very kind people, very interesting collection. it was fun and we found it easy with our torch to make it home safely, but not in time for that swim i love so much. one more day of that.

tomorrow i leave by taxi for 2 hours to next town called madgaon to board the 12:30 train (i'm on the trivandrum rjdhnt) for i think 18 1/4 hours or more, getting in on december 2nd in the late morning. yeah kerala!

bindifry

i'm going into the capital, panjim, today and j leaves early tomorrow, i leave at noon on the 1st december, on a train that will take 18-25 hours, which means i'll be in kerala on dec. 2, in case anyone's lookin for me.

this is mainly a note to tell you women or you men who want to buy 100% silk skirts for your girlies. here on anjuna beach i have found the most magnificent stall i've seen in all of india. he has full length and shorter slightly below the knee 100% made by him and his brother in bangalore-where most of india;s silk comes from. he also is selling brillient low cut 100% soft cotton pants lined with a contrasting color on the bell bottems as well as the top, back zipper closire. totally amazing colors.
the best thing about the skirts is they are reversable and each side is RADICALLY different from the front.

i won't be shipping them because i'm traveling extremely light and i can get another luggage to carry them. if any of you reading this blog, be it an individual or a boutique is interested, you MUST e-mail me immediately cause i'm leaving in a day. the colors are widely varied, so please don't request color. only request short or long skirt or pant. my e-mail AGAIN is ljhill11@yahoo.com
i will give you the prices when you place the order. these are the most vibrant and interesting articles of 100% silk i have ever seen in my life. and i have good taste!

bindifry the silk lover

no power no shower for 24 hour

ok-second time writing since power outages, forgive my poor typing because of my broken/sprained finger. quote of the day "no power no shower for 25 hour."

spent many hours recovering from our wounds from the wipeout(PLEASE BRING A VERY WELL STOCKED FIRST AID KIT WITH YOU HERE AND CHERISH IT WITH YOUR LIFE) while i shyly peered through the curtains watching the cleaning room boys play that indian game i've been wanting to try since ooty last year called gadam (i think). it's a square board with wood chips and holes at each corner. it's got geometric shapes on it and it's played like pool, except you flick your fingers instead. was hard for me because of my sprains - i have sprained 5 fingers so far. yoga is going to be a thrill when i get to kerala. so i mustered up the courage to watch the 4 of them play and they taught me. i will be playing many games with them, plus we can talk about bollywood films, which we all have in common here. i actually found a kamal hassaan shirt from "abhay" here, which probably means dick to most of you out there, but he is the finest actor in the entire world-better than brando, better than dinero.

last night we went to the saturday night market which goes till midnight. lots of european stalls charging european prices ( a skirt i wanted was 3800rps-80 bucks!!!! what am i in, london? beer stalls (the very best beer in all of india is called kings-NOT kingfisher, which is the budweiser of the east-i like to drink my beer, not puke it). we did find our italian bollywood poster collector who invited us to his museum mansion tomorrow to purchase some real shit-we already got 4 pieces, i just HAD to have the madhubala one after falling in love with her timeless beauty in mughal-e-azam. dilip kumar fell in love with her also, but she ended up marrying the most famous playback singer in all of india-kishore kumar. she had a hole in her heart and died before age 40.

SO if you all are planning a trip to magical india and you want to get the real indian experience, travel by bus, rickshaw, and train to places where westerners stay away from-agra, indore, tamil nadu, karnataka, kochi,trivandrum,mumbai, veranasi, rajastan, rishakesh, madhya pradesh, uttar pradesh, tibet and nepal. if you want to come here and not rub shoulders with indians or wipe your ass with your hand, head straight for goa or kovalam. you will feel at home, just like going to hawaii or costa rica. i prefer the real deal and i keep learning so much about this amazing land.

missing you my friends-
bindifry
email:ljhill11@yahoo.com

too much danger scooter, much too much danger scooter.....

hit another beach on our new auto scooter. breathtaking. more beautiful than hawaii. i have never seen rocks and water like that in my life. and they love parasailing here, which i am tempted to do since i hanglided in australia, but i've heard the equipment is often not up to par. and your real high up there. hang gliding scared the life out of me.
so on this great beach we get touted by a jerk selling my favorite boxes of mango frooti's, which cost 10rps at the store, for 60!!! said he had to make a commission. goa is more expensive than kerala and bombay combined. rapists! but that's not all. a dude with 2 rusty needles ran up to jeff and tried to pierce his ears without him knowing it! i almost tackled that fellow!!! couldn't believe my eyes. and there is more aids in india than in africa!!!*another note-if you use needles for medicational or whatever purposes, listen carefully to your clinician and bring your own sterile individually wrapped needles.**

so i know i mentioned before about not being impressed with yet another beach. but i take it all back. goa is indescribable. and i sure can use the rest after all we've been through. you all will call me granny next time you all see me.

