dristi is my new favorite astanga topic. if you have lino's book, you can look up any of them you are unsure of. there are 9 dristis, but we will begin with the 4 used during surya (sun) namaskar (greeting).
1.nasagrai (nose gaze)
2.angusta ma dyai (thumb gaze)
3.broomadhya (third eye)
4.nabi chakra (naval)
there are 9 vinyasas in surya namaskar
1.ekam-inhale hands up-angusta ma dyai
2.dve-exhale forward fold-nasagrai
3.trini-inhale head up-broomadhya
4.catvari-exhale chaturanga-nasagrai
5.panca-inhale up dog (urdhva mukha svanasana)-broomadhya
6.sat-exhale down dog (adho mukha svanasana)-nabi chakra
7.sapta-inhale jump forward-broomadhya
8-astau-exhale forward fold-nasagrai
9.nava-inhale hands up-angusta ma dyai
samasthitih-nasagrai
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pronunciation of sanskrit numbers 1-9
1-ekam-yay kum
2-dve-dway
3-trini-chreenee
4-catvari-chatwori
5-panca-pancha
6-sat-shot
7-sapta-sapta
8-astau-ashtoe
9-nava-now wah
happy learning!
Saturday, December 31, 2005
lungi love
regretfully, i finished "shantaram" and it's impossible to follow that one up. so i opted for the ridiculous and the sublime, 2 books that were hand delivered to my doorstep by friends. "journey to the east" and "scar tissue", a high school herman hesse and the biography of anthony kiedis from the redhotchilipeppers. i'm already almost finished with "scar tissue" and somehow feel soiled. that boy is about nothing but chicks and heroine. which makes him a very boring fellow indeed, and quite pleased with his tattooed self. but it's kind of fun anyhow. every year i bring a pile of books that don't get read, but this year i have to scrounge for reading material. i'm actually obsessed with books now, which is a tremendous achievement, remembering the television addiction i left at home. i was actually obsessed with "america's next top model" and "celebrity fit club." i may have been better off with a heroine addiction myself! and the horror of best sellers and romance novels scattered throughout this island is of epic proportions.
yoga is intense, as usual, and i am getting more than my share of assistence. i am learning a lot of subtle things i was not aware of-especially in intermediate series and am quite anxious to share the knowledge. the adjustments give here are not for the meek. they are extremely firm and frequent. they have eyes in the backs of their heads and they watch everything-check for bandhas, and make sure you are using correct dristi (gaze point).(follow up on dristi 101 in the next post)
there are at least 200 students right now and lino is making 70% of them do led classes for the next 2 days, which means they are really getting down to business with teaching correct vinyasa. YAY! the rest of us get to do mysore at 6am. this is the first time he has ever done this. the workshop is very organized and like a well oiled machine. it's very impressive. penucha has arrived today, so we are lucky to have 6 adjusters at the moment. it's SO good this year i doubt i will ever miss a winter here and encourage anyone who can get away in 2006 to come and join me. it really transforms the practice and i find it way better than the shala in mysore where theres too many people you just fall through the cracks.
i have officially fallen in love with the lungi, just like the turban. here in the hot south, it's all the men wear. it's a piece of cloth wrapped and tucked worn long to the floor or turned into a man mini-skirt. it's always paired with a crisp colorful button down shirt and perfect hair, of course. and i think the lungi for me has become a symbol for the place in india that my heart is really in-kerala. i just love kerala!
yoga is intense, as usual, and i am getting more than my share of assistence. i am learning a lot of subtle things i was not aware of-especially in intermediate series and am quite anxious to share the knowledge. the adjustments give here are not for the meek. they are extremely firm and frequent. they have eyes in the backs of their heads and they watch everything-check for bandhas, and make sure you are using correct dristi (gaze point).(follow up on dristi 101 in the next post)
there are at least 200 students right now and lino is making 70% of them do led classes for the next 2 days, which means they are really getting down to business with teaching correct vinyasa. YAY! the rest of us get to do mysore at 6am. this is the first time he has ever done this. the workshop is very organized and like a well oiled machine. it's very impressive. penucha has arrived today, so we are lucky to have 6 adjusters at the moment. it's SO good this year i doubt i will ever miss a winter here and encourage anyone who can get away in 2006 to come and join me. it really transforms the practice and i find it way better than the shala in mysore where theres too many people you just fall through the cracks.
i have officially fallen in love with the lungi, just like the turban. here in the hot south, it's all the men wear. it's a piece of cloth wrapped and tucked worn long to the floor or turned into a man mini-skirt. it's always paired with a crisp colorful button down shirt and perfect hair, of course. and i think the lungi for me has become a symbol for the place in india that my heart is really in-kerala. i just love kerala!
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
xmas eve
i posted a few dance photos and some other people stuff. this was a pretty fun night. he was one happy dancer. he was juggeling sparklers and shaking everything he had.
Monday, December 26, 2005
the crusher
so that girl who had all the good stories showed up at lino's class today. she was not allowed to drop in for a day, probably because he does not know her. she would have to commit to a week, which is fair. she got all snotty, stormed out and told a mutual friend, "lino is so arrogant!!" "my practice is way more advanced than most of the people in the room!"
that statement is SO sad. why is it that many yogis think the world owes them a big bow because they are "advanced?" i mean, yoga to me has always been about what you can't do,not what you can. because you are proud of your postures, this does not make you more yogi-er than though. i've met way too many people who are like, "look at me!! i'm such a yoga god cause i can do third series! actually, i'm too good to even talk to you!" i can't tell you how many people i have met over here in yoga land that exhibit this nauseating behavior.
xmas was way low key. yoga one hour later-7 instead of 6, my usual brekkie of gobi oothapam (cauliflower grilled rice cake with sambal (spicy lentil gravy), coconut chutney and tomato chutney, ginger tea, and fresh lemon soda-a true addiction. i opted for a little nap instead of attending the yoga party. davey, my irish acquaintance, yelled outside my door and wanted dinner at sunset. ok, cause i was on my way out anyhow. rooftop below average food, above average sunset, and below average conversation. because like so many people i meet, all they want to do is talk about themselves. even if they ask you a question, they don't listen to the answer. this is not communication to me. and i end up being one bored son of a bitch.
i spent xmas eve with davey and ann, another irish lassi, who is a yogi also. after my dinner with fellow chicagoans, i hung out with them at the way below average leos restaurant. it was amusing watching 2 people from the same country communicating. they could have been speaking malayalam it was so foreign, when out of the blue, the south indian ricki martin appears to juggle his sparklers and shake his booty like no one else can. my god he was flamboyant. and i wanted a piece of it. i couldn't help myself and promptly leaped up on the stage to fulfill my bollywood dream and dance with ricki khan martin to ole ole ole! soon about 3 dozen indian youth and geriatrics gathered and formed the typical stadium audience i'm so used to. god they love it when you dance or sing, cause everyone loves to do those things here. unfortunately what put a damper in the performance was the fact that the cd was skipping, making dancing a definite challange.
tina is here and we're about to embark in the greatest 10 days of yoga. she is the lion goddess-the crusher. i've named adjustments after her. she is very quiet and shy, you hardly even know she's there, when suddenly your being squashed like a rotton tomato! she is supremely gifted. lino's wife and teacher. she's kind of like a female sharath, if you know what that means. and incredibly humble. i want to be her when i grow up!
that statement is SO sad. why is it that many yogis think the world owes them a big bow because they are "advanced?" i mean, yoga to me has always been about what you can't do,not what you can. because you are proud of your postures, this does not make you more yogi-er than though. i've met way too many people who are like, "look at me!! i'm such a yoga god cause i can do third series! actually, i'm too good to even talk to you!" i can't tell you how many people i have met over here in yoga land that exhibit this nauseating behavior.
xmas was way low key. yoga one hour later-7 instead of 6, my usual brekkie of gobi oothapam (cauliflower grilled rice cake with sambal (spicy lentil gravy), coconut chutney and tomato chutney, ginger tea, and fresh lemon soda-a true addiction. i opted for a little nap instead of attending the yoga party. davey, my irish acquaintance, yelled outside my door and wanted dinner at sunset. ok, cause i was on my way out anyhow. rooftop below average food, above average sunset, and below average conversation. because like so many people i meet, all they want to do is talk about themselves. even if they ask you a question, they don't listen to the answer. this is not communication to me. and i end up being one bored son of a bitch.
i spent xmas eve with davey and ann, another irish lassi, who is a yogi also. after my dinner with fellow chicagoans, i hung out with them at the way below average leos restaurant. it was amusing watching 2 people from the same country communicating. they could have been speaking malayalam it was so foreign, when out of the blue, the south indian ricki martin appears to juggle his sparklers and shake his booty like no one else can. my god he was flamboyant. and i wanted a piece of it. i couldn't help myself and promptly leaped up on the stage to fulfill my bollywood dream and dance with ricki khan martin to ole ole ole! soon about 3 dozen indian youth and geriatrics gathered and formed the typical stadium audience i'm so used to. god they love it when you dance or sing, cause everyone loves to do those things here. unfortunately what put a damper in the performance was the fact that the cd was skipping, making dancing a definite challange.
tina is here and we're about to embark in the greatest 10 days of yoga. she is the lion goddess-the crusher. i've named adjustments after her. she is very quiet and shy, you hardly even know she's there, when suddenly your being squashed like a rotton tomato! she is supremely gifted. lino's wife and teacher. she's kind of like a female sharath, if you know what that means. and incredibly humble. i want to be her when i grow up!
