We haven’t though about our stomach bugs for a couple days….  so I figure they’re done with (for now)

We thought we were waking up for a 4 hr ride….(not noticing the sheet said 5).

First we needed to return to the market place from yesterday.  A little guilt was hitting for negotiating the one sales man down for the wooden snake.  We returned to his stand and bought another.  When the old lady (he wasn’t there) asked for more than he originally asked me for a second snake, I thought I’d freak her out by demanding to pay 100 rubees more.   She accepted my “offer” and without missing a beat, began to offer to sell me other things.

A few of the shop guys recognized me (even though I forgot to weary hat) and balloons came out again.  When a crowd gathered and began getting too big and aggressive I made my get-away.

We began our drive and saw what has become the traffic:

Along the way when we’d pass kids our driver would pull over and out came balloons again…

As we drove through these desert villages the image of kids and women carrying containers of water brings us back a couple hundred years.    With the stop at the market and the stops along the way, the 4-hr drive (which was really 5 hrs) took about 7.

We arrived in this city of Udaipur at about 6pm.  It  is magical…  reminding us of Kathmandu (the streets and shops).

The driver got us within half a block of the hotel….  the alley ways wouldn’t let him go further.   I’ve no idea how he backed out of the alley ways he drove us down.

Here are some shots from the roof restaurant in our hotel:

 

 

 

Over dirt roads we made it to our hotel…. The local guy who built it a few years back wrote that he wanted to keep the flavor of the lives these simple folk live rather than just build a generic 5-star hotel. It has a lot of charm.
In Mysore, every home had a chalk drawing drawn in front every week by the woman of the house…. Here (at least at the hotel) they seem to do it with flowers.

A guide met us and gave us a walking tour thru the small town. The streets are clean, with little traffic, and lots of shops – Annie was in heaven…. The one “thorn” was that the ATM machines were broken (all three of them) and no one accepted credit cards,

First we saw the one temple here… 1000 years old (no photography permitted). Then the Holy Lake…… People from all over make their pilgrimages here to visit, bathe, and pray from healthy and long lives for their families. and then it was time for retail therapy! No time to waste (pictures on Annie’s blog).

There were quite a lot of weapon shops…. not for Annie.

Towards the end Annie saw a wooden snake we liked. The salesman asked 800 $12.50) Rubees. We said 200… he played his game and we walked away… he followed us down the street. Annie kept stopping in more clothing shops and he kept pestering me to raise my price. Finally I said, “250 and balloons for your kids.” This puzzled him as much as it sent a fear in me… what if he had 20 kids?
I quickly asked, “How many kids do you have?” He said “3”.. So I took out some balloons and began figuring on the worst case I’d make him 3 balloons and then leave…. The best case, he’d accept my offer after getting the balloons for his kids. Suddenly kids were popping over (some locals, some tourists) from all over and he gestured me to take care of them first. This was becoming a wonderful chaotic madhouse for more than half an hour. I didn’t even notice that Annie took a break from her retail therapy and took pictures. Finally the salesman pulled me away from the crowd and assisted us back to the road for our driver. He smiled and said to just make him the balloon for his kids and he gave me the snake. When I finished the balloons for him he gave me a look and held out his hand…. Sometimes after negotiating the salesman has said to us “take it for free”…. Then after we take it, the salesman asks to be paid. It happened again this time… but he accepted my “final price”.

As we were getting to our car we saw a dozen camels giving rides. One of the things this town is known for is that they have a camel show once a year… 1000’s of camels come to dance, compete for prizes, and be bought and sold.

WIFI’s slow and only in the hotel lobby, so these postings today go out tomorrow.

Easy 3 hr drive from Jaipur to Pushkar on a bright, sunny day. We had a glorious dream like moment. Our driver pulled off the road at a  public pool that had what  looked like an open yoga terrace with 25 women reclining in their rainbow of saris and scarves.

I thought they were yogis. And our driver gestured to me to go take photos of them. I felt awkward about doing that, so I walked slowly towards one corner of the place and I sat down, just looking around; checking out the scene. The ladies there seemed responsive and warm. After a few minutes a large woman came over, reaching down and pulling me up to stand. She pulled me into the middle of the whole group of women, who were getting a kick out of this. Then she pushed me to sit down in a forceful and clumsy way. And I felt I was in the sea of Shakti energy and I was being carted off to live with my tribe whom I’ve been unknowingly searching for all these years.  They radiated joy and fun. We were having a love fest together. Their heads were all covered in red and pink and gold. It was a bewitching tapestry of  merriment. I was thinking- what to do?

