Painting update

So Ive added another painting to my list. It is of Gayathri. I learned her mantra and its constantly in my head. Tomorrow Ill go buy a book on this elusive goddess who's been running through my head.

The Traditional Mysore style of painting includes gold embossing. So i have been busy this week first adding the embossing (painting on a cement like substance in various shapes and patterns) and then gluing on solid gold leaf (very fine and very tricky). Here are Vishnu and Gayathri in beginning phases...

Mysorepedia by Claudia

My good friend Claudia (who was one of my roommates on my first trip to India) is a fabulous blogger with a of information on Mysore, Ashtanga and more.. Please check out her blog its excellent!

A few of my favorites so far are her article on why its so hard to meditate (maybe its because I am mentioned in it :) and the article her husband wrote on how foreign this yoga world is to an outsider.
(click on the highlighted words to open these links)

Claudia, it was so great to see you again!! Jen and I miss you & and invite you to visit Michigan!!

Have you ever seen a goat waiting for a bus?

There's many animals I see daily that I don't regularly see at home. I take the bus into town for my painting class and the other day there was a goat happily perched on the bench. We human passengers allowed him this spot, and his friend even come along with him to enjoy sitting in the shade.

Cows roam the streets freely and will even take a brake to park on the side.

In the residential area where homes have lots of greenery and flowers you'll find monkeys.

There's lots of dogs (who I do see and very much miss at home) but here there are many stray dogs and even puppies!

Hyderabad weekend

Jen and I were invited by Dr and Mrs Reddy to Hyderabad for the weekend. I could not imagine more gracious hosts. They showed us around the city, took us to parties and even a wedding!










First we went to Charminar in the center of the city. "Char" means four and "minar" means tower. There was a really short, narrow, winding, solid stone staircase to the top and the guide told me multiple times to watch my head. Luckily, I did not hit my head.

Next we went to Chowmahalla Palace. "Chow" also means four and "mahalla" means palace, so this was amazing grounds with four palaces, gardens, fountains and gorgeous artifacts.





The Reddy's also took us to a family wedding. A traditional Indian wedding with all the rituals and 1000 guests - yes, one thousand guests! I got this gown specially made for me and the tailor laughed because the measuring tape wasn't long enough for me!




There was a central park next to our hotel with a great walking path, open spaces for people practicing yoga and morning exercises and roaming peacocks!

Anita's breakfast

For breakfast one morning, Anita made us a traditional dish called "Upma" Its made from ground wheat and spices. The first picture shows the ingredients (and this is how she cooks, its not just for presentation) onions, potato, chillies, mustard seeds, black gram dal, bengal gram dal, curry leaves (picked from our backyard) coriander leaves and shaved coconut for garnish.

The first seven ingredients
are simmered in hot oil for
5-10min, then water is added.








Next the ground wheat (which was toasted prior to this) is added and simmered on low until it soaks up the all the flavored moisture.
Then the garnish of coconut and coriander is placed in the bottom of a small bowl, the Upma is placed on that, then you flip it upside down onto the plate. Yumm!!

Painting Class

I've started my painting class this week! For those

of you who have seen my Buddha and Krishna from

my last trip, I am now working on a Vishnu in the

traditional Mysore style of painting. My teacher,

Anand has me practicing on sketches first with a

pencil (see picture), then a paint brush, and soon

I will work on my Vishnu.

Anand teaches out of his home studio (near Jagan Mohan Palace), here is a picture of him with another student in the background. For more information on this style of painting and my teacher, visit his website at http://www.srichakratraditionalart.in/.

If you are in Mysore, I highly recommend taking the time to create your own painting. It makes for the best souvenier! The way it works is you select the picture/god/goddess you would like to paint and you pay per piece. (price depends on size, details, and amount of gold used.) Beginners are welcome and Anand takes you through the process step by step. He also takes his students on field trips to visit temples and exhibitions.

Here is a sketch of my vishnu. Ill take a picture once a week so you can see the progress...

Our House

Jen and I live with a really nice family in Gokulum. Below are pictures of me in front of the house, me with Anita (our house mom) and a picture of her son Somanna at his school science fair - He's the one on the right and he and his classmate designed an automatic street lights which turn on at night time (currently India's street lights are manually turned on and off). Her daughter Impa is in my birthday picture on the last post. I don't have a picture of Ashok, the father of the family, he works in Coorg (his and Anita's hometown) and comes home on weekends.
They take really good care of us.
I wouldn't say that Jen and I are
high maintenance, we are
very quite, polite and respectful.
Buy we do wake up very early for yoga
as well as go to sleep really early. Last night
I was in bed at 6:45pm to wake up at 3:30am today. It was an early led class and i need to get up early to do my meditation and warm up my back. Which is feeling much better by the way, I am doing the whole primary series now!!
Tomorrow is Saturday so we get to sleep in.
Anita will teach us how to make traditional breakfast! Can't wait.

Daily Routine

Its a very relaxing atmosphere here. There is no sense of urgency and things happen naturally. Each morning Jen and I wake up about 2hours before our practice time so we can do our first Vipassana meditation and a few morning rituals (bath, coffee, stretching, etc). We walk to the shala where we wait our turn to enter. Practice lasts about 1 to 1.5 hours. After practice, right outside the shala there is a man with a small truck full of coconuts. For 10 rupees (abt 50cents) he'll use his machete to cut the top off so you can drink it with a straw. If its a sweet coconut, there is jelly inside that he opens up and you can scoop it out and eat it. We'll have a nice big breakfast either at home or in one of the local Indian eateries or western restaurants that have opened up to cater to us foreign yoga students. The rest of the days lately have been filled with reading, writing, walks and naps. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are a bit busier with three classes on each day - chanting, Sanskrit and Bhagavad Gita lessons. Each evening we close with our second daily Vipassana meditation and are in bed around 8pm. I'm getting lots of sleep and rest and I'm loving it!
My birthday on Saturday was no exception. Totally relaxing. I met 6 friends at the Green Hotel for lunch and chocolate birthday cake! It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon and I enjoyed every minute of it. Plus - having your birthday in India makes it last >36hours. Since we are 10.5hours ahead, i was getting birthday wishes for two days. Thanks everyone!!