Saturday, December 24, 2005
vagina mudra
so i noticed a horrible dead rat like smell in my clothes closet only to discover the shell i had brought back from vizhinjam had a decomposing crab getting eaten away by hungry maggots! super!
honestly, there's nothing worse than rotting shellfish.
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amir khan's new wife looks just like my friend cheekoo, who fancys him. are you there, miss lal?
************************************************************
i met a girl from san francisco who was in bangalore at a yoga confrence and somehow ended up here. super friendly with some very good stories i am about to unload. she had been shown all the pretty paths, the river, the palms, all that is lovely about this tropical paradise, met a little girl who was sharing her little hand made doll house, when suddenly an indian man appeared, removed his member and preceded to begin "choking the chicken" so to speak! in front of the child and everything! so the woman starts yelling at the dude and he says politely-"sorry" and does his indian head wag.
the next one was about a certain celebrity yogi who was swearing like a trucker, multi-tasking with 2 cell phones and a blackberry at the airport. she turns up at the conference with a posse of indian youth touching her feet, while she is dressed all in orange like a sadhu, totally "yogic" constantly holding the vagina mudra.
another she told of a tattooed girl with the entire body of kali on her back and front of her body. indian children tore off her shirt, lucky she had a bra on, only to discover the much worshipped deity tattooed to her, and fell to their knees and began to do puja!
honestly, there's nothing worse than rotting shellfish.
***********************************************************
amir khan's new wife looks just like my friend cheekoo, who fancys him. are you there, miss lal?
************************************************************
i met a girl from san francisco who was in bangalore at a yoga confrence and somehow ended up here. super friendly with some very good stories i am about to unload. she had been shown all the pretty paths, the river, the palms, all that is lovely about this tropical paradise, met a little girl who was sharing her little hand made doll house, when suddenly an indian man appeared, removed his member and preceded to begin "choking the chicken" so to speak! in front of the child and everything! so the woman starts yelling at the dude and he says politely-"sorry" and does his indian head wag.
the next one was about a certain celebrity yogi who was swearing like a trucker, multi-tasking with 2 cell phones and a blackberry at the airport. she turns up at the conference with a posse of indian youth touching her feet, while she is dressed all in orange like a sadhu, totally "yogic" constantly holding the vagina mudra.
another she told of a tattooed girl with the entire body of kali on her back and front of her body. indian children tore off her shirt, lucky she had a bra on, only to discover the much worshipped deity tattooed to her, and fell to their knees and began to do puja!
Thursday, December 22, 2005
HO-ho-HO
ok-the radio-AIR, which stands for all india radio-the best damn radio in the world is on and that dreadful theme song from the six flags great america commercial (the one where the kid in the old man suit dances all over the place)is playing with malayalam lyrics. i am wondering whose version had come first. the radio in india is one of it's finest treasures. it was created so all people in india would have access to free radio and they managed to set up 98% of the country with access. i remember a friend asking me why i don't need to take my own music with me to india. "why? when all you really need is a transistor radio and some strong indian made batteries!" she did not understand. "won't you miss western music?" "are you kidding? i come here to get away from it! you can't hear the stuff i hear here back home." i love to sponge up the stuff they play here cause it rocks. nowhere in america can you hear all punjabi radio, rajasthani radio (which REALLY impressed me) and tamil/malayalam radio. there is only one station in most of india, and it varies regionally, but the same format. kind of like npr-national public radio. only the languages change, and slightly different style of music, but always great and always fascinating. they play regional, english, and hindi songs-everything from classical ragas to filmi to backstreet boys, john denver and air supply.
i've been feeling lonely and stir crazy. i am counting the days i will be leaving. i am very homesick and have booked my flight back to bombay, which is kind of a pain. i have to take a train north of kochi, taxi to kochi, fly into bangalore and stay a night, fly into mumbai next day, stay another night, then come home. is ANYTHING easy here???
in the midst of my self deprecation, along comes angela, the girl i met from london during cooking class and invites me to dinner at sabrimala. an x-cook from lonely planet stole the magic gravy recipe and opened his own vegetarian restaurant. this is a good sign, cause i've been feeling anti social, blue, and i would have just sat around for the next 3 days moping and feeling sorry for myself. the holidays depress me. i have no family and i am away from home for the third year in a row. ho ho ho. i know-it's my choice, but it's still sad ass.
the island (i call it this because it feels like a tropical island cut off from the rest of india) is now filled with obnoxious europeans with their ill behaved children. my hotel chock full of screaming danish babies that like to play basketball outside my room at midnight. obviously they don't have to get up at 6 to do yoga. i just stuff my ears with my squishy ear plugs, close my windows and pray for SOME sleep. such a commodity.
HO-HO-HO
i've been feeling lonely and stir crazy. i am counting the days i will be leaving. i am very homesick and have booked my flight back to bombay, which is kind of a pain. i have to take a train north of kochi, taxi to kochi, fly into bangalore and stay a night, fly into mumbai next day, stay another night, then come home. is ANYTHING easy here???
in the midst of my self deprecation, along comes angela, the girl i met from london during cooking class and invites me to dinner at sabrimala. an x-cook from lonely planet stole the magic gravy recipe and opened his own vegetarian restaurant. this is a good sign, cause i've been feeling anti social, blue, and i would have just sat around for the next 3 days moping and feeling sorry for myself. the holidays depress me. i have no family and i am away from home for the third year in a row. ho ho ho. i know-it's my choice, but it's still sad ass.
the island (i call it this because it feels like a tropical island cut off from the rest of india) is now filled with obnoxious europeans with their ill behaved children. my hotel chock full of screaming danish babies that like to play basketball outside my room at midnight. obviously they don't have to get up at 6 to do yoga. i just stuff my ears with my squishy ear plugs, close my windows and pray for SOME sleep. such a commodity.
HO-HO-HO
Monday, December 19, 2005
the boys
these are my friends-well, sharaf and his best childhood friends. you can't imagine the weird looks from fishermen-a white girl and 6 indian boys. here they are holding up a bottle of cheap rum. they washed it down with water-took about 30 minutes for 4 guys to drink it. ick. and when they ran out, they swam out to a swank hotel with a roll of rps in their mouth and got 10 more kingfishers-2 of them holding onto the bag as they swam back to the boat. hardcore. i pretty much ignored them, cause they speak mostly malayalam anyhow, and they ignored me. i just took in the sights and enjoyed the rather amusement park fast speed the boat was going. i am very lucky to have had this cool experience. tourists ane women are never allowed to ride in the fishing boats. once in a life time experience and they were very sweet for doing this for me. now i am the one saying "thank you very much-i am very happy!"
of course my face is badly burnt and it did wonders for my cold, so i missed yoga the next day. oh well
of course my face is badly burnt and it did wonders for my cold, so i missed yoga the next day. oh well
yellow mosque in sharaf's village
this is the mosque that sharaf goes to. he lives in a small fishing village in kerala called vizhinjam.