no more romantic scooter stories i'm afraid. this morning when turning out of our hotel, j charged right into a lady selling wares, like sarongs and jewelry on the street. boy was she mad. we got away with minor scrapes. than we followed the road to a new brekkie joint. after eating, j made a sharp turn into a huge sand pile and into a ditch. this time we had to be carried into someone's house to lay down because i was in shock and couldn't stop crying, shaking and almost vomiting. i got away with minor scrapes and bruises and 2 fat sprained fingers (no yoga again). jeff wasn't so lucky, dislocating his shoulder and his hip. he's going home in 2 days so we're just gonna take it easy till he can get a mri on those places. meawhile we are once again quite thankful for having the best thing one needs in india---a very good first aid kit.
*************************************************************************************
JEFF AND LISA'S TOP 5 INDIAN EXPERIENCES
LISA
1/WALKING THROUGH THE ARCHWAY EXPOSING THE TAJ MAHAL AND IT'S GARDEN
2/EROS THEATRE MUGHAL-E-AZAM
3/DIRECT DECENDENTS OF TAJ BUILDERS MARBLE FACTORY
4/KANU CARPET FACTORY IN AGRA WHERE THEY SHOWED THE CRAFTSMANSHIP
5/4 HOURS OF PARTYING WITH STORE GALLERY OWNERS LAST NIGHT IN AGRA
*************************************************************************************
JEFF
1/TAJ MAHAL
2/JAMMING IN MUSIC STORE
3/EXPLORING MUMBAI, ESPECIALLY MUSIC SHOPS AND EROS ART DECO THEATRE
4/SHORT LIVED SCOOTER EXPERIENCE
5/SHIT RIDE TO INDOOR

till next time-we're off to the saturday night market here in goa-
all the best-
bindifry

spike of supersnazz

how can i forget who we shared a rickshaw with on our arrival in goa with none other than the lead singer spike from the very famous japanese band SUPERSNAZZ!!!! i'm sure many of you don't know who that is, but for those who do, it was a super big deal for us. our favorite japanese band. she signed my book and i will cherish it forever. india is a magical place, that's for sure. i keep waiting to share a rickshaw with johnny depp, who is over here making a move in bombay based on the book daniel and judy neiman gave me called,"shantaram"-(thank you so much, judy and daniel for that lovely book. except i can't seem to pry it out of jeff's hands, who has wanted to read the book for some time).

what is good about our hotel? it has a huge pool you can swim in between 7am and 10pm. we have taken night swims every night since we've been here. and nobody else wants to use it! i floated around on a water polo ball all night yesterday, watching the beautiful clear skies and full moon.

in the am, we headed back to our favorite eating place, the sunset bar, because they play the best oldies from the 50s-70s, which is a huge relief cause everyone else plays that hideous pounding rave music.(coke?ecstacy?mdma?hashish?brown sugar?-which is heroin,marijuanna?)they like their drugs here, i'll stick to the cashew fenni with limca, thank you very much. our pal at our eating place is simon, he has become our pal. he likes to call himself "simple simon." lots of the locals like to do that because you can better remember their names. like a guy we met in kerala called cannon-or as he liked to be called "big gun". and that's exactly the kind of energy that he had.

i left my deposit at the travel agent in hopes of getting a train out of here before new years eve. it's very very very hard to get the good seats, so my suggestion is if you want to travel by train here, and there is NO better way-it's even better than flying and a fraction of the cost, plus you meet lots of people , get fed constantly, given bottles of water, chai, coffee, and best of all, frooty-my favorite mango juice. SO IF YOU COME TO INDIA NOVEMBER THROUGH FEBRUARY AND WANT TO TRAVEL BY TRAIN IN A/C SLEEPER 1ST OR 2ND CLASS, BUY YOUR TICKETS WAY WAY IN ADVANCE. that's all i have to say about that, and trust me because i've aged 40 years just trying to get from one place to the other.

