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.