fishing boat trip
well the boys decided to take me on sharaf's brothers boat today. it was a big one that was motor powered and moved really fast, like an amusement park ride. for 4 hours, we combed the arabian sea, and i got to see many fishing villages, temples and mosques.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
E-G-O
yesterday was another splendid vinyasa workshop with lino. he was in high spirits, which always makes for fine entertainment. i have taken this counting workshop several times over the years, and it gets clearer each time. he demonstrates the real science behind astanga-each breath has a specific count- each asana a specific amount of vinyasas-breath movements. this has been an issue in my classes as well as his. some students love to linger and mince around the asana, when they should be taking only one long breath. this helps to bring the attention to the bandhas and breath, rather than fixating on perfect asana, which is a different style of yoga (vinyasa flow or iyengar). many students waste their time with thinking too much, and incorporating unneccesary movements when entering and exiting postures. this is NOT astanga. astanga is a very precice science. unfortunately some students are stubborn as bulls, and think they know what is best for them, when the fact is that they are fooling themselves into thinking they are doing astanga. i can't tell you how often this system gets no respect, some even dragging toys (props) into the mix, which is NOT astanga! guruji is famous for drop-kicking blocks out of his classroom! it's unfortunate, because these students are wasting theirs and my time, are completely disillusioned, disrespectful to me, and will never reap the fruits of astanga yoga. astanga is not a popular yoga because it requires complete surrender to the system. it's a science. and westerners don't like to be told what to do. (why is this never a problem with asian people?) i often wonder why some students come to my class, because they never change these problems. like i am supposed to cater to what THEY want, like it's supposed to be all about them or something. pity. there's a 3 letter word for that- E-G-O.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
just let go
yesterday i saw my friend sharaf and i took him to see aaru-cause he did not see it yet-big surprise, cause it's rare i can turn him onto something-virrumaandi, kill bill and this one was it. he loved it and was back to his old self,(last year he was very affected emotionally by the tsunami cause he spent time in tamil nadu bringing supplies and collecting money) smiling, laughing, saying "thank you very much" "i am a very happy man" because it's rare a rickshaw driver gets taken to a movie, fed beer, AND get paid. in return, he has invited me out for a day on his brother's fishing boat tomorrow! woo hoo! this is also rare. and it's good, well not good for his brother, but he has been out of work cause of the floods.
i unfortunately had to use the ladies room at the cinema, which i always dread. it had a padlock on it, which they came to open for me. in it there were 4 stalls without doors and indian style toilets without a hole in the floor! just a drawing of a toilet! so i lifted my skirts and squatted and pissed on the floor, the urine splashing all over my shoes and feet--super. i can't say that i've seen that one before. and of course after wiping with my hand, no running water. super. it's always a very very good idea to pack moist towelettes in india, should this occasion occur, and you can bet on it.
we stopped at BAR (the "bars" in india have no interesting names.) simply a generic watering hole that has many individual grey compartments much like an office, but the doors close and there's a buzzer on the wall you ring for service. hardcore seedy. it really makes you feel like a convict when you go in there, especially if you are a white woman with a black rickshaw driver. i tried to get 2 parothas (steamed chappati bread) but they refused unless i bought some curry to go with it! "i don't want any curry" i told them. "you are buying curry!" "don't want any! just parotha" "no" "NO??" they have a fast loud conversation in malayalam with sharaf. "they said they won't give you bread unless you get some curry." this is absurd to me, but i was exhausted at this point, "ok. give me some vegetarian kadhai". it was actually pretty good.
i woke at 620am, walked through the winding paths to my first mysore class, and did a nice slow primary. maria paola (my very favorite)was there and i was so happy to see her. now i have a cold, so i need to move slow the rest of the week. it's ok cause i'm not in any kind of hurry. the greatest lessons yoga can teach us is when to pull back, and how to just let go.
i unfortunately had to use the ladies room at the cinema, which i always dread. it had a padlock on it, which they came to open for me. in it there were 4 stalls without doors and indian style toilets without a hole in the floor! just a drawing of a toilet! so i lifted my skirts and squatted and pissed on the floor, the urine splashing all over my shoes and feet--super. i can't say that i've seen that one before. and of course after wiping with my hand, no running water. super. it's always a very very good idea to pack moist towelettes in india, should this occasion occur, and you can bet on it.
we stopped at BAR (the "bars" in india have no interesting names.) simply a generic watering hole that has many individual grey compartments much like an office, but the doors close and there's a buzzer on the wall you ring for service. hardcore seedy. it really makes you feel like a convict when you go in there, especially if you are a white woman with a black rickshaw driver. i tried to get 2 parothas (steamed chappati bread) but they refused unless i bought some curry to go with it! "i don't want any curry" i told them. "you are buying curry!" "don't want any! just parotha" "no" "NO??" they have a fast loud conversation in malayalam with sharaf. "they said they won't give you bread unless you get some curry." this is absurd to me, but i was exhausted at this point, "ok. give me some vegetarian kadhai". it was actually pretty good.
i woke at 620am, walked through the winding paths to my first mysore class, and did a nice slow primary. maria paola (my very favorite)was there and i was so happy to see her. now i have a cold, so i need to move slow the rest of the week. it's ok cause i'm not in any kind of hurry. the greatest lessons yoga can teach us is when to pull back, and how to just let go.
Friday, December 16, 2005
you must dance with smiling face-afterwards it will be yum yum yum!!
HI-GRO
on indian television, this is some kind of foot device that claims to make you grow as much as a half a foot. don't think we have this in the states.
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being alone is a challange-especially if you are shy, but smiling alot can go a long way. my technique is to first eavesdrop on conversations, gather the info so i can ask questions, and then take the plunge. it helps if they are drinking beers, so i know they won't be snotty. that's how i met an old dutch artist who had been to india 10 times, so he had many good stories and future travel advice. afterwards, i was swept away by the hot indian waiter whom i've known for 3 years who seemed particuallarly interested in me. however, he invited me to "talk" with him at 10:30 pm after his shift at a hotel. hmm. had to blow that one off. a young hot indian and me at a hotel late at night is just asking for trouble. it's weird, cause it seems if you are married, you almost become a dude magnet. go figure. maybe it's the committment thing-casual sex must be happenning like crazy here. they sure hide it well.
friday morning was my first practice with lino-a traditional led class called very slowly-about 2 1/2 hours, which was good for me. very nice. i just love that man lino. "reeelax your baby toe...." it quite wiped me out, but the beauty of this place is you can always take a nap pretty much whenever you want.
in the evening, i took my first cooking course with the famous SIVA of lonely planet. it was the best rps300 (US$6) i've ever spent and tons of good healthy fun. i even made a friend from london.
siva gathered the 10 of us around the cooking burners. it was like the indian emeril, but way more cool. siva has a unique way of speaking. the first things he said about cooking indian food was, "first most important. you must have a good mood. you must dance with smiling face!!! afterwards, it will be yum yum yum!"
he taught us 10 items in 2 hours, everything when prepped properly takes under 5 minutes to prepare "siva's very own fast food!" the first was his "magic sauce", an all purpose basic gravy you can use in 128 (?) items. with it we learned to make aloo gobi (potato & cauliflower), channa masala (spicy chick peas), aloo palak (potato and spinach). after, we learned to make fresh coconut chutney and tomato chutney (my favorite-he singled me out on that one cause he knows how much i like it, "maybe, lisa, you go back home and make your own dosa stall!" "how did you know my plan?" i replied. i got hands on experience making my very own masala dosa. that definitely was a highlight. than we made dal, dal fry, chappatis, and vegetable biryani-siva's own, with pineapple, cashews and raisens. we got to eat everything we made, no additional charge, and i left stuffed and very happy. i now feel very confident to start my own indian kitchen. it was a great way to spend a friday night. siva does indeed rock!
on indian television, this is some kind of foot device that claims to make you grow as much as a half a foot. don't think we have this in the states.
*******************************************
being alone is a challange-especially if you are shy, but smiling alot can go a long way. my technique is to first eavesdrop on conversations, gather the info so i can ask questions, and then take the plunge. it helps if they are drinking beers, so i know they won't be snotty. that's how i met an old dutch artist who had been to india 10 times, so he had many good stories and future travel advice. afterwards, i was swept away by the hot indian waiter whom i've known for 3 years who seemed particuallarly interested in me. however, he invited me to "talk" with him at 10:30 pm after his shift at a hotel. hmm. had to blow that one off. a young hot indian and me at a hotel late at night is just asking for trouble. it's weird, cause it seems if you are married, you almost become a dude magnet. go figure. maybe it's the committment thing-casual sex must be happenning like crazy here. they sure hide it well.
friday morning was my first practice with lino-a traditional led class called very slowly-about 2 1/2 hours, which was good for me. very nice. i just love that man lino. "reeelax your baby toe...." it quite wiped me out, but the beauty of this place is you can always take a nap pretty much whenever you want.
in the evening, i took my first cooking course with the famous SIVA of lonely planet. it was the best rps300 (US$6) i've ever spent and tons of good healthy fun. i even made a friend from london.
siva gathered the 10 of us around the cooking burners. it was like the indian emeril, but way more cool. siva has a unique way of speaking. the first things he said about cooking indian food was, "first most important. you must have a good mood. you must dance with smiling face!!! afterwards, it will be yum yum yum!"
he taught us 10 items in 2 hours, everything when prepped properly takes under 5 minutes to prepare "siva's very own fast food!" the first was his "magic sauce", an all purpose basic gravy you can use in 128 (?) items. with it we learned to make aloo gobi (potato & cauliflower), channa masala (spicy chick peas), aloo palak (potato and spinach). after, we learned to make fresh coconut chutney and tomato chutney (my favorite-he singled me out on that one cause he knows how much i like it, "maybe, lisa, you go back home and make your own dosa stall!" "how did you know my plan?" i replied. i got hands on experience making my very own masala dosa. that definitely was a highlight. than we made dal, dal fry, chappatis, and vegetable biryani-siva's own, with pineapple, cashews and raisens. we got to eat everything we made, no additional charge, and i left stuffed and very happy. i now feel very confident to start my own indian kitchen. it was a great way to spend a friday night. siva does indeed rock!