I led them in some laughing yoga and then a child with a balloon hat appeared and Allynn came around the corner and I got up and our driver said it was time to go. Our driver said they were napping – resting after they’d been working. Maybe in the farms- no idea- what a happy group they were.

Pushkar was right up the road and the Indian size town I’ve been hoping to find here. It’s small, clean and a charming village sized town with a temple for Brahma. It’s on a lovely lake and is a spiritual  destination for Hindus. We checked into a fantastic hotel that looks like an ancient desert palace with courtyards and gardens and separate stone cottages.

Had lunch and headed back to town to hook up with our English speaking guide. He took us thru the temple and down to the lake.

Then he left and Allynn and I strolled the shopping area.

I found a few things and leaving a shop, I saw that Allynn was in full swing with his balloons decorating the street. He bought a wooden cobra snake toy and we  watched the camels giving rides as dark fell upon us and an amazing day was drawing to a close under a starry sky.
Good night from the magic land of Rajhastan!
Annie

We thought about taking the 20-minute elephant ride up to see this palace, but opt’ed out when we looked at the 2-hr waiting line.  This is how the kings would enter the place ….

I keep thinking of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit looking at these structures…

The inners are all filled with all sorts of art works…

 

what do you give a king for his birthday who has everything ?  Another elephant of course:

then, there’s the cleaning crew

and the musicians

Stange looking Westerners keep popping into our view, sometimes royalty… sometimes court clowns… sometimes both:

Afterwards we went to a rug making shop and watched a demo… watch out for the knife:

the block printing also caught our eye:

 

 

While Annie showed, I played chess with a saleman.  I was thinking of buying this set because the pieces were so confusing.  It back-fired on me…  I mistook a bishop for a knight and lost a rook…. making the game more fun for me (like like to play from behind) and I lost my first game in India….  We had a good laugh.

Time to head back to the hotel and deal with the typical traffic:

We even saw local balloons for sale (with the 50 lbs I brought with me, we didn’t buy any):

Back at the hotel I had fun with a guy from Brazil and his daughter….  they live in Spain and come here to buy merchandise for their store:

 

 

Time for a new city and adventure…

 

It was sad to see how these families have been living for generations.  a couple thousand people live in this slum area…. very small rooms where a variety of generations work seemly all day carving puppets, painting them, and costuming them.  After we visited a school room (maybe 10 foot by 6 feet with a dozen young kids getting a music class), and having them sing for us, then demonstrating a bit of Annie’s frog costume (just the head and hands while sitting down) and me having some fun with a couple balloons), they took us to a room where the main puppeteer offered to sell us puppets his grandfather made (and the puppets he was performing with the other day).  The head music teacher wanted to show us the kitchen, where he hoped we would buy the food for the kids for a week or month…  or maybe pay for a new roof that wouldn’t leak when it rained….. this wasn’t just an artists demonstration leading to a sales room… this was a desperate call for sympathetic help.  It was tough seeing their living conditions and how hard their lives are.

Comparing this visit to the tour of the royal palaces, temples, and forts is mind-boggling.  The old kings here spent unbelievable wealths creating life styles for the select privileged and the only benefit the regular poorer folks saw was that they got employment creating arts and services for the royalty.  The beauty of the art works we’re seeing is wonderful….  but I keep seeing the poverty that most people still live with and it colors the artwork with a slightly negative pigment for me.

It feels so good to bring smiles to these families who have so little….  but feels so frustrating to see how much they need and how little we can do for them.   I get more respect for our son who is so active with a group of “effective altruists”.   You want to help, but you want the money to really get to  place where real help is happening.

Sorry, I have to do more balloons tomorrow….  that will cheer me up.

I know I can create smiles in the kids…. and when the kids get a special “high” for the day, that gives their parents a special ‘high” as well….  but this is like a distraction… a band aide for a problem, not a solution.

Still not much time to post… and we need to have time to sit, time for Annie to write, and put to gather picture, before our next “real” post….  but here’s a note to say we’re still “kicking”

The last night at the Tiger Safari Lodge I got tired of having an upset stomach, so Annie had resort call a doctor.  He came to our room by about 10pm… along with his driver and assistant (they might have been his drinking buddies for all we know)… checked me out, and gave me a prescription for medication which arrived half an hour later.

