In trouble with the law

Yesterday, Thursday the 22nd of Feb, I had another good practice in the morning Mysore style. I took my time again and just tried to deepen the postures. I am starting to realise how soon my time here in Mysore and my daily practice will end.

Lori has been asking if we could all go to the Idli man that Michael had taken us to for breakfast again. I have not been able to find him. After my breakfast yesterday, I asked Dev, the rickshaw driver, if he could take me there. Ayuko (girl from Niigata, Japan), who I see everyday at practice came along. Dev took us to a very very popular restaurant which was packed, but this was not the street side stall we were looking for. After driving around some more unsuccessfully, Ayuko and I went back to the restaurant and had idli's and dosa's for breakfast there. It was very very good, but the idli's were not like the big idli's the idli man made :-).
So now the last option is to find Raj the rickshaw driver who took us there when Michael led the way...

Afterwards Ayuko and I went to the Sandalwood oil factory, which was established in 1917. Everything was very old and we did not see anybody doing any work while we were there, so we spent a very short time there. Outside was a small store where you could by 5 grams of Sandalwood oil for Rs 650... very expensive. Sandalwood oil has also been called "Liquid Gold" and is used in ayurvedic medicine as well as in perfumes. I bought some incense sticks and some soap.

On the way home I bought 2 metres of silk and linen mix material at Rs 600 per metre for pants I want to have tailored. That was quite expensive, but I thought it would be worth it. Myra reminded me that I need to pre-shrink the material before I give it to the lady doing the embroidery and I need to ensure the colour does not run, so I quickly went and washed the material in hot water.

We are not supposed to be doing yoga with any other teachers in Mysore, while registered with guruji. Jay had been to another class and invited us. As I have no time to do it afterwards, I took the chance. At 16:30 Katie (from Chicago), Joyce, Myra, Jay and I drove to Laksmi Puram Post office where we were met by someone to take us to a Ajay's Yoga Shala where we had a Vinyasa class for Rs 350. That means we did the sun salutation series (Surya Namaskara) A & B and then Ajay took us through some exercises that would help us improve our jump back and jump throughs. It was quite good, although I found Michael's workshop in Goa on this subject more informative, however, Ajay did give us specific exercises to do, which would ultimately strengthen us in the right areas. Technique is very important, but it definitely requires strength in the arms, shoulders and core to do it "beautifully" as Sally put it.

In the evening I washed the material again and I tried soaking it in salt water, but that also did not help... the colour kept on bleeding out. In the morning I washed it again twice, but to no avail...
The Yoga practice was led this morning and my body felt quite tired, obviously the two yoga sessions yesterday... Had a big breakfast at Tina's again today... always start with a big fruit salad of banana, papaya and pommegranate and then I had Fenugreek roti's and badam milk, which is hot milk with almonds, saffron, cinnamon and sugar.
After that I went into town to buy my train ticket from Mysore to Bangalore on the 1st of March. When I came out I found my scooter surrounded by 3 railway cops who promptly told me to pay a fine of Rs 250 for parking in a no parking area... There was a sign that bikes are not allowed to be parked there, on the floor where another car had parked (and there was building rubble lying around everywhere), therefore the sign was not visible . So I said they must take me to court. They walked me all the way around the railway station over sand mounds and railway tracks and more building rubble to a railway magistrates court. On the way I was told that it would be easier to just pay the fine of Rs 125 as it is just a petty crime. At the court, which was packed with people, I met some other commander or whatever with a few stars on his shoulder who insisted that rules must be followed and I need to pay a fine of Rs 150. Notice the change in amount again. I continued arguing that I was unaware of the rule because it was not clearly visible, but I kept calm and smiled.
Eventually I was asked where I was from and what I was doing here and then they told me politely to please leave :-).

I then went into town and looked at buying a Kurta for myself. A Kurta is the traditional garment Indian men wear. I think white can be worn any time as well as different colours, but for funerals, it has to be white.
I then went and returned the material I had bought yesterday and got my money back and went to another store (of the same chain) where I was given good advice and bought material at half the price and guaranteed that the material would not bleed any colour after 2 washes. I then had to race back home to back in time for my sanskrit class.

After sanskrit I ate supper at Anu's where the internet cafe is. I had asked Anu to please make Ragi Dosa's (also a normally a breakfast dish, not made from lentils and rice as the normal dosa is, but from a grain) as I have heard that they are very good and I have not had them yet. She promised to make them on Friday night... today.
At the Internet Cafe, Lori told me that Jay was in hospital at that moment in time... He had broken four toes in an accident on his bike... don't know exactly what happened, but I have had quite a few close shaves on my bike in the last few days... And people don't wear helmets here either.... People just drive out into the road without looking and nobody ever stops at an intersection without traffic lights, unless the traffic is really heavy or there is a police officer directing traffic.

Leena had organised a Salsa dance night at our place tonight. She arranged a teacher to come teach the salsa and planned to have everything on the roof, but realised that there was no electricity so ended up doing it in our flat. Leena and Lica prepared some food and invited a whole lot of people around.
I met a guy from Poland who said it was too expensive for him to register with Pattabhi/guruji (we paid Rs 26,900 for 1 month - 28 days in February minus Saturdays and 2 moon days) and he registered with Sheshadri at the Mandala Shala (for Rs 7,500 for a month).

Jay, Myra and I are actually planning to go to on Tuesday afternoon. In guruji's Shala there are about 60 students practicing in the shala at any one time and there are really only 3 postures in the primary series where you will get assisted or adjusted, namely Uthitha Hasta Padangustasana (standing balances), binding of Marichyasana D, and Urdhva Dhanurasana (bending back from standing position and placing your hands on the floor and then coming back up). Apparently Sheshadri has maximum 26 students and pushes you in every posture to your absolute limit... see pictures on his website. The guy from Poland said that the pushing deeper into the posture is nice the first day, but after that it is very very saw.
So there are many many yoga teachers in Mysore although there are only 3 well known ones. I have put some extra links under the Yoga websites section on the Yoga studio's in Mysore.