next we walked a mile to find "purple valley yoga center," a famous astanga center with mysore at 7 am mon-saturday (strange saturday, not sunday), it's not too far from my hotel. today was full moon, so i assumed no class, but tomorrow when we have our scooter-we're renting it right after i finish this blog, i can cruise right to it, will take 20 minutes. on the way back instead of walking, we hitchhiked a cargo rickshaw truck transporting a microwave oven to some rich persons house. we jumped in the back, like a pick up truck, told him we would pay 20rps. ok. after he let us out, he charged us 50rps. two words once again. "it's india." i did not care, because i have never riden on the back of a truck before with a microwave as a pal, and it was fun fun fun fun. did not speak a lick of english. weeeeee!!!!!!!

by the way, goa has the most beautiful water i have ever seen in my life. nothing is half as deep blue. i can't believe it.

for dinner, back to simple simon for a feast of gigantic tandoor paneer, lots of raw-yes raw raw raw-tomatos-the tomatos here in goa are to dye for. i know they say to avoid raw food, but i've been eating tons of salad stuff and nothing but a mild cold so far. tandoor prawns next, and than the big one, white snapper. now this is quite different from red snapper and FAR tastier. half fried. they don't deep fry it, just pan fry the half of it. there's no way i could possibly explain how exquisite this fish was. when in goa, ya gotta eat fish cause it's the best in all of india-sorry veggie heads. your missing out on plenty. BUT they have fabulous strawberry juice, which are in season here and all the ice in goa is made with safe mineral water.

hey cara-the coconuts are 25rps a piece for coconuts here!!!!!! or 2 for 30!!!! needless to say, i will wait for my coconut water till i get to kerala where it costs 10rps. and there's coconut palms all over the place!!! vermon. plus their coconuts here are left in the sun getting nice and hot, which tastes like crap. coconut water needs to be cold. end of story.

we're off to rent our scooter and go visit the capital panaji, where we are sure to find more action than this gorgeous sleepy beach. here's also a hint to those thinking of goa-VISIT IN OCTOBER OR NOVEMBER WHEN YOU CAN HAVE THE ENTIRE BEACH TO YOURSELF. AVOID DECEMBER AND JANUARY WHEN ALL THE RAVERS AND DRUGGIES AND HIPPIES TAKE OVER.

bindifry
*who is patiently awaiting e-mail from her friends back home who have seem to have forgotten here. out of sight out of mind? thanks judy for your mails. *also a note to sweet traci-i found you a beautiful killer shawl i think you will love*

goa

well the 2nd class sleeper car is as good as 1st, so if your trying to save some money, that's the way to go. our train left at 11 pm and takes 12 hours. this time we were smart and when we arrived back in mumbai, we went right to the forigner reservation window and bought our tickets to goa that very day. (we saw our muslim pal who touted us to indore trying to trap other idiots like us-including us again, he did not even remember us! guess all whities look alike to them) we then checked into our old pal bentley's, retrieved our luggage (btw-if you trave in india, it's good to have mumbai as a base so you can leave your stuff and travel all over the place with only a backpack-it only costs 10rps per bag per day, for us, a total of 120rps(2.50us dollars))
we went to our favorite restaurant in bombay for mangalorian seafood-apoorva. mangalore is on the west coast of india-several kilometers to the east in a straight line is mysore-several kilometers in a straight line is chennai on the east coast, in case you are at all interested in indian geography. we ate the most exquisite sarsoo i have ever had in my life, and i never really liked it before because it's really bitter-it's the broccoli rabe. anyhow, the balanced it with plenty of sag (india spinach, which is sweet instead of american bitter), and garlic and spices. we also skipped the monster tiger prawns tandoori this time cause they cost 500rps for 3 and we went ape s... with 2 orders, one for desert the first time we ate there. can't eat like that all the time in india if you want to spend any time here. than the beautiful kerala rice came, which is about 4 times the size of your average rice, like puffed up, very filling, and sentimental cause i spent 2 months in kerala last year and am going for 2 more. they brought us the famous coconut sauce to pour over it, yummm. and one paratha. my appetite is getting smaller, but i still look fat.

than off to pick up a few errands at the store, nothing interesting there, back to the room to arrange the packages, sending tons of unnecessary stuff home. *note*if you are ever planning a trip to india, bring 3 shirts or 3 salwars, one light pant, and necessaries like glasses and sunscreen. i know you will hear this over and over again, but restrain yourself heavily when packing for india. seriously.

