Settling in Mysuru

Mysore, renamed to Mysuru last year, is a city in southern India famous for its temples, Maharaja's palace, silks and sandalwood. Yet despite being dubbed the cultural capital of Karnataka state, the term "Mysore style" has become famous the world over for its reference to the traditional mode of practising Ashtanga Yoga, a potent method of Self-realisation propagated by the renowned Sanskrit professor and yoga master Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (Guruji).

Yesterday morning, Friday, was a led class, not a Mysore style class. Mysore style means that people come in at different times depending on their ability, do the practice by themselves and the guru is around and watches, corrects and adjusts postures where he sees anything wrong or where he can help deepen the asana.
My body was extremely tired and after breakfast all I did was lay at the pool and doze.

I packed just before lunch (last minute... not unusual for me) and after lunch at 2pm, Michael and I took the taxi to the airport. We arrived at 3:15, which was late, so he checked us in while I tried to get out bags through security. Managed to get it done just before boarding at 15:35. We flew Jet Airways, which is probably the best domestic airline in India. Leena, Lori and Myra had left Purple Valley about an hour before us and were waiting in the waiting lounge for their flight with Daecon Air (cheaper flight that left 15 min after ours). There are very many domestic carriers in India, like the 2 I just mentioned, Indian Airlines I flew to Goa, Kingfisher Air and more.

The food on Jet Airways was absolutely fantastic and so was the service. Michael actually commented that it was probably the best indian food he had ever tasted!!! We landed quite late around 17:45 (supposed to be 17:05) and then we could not find the driver who was supposed to pick us up. Eventually the three ladies arrived and after many phone calls we finally saw our driver. We piled the luggage and ourselves into the SUV and drove to Mysuru. We left at 18:30 and expeced the 135 km drive to be around 2:45 hours long. I took about 1,5 hours of traffic jam in Bangalore to finally get on the highway, which was still a harassing experience because Indian drivers tend to drive in the middle between two lanes with their lights switched off, because they think the light uses up either petrol or the battery!!! When they are about to pass somebody, they hoot and flash their lights and then switch them off again. They also take their side view mirrors and fold them in completely against the car... The driver said this is because the flashing lights hurts his eyes. Our baggage was piled very high in the back so that he could not see out of the back window, so we were driving around blind it seemed. You must also realise that the "highway" has numerous turnoffs (not offramps) with many a bicycle without lights crossing the road!!!

We stopped off at a hotel to have something to eat... ended up being quite oily and very hot and we finally arrived around 23:00. We dropped the 3 ladies off at a place Myra had organised and Michael and I crashed at Randy's place. Randy is an american, who is retired and has spent the last 5 years in Mysuru. Michael originally introduced him to Mysuru. We stayed up chatting until about 1 am and then went to sleep. This was the first glimpse I had of the western community that has been flocking to Mysuru since the 1970's to learn from guruji.

We woke up very late and Leena, Michael and I started searching for rooms. Michael introduced us to Tina, a lady he calls his indian mother, as she had taught him how to cook indian food. I also saw some flyers at her restaurant for an Anatomy course with specific emphasis on Yoga that will start tomorrow for 4 days. I am extremely worried about being bored out of my mind, staying for a whole month in 1 city in India, so I am considering this, but first let me get registered. Went to the bank and withdrew enough money to pay the required 1 month minimum registration fee of Rs 26,900. In the meantime Lori and Myra had found a 3 bedroom place for Rs 12,000 that Leena will also stay at if she can get registered with guruji. At 4pm we phoned one of the places I had decided upon (Rs 7,500 for the month) but were told that it had already been rented out.

Then at 4:15 we walked the block from Randy's house to the Yoga Shala and because Michael knew guruji very well he got us registered first (we were not the first in the queue). I was quite nervous about not getting in, but was relieved after that was sorted out. We all are in the 7:30 am class. Tomorrow morning though we have to be there at 6 for the led class at 6:15. Fridays and Sundays are led classes.
Meeting guruji, his daughter Saraswati, grandson Sharath and Sharath's daughter was also nice. Sharath had taught at Purple Valley before while Lori was there and she gave Sharath a picture of him, his wife and their daughter at the retreat as a gift.

Then I drove to another place about 15min walk from the Shala, which I hope to rent for Rs 13,000 with 3 bedrooms, but the lady was not there so I will have to try again later.