The next morning when we checked out of the resort I had to pay the bill… 2000 Rubees (1000 for him and 1000 for the medicines)…  that came to about $32 for a housecall.

We had a 3-hr drive in Rajasthan this morning… it took about 4-1/2 hr because we kept stopping so I could make balloons for kids along the way (I should learn something from this?) We’d get to a scene in the countryside with grass huts and some woman bathing her two kids in the well…. the driver would pull over for Annie to take a picture and for me to make the two kids balloons… before we’d leave a dozen kids would appear out of nowhere. More balloons….. We saw some cute small school and he said, “let’s stop for a photo”…. of course this meant a few more balloons. soon we realized there were over a hundred kids gathering. I went thru about 350 balloons by the end of the day (50 pounds for 6 months goes pretty quickly).  

The next time we stop while driving someplace, I’ll look a mile in each direction before taking out a balloon.
One nice surprise tonight was a puppet show at our hotel in Rajasthan. After the show we spoke with the puppeteers. They’ve been doing it for generations and have a puppet colony nearby where everyone makes or works puppets. We made a date to visit them on Sunday.

The scale and numbers of these monuments in India are unbelievable.  The Taj Mahal is the crown of them all… and we decided to get a guide of the day…. then we decided to accept the photographer he suggested to “document” our visit.

First we had to wait on line…. a long line, but our guide helped us cut up front.  We followed all of his suggestions to expedite the entrance…. (no bags, no pens, paper, food, etc)…  but he didn’t say “no balloons”… they took them from me at the entrance.

Next he went into “professor” mode – explaining all the history, poetry, culture, colors, etc…  as the photographer moved us from one location to the next, posing us in all the “required” poses (like a wedding photographer, navigating around 100 other weddings that were using the same location).  I don’t think we ever got to actually enjoy the Taj…  we just rushed between the photoshoot and the lecture.

The photographer said, “no pressures, $1.50 per photo we liked and we could decide (he’d have them ready when we’d exit).   Then he said for about just $150.00US we could have a complete album of the 70 or so shots & even a CD with the photos… including some arial shots (not taken when we were there).  Oops….  the phrase “no pressure” was about to come back and hit us when we’d leave.

We chose more shots than we really wanted….   and we didn’t go for the CD or the arial shots.

It made us feel a bit like celebrities.

 

The tour began and we’ve got lots to share….  but the internet connection is frustrating.  We’ve both tried riding camels, we took a photo session at the Taj Mahal, and lucked out, seeing tigers at the start of our Safari experience (not in a zoo).  Hopefully we’ll heave better WIFI access tomorrow and we’ll post more.

 

 

 

 

I should have chosen 2 or 3 of these….  but I have a good internet connection and figured….  go for broke.

  

Our internet connection has been non-existent for the past two days.  Tonight it seems to work, but for only about 45 seconds at a time.  So I’ll write this post, try to get online, and post it (as well as Annie’s).  However the photos take too long to load (longer than 45 seconds) so I’ll probably have to skip those for now.

We did some tourist things the past couple days in Delhi.   Annie gets such a kick out of taking photos of the local families who dress up (especially the women and children) to visit these ancient places.  As much as she likes taking their pictures, they want her (and me sometimes) to pose with them for photos.   I feel obligated (it doesn’t take much) to say “thank you” by making balloons for their kids.

Yesterday we were in a crowded attraction.  I knew I shouldn’t, but I took out balloons and started.  It was so much fun to get these serious-looking families laughing … and getting very young kids who are shy and a little scared of this strange westerner with a silly hat to lighten up….  accept the balloon, shake my hand, and say “thank you” (English is not as common here as we hoped it might be) after their parents prompt them what to say.

That evening I was sick again (a stomach thing)….  the second time since we’ve been in India.  I had a test at the local lab to make sure it’s not a parasite (about $1.50) and I’m clean.   We rested all day today – tomorrow we’re off for the Taj Mahal and then a 2-week tour of Rajasthan.  The adventure continues.

Yesterday I was able to perform 2 shows for Sharon’s school.  It was their week celebrating Indian Culture.  They had all sorts of craftsmen sharing their artworks with the kids.   Miniature painting, wood sculptures, rug making, toys, fabrics, books…..  so much to see.  The gypsy circus school was performing outdoors as well.  I got to perform in the theatre as the “opening act”.