train was on time, did not have to share the private room with anyone till halfway into the trip, a quiet businessfellow from some tiny town, than a belgian woman who'd been to india 8 times, first time driving her own car from brussels!!via turkey. studying iyengar in the north of goa. see-we all keep coming back. i'll come back till i croak. than some government officials who wanted to talk politics, both indian and US, with us. we have no problem expressing our utter embarassment of george w. some indians like him, some hate him. probably more hate him. but to my surprise, lots of people liked the bjp better than the congress party. go figure.

so landing in goa is so strange, cause it does not have the feel of india whatsoever. i'm kind of depressed about that. just beach, nothing but crap to buy on the beach, way way way too many ecstacy headed westerners and hippies, and that relentless horrifying rave music. i wanted to be close to purple valley yoga center to take a few classes cause i had taken this time off yoga in order to try to let my serious peraformis muscle tear heal, if it ever even will. i may be stuck doing primary series for the rest of my life. and you know what? i don't care. soon i'll be doing vipassana and will realize it's all about the stilling of the mind anyhow.

so j and i sampled the fenni, which harvests in may, so most of it is not made of cashew, but of coconut. our first was cashew and tasted like arak (a clear very strong liquor pretty much like everclear- made in indonesia), but like arak, you have to add a little soda water and lots of limes, than it's wonderful. there was the wednesday market down the beach and we preceded down to purchase some goods-man, i am getting SO good at haggelling-i'm not sure WHAT is happenning to my personality. so much is coming out i did not even know existed. unfortunately jeff, with his too much fenni, stumbled down into a ditch while looking at yet another musical instrument and scraped up his face, arms and torso real good. the locals gave him a chair, i cleaned him up with anticeptic wipes (he does not understand that if you cut yourself here in india sometimes it does not heal-i know this first hand.)stubborn. i walked him back to the beach and we watched the sunset and got some food in us-delicious garlic prawns and baby tiger fish, which they also have in kerala.

not very interesting blog, but hey-i'm in south goa and it isn't much different than boring old kovalam. we plan to rent a scooter and travel through the rest of this tiny rhode island sized state and i'm sure i'll have more to say about it. if you like beautiful white sand beach, it's amazing. but i've already been to south beach, the yucatan, bali, eastern australia, so i'd still rather see the caves. guess i'll just have to wait till february-anyone want to come with me?

bindifry

from delhi to mumbai to goa oh my.........

we boarded the shattabhi xpress-2 and 1/2 hours to delhi. we decided to walk the streets instead of cab or horse shaw/rickshaw just for the experience. we had only 4 hours in our hotel before walking back a 4am to the train station to board to mumbai-27 hours. we were wishing we stayed a couple days in delhi because i'm sure we would have loved it. next time. hi cheekoo...hint hint...
we got on the punjabi mail train, which stops everywhere, which is why it took so long. laid down in a sleeper, got woke up by the engineer and moved to what we thought were sit up seats, cause mostly the worst things have been happenning, we just expect it. instead, they take us to first class private coach with 4 beds, a/c, private sink, the works! 2 meals, plenty of water and mango juice, total privacy. dreamland...
we were alone until we reached bhopal, that city 20 years ago that union carbide exploded chemical gas into the city which killed over half a million people and they actually got away with it. no compensation cept 450 grand to the government with deep pockets. people still are dying today from that. i'm sure most of you out there reading this know all about the bhopal tragedy. if you don't, you should. a man joined us in the room for the rest of the journey, which was fine.

we arrived around 9am today, the 23rd, and immediately bought our tickets to goa, the train which leaves at 11pm tonight, takes 12 hours, and will spend the final leg of j's trip over there in SOUTHERN, not northern goa. white sand beaches await. planning to get a scooter and shoot all over the beaches, look at beautiful catholic portugese churches, try fenni (cashew beverage) and the world famous pork vindaloo(sorry veggi heads-i don't like to pass up anything here).
sometimes if you wait long enough, a gift awaits.

bindifry

sweet sweet aahhhhhhhgraaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

agra day 3 began at the tour of akbar, the greatesst of the mughal emporers. he was a very compassionate being in terms of religeous choice. the place was surrounded by a beautiful garden chock full of antelope, spotted deer, and the largest colony of well groomed fluffy langur monkeys. which were not of the aggressive persuasion. i've never been able to sit amongst that many of them cause they usually attack and steal your sunglasses. we strolled the exquisite gardens, than entered the mausoleum. we had to decend a narrow dark tunnel before entering the domed tomb area. an imam chanted, it echoed beautifully, as we circled clockwise (***note to all foreigners-don't be the idiot who decides to circle anything in a temple or mosque counter clockwise-please do your research and cover yourselves up, for gods sake). after the circle around, the exit and it was over.