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
i think i will be happy now
i arrived in sunny kerala yesterday on a 2 hour jet airway flight. i am delighted how easy it is to fly domestically here after having so many hell journeys on busses and trains. and they have about 10 different airlines to choose from, so that makes it easy.
after setting up in my "luxury" pad, i strolled the beach trying to find friends. it was kind of like a ghost town. i guess the tsunami has kept people away. i ran into an old pal-shibu-who is working at a new restaurant. workers move around quite a bit here, but they are still here somewhere. anyhow, i asked what he suggested, and he said prawns with coconut rice. ok. even though i vowed to stay vegetarian on this trip, i figured what the hey? i received 4 pieces with the rice-quite fresh and lovely-almost like lobster. when i got the bill, it was rps500! whoa! that's really expensive (US$10). when i checked the menu, it said rps100 ($2). when i asked him why i was charged 5 times the price, he said, "sorry, lisa. they are jumbo prawns."
now in india, you MUST ALWAYS as the price first, even if you see it printed on the menu. and of course, it always sucks to be ripped off by who you think are your friends. his loss. won't be back there. i'll stick to my lonely planet veg restaurant.
i went to find lino at class, because he lets people practice on moon day and just supervises. there he was. about 20 knuckleheads practicing on moon day. i can start tomorrow-friday. each friday are lead primary class at 7am just like they do it in mysore. cool! i'm ready! and i get to start in the first or second group-630-645. the earlier the better, for me.
i went back to my room last night and discovered how ghetto my rps750 room is. they stuck me in a room without windows, privacy, electrical outlets, a/c (they promised i would have this), no tv (also a promise),no way to clean my clothes, stinking of moth balls, and a fan that was unable to be adjusted-was permanently on high and almost falling out of the ceiling! it was so loud with the workers congregating outside at the desk and the phone ringing off the hook.
so i got up at 7 and after seeing lino, went and priced a few places by the beach. i found a place twice the size as the other with a balcony, adjustable fan, outlets wedged right between my high speed internet pad and lonely planet (where i eat almost all my meals) for rps250!! how happy am i? that's US$5 per day, rather than US$15! and with the flying i did, i can not really afford such a place.
lucky for me i am reading "shantaram" a fabulous novel that is 1000 pgs long and very detailed about bombay, my favorite city. the book was given to me last year by judy and daniel neiman and i have finally got the chance to chew into it. i think i will be happy.
after setting up in my "luxury" pad, i strolled the beach trying to find friends. it was kind of like a ghost town. i guess the tsunami has kept people away. i ran into an old pal-shibu-who is working at a new restaurant. workers move around quite a bit here, but they are still here somewhere. anyhow, i asked what he suggested, and he said prawns with coconut rice. ok. even though i vowed to stay vegetarian on this trip, i figured what the hey? i received 4 pieces with the rice-quite fresh and lovely-almost like lobster. when i got the bill, it was rps500! whoa! that's really expensive (US$10). when i checked the menu, it said rps100 ($2). when i asked him why i was charged 5 times the price, he said, "sorry, lisa. they are jumbo prawns."
now in india, you MUST ALWAYS as the price first, even if you see it printed on the menu. and of course, it always sucks to be ripped off by who you think are your friends. his loss. won't be back there. i'll stick to my lonely planet veg restaurant.
i went to find lino at class, because he lets people practice on moon day and just supervises. there he was. about 20 knuckleheads practicing on moon day. i can start tomorrow-friday. each friday are lead primary class at 7am just like they do it in mysore. cool! i'm ready! and i get to start in the first or second group-630-645. the earlier the better, for me.
i went back to my room last night and discovered how ghetto my rps750 room is. they stuck me in a room without windows, privacy, electrical outlets, a/c (they promised i would have this), no tv (also a promise),no way to clean my clothes, stinking of moth balls, and a fan that was unable to be adjusted-was permanently on high and almost falling out of the ceiling! it was so loud with the workers congregating outside at the desk and the phone ringing off the hook.
so i got up at 7 and after seeing lino, went and priced a few places by the beach. i found a place twice the size as the other with a balcony, adjustable fan, outlets wedged right between my high speed internet pad and lonely planet (where i eat almost all my meals) for rps250!! how happy am i? that's US$5 per day, rather than US$15! and with the flying i did, i can not really afford such a place.
lucky for me i am reading "shantaram" a fabulous novel that is 1000 pgs long and very detailed about bombay, my favorite city. the book was given to me last year by judy and daniel neiman and i have finally got the chance to chew into it. i think i will be happy.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Monday, December 12, 2005
at the golden temple-amritsar,punjab
here i am at the golden temple. quite a beautiful and peaceful place.
at the wagha border
here i am on the border of pakistan and india in punjab. this was definitely a highlight of my trip. more pictures on my site:
www.flickr.com/photos/bindifry/
www.flickr.com/photos/bindifry/
Saturday, December 10, 2005
filum,filum,filum
the 2 biggest reasons i like bombay are food and film. can't get enough of either. yesterday we saw the 10am showing of "hanuman"-india's first animated feature. who dosen't love hanuman, right? this was so endearing-it was a bit sloppy, but cute and obviously modeled after the 1930s vintage disney shorts. there were times when you could see mistakes in the drawings, fills not proper, etc, but it just added to the charm. we see hanuman being born and turning into the powerful monkey king in the traditional ramayana fashion. i immediately set out to buy the soundtrack because it was excellent, and had my favorite singer, kailash kher, on many of the tracks, as well as sonu nigam.
after, we bought tickets for our evening show at 520, because this is opeffning week for a handful of hindi filums. we chose "kalyug" a movie about the porn, or "blue" film industry. all unknown actors, pakistani singers on the soundtrack, same people who did "paap", one of my favorite recent soundtracks. after strolling the city on a steller day, watching some cricket in the park, going to planet M, and doing some street shopping-(i purchased some great little yoga towels for some special girlie students of mine and the vendor held my rp100 bill flat in the palm of his hand as his friends marvlled at the crispness, utterring "atm"), we made our way back to the inox multiplex. kalyug did not disappoint. it was a political film about human trafficking and how most of them end up in the blue film industry. it was a fantastic soundtrack, and a great treat seeing all unknown actors. i really get sick of the same recycled hindi film actors over and over and over again.
we walked back towards the bay where we knew of a place called gokal near the gateway that is a supposed gay hangout with dozens of heavy drinkers. it was a real big dive, me being the only female in the entire a/c room, and not one male staring! such a treat. jeff ate the traditional pomfreit and liver masala, i stuck with prawn koliwada and some biryani (instead of chunks of chicken, there was a massive whole piece buried underneath the rice-a new one on me). the menu offered bottles of booze rather than glasses. we stuck with a couple of hayward 5000s.
but the real treat was this morning. there was one showing only at 930am sunday of a tamil film called "aaru"-i knew this had to be a good one because bombay does not get too many of these, and i expected there to be a small turnout. got up at 7 and did my yoga (strength is coming back!), went down to the kamut-for some idly, and to our delight, hundreds of tamil people huddled around the regal theatre for the one time showing of this big movie. and let me tell you, tamil movies put the current crop of hindi movies to shame. they've always been my favorite, because they usually are regular people (not yuppies), dark skinned (try to find that in hindi movies)-they dance like it's the last time on earth, they fight harder and better than any movies i've ever seen, even hong kong cinema, and they are just a true delight for the senses. my heart was racing throughout the entire film. and i got big pit stains from being constantly on the edge. the big star was surya, who i've seen before. and plenty of comic relief. i couldn't tell you exactly what it was about, but i could tell it was about betrayal, political corruption (most tamil movies tackle these themes) and, of course, love.