Sharon had asked me to use Indian stories, so I’ve been reading a bunch of books during the past couple months.   Nothing really spoke to me until the night before the show… when I realized I needed to make a decision.

One story that “spoke to me” included a talking bird, a beautiful parrot, a Maharaja, a bad guy, a poor good guy, a magical flying horse, a lion, an elephant king, and a bird cage (preferably 3).  I’d need time to add humor to it, but it had plenty of color, magic, and chaos.   I made a few notes the night before and we arrived at the theatre a couple hours early so I could inflate the balloons and prep for the show.

The stage, lights, and sound system were everything I could hope for.   I’m always a little concerned about dealing with young kids (they can feel shy and intimidated or overly enthusiastic) and about the logistics of getting volunteers on stage (when kids are in balconies it’s tough to get them onto the stage…. but if you only pick the kids down in the orchestra seats the rest of the audience feels cheated).    The couple shows I’ve done here in India and Nepal also had another element – English wasn’t always understood.   During the preshow (I love pre-show time almost as much as I enjoy the show itself) I saw there wouldn’t be any real issue with these concerns.   The only issue was keeping the show to 30 minutes (my internal clock is set on 45-60 minutes).

Annie was up in the balcony shooting video.  When one show ended she heard one girl saying to her friend “I hope it’s not over yet!”   It’s nice to get a good critique from the audience that really matters.

After the show while we were walking around the crafts and arts section one little boy told me his friend’s younger sister had been a monkey in my show…. and the older brother was sitting in the balcony laughing from beginning to the end.  I asked him who (the sister who was in the show or the brother who was watching) would tell their folks about it that evening.   He said the brother…. because the sister would be laughing too much.  That made me feel good.

I really owe Sharon a BIG Thank You for setting me up for this experience (we’ve talked about this for about 35 years).

Here are some shots of the fun chaos taken from the video footage Annie shot:

  

There was no internet today (I’m posting this on Sunday).  We wen to the center in Auroville.   What an amazing place.  We sat thru the 10-minute video explaining the philosophy here and the history.  It’s a special, peaceful place.  After viewing the video we were permitted to view the main building from the outside and make reservations to enter it on Monday.  If we were here longer (for a week or a month) we might return several times…..  when we’d be able to sit in one of the rooms (12 rooms, each with a different color for a variety of meditations) for a period of time.  These people are serious about peace.   No balloons and no ocarina music here.   However we’ll only be here another couple of days.

Today, Sunday, we’re enjoying the town of Puducherry (spelled several ways….  but since the gods here have hundreds -maybe thousands of names –  nothing surprises us any more).

Thea weather is perfect and the ocean (actually I think it’s the Bay of Bengal) is beautiful.

We should have better access to the internet in a few days, so we might not be posting again until then.

 

Allynn

On Thursday our journey brought us to a hotel on the beach in Chennai. The drive from the airport was an adventure, as the cab driver had to ask a variety of people on the street how to find the hotel (something we’ve gotten used to here).   Some of the alley ways he drove thru seemed too small for the car…. But we squeezed thru.

The hotel was the nicest place we’ve been at since we left the States. The morning breakfast buffet was a wonderful treat.

 

Friday morning I tried booking a hotel/guest house on the beach in Auroville or Pondecherry (this town has several spellings, but since the gods here have thousands of names, it’s to be expected).   The three hotels I found seemed to all be booked (although I couldn’t reach one of them) so I booked a farm house that looked like it had promise.

We hired a car and driver to bring us to this farm house (a 3-hr drive) and stopped at a wonderful artist community along the way.….

It was tough to find the farm house (again, what a surprise) and we had the driver wait … just in case. The grounds were beautiful. The room was fine… the quails and chickens roaming the grounds were colorful…. even the lizard crawling the bathroom wall was a treat… but this place seemed in the boon-docks, away from the towns we came here to see. The third of the guest houses on the Ocean left an email that they had a room available, so we paid the cancellation fee for the farm house and took off for the Ocean side guest house.

Thatched roofs on brick buildings along the ocean…. We didn’t even ask the price, we just said, “we’ll take it!”