the next stop was not so pleasant. it was a restoration of a radha (krishna's wife)temple. we were immediately shown around the temple-we thought the guy worked there, but NO! a groper in disguise. he took us into a remote corner of the temple so we could take pictures-which are strictly forbidden in temples. it happened so fast and before you knew it, he was groping me, pressing into my breasts for what felt like an eternity while j took a picture. i was quite angry at j for not kicking his touting nasty ass. we left with a very very bad taste in our mouths. not only that, he demanded 10 rupies for the grope. nice. and the shit shoe watchers, who usually get one or two rupies for watching the shoes, demaded at least 10, and called us foul names cause they did not think that was enought. nice.

so it goes up from here. next stop, and one of my favorites, kanu carpet factory. we were taken to the design shop, shown the over 50 varieties of sheep, all their wools, etc. made a point in telling us the germans like the thick wool, except the carpets won't bend so well and they wear out after 40 years. only the germans had this request. than we watched the weavers knot and weave at a loom, working at breakneck speed and cutting. average size rug taking up to 5 months to complete, one knot at a time. than the rug is taken to a large ditch where 5 men in rubber boots scrape and wash the rug for a couple of hours to remove excess dye. than the rug is hung in the indian sun and after, put onto a stretcher and nailed down. after a day, they take it to 5 more men with hard core scissors and they trim for a couple more hours each and every piece. the rug is washed again, and than coated with acidic acid to moth proof and set the colors. i bought a very long wool runner rug, a gift, and a silk one for my bum for the next few months i am staying here. there is nothing better than seeing the craftsmanship of the beautiful textiles here. so far my marble and rug experiences have been steller. these rugs were every bit as good as the kashmiri rugs. they export thousands to the US and elsewhere every year.

the final stop in agra, the golden moment, was at a gallery specializing in musical instruments and jewelry. we spent 4 hours there, j hypnotized by the instruments, me by the silver and diamonds. they provided a pro tabla player to play along with j as he learned how to play sitar (he was remarkably good)and the banjo(which is not like the american banjo, but an instrument with tortise shell keyboard for left hand and strings for the right hand). jamming went on for hours, a plate of dates, cashews and almonds appeared, 3 chai tea's were drunk, and soon chicken tikka bits. i was still with my pal getting talked into several gorgeous silver ankle bracelets and an 80 year old diamond with emerald in center. than a tray of beers started being distributed, i went into the instrument room where the jams were going on and we impressed the locals with our knowledge of many old hindi film songs "dum maro dum", "churya liya", "aja-monica!my darling!!!"(most westerners go phooey on bollywood-their loss) and one we wrote ourselves, me playing tabla like a conga and j playing guitar, all of us singing and dancing all over the place. time passed too fast and we were almost late for our train to delhi. ahhhhhhhhgra...had been very good to us.

gwendoline remembered

i first learned of the news of gwendoline hunt's death the day i saw the taj mahal. gwendoline deserved such a monument. she was one of the purist spirits, most positive person i have ever had the blessing to know. every time she talked, something profound was said. i always learned from her. when i first met her 4 years ago, one of the things she whispered in my ear was, "the longer you do this astanga the better you will understand it."

the last image i remember of her was watching her do her practice through the door of the ayri shala in mysore. she had been injured and was wearing a cast on her left leg. i watched her with perfect dristi, perfect breath and stillness, and most perfect bandhas gently, like poetry in motion, lifting up her body in eka pada sirsasana, even though the leg was unable to bend behind her. she was not troubled by her mishap at all. when she got hurt, she explained to me that life was a wonderful thing and she merely was not in the moment. she was thrilled to still be learning lessons into her 70s. gwen had looked at a pack of baby goats when she did not see a hole in which she stepped into fracturing her leg.

she taught me how to teach with the greatest intentions and compassion. if you were blessed to get adjusted by her, what you received was a warm generous soul wrapping her body around you becoming you for those 5 breaths, her main emphasis drawing in the bandhas and breathing with you as one.

