birth & death party

"the important elements constituting a nation are being disease free, wealth & productivity, harmonious living & strong defense," abdul kalam; president of india.
he is quoting from a 2000 year old text thirukkural(the south's ramayana)

"there is no difference between a poor man and a dead man"-the ramayana.

some interesting takes on the wealth subject in "being indian"

i finished my last day with lino. "one side very good, other not so good. they must be same" he tells me about vasisthasana. which is true and just fine. i have a lot of work in front of me and yoga was a joke today. almost killed myself in titibasana. no explanation. couldn't balance in pinca mayurasana. these have not been problems before. i get sappy. tears coming. snap out of it and finish the damn practice. let it go.

i'm in my room after the post yoga shower and "knock knock knock" those soft siva knocks. he appears with a perfectly wrapped package of sweets-prasad. i know before opening cause you can squeeze them-like snowballs. very "sweet" gesture. the last day on the island.

daren had a party friday for me leaving and nicola and lauren arriving. i called it "birth and death" party. a wonderful gesture. a supurb spread of real kerala thali served on the banana leaf. such a treat. a nice party consisting of tamil people, a girl from mozambique (of course i HAD to know how astanga reached HER!), wild adam and his purple hair and his mates, some sassy english lassies, gopan the flirt, todd, daren and the new girlies.

i took the new girlies on their first rickshaw ride (it's endearing to witness this)to the kripa theatre to deflower them of the bollywood. my old rickshaw "pal" is MIA, so i negotiated a new one and we were fine on our way. the movie opened this weekend, "zindu", and was directed and produced by sanjay gupta, starring the legendary sanjay dutt, model turned actor john abraham and lara dutta, miss world. set in bankok, this excellent movie is in the new hip mtv style. no big musical numbers, but lots of graphic violence and good story and acting. a revenge movie about an educated psychotic (abraham) holding a childhood grudge and taking revenge on the kids that teased his sister and caused her to burn herself to death. he kidnapps sanjay and throws him in the thai jail and knocks him out with injections and poison smoke, making him pay for his childhood antics. lara dutta is his taxi driver (?) there is real kissing in this movie-lip on lip action, but no open mouth. i'm always totally shocked if that happens. almost turns it into porn. it's weird.

well on to my long journey home. i leave at 5am tomorrow and won't be home for 4 days. train, to taxi, to plane, to taxi, to plane, to taxi to plane to taxi.

see you soon!