and it totally whet my appetite for the south. i can't wait to get to kerala! it kisses tamil nadu, and the films i end up seeing are tamil and malayalum. the sole hindi cinema is empty, you can hardly get near the local films. and it's SO exciting because the crowds really get into it-cheering their heros on, clapping and whistling. i love it.
now i remember why i love the south SO much. don't believe it when they tell you that the south is not the "real" india. it's more real and magical than you can ever believe.
after, we bought tickets for our evening show at 520, because this is opeffning week for a handful of hindi filums. we chose "kalyug" a movie about the porn, or "blue" film industry. all unknown actors, pakistani singers on the soundtrack, same people who did "paap", one of my favorite recent soundtracks. after strolling the city on a steller day, watching some cricket in the park, going to planet M, and doing some street shopping-(i purchased some great little yoga towels for some special girlie students of mine and the vendor held my rp100 bill flat in the palm of his hand as his friends marvlled at the crispness, utterring "atm"), we made our way back to the inox multiplex. kalyug did not disappoint. it was a political film about human trafficking and how most of them end up in the blue film industry. it was a fantastic soundtrack, and a great treat seeing all unknown actors. i really get sick of the same recycled hindi film actors over and over and over again.
we walked back towards the bay where we knew of a place called gokal near the gateway that is a supposed gay hangout with dozens of heavy drinkers. it was a real big dive, me being the only female in the entire a/c room, and not one male staring! such a treat. jeff ate the traditional pomfreit and liver masala, i stuck with prawn koliwada and some biryani (instead of chunks of chicken, there was a massive whole piece buried underneath the rice-a new one on me). the menu offered bottles of booze rather than glasses. we stuck with a couple of hayward 5000s.
but the real treat was this morning. there was one showing only at 930am sunday of a tamil film called "aaru"-i knew this had to be a good one because bombay does not get too many of these, and i expected there to be a small turnout. got up at 7 and did my yoga (strength is coming back!), went down to the kamut-for some idly, and to our delight, hundreds of tamil people huddled around the regal theatre for the one time showing of this big movie. and let me tell you, tamil movies put the current crop of hindi movies to shame. they've always been my favorite, because they usually are regular people (not yuppies), dark skinned (try to find that in hindi movies)-they dance like it's the last time on earth, they fight harder and better than any movies i've ever seen, even hong kong cinema, and they are just a true delight for the senses. my heart was racing throughout the entire film. and i got big pit stains from being constantly on the edge. the big star was surya, who i've seen before. and plenty of comic relief. i couldn't tell you exactly what it was about, but i could tell it was about betrayal, political corruption (most tamil movies tackle these themes) and, of course, love.
and it totally whet my appetite for the south. i can't wait to get to kerala! it kisses tamil nadu, and the films i end up seeing are tamil and malayalum. the sole hindi cinema is empty, you can hardly get near the local films. and it's SO exciting because the crowds really get into it-cheering their heros on, clapping and whistling. i love it.
now i remember why i love the south SO much. don't believe it when they tell you that the south is not the "real" india. it's more real and magical than you can ever believe.
Friday, December 09, 2005
french yak
quotes of the week about jeff's beard
"you are a french yak" "osama bin laden!! ha ha ha!" "are you from pakistan, sir? no? arizona?"
**********************************************************************************
so the last day in jaipur was not too bad. i don't want to dis on the whole of rajasthan because of my personal mishaps and inability to deal with the hell that accompanies the heavily touristed areas. i just want to put it behind me and learn from these experiences and put them into practice next time i visit india. (strange i know i will return repeatedly despite the hell) i will only visit the more obscure places. i will always wipe my glass well before drinking from it. i will take my time when being sold tours. i will not travel by train and pretend it's some kind of "fun" adventure. i will embrace deccan airlines. i will only visit one place per week.
we began the day trying to find the cheapest flight possible out of the shackles of jaipur to mumbai. everytime we would call somewhere, we would get this "haaalooo??? haaaloooo???" and than dial tone. and quotes we did get were in the rps 9000 range-200US. we finally settled for the hotel's advice and went with the posh, but not cheap, but convenient indian airlines because we were beat down trying to do it on our own. they sent us to travel care (travel care-that makes me chuckle) where they actually lost our credit card trying to multi-task, dozens of posters on the wall of dennis the menace and charlie brown preaching about making the customer "happy" - of course they pointed their male dominated index fingers at me-"we gave the card to HER (her is obviously a dirty word here) i just barked like a rotweiler and they found the card. amateurs. all of them. period.
*****************************************************************************
GURUCOOL CLASSES- we kept seeing this sign with a phone number advertised all over jaipur and wondered what it meant.
ok ok ok...so for the final night we took our first peddled rickshaw (quite small and pretty hard on the bum-poor fellows with their boney asses) to an amazing vegetarian south indian restaurant called "surya mahal." there, we feasted on papad stuffed with aloo (potatos), sarsoo (broccoli rabe like spinach but way more bitter), chickpea paratha, malai kofta (veg meatball in rich tasty gravy), and chach (buttermilk). 4 guys stood over us with our american appetites marvelling at our bollywood knowledge. "you should have come a few hours earlier-my brother is in the movies shooting munna bhai mbbs II and we could have hooked you up!" chirped our favorite waiter. i shout out my faves like shah rukh khan, sanjay dutt, and anil kapoor, and he hit me with raj kapoor, so i hit him with dilip kumar, dev anand and guru dutt. it was like cricket! he taught us the bollywood family tree-who is related to whom-the kapoors, the kumars, but he was wrong about om puri and amrish puri being brothers, because we knew they were just cousins, and when i said "i did not know that, obviously insulting him (i do this ALL the time with indian cinema) jeff just poked me and said "YES!" because he had learned not to disrespect, not correct even though they are wrong. f...that. i think they should know the truth! however, that always gets me into trouble. how the hell could a white girl from chicago know more about hindi cinema than a native indian? well, i do my research and i'm absolutely sure. what is wrong with having the facts? indians don't seem to feel wrong about correcting your mistakes.....whatever. i let it go.
we struck up a relationship with the man next to us who was eating many courses of food. he learned our entire history and invited us to his home, but too late! we were leaving at 6am in the morning. darn it. i always seem to miss the good stuff. after he left, our pal said "i think that man was tipsy.
we had a great time, and when we left, he said, "good luck getting into the movies-suppose the director wants you to shave your beard?"
"no problem. it will always grow back."
*****************************************************************************
off to the famous raj mandir cinema in jaipur-an elaborate castle that had been turned into a film theatre. and a spectacle to the eyes, and surround sound to boot! like a junkie in a candy store i was, panting like a dog. kyon ki was playing with 2 of my least favorite actors-salman khan and kareena kapoor. at least om puri was in it for good measure, and a cast of good small parts. how i marvled at the interior-the chandeliers, the carvings on the wall, the squishy carpets all pink, like real royalty. everyone was taking photos of the interior with their cell phones, so i took some photos with my camera and GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! i got accosted by 2 men in brown-grabbing my camera from my arm! "you have to cut off my had to get this camera, mister" "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" they could NOT have my camera. i held onto it like it was my lifeblood. they dug their fingers into my wrists, they pulled my body up the stairs, but i would NOT LET GO. the whole crowd was behind me shaking their heads in that traditional nebulous indian head shake, which meant "what the fu...????" this is out of control!!! i say-no filum, no filum! i delete! i delete! watch!-so i delete every interior photo in front of this crowd and the men in brown. and i proceed to the "diamond" entry box seats to see the film i don't really want to see because i'm there to see the interior of this very famous cinema. regretfully, i have no photos of this place except the outside. whew!!! that was indeed a close one. you could buy tickets in sections ruby,saphire,emerald or diamond. all the whities were in the expensive seats, of course, many obviously bollywood virgins de-flowering before our eyes-and to a bad salman khan movie, nevertheless. so we sat through half of a stupid re-make of cuckoos nest (nice try-salman khan as jack nicholson???) only there was the love twist where we find out why salman is crazy-he throws his wife into a pool and drowns her by mistake. we had to leave at intermission (all indian movies have intermission 90 minutes into the film for smoking and peeing and eating-most of these films are 3-4 hours long) because we had to check out of our hotel, arrange a ride to the airport, and watch a 2 hour special on john lennon on star world cable tv.
i am landing in mumbai as i write this, 2 hours it takes, one healthy south indian brekkie served-vada and oothapam with "jive juice",chai,fruit,yogurt,water,and chutney & sambar. indian airlines rocks. i like flying. and today, well at least at the moment, there seems to be a god.