i had been eagerly anticipating arriving in kovalam again for 2 months to see her and lino. i will miss her terribly. i will miss her spirit. and i hope god will let me keep a little snack of her spirit. i am greatly honored to have met her, to have worked with her, to have loved her very very much.

thank you gwendoline for teaching me how to be a better human being.
with all my heart-
lisa hill

agra-phobia

well i thought i'd seen india. i haven't had a clue. now i have seen india the way it is meant to be seen. i am now stuck in agra for 4 days, but it dosen't matter cause it's a chaotic dream.

of course we misread our ticket from indore to agra and thought we would be late, only to hurry up and wait, something you do in india each day. a pack of cards is very handy for these matters, as we played gin rummy while a pile of onlookers watched us. the next bus was worse than the first, 13 hours in a video air con bus with sit up seats, only no video, and no air con. the seats were packed and the aisles were filled with passangers sitting on the floor, some lucky to have plastic stools. if you did not piss fast when the bus stopped, you would be left behind, as several people actually were. i learned to piss with the men by the side of the road. i am getting very good at hiking my salwar and scarf out of the way of the stream.

we arrived in agra round 7am and were fortunate to meet our companion for our entire time here-19 year old samin, our personal tour guide and rickshaw driver. he set us up in a hotel, and got us a nice meal in a garden, took us to travel agent cause we did not know how we were going to get out of here eventually cause it's high indian tourist season because of the holidays and everything is booked solid. the travel agent was a buddhist and upon finding out i teach yoga forced me to take down a list of 9 questions which went something like this:
1. what is truth? is it possible to know it partially?
2. what should we meditate on?
3. what is the ultimate glimpses of enlightment?
4. in which form the energy of ego changed into?
5. is a sex creative energy? how could it be possible for a husband and wife to make this relationship more creative?
6. love is understanding or not?
7. treasure insight
8. describe marriage
a. social marraige
b. spiritual marraige
c. divine marraige
before starting any sort of marraige we should know who am i? where do i stand? what is my nature?
9. i live in the land of seriousness, imprisoned and its borders. can you draw me a road map to your land of playfulness? have i a defective gene? i can not find my laughter or lightheardness? it's around me, but do not feel it in me.

this from a travel agent.

stuck in the most indescribable traffic imaginable-4 hours behind bike rickshaws, mule carts, bulls, dogs, rickshaws, bikes, babies carrying babies, sadhus, motorbikes, cars, packs of pigs, goats, i don't remember what else, we finally made it to the back of the taj during sunset. it was quite powerful. i got a nice picture with it reflecting on the back water.

sanir, after making us shop at a silver shop (yeow)insisted on taking us to the decendents of the craftsmen of the actual taj mahal. there, muhamed showed us how they crafted the marble and put the intricate pieces of precious stones inside of the marble. it was extremely impressive. we spent a good hour in there learning and looking, preparing for our next day when we would visit the taj from the front and go inside. out of all the pieces available, of course i had to have the most unusual one, which is from 1972 and made by his grandfather, a direct decendent of the taj laborers. this piece had to be mine cause the marble had the natural spots and the flowers had pieces of gems that are extinct, and some pieces were actually stolen from the real taj mahal many years ago. it is an actual museum piece with government stamp and worth over 30,000us in the states-a piece i will someday donate to a museum. i had it shipped home and can't believe i am the proud owner, especially for what i had paid for it. totally unbelievable.

back to the guru travel agent who had bad news for us, no way to get out of here. we're stuck here until the 22nd evening when we can get a 2nd class no a/c train back to mumbai, except we have to go to delhi first, take a taxi 2 hours to get a train, connect in delhi, and travel 30 hours back to mumbai, should get us there by the 24th.

when we got back to our hotel, we lost our key. the drama was very big cause they don't have extra keys. they ridiculed me and i fought back. of course all they wanted was 100rps. then we sat and watched then hit the lock with their bare hands, ripping up their knuckles. dorks. but it popped open and we said sorry, they promised a new room in the morning, but we booked out of there cause they did not have a room in the morning and it was time to go to the taj mahal and we had nowhere to store our stuff. big drama there cause the hotel wanted us to pay another 500rps for another night. we screeched out in the waiting rickshaw with samir, as he found us another travel agent and another hotel.