Auroville is known for a number of things…. It was created to bring together people from all nations, all religions, all differences… and live in peace. Parts of it are like a resort… you can’t use credit cards or money from outside Auroville here…. You need to get an Auroville money card for everything. You can’t get into the center of everything without going to the visitor center first, seeing the “indoctrination film first”… then returning the next day. In the center, it’s for meditation – no cameras, no talking, no coughing or sneezing.   These folks are serious – I won’t be playing my ocarina or taking out balloons here (a good thing because I only have a handful of balloons left after Mysore).

With the price of this guest house three meals and laundry (5 pieces per day) are included. The meals have been good so far… and another point – at the dining table the other guests were a mixture of French, Swiss, Dutch, and I don’t know what else. However, they all seem ages 50-75…. Annie and I are no longer the generation of the parents of the others at the table.   That makes a subtle difference (not saying good or bad).

This guest house offers all sorts of healing sessions. We don’t have much time here and we want to see Auroville and Punducherry… but if Annie wants to take one of these workshops, I’ll be happy just vegetating watching the waves or strolling around the area.

….

 

It’s early Fri. morning….  Annie’s still sleeping (almost 7am and Annie’s not up doing yoga….  i.e. – we’re not in Mysore any more!)

During our final day in Mysore, I gave a past life regression session (outside class hours), we had our final class, and then as Annie went to her final mediation in the evening, I sat with the rickshaw drivers and finished my bags of “Mysore” balloons (there weren’t many left) as we said “goodbye” and “hope to see you next year or whenever”.

After meditation we made a quick stop back at the clothing shop to say goodbye to Preetee, the shop owner Annie developed a close friendship with, as well as the waiters at the little Chat restaurant she visited each morning (and most evenings)… and I made a balloon for an older gentleman there – He said his grandson loved the punching ball balloon I made for him a week ago and wanted another before we left.    He blessed us as we said, “goodbye”.

Leaving Mysore was a bit sad…  we’ve been very happy there for the past month. and felt comfortable with our “routine”.  Annie had made friends with many of the yogi students and I had made friends with the rick shaw drivers, a kid who sells pineapples, and one young couple from Greece – Pro and Maria.  Pro (I never made it to the second two syllables of his first name) is a photographer and Maria is a dancer.   In our past life regression class we needed to give one reading to someone outside the class.  I worked with Maria.  The next day I worked with Pro.    Maria got into it with our any reservations (like Annie)….  Pro was more skeptical (more like me)…  but was open to try.   Whether or not  Annie and I continue offering these past life regressions when we return to the States (I figure we will)….  I’ll always be connected to this beautiful young couple.  

We debated about how to get to Auroville….  it would have taken 10 hrs of driving to get there from Mysore (we didn’t debate long) or 1 hr to fly most of the way (both would cost about the same….  flying would be a little less).  So we drove 4 hrs to Bengalore for the plane.  Waited 2-1/2 half hour for the plane to take off (it was delayed…  no surprise) and flew to Chennai.  The cab to our hotel was an adventure….  the driver didn’t know where he was going and I had the address of the hotel, but not the phone number.  It took about 45 minutes and we were going down side alleys that we barely fit thru as it was getting dark (the streets aren’t lit).

We arrived at the hotel – probably the nicest hotel we’ve been in since we left the States –  The Ocean is a block away and we walked the Ocean street last night…..  lots of people walking along that street.  It’s a bit like areas in the Jersey shore or Miami…. but much more primitive, with lots of plots of land that aren’t developed.   It’s nice to see and hear  the Ocean waves.

Today we’ll take a 3-hr drive down to Pundecherry, stopping by a reptile museum and artist colony along the way.  We’ll spent the next few days in either Pundecherry or in Auroville,,,,  a community built years ago which focused on bring together people of all races, religions, and parts of the world to live together in peace.  This place has been on Annie’s “radar” for a while.

Annie should be waking soon.  We’ll be seeing new sites and meeting people we haven’t known before in these new settings for the next few days and I only have a handful of balloons (that usually means a few hundred…  now it means maybe 25  plus a bunch of hearts).  I’ve been told before that I use balloons like Dumbo the elephant used his magic feather.   I’ll see if that’s true or whether I’ve lost my ability to fly?  However it’s just for a few days.  When we return to Delhi (on my birthday), my real birthday gift will be reuniting with the motherland of balloons we left there.  Picture a pig paying in mud – I’ll be in the same happiness.