"you are a french yak" "osama bin laden!! ha ha ha!" "are you from pakistan, sir? no? arizona?"
**********************************************************************************
so the last day in jaipur was not too bad. i don't want to dis on the whole of rajasthan because of my personal mishaps and inability to deal with the hell that accompanies the heavily touristed areas. i just want to put it behind me and learn from these experiences and put them into practice next time i visit india. (strange i know i will return repeatedly despite the hell) i will only visit the more obscure places. i will always wipe my glass well before drinking from it. i will take my time when being sold tours. i will not travel by train and pretend it's some kind of "fun" adventure. i will embrace deccan airlines. i will only visit one place per week.
we began the day trying to find the cheapest flight possible out of the shackles of jaipur to mumbai. everytime we would call somewhere, we would get this "haaalooo??? haaaloooo???" and than dial tone. and quotes we did get were in the rps 9000 range-200US. we finally settled for the hotel's advice and went with the posh, but not cheap, but convenient indian airlines because we were beat down trying to do it on our own. they sent us to travel care (travel care-that makes me chuckle) where they actually lost our credit card trying to multi-task, dozens of posters on the wall of dennis the menace and charlie brown preaching about making the customer "happy" - of course they pointed their male dominated index fingers at me-"we gave the card to HER (her is obviously a dirty word here) i just barked like a rotweiler and they found the card. amateurs. all of them. period.
*****************************************************************************
GURUCOOL CLASSES- we kept seeing this sign with a phone number advertised all over jaipur and wondered what it meant.
ok ok ok...so for the final night we took our first peddled rickshaw (quite small and pretty hard on the bum-poor fellows with their boney asses) to an amazing vegetarian south indian restaurant called "surya mahal." there, we feasted on papad stuffed with aloo (potatos), sarsoo (broccoli rabe like spinach but way more bitter), chickpea paratha, malai kofta (veg meatball in rich tasty gravy), and chach (buttermilk). 4 guys stood over us with our american appetites marvelling at our bollywood knowledge. "you should have come a few hours earlier-my brother is in the movies shooting munna bhai mbbs II and we could have hooked you up!" chirped our favorite waiter. i shout out my faves like shah rukh khan, sanjay dutt, and anil kapoor, and he hit me with raj kapoor, so i hit him with dilip kumar, dev anand and guru dutt. it was like cricket! he taught us the bollywood family tree-who is related to whom-the kapoors, the kumars, but he was wrong about om puri and amrish puri being brothers, because we knew they were just cousins, and when i said "i did not know that, obviously insulting him (i do this ALL the time with indian cinema) jeff just poked me and said "YES!" because he had learned not to disrespect, not correct even though they are wrong. f...that. i think they should know the truth! however, that always gets me into trouble. how the hell could a white girl from chicago know more about hindi cinema than a native indian? well, i do my research and i'm absolutely sure. what is wrong with having the facts? indians don't seem to feel wrong about correcting your mistakes.....whatever. i let it go.
we struck up a relationship with the man next to us who was eating many courses of food. he learned our entire history and invited us to his home, but too late! we were leaving at 6am in the morning. darn it. i always seem to miss the good stuff. after he left, our pal said "i think that man was tipsy.
we had a great time, and when we left, he said, "good luck getting into the movies-suppose the director wants you to shave your beard?"
"no problem. it will always grow back."
*****************************************************************************
off to the famous raj mandir cinema in jaipur-an elaborate castle that had been turned into a film theatre. and a spectacle to the eyes, and surround sound to boot! like a junkie in a candy store i was, panting like a dog. kyon ki was playing with 2 of my least favorite actors-salman khan and kareena kapoor. at least om puri was in it for good measure, and a cast of good small parts. how i marvled at the interior-the chandeliers, the carvings on the wall, the squishy carpets all pink, like real royalty. everyone was taking photos of the interior with their cell phones, so i took some photos with my camera and GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! i got accosted by 2 men in brown-grabbing my camera from my arm! "you have to cut off my had to get this camera, mister" "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" they could NOT have my camera. i held onto it like it was my lifeblood. they dug their fingers into my wrists, they pulled my body up the stairs, but i would NOT LET GO. the whole crowd was behind me shaking their heads in that traditional nebulous indian head shake, which meant "what the fu...????" this is out of control!!! i say-no filum, no filum! i delete! i delete! watch!-so i delete every interior photo in front of this crowd and the men in brown. and i proceed to the "diamond" entry box seats to see the film i don't really want to see because i'm there to see the interior of this very famous cinema. regretfully, i have no photos of this place except the outside. whew!!! that was indeed a close one. you could buy tickets in sections ruby,saphire,emerald or diamond. all the whities were in the expensive seats, of course, many obviously bollywood virgins de-flowering before our eyes-and to a bad salman khan movie, nevertheless. so we sat through half of a stupid re-make of cuckoos nest (nice try-salman khan as jack nicholson???) only there was the love twist where we find out why salman is crazy-he throws his wife into a pool and drowns her by mistake. we had to leave at intermission (all indian movies have intermission 90 minutes into the film for smoking and peeing and eating-most of these films are 3-4 hours long) because we had to check out of our hotel, arrange a ride to the airport, and watch a 2 hour special on john lennon on star world cable tv.
i am landing in mumbai as i write this, 2 hours it takes, one healthy south indian brekkie served-vada and oothapam with "jive juice",chai,fruit,yogurt,water,and chutney & sambar. indian airlines rocks. i like flying. and today, well at least at the moment, there seems to be a god.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
you teach me yoga....
so we got of the train around 930pm. like a swarm of bumblebees, we are accosted by dozens of rickshaw touts-the most hardcore ones i have ever encountered (and i've been to agra). unfortunately, jaipur is one of the most touristy places in india and that fact has ruined it completely. i hate rajasthan for this. you can't walk anywhere without a circle of touts/beggers/hawkers around you at all times. and after being so sick and hard trip from the get go, this has not been the camel riding, elephant loving, palace trip i had dreamed of.
so these assholes won't take NO for an answer, "prepay, prepay," we are trying to find the legitimate window to pre-pay, because we already have done our homework. this is the one time i am actually glad not to be a man here, because they swarmed jeff, not me. women are invisible here. unless you are not wearing your dupata (scarf over boobs-i made the mistake of not having one last week in bombay and believe me, i was not invisible-well, my boobs weren't anyhow).
we plunged ourselves sweating right into the government tourist office, panting-"pre-paid windows are where?" "sir, do you have a reservation at your hotel?" "no" "well, you should try one of my hotels" he precedes to try to sell us one of his, nowhere near where we want to stay. "no. we want to stay by the park" "very well. call them and ask if they have a room" we call, they have one, and tell us to wait right there while they send someone to get us for free. thank you. there may be a god after all. but probably not.
within a half a minute, a dude appears (ali)with a paddle with the name "madhuvan"our hotel on it. we scamper after him, ditching the pile of dirty shoeless rickshaw peddlers, into a pristine old white ambassador taxi. on the way, he begins to tout us-"i give tours of jaipur. it is my tour, the jaipur i know, but you can have me for 12 hours and we go many places." me, in my delight and good instinctive "feeling" i have for mr. ali, without much thought ,cause he gives us that "if you do not decide now, i will be busy already"line of bull, says "yes!" because mr. ali is a kind of savior to me at this point. you have NO idea what it's like to land from a train into jaipur. we stay in a gorgeous mini marble palace with a flower garden and amazing hospitality. now there might be a god.
we rise in the morning, drag my bum to the yoga mat and squeak out a weak half primary, but it helps and VOILA! ali is waiting ready to take us on our tour!
first we visit jaipur city palace. this cool old palace still houses relatives of the maharaja and has a bunch of courtyards and buildings from 18th century. there's a palace of the winds for the ladies to watch the street, and a maharani palace which was the queen's apartment. it has amazing ceiling frescos and collections of old weapons-including the dagger that turns into scissors upon impaling the victim and opens inside and disembowls-handy! as well as the largest pieces of silver according to the guiness book of world records-in the world. these giant silver pots were used to carry sacred ganges water.
next, we went to the observitory called jantar mantar. it was created by jai singh in the early 1700s and contains the worlds largest sundial and 13 massive stone instruments for calculating movement of celestial bodies, positions of constellations, calculates hindu calandar, and all 12 zodiac positions. wish we had a guide for that one cause it kind of made me speechless.