then the drive to the taj. he gave us the lowdown-this guy is great-we are extremely blessed to have him. pickpockets are rampent, the food over there is all poison cause they want you to get sick,(the doctors have a thing with the restaurants and they bleed your insurance) the begging is horrendous. we got in line to pay the 750rps to get in and when i opened my wallet, 500us dollars flew out and on to the ground!!! luckily we were surrounded by tibetan monks and nothing blew away (i think).and it's indian holiday and a saturday, so you can't imagine how many people were there waiting to get through that gate that leads to the garden which leads to the most amazing thing i have ever seen in my entire life. THE TAJ MAHAL. of course i balled like a baby because all my life i've dreamed of seeing this exquisite monument. there is no possible way i can describe how it felt to be in its prescence. i actually thought i would no longer be able to blog cause i can't properlly describe what it's like to be over here in agra. and i appreciated it even more because of the time i spent with my friend at the marble shop. the way they carve out the marble and put tiny pieces of stones that fit perfectly. i just can't describe it. it was probably the most inspiring moment of my life. now you have to understand that i have only begun to travel just 5 years ago for the first time. this was a very big moment.

so if you all decide to study yoga in india, you are crazy not to see the real india. there's WAY much more to this place than mysore. don't limit yourself. don't cheat yourself. this place is totally indescribable, magical, and very very hard on your body and mind. but it's worth every single hard moment. i would do it all again in a heartbeat.

bindifry

too much..magic bus..much too much...magic bus

spending another air con squeeze, this time watching "naach" which probably is the worst hindi movie i've ever saw, which is a surprise since it was filmed by ram gopal varma. felt like i was watching a vogue magazine ad for 3 hours. don't see it. no plot, no characters, terrible music. just a woman with perfect body doing yoga postures in the rain while the big b's talentless son looks on saying 5 words. of course we missed the "timings" of when we could buy a ticket to agra. i just could not stay another day in mumbai, and before we knew it, we were swept off our feet by a strong and insistent muslim man. here's how it went:

"you can get your teeket for agra now, but you will be sitting in the toilet. do you want to sit in the toilet?" "um, no." "then you can break up your trip by going to indore first." "uh, ok." "how long have you been in bombay?" "about ten days." "ten days in mumbai?! this will drive you crazy! you must break up your trip-go to indore. much to see!" "uh....cool."

so we ended up paying 3 times the value for ghetto bus-we were "touted", willingly. i actually wanted to bus to an unknown place cause i'd grown sick of bombay and wanted something more. so we ventured out to the northern state of madhya pradesh. it took over 17 hours to get here and we're only half way to agra in the next state of uttar pradesh. we're in the north and needed a new lonely planet cause we only know the south. our "friend"had helped us find one at NO bargain price. we had an upper bunker on a "sponge" as the driver called it with a ceiling so low we had to ride the entire trip horizontally. and no bathroom. 17 hours with no bathroom and only 2 stops! and that was real bad news cause we desperately had to relieve ourselves in the bag our new lonely planet came in, which proved to be really interesting. did not spill a drop, tied a firm knot, and waited for a good place to drop it down like an overfilled waterballoon. unfortunately the next desperate time wasn't so nice. i had to use plastic chai cups, getting piss all over myself and our sponge. lucky for us our bottle of doc bronners peppermint liquid soap simeltaneously exploded and we spent the next 13 hours lying in peppermint urine. yummy!

j in a classic 3 stooges move pulled down our curtain rod while climbing down from the upper berth leavfing me explosed to the rest of the man bus like an amsterdam hooker.

after 15 hours we get off for lentil puri and chai, when 2 young boys start wacking at my head cause my orange bandana was on fire!!! it burned the most exquisite perfect circle.

aside from these mishaps, it was quite a beautiful journey and we watched the sunrise with beautiful prayer music playing in the background. madhya pradesh is in the mountains and very very beautiful. the heat of mumbai was behind us. lots of farms and bulls and cows. each and every cow was clad in a gorgeous tall colorful head dress, reminiscent of carmen miranda--cow-man miranda! and they paint perfect polka dots on some cows, while others get the striped treatment.

we spent the rest of the day recovering cause there is no way to sleep on a bus that is driving on unpaved roads-your body tossing all over the place like popcorn. yet i still felt like i was in a bollywood film because indian film score music accompanied us the entire journey, blasted as loud as they do at the cinema.

we hired a rickshaw tour guide to show us the sites of indore in the morning, which include a jain temple, kanch mandir, that is fully mirrored with pictures of sinners being tortured in the afterlife, and the ganapati temple, which contains the worlds largest ganesha-bright orange in color and over 30 feet high!!!