Allynn

 

 

On Thursday we’ll be taking off from our month in Mysore….

Today, Friday, I was scheduled to perform a school show.  From our first week here this show was talked about so I set aside a pile of balloons that was “forbidden” for me to touch while here.  This past week has been tough for me because I’ve been running short of balloons.  Each day when I’d walk to the gym and to our past life regression classes I had to avoid the direct way of walking because I’d pass the rickshaw drivers and kids who got use to me making balloons each time I’d see them.

However last evening I got word that the school realized they couldn’t afford the fee I thought they had agreed to.  I would have liked to have had the opportunity of doing a show here….  but I was happy to have this “new supply” of balloons.  Yesterday evening our apartment building had a little party for the tenants… so I was free to do balloons.  The Chinese, Israeli, Welsh, and Swiss tenants were all fun to play with (especially the Chinese ones who didn’t speak English).  Of course, they’re all here for yoga.

This morning I walked to the gym…  going the more direct way and making balloons for the rickshaw drivers and a few kids along the way.   After my workout at the gym, my trainer introduced me to his wife…. I took out some balloons and suddenly all the trainers, the manager,  and the cleaning crew gathered as I went to “work”.  I loved the image of these muscular, body-builder trainers getting frustrated trying to inflate the balloons as I was doing 2 or 3 at a time.

After our class tonight we stopped by the yoga shala.  The entrance “guard” there  usually has a sour facial expression.  Over the past weeks I’ve gotten him to smile.    Annie asked if he did yoga… he said (in his broken English) “no”.  I told him he should tell people that he’s so good at yoga, the administration has forbade him form doing yoga in fear that he’ll intimidate the teachers and paying students.   As i was saying this I “ballooned” a couple people with him and I might even have gotten a laugh from him.

I stopped by another rickshaw driver spot and had another balloon adventure.

No photos…  I’m too busy having fun.

However I did edit the videos I shot of Annie at the elephant camp from a few days ago.  Here’s a 4- minute version:

 

On the walk back from the gym this morning someone walked by me and smiled, “you look so happy!”

I replied, “I’m in Mysore!”

I guess I smile most of the time…. almost challenging everyone I make eye contact with to smile back (and I try to make eye contact with everyone I pass).

Annie been wanting me to get a haircut – I remember  back in college, before taking my junior year in England I got a haircut at a fancy school – Veedal Sasson.  I had curly hair.  All the guy did was grab my four fingers lengths of my hair and cut everything else off. Then he washed my hair, fluffed it up… and I was done.  I figured that I have 4 fingers and a scissors….  I could do the same thing.  So I did for the next 17 years or so.  My first “professional” hair cut after that was just before our wedding.  During the first few months Annie and i were together we bought a flobee (a haircutting tool that connects to the vacuum cleaner).  I’ve been using that ever since (rarely going to a hair dresser).

My hair’s been untouched for a while since we’ve been in India and Annie “suggested” I go to a local hair dresser to neaten up… but not take much off.  I went, explained that I wanted to leave maybe 3 inches (of course he didn’t speak English).  I think he only knows how to cut one style…  at least no one will notice when I let my hair go messy now.

….and the hat fits better now.

On the way back to Mysore from the elephants, we stopped at the “golden temple”.   A ton of monks live and study here… like a college campus.  The temples are out of proportion LARGE!    In the main temple there were three enormous golden statues.  Of course we needed to take off our shoes on the way in (I put our shoes in my backpack – if I misplace my shoes here, it’s tough to find size 13 in southern India).

When we exited the temple I took my shoes out and put them on.   A monk with an angry expression came over and pointed at my shoes.  I tried to say we were out of the temple so I put them on…. but I think the “rules were to put them on at the bottom of the steps… not at the top.   He wasn’t happy with me and I decided making a balloon animal for him wouldn’t change his mind-set.

Another thing that really stayed with us was the image of the monks using cell phones and internet tablets.