then ali took us to the grave of the maharajas. we decided to get a guide this time, and at light speed, he spoke SO fast and ran SO far ahead of us, i did not even know what was going on. apparently he was anxious to get his rupees and get back to his newspaper. the only thing i got out of it was one of the graves had an old king who was over 7 feet tall and over 500 pounds. he ate over 100 chapatis for breakfast each day. and tiny dirty sneezing begger kids by our side the entire time sneezing diseases everywhere, "chocolate? chewing gum? one rupee?" i am trying to get away from him because i don't want tuburculosis or typoid, thank you. i know this all sounds terribly cold to you, but if you spend enough time here, believe me, you would feel the same way.
the next place was outside of jaipur, called the amber fort. it was built at the end of the 1500s during war. you can walk, take a jeep, or an elephant up. we opted to walk, because the elephants are severly abused like all animals here and we did not want to contribute. first you walk through a pool, than a courtyard and then a bunch of winding steps dotted with touts, beggers and hawkers. there's a kali temple that a goat has been sacraficed at daily since 16th century (i guess outlawed in 1980 finally). there are mind blowing frescos, mirrored ceilings, and breath taking views of the city. i liked this one the best.
after having lunch-which almost killed me because i fasted 4 days and ate what he said was "mild" veg biryani and dhal fry, mr ali forced us into yet another textile shop, which really sucked. had to sit through the whole carpet lecture, silks, pashmina, etc etc...me almost pooping my pants from curry, AND they insist on wrapping me in a sari! f....NO NO NO. thank god i got my way, bought a couple pashminas, and darted back into mr. nice ali's taxi.
on the way to the hotel, we stopped for bottles of water. jeff went out to get them. when he left, mr. ali turns to me and says "have you ever been with an indian man before? because you can call me when your husband leaves and meet me here. you teach me yoga, i give you nice body massage. we have lots of fun together."
um.....i'm sure you know the rest of this story. i bought my ticket back to bombay. i'm leaving tomorrow-friday-at 730am.
back to a city you can disappear into, a city that does not tout and hawk you to death unless you want that, a city with at least SOME respect.
rajasthan. it's not at all what i expected.
so these assholes won't take NO for an answer, "prepay, prepay," we are trying to find the legitimate window to pre-pay, because we already have done our homework. this is the one time i am actually glad not to be a man here, because they swarmed jeff, not me. women are invisible here. unless you are not wearing your dupata (scarf over boobs-i made the mistake of not having one last week in bombay and believe me, i was not invisible-well, my boobs weren't anyhow).
we plunged ourselves sweating right into the government tourist office, panting-"pre-paid windows are where?" "sir, do you have a reservation at your hotel?" "no" "well, you should try one of my hotels" he precedes to try to sell us one of his, nowhere near where we want to stay. "no. we want to stay by the park" "very well. call them and ask if they have a room" we call, they have one, and tell us to wait right there while they send someone to get us for free. thank you. there may be a god after all. but probably not.
within a half a minute, a dude appears (ali)with a paddle with the name "madhuvan"our hotel on it. we scamper after him, ditching the pile of dirty shoeless rickshaw peddlers, into a pristine old white ambassador taxi. on the way, he begins to tout us-"i give tours of jaipur. it is my tour, the jaipur i know, but you can have me for 12 hours and we go many places." me, in my delight and good instinctive "feeling" i have for mr. ali, without much thought ,cause he gives us that "if you do not decide now, i will be busy already"line of bull, says "yes!" because mr. ali is a kind of savior to me at this point. you have NO idea what it's like to land from a train into jaipur. we stay in a gorgeous mini marble palace with a flower garden and amazing hospitality. now there might be a god.
we rise in the morning, drag my bum to the yoga mat and squeak out a weak half primary, but it helps and VOILA! ali is waiting ready to take us on our tour!
first we visit jaipur city palace. this cool old palace still houses relatives of the maharaja and has a bunch of courtyards and buildings from 18th century. there's a palace of the winds for the ladies to watch the street, and a maharani palace which was the queen's apartment. it has amazing ceiling frescos and collections of old weapons-including the dagger that turns into scissors upon impaling the victim and opens inside and disembowls-handy! as well as the largest pieces of silver according to the guiness book of world records-in the world. these giant silver pots were used to carry sacred ganges water.
next, we went to the observitory called jantar mantar. it was created by jai singh in the early 1700s and contains the worlds largest sundial and 13 massive stone instruments for calculating movement of celestial bodies, positions of constellations, calculates hindu calandar, and all 12 zodiac positions. wish we had a guide for that one cause it kind of made me speechless.
then ali took us to the grave of the maharajas. we decided to get a guide this time, and at light speed, he spoke SO fast and ran SO far ahead of us, i did not even know what was going on. apparently he was anxious to get his rupees and get back to his newspaper. the only thing i got out of it was one of the graves had an old king who was over 7 feet tall and over 500 pounds. he ate over 100 chapatis for breakfast each day. and tiny dirty sneezing begger kids by our side the entire time sneezing diseases everywhere, "chocolate? chewing gum? one rupee?" i am trying to get away from him because i don't want tuburculosis or typoid, thank you. i know this all sounds terribly cold to you, but if you spend enough time here, believe me, you would feel the same way.
the next place was outside of jaipur, called the amber fort. it was built at the end of the 1500s during war. you can walk, take a jeep, or an elephant up. we opted to walk, because the elephants are severly abused like all animals here and we did not want to contribute. first you walk through a pool, than a courtyard and then a bunch of winding steps dotted with touts, beggers and hawkers. there's a kali temple that a goat has been sacraficed at daily since 16th century (i guess outlawed in 1980 finally). there are mind blowing frescos, mirrored ceilings, and breath taking views of the city. i liked this one the best.
after having lunch-which almost killed me because i fasted 4 days and ate what he said was "mild" veg biryani and dhal fry, mr ali forced us into yet another textile shop, which really sucked. had to sit through the whole carpet lecture, silks, pashmina, etc etc...me almost pooping my pants from curry, AND they insist on wrapping me in a sari! f....NO NO NO. thank god i got my way, bought a couple pashminas, and darted back into mr. nice ali's taxi.
on the way to the hotel, we stopped for bottles of water. jeff went out to get them. when he left, mr. ali turns to me and says "have you ever been with an indian man before? because you can call me when your husband leaves and meet me here. you teach me yoga, i give you nice body massage. we have lots of fun together."
um.....i'm sure you know the rest of this story. i bought my ticket back to bombay. i'm leaving tomorrow-friday-at 730am.
back to a city you can disappear into, a city that does not tout and hawk you to death unless you want that, a city with at least SOME respect.
rajasthan. it's not at all what i expected.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
going to jaipur
after my sickness, we flew to delhi and took a train to jaipur. the plane was the size of a chevy van and had propellers. they squash you into a bus only to drive 20 feet to the plane-this amused me. it took only 90 minutes. i think i like planes now.
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quote of the week
on asking where to find vinyl records
"sir, you must understand-these things no longer exist"
we walked around the corner and found a record seller and bought a dozen filmi albums and 45s.
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new delhi is kind of sterile. the rickshaws aren't allowed to paint cool stuff, so they all look the same. roads are impressively paved, it's kind of clean, no hand painted signs anywhere, and no posters littering the walls. but we were on our way to the old delhi rail station. classic india. great buildings, plenty of trash, lots of hand made graphics. what a difference.
with 4 hours to kill, we hung outside under an umbrella reading newspapers and sipping chai, getting offers of beat up old dudes with long q-tip offering to clean jeff's ears-the qtip was black-ewe. we boarded the famous 3 tier a/c to jaipur, rajasthan for the next 7 hours (because, of course, the train kept stalling). shared space by window view with a cute pair of french lesbians with matching hippie pants and hair and big tshirts and a revolving door of proper indian men. i am very happy to have a view of the countryside UNTIL a man puts his hanging clothes right over the window right in my face. why not?
i was, however, delighted to receive my chai in little earthenware cups-flower pots. but whose lips were there before????
*********************************************************************************
quote of the week
on asking where to find vinyl records
"sir, you must understand-these things no longer exist"
we walked around the corner and found a record seller and bought a dozen filmi albums and 45s.