our next bus will leave tonight at 7pm to agra-it's a "video air con bus," which means they blast hindi videos the entire duration. that's just fine with me. we are supposed to reach agra by tomorrow-friday-at 7am in the morning. i'm sure i'll have plenty of stories about that one. you have to want to see the taj mahal very badly cause it's supposed to be the worst tourist place with the worst pan handler/touters/grifters in india, and they hiked up the price for tourists to 1000 rupies!(10rps for indians). and yes, i do want to see it that bad, but we plan to split as fast as possible when we figure out the next stop. i'm pressing for jaipur in rajasthan. more later....

bindifried out

360 degrees

i never made the train to the caves. however, i'm doing a complete 360 and taking a 22 hour train today to agra to see the taj mahal. than off to aurangabad for the caves, back here to mumbai, than goa. i don't know how much i will be able to blog during this next week, but if it is a possibility, i will.

i figured the way the world is right now, we could all be dead tomorrow and it would be a shame not to take advantage of some of the wonders of the world. bollywood can wait.

today will also mark the 4th new release movie-"naach" which looks pretty cheesy (amitabh's kid with urmila matondkar-a buxom dancer who spends much of her time showing off her bod while abhishek looks on like a psycho). yesterday was aitraaz, a great sexual harrasment courtroom drama with priyanka chopra, who is almost as beautiful as aishwarya.

thanks to all who have taken the time to e-mail me. believe it or not, i do sometimes get lonely over here.

stay posted-
bindifry

nose job

seems much of my time is spent searching for air conditioned splendor. it's SO hot here, many days over 100, today we get a cool spell of 95. yesterday was the cool afternoon at india's first multiplex the inox to see veer-zaara, the new SRK movie. i was skeptical being fond of the art deco movie houses here, but it proved to be quite posh. reclining chairs, head rest, cup holder, and more leg room than an airline. i was one happy westerner. the movie was the typical romeo and juliet theme (paki loves hindustan) and SRK gets thrown in paki prison for 10 years for falling in love with another man's woman with all the right connections. the best part being the unexpected cameo by amitabh and hema malini as his parents-god he knows how to steal the show. the snack counter was very modern, offerring soft pista ice cream, cold coffee, samosa, and "dum maro dum" biriyani.(the famous song from hari krishna hari ram) the movie had the "throw me a bone with a happy ending" hollywood ending, which i like once in awhile.

this morning, an unexpected treat while having what we thought would only be coffee and air conditioning at the taj, when suddenly out of nowhere appears a monsterous buffet with a bottemless champagne glass. this thing had every fish imaginable, mutton tandoori, parsi faves, unlimited shrimps, subway sandwiches, crepe bar, pasta bar, and 20 feet of deserts, including mousse and swiss chocolates all for rps600. not only that, but a 3 piece malaysian band strolling to each table, taking requests. when they got to our table, we requested johnny cash, "folsom prison blues," cause we wanted to hear them sing the phrase, "i shot a man in reno just to watch him die," but they asked us for the lyrics, which we did not have on us, so we settled for hank williams, "your cheatin heart" instead, which was FAR better than hearing "annie's song" for the 15th time (god they love that john denver), horrific cat stevens covers (father and son!!!)ack!!, "lady in red" (i've heard this one in every third world country i've ever been to), and "up up and away in my beautiful balloon." even a 12 foot tall popeye appeared out of nowhere-or was that the champagne?

*fact-there are no rickshaws in bombay
*fact-it's hotter here cause we're at sea level. the water does not make it cooler.

*excerpt from "debonaire", a feminist nudie mag:
"I experience trememdous sexual pleasure whenever I come across a lady with a beautiful shapely nose with large flared nostrils. fortunately my wife posesses a sharp beautiful nose with large chiseled nostrils. I love to spend hours with my head in her lap gazing into her fleshy flexible oval shaped dark nasal pits, trembling with desire...
*excerpt from "the hindu" hyderabad
"a 21 year old died instantly when a piece of sharp iron pierced his throat on diwali friday. he was watching some locals celebrate with "crackers". one of them placed an empty iron box on a cracker and lit it. as the cracker exploded, the iron box broke into pieces and the splints flew across and one of them pierced Chand's throat killing him instantly."
...see..diwali IS dangerous.
OFF TO AURANGABAD...keep in touch and i will write with more upon my landing.
bindifry