Have fun with these photos:

After coffee and Annie’s yoga, we began the morning strolling around streets we haven’t tried before.  Annie found a water pump and tried it out

Then we ran into our friendly pineappleboy

I’m running low with my balloon supply here in Mysore, but he was upset with me the other day when I didn’t “balloon him up, so I was ready for him this morning:

We took our first class in leading people thru past life regressions….  lot’s of fascinating, strange stuff that stretches our beliefs (in different ways than Annie stretches in yoga and I stretch in balloons).  When we left the class, our pineapple boy was walking in the streets.  I didn’t have any balloons left, so just played my ocarina (anybody remember the song “dance to the music of the ocarina”?) and he danced with his cart:

We stopped for tea before dinner, and ran into a decorated little sheep. I found I had one final heart balloon in my pocket so made it for the sheep… and played more ocarina music for him/her(?). We had a “connection”.

A few steps from the tea there’s a hole in the wall clothing shop run by a woman with a beautiful energy and smile. Whenever it’s open and Annie is having tea there, she stops by to try on (& buy) some of the clothes.

I got up early to make Annie her coffee before her 7am yoga class (it’s a 60-70 step walk up to the kitchen in our building).  Then I walked the 30-minute trek to the gym.  I keep taking slightly different paths there as I get to learn the area better (the first time I got really lost and walked for about 3 hrs never making it).  After the workout I began my walk back when a rickshaw driver signaled me to get in.  At first i tried to wave him on.., that I was happy to walk, when I realized he’s one of the local rickshaw drivers who gather around the yoga shala…  the ones I do balloons for every day.  So I jumped in as he assured me he’s on his way back to his “spot” and my ride was free.  So I sat, decorating his rickshaw with balloons as we drove down the street, and played my ocarina, surprising everyone we passed.

After lunch Annie and I took another rickshaw to the spice & flower market. Again, we drove with one of these local rickshaw drivers.  He passed a school and pulled over at one point, asking me to make a balloon for someone he recognized… how could I refuse?  I made the balloon and started playing the ocarina again.  They’re used to flute music here….  but don’t seem to be familiar with the little sweet potato I wear around my neck.

At the spice market Annie took photos and I shot video as one guy selling some stuff stuck to me like glue.  No matter how I said “no” he continued.  I got a kick out of his pleasant persistence and finally caved in and bought something (I never buy stuff.. that’s Annie’s department).  Then he asked if I had any American coins for his two daughters who collect coins.   I guess the mention of kids got me in auto-pilot.  Out came the balloons.  I promised myself I wasn’t going to do that at the spice market….  it’s too busy with too many people…. and I’m running low with my balloons.  That was the end of my video camera….  I couldn’t stop until everyone could see my bag was empty.

During the Rickshaw drive back I played more ocarina music.

Tomorrow begins our next adventure – our afternoons will be taken up with a course in past life regressions for the next two weeks.   Had anyone told me a month ago I’d be doing this, I’m not sure how I would have responded.   But what’s the phrase…. ‘when in Rome…..”  Time to leave the comfort zone again.

We got up early so I could make Annie her coffee (60 or so steps up to the kitchen), then walked her in the dark to her 6am yoga class.  Since my gym doesn’t open this early (I found out last week) I came back to our apartment to make myself some oatmeal and check the email for half an hour before walking the 30-minutes to the gym.  It was nice being able to use the kitchen alone – without dancing around 3-6 others who are cooking their meals.  When I sat with my oatmeal and laptop I heard I wasn’t alone in the room.  I opened a bunch of drawers until BINGO….  a mouse came running out of the drawer where  someone was storing their potatoes.  It was almost like a cartoon as the little guy slid on the marble floors making a mad dash to get away from me.   He turned the corner just before me and he was gone.  Where?   I’ve no idea.

I’ve heard other young yoga students talk about the bugs and rats they’ve come in contact with here…  they always have an emotion of disgust (is that an emotion?) when they describe these experiences.    This brought back a memory of the only time we found a mouse in our house.  I quickly grabbed the vacuum cleaner putting a thin cloth in the hose (so the mouse wouldn’t get sucked up all the way and get hurt) and had Ozzie keep his eye on the mouth.  I aimed the hose, had Ozzie turn on the power and we caught him….. quickly we brought him outside and let him go.   My brother later told me, “he’s going to come right back into the house if you let him out just outside.”   But we never saw him again.

This brings back another memory – when we stayed at an Ashram in Bali (Ozzie was about 3 years old and my mother was with us).  There was a sign outside our bedrooms saying that the philosophy here was not tho hurt any creatures, so if we wouldn’t bring any food into our rooms, they wouldn’t have to deal with the rats that might be attracted to our food.  My mother saw this notice and quickly hoped she could find a nearby hotel.