***********************************************************************************
new delhi is kind of sterile. the rickshaws aren't allowed to paint cool stuff, so they all look the same. roads are impressively paved, it's kind of clean, no hand painted signs anywhere, and no posters littering the walls. but we were on our way to the old delhi rail station. classic india. great buildings, plenty of trash, lots of hand made graphics. what a difference.
with 4 hours to kill, we hung outside under an umbrella reading newspapers and sipping chai, getting offers of beat up old dudes with long q-tip offering to clean jeff's ears-the qtip was black-ewe. we boarded the famous 3 tier a/c to jaipur, rajasthan for the next 7 hours (because, of course, the train kept stalling). shared space by window view with a cute pair of french lesbians with matching hippie pants and hair and big tshirts and a revolving door of proper indian men. i am very happy to have a view of the countryside UNTIL a man puts his hanging clothes right over the window right in my face. why not?
i was, however, delighted to receive my chai in little earthenware cups-flower pots. but whose lips were there before????
backtracking
well i have been absent for a couple reasons. first, it had been very hard to find dependable internet in punjab. each time i would blog, "POOF!" gone like bad magic. and there are enough irritations here. and after my first real "good" day, i got my first giardia. this one put me flat on my back for 3 days. all because i forgot to dry out a glass before putting liquid in it. this feels like a rodent with long nails is doing laps in your intestine. it's terribly painful, and you shoot gallons of water out of your bum, so you have to drink gallons of water. i had to take antibiotics because i could not combat myself, and had not eaten for 3 days. so that's that.
in response to jeff, he is here. we took seperate flights and it took him 18 hours and me 36 to get to mumbai. he is doing fine, never gets sick, never lets anything bother him. we are very different beings. he will be leaving on the 18th, i'm pretty sure i will be home on 18 january.
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12-3
i visited the golden temple, which was the reason for my going to amritsar. it is the holiest shrine of the sikhs, a sect of the hindu religeon that broke off and formed their own thing around the 18th century for many reasons. they are a very peaceful people and i very much enjoyed being around them. the gold temple was much smaller than i imagined and is surrounded by a pool called amrit sarovat, which means nectar of the gods, where the name amritsar came from. this is enclosed by a beautiful white fort. the temple is open to all denominations, and a wonderful way to spend a beautiful day. before entering, you have to wash your feet and cover your head. you can take prasad-sweets-and distribute inside the different levels in the temple. there are musicians and priests on each floor and the music is broadcast on speakers throughout the compound. great atmosphere. you can watch this on television live every day. and every day at 5am, the holy book is carried into the temple, and removed at sunset. the golden dome is an inverted lotus flower representing the sikhs concern with the problems of the world. there is a sikh museum with paintings of mercinaries who have given their lives, graphic pictures of what was done to them (when they were forced to convert to islam), and one of muslims chopping up babies and making them into garlands and stringing them over the mother's necks. hardcore. there was even one of a sikh being boiled alive, who requested to stare into his guru's eyes as he died. outside is a 400 year old jubi tree believed to have shaded the very first priest-(ram dass?)and women pray there for future children.
afterwards we decided to hire an omni bus and go to wagha border-the border of pakistan and india-to watch the border guards do their competetive good natured dance. this is done daily at sunrise and sunset. the scene is very much like a high school pep ralley. the guards open the border gates and they do a marching kick dance that is remenicint of john cleeses "silly walk" from monty python. this was the most fun i have ever had in india and i went back to my hotel unable to wipe the smile off my face.
till i woke up with giardia.
in response to jeff, he is here. we took seperate flights and it took him 18 hours and me 36 to get to mumbai. he is doing fine, never gets sick, never lets anything bother him. we are very different beings. he will be leaving on the 18th, i'm pretty sure i will be home on 18 january.
***********************************************************************************
12-3
i visited the golden temple, which was the reason for my going to amritsar. it is the holiest shrine of the sikhs, a sect of the hindu religeon that broke off and formed their own thing around the 18th century for many reasons. they are a very peaceful people and i very much enjoyed being around them. the gold temple was much smaller than i imagined and is surrounded by a pool called amrit sarovat, which means nectar of the gods, where the name amritsar came from. this is enclosed by a beautiful white fort. the temple is open to all denominations, and a wonderful way to spend a beautiful day. before entering, you have to wash your feet and cover your head. you can take prasad-sweets-and distribute inside the different levels in the temple. there are musicians and priests on each floor and the music is broadcast on speakers throughout the compound. great atmosphere. you can watch this on television live every day. and every day at 5am, the holy book is carried into the temple, and removed at sunset. the golden dome is an inverted lotus flower representing the sikhs concern with the problems of the world. there is a sikh museum with paintings of mercinaries who have given their lives, graphic pictures of what was done to them (when they were forced to convert to islam), and one of muslims chopping up babies and making them into garlands and stringing them over the mother's necks. hardcore. there was even one of a sikh being boiled alive, who requested to stare into his guru's eyes as he died. outside is a 400 year old jubi tree believed to have shaded the very first priest-(ram dass?)and women pray there for future children.
afterwards we decided to hire an omni bus and go to wagha border-the border of pakistan and india-to watch the border guards do their competetive good natured dance. this is done daily at sunrise and sunset. the scene is very much like a high school pep ralley. the guards open the border gates and they do a marching kick dance that is remenicint of john cleeses "silly walk" from monty python. this was the most fun i have ever had in india and i went back to my hotel unable to wipe the smile off my face.
till i woke up with giardia.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
turbans & bhangra
buying your own ticket at the rail station is a real lesson in hell. over 60 windows to choose from, you have to go to the right one without allowing all the touts to steer you in the wrong direction. focus. 52 was my lucky window. i got second class seats and had to pay in american dollars. why they did not take rupees is beyone me. can you say scam?
i have to take a taxi one hour to bandra, where i have to meet the train. an hour of the worst ghettos i have ever seen, i have been through this ride before. every time the cab stops is an opportunity for beggers to seperate you from your rupees and give you a guilt trip. "maaaaaaa" buy these whistles, buy this, buy that. finally arrive at bandra terminus. millions of flies live here because it's one big pile of waste, consisting of poo, piss, vomit, garbage and dogs feasting on it, children playing in it. totally disgusting.
get to my "room"-actually its a small space with a curtain, and i have to share with "twitchy"-a man who can't sit still. he paces, sits, paces, hums,groans,belches,coughs,farts,paces,snorts for the entire 34 hours. ok. i can deal with this. but 3 hours into the trip arrives a family of 6-queen ma and dud & mum with their 3 abusive kicking screaming bouncing light flicking on and off - staring down at us like gargoyles "children". queenie grandma sitting cross legged applying her cherry red lipstick, with long manicured fingernails and toes, sipping chai, proud as all hell. daddy sitting on twitchy's legs while he pretends to sleep, and we can't do a damn thing about it. they even try to take our room away from us. i repeat the same mantra to myself, cause i can't do nuthin about it-"get through it, get through it, get through it, all things pass, all things pass...." about 6 hours later, finally, they get kicked out. rudest damn people i have ever encountered in all my travels.
arrive in amritsar, punjab 34 long hours later, dumped into a street with nothing but turbans and rickshaws for miles. find the wrong hotel-ooops-super luxury hotel. stay anyhow, cause i deserve it. hot shower, room service, bad bollywood gossip show on plasma tv...and nothing but that delicious bhangra music and gorgeous turbans! god i love turbans!
off to the golden temple. stay tuned
i have to take a taxi one hour to bandra, where i have to meet the train. an hour of the worst ghettos i have ever seen, i have been through this ride before. every time the cab stops is an opportunity for beggers to seperate you from your rupees and give you a guilt trip. "maaaaaaa" buy these whistles, buy this, buy that. finally arrive at bandra terminus. millions of flies live here because it's one big pile of waste, consisting of poo, piss, vomit, garbage and dogs feasting on it, children playing in it. totally disgusting.
get to my "room"-actually its a small space with a curtain, and i have to share with "twitchy"-a man who can't sit still. he paces, sits, paces, hums,groans,belches,coughs,farts,paces,snorts for the entire 34 hours. ok. i can deal with this. but 3 hours into the trip arrives a family of 6-queen ma and dud & mum with their 3 abusive kicking screaming bouncing light flicking on and off - staring down at us like gargoyles "children". queenie grandma sitting cross legged applying her cherry red lipstick, with long manicured fingernails and toes, sipping chai, proud as all hell. daddy sitting on twitchy's legs while he pretends to sleep, and we can't do a damn thing about it. they even try to take our room away from us. i repeat the same mantra to myself, cause i can't do nuthin about it-"get through it, get through it, get through it, all things pass, all things pass...." about 6 hours later, finally, they get kicked out. rudest damn people i have ever encountered in all my travels.
arrive in amritsar, punjab 34 long hours later, dumped into a street with nothing but turbans and rickshaws for miles. find the wrong hotel-ooops-super luxury hotel. stay anyhow, cause i deserve it. hot shower, room service, bad bollywood gossip show on plasma tv...and nothing but that delicious bhangra music and gorgeous turbans! god i love turbans!
off to the golden temple. stay tuned
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