India with a Toddler

People have really been picking my brain lately about having Ms. Toddler on this trip. I call her Madonna now as everyone knows her and people know her name and never mine.

Having her here is a blast. She keeps me really busy and I find myself listening to the other yogis about their days eating breakfast after practice, napping, laying by the pool reading and then having a relaxing afternoon before dinner with friends. I find myself not knowing what that would be like. One of my friends from LA said she is bored, so she started volunteering at the orphanage. I would like to be bored for just and hour.

I am trying to implement routine, but the only routine thing about India is that I practice at the same time and we go to breakfast after that. She is up when I get home at 7:15 a.m., we get dressed and head out for breakfast. Then we do an adventure every morning after breakfast. Whether it is feed the cows and dogs, go to the pool, go to the city to buy something fun, drink a coconut or ride a rickshaw.

Today we got in the rickshaw with our driver Sanjay and I said, show us temples around here and show us cool things you like. Off we go in the rickshaw for about 20 minutes. Mags is loving it as we whiz by scooters, rickshaws, people on tractors, carts being pulled by oxen, women walking with their gorgeous colorful saris and people everywhere. I like it too as we are seeing new sights and India is amazing! It’s so dang busy. That is one thing here, it is always busy. With billions and billions of people here, there are people everywhere always.

Our first stop is the Shiva temple. We leave our shoes in the rickshaw, buy puja flowers for 20 rupees and head in. The temple is covered in gold and amazing paintings are on the ceiling like the sistine chapel only of Shiva and lotus flowers. We wind our way up to the shrine and hand over our puja and another 20 rupees. The swami gives Mags a flower and a package of I think, sugar. (But I didn’t let her know that.) We wind past the shrine like in a museum with actual roped off pathways. Out the door and back into the rickshaw.

Next stop is this huge ashram. Now this swami has some serious cash. The place is huge!!!! It takes us an hour to just walk the grounds of these amazing temple buildings, manicured lawns and foreign trees in these gardens from all over the world and just statues and shrines hidden in the trees all over the place. We get inside the main entrance and chanting, chanting, chanting is ringing throughout the building. As we get closer these children dressed in orange robes are the ones chanting and pouring water over a Ganesha statue’s head. The average age is probably 8 years old. Sanjay says parents bring their children here at a very young age and leave them to be raised, till they are 17/18 and can go on their own to do their devotional work. It’s crazy and amazing. They love Mags too and are asking her to come over to them. This is one of the first times she is a bit unsure and is hiding behind my legs.

Back in the rickshaw we go, she falls asleep with 5 minutes. There goes lunch. Our former landlord, Joseph, invited us to lunch with about 10 other people at the Green Hotel. I was very excited to try somewhere new to eat and see friends, but…life with a toddler, we headed home and down for her nap she went.

An hour later she pops up ready to go and now Mommy is tired. I pop in a DVD and buy myself 20 minutes of a nap time. We open our door and in comes walking one of the dogs we neutered and he has a couple friends with him. Mags is running around playing with them. She has so much energy, we have to get out of the house. Off to the coconut stand for a few coconuts, then we head to the grocery store.

Now the grocery store should be simple enough. But it’s India, so Mags decides not to ride in the cart and is walking with me. We grab our things in the cart and she is playing with the front doors while I’m at the register. I have to keep peeping to make sure she is there. No one is in the store but us as it’s nap time for everyone in Mysore, so being here at 3 p.m. is like being in a ghost town. The guy comes to my cart and makes me put all the veggies and fruit in a basket. He is a bit annoyed with me like I should have known to do that and he gives the basket to another guy who walks away. Meantime, he is ringing my items, very, very, very slowly and not putting them in any order. So of course, he gets screwed up about what he did and didn’t ring up and of course, he can’t find skus for some things. So he is reading the receipt line by line as he is taking everything out of the bags. Meantime, Ms. Toddler, is standing at eye level to the candy aisle saying she wants this and that and this and that. She ducks away and I have to make sure she is in my line of sight.

Finally we get everything paid for, back in the rickshaw. Back to the house, unload the groceries and then someone decides she doesn’t want to get out of the rickshaw. 5 minutes of talking to her to get out and we are inside. I flip our hot water switches and we have to wait for 10 minutes for that to kick in. Thought I’d give her a quick bath before Laksmi shows up as it’s 100 degrees out.

No luck, Laksmi is here, no bath and Mags is crying for me not to go. Laksmi pushes me out the door and off to Sanskrit I go. It’s a hard class but getting a little easier. Of the 7 of us in level 2, we are down to 4 people now.

After class I stop at Silver Nest to get a silver cylinder that Mr. V, vedic astrologer, is going to fill with…well, I’m not sure with what. But Vera, Sheila and I all have to bring our cylinders on Monday when we go to get our own personal mantras that we will chant to our deities for the rest of our lives. No luck the Silver Nest woman just got back from the doc and has to rest. She said come back tomorrow. I head home with 2 of the shala puppies in tow for dinner.

We take Laksmi home by rickshaw and go get dosas for dinner. She is playing peek a boo with the chair to the waiters and everyone is staring and smiling at her. India loves children! I am staring half blindly into space sipping a cup of coffee. Back for bath, trying to get her in bed, but she follows me out and is quietly playing with her toys and falling asleep on the floor. I pick her up and put her in bed. I had to check email and do some things. I saw her peak around the door and I am pretty sure she fell asleep behind the bedroom door on the floor right now.

Ahhh, India with a toddler. Would I change it? No. My friends who are here alone are bored. I am not bored. But I am thinking of taking a little more Laksmi babysitting time, so I can just go have a coconut or meditate somewhere before I leave in the next 2 weeks.

Om, shanti, shanti, shanti.

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