The bank credited my money that I never got from the ATM back to my account. It happened in 2 weeks, I feel pretty lucky and very happy about that.

We have 18 days left and it is going fast.  People are slowly leaving the shala each day and there is actual space to practice now. My practice is going well and I am noticing things about myself as the time passes here. As Guruji and Sharath have said along, and Sharath brought this up again in conference Sunday, be mindful of what you eat. Ahimsa, means non-violence. I have been a vegetarian for the last 25 years and vegan for the last 3 years, but it goes farther than a vegetarian diet. You need to eat clean, healthy food. I was doing great the first month I was here. Lots of Indian food and chapatis, then the bread man who sits outside the shala showed me his banana bread. It’s truly amazing and so yummy! So Mags and I were nibbling it for a good 5 – 6 days. It is really healthy, but my practice those days were heavy. I was having a hard time picking up my body to jump through an my hips started hurting again. When my hips hurt, I know I have toxins and what I call “junk” in my blood and nerves. The only way to get it out is to move, breathe and not miss any yoga. So day 4 of feeling like I had a ball and chain around my waist, I sat in practice and broke it down what had changed inside myself. Nothing…but the banana bread. So we’re laying off that now and back to fruit, coconut juice and chapatis.

We took a day trip to Melkote. Rachel, a friend from Colorado, came with us. They have many temples there. The palm reader and Vedic astrologer said I should go and put my hands on Dattatreya’s feet. He also said I needed to trust god more.  This was my mission with this trip. Not only to get out of town for the day, but to place my hands on the statue’s feet and maybe find a piece of god. God to me is everything, the trees, ocean, the universe. I have always said I fall along the lines of Native American and Buddhist beliefs. I was raised Catholic and I never bought into it. I remember sitting there in first grade after we had to go to confession. I was in Catholic school and we always had to confess once a week. I probably said, oh I ate a cookie before dinner and didn’t go to bed on time one night for my mom, so the priest sent me out to the pews to say 10 Hail Mary’s and 2 Our Father’s. I remember sitting there in the pew thinking, what a crock of crap this is. So at 7 years, I was already 2 steps way out the door of the church, knowing in my soul that God is truly everywhere and anywhere and look at all the people all over the world who have a different god for their religion and race.

I thought I was doing fine with my faith, but when Mr. V, the palm reader, said trust in God. It hit home.  I live a good clean life and am good to people and animals. I even step over ants and have taught Mags now not to harm the insects, but Mr. V. is right. I have not bonded with God. I know the higher being is there and in all we do and see, but I guess it’s time to get real with my beliefs. India is no better place than to put your faith to the test. The Indians truly worship their gods and really walk and talk their faith here. So off to Melkote we go!

Our first stop in the car was to have the car blessed by a swami. Very cool, he came right out, chanting and had his oils and paints and was painting the windshield while praying. He touched Mags, myself and our 2 drivers/guides (Sanjay and his brother) on our heads. It was very cool and I felt pretty dang protected. We went on to Melkote, ventured up the 365 steps of this temple, one for each day. When we got to the top, I was blown away. You could see for miles and every inch of the temple was carved with deities. People crowded in line to get to the shrine and be blessed by the priests. It was very cool and Mags really enjoyed it. Each step we crossed in the temple, we would stop, touch the step with our hand and then touch our heart. Mags picked it up on the 3rd step.

After the first amazing temple, we headed to 2 more temples. One was a huge water pool with steps on all 4 sides. People were bathing themselves, their children, clothes and dipping their hands in the water and blessing themselves. Truly amazing to see this and witness their faith in touching this holy water. Our 3rd temple was Dattatreya’s shrine. We had to hike up some major steps and wind around the side of a mountain or I should say cliff. I have a bit of fear of heights and Mags was locked tight in my arms, plus you can’t wear shoes and the cliff rock must have been 100 degrees. I felt like we were on a true pilgrimage to get to Dattatreya. We winded around a huge rock and again you could see for miles and there was this tiny shrine to Dattatreya. I was a little let down, but nevertheless put my hands on his feet and felt very good about this.  This cliff is also where they say Rama threw his huge arrow into the stone and there is a hole in the mountain that looks just like Rama’s arrow went in about 25 feet. We stuck our heads inside the hole, which is about 5 feet wide and high.

There is a lookout point up here too and it was so peaceful. We all sat there for awhile with a very old Indian man who hauls water and metal glasses up there to give people drinks. We must have sat there for 20 minutes just looking out at the countryside and in silence listening to the breeze. Even Mags hung out listening. The more I spend time with her here, the more she truly is a wise soul and very enlightened.

We walked down and Sanjay, our rickshaw driver, who came along with us as his brother has the car service, carried Mags all the way down. I am glad he came as he can translate for us and it makes things a lot easier, especially because Melkote had not one other westerner other than us. So we were quite the hit and Maggie was like Madona. Pictures were being snapped left and right and she was swooped up a few times by people to have their photos taken with her.

On to our last temple, which is covered in Sanskrit. We meet this guy who is a great cook and he invites us to his house for lunch afterwards. Yum! As we are heading down the road to the temple, Sanjay says, “Madame, God is coming!” Rachel and I look at each other and I said, well thank god, Mr. V. said I needed to see god. Sure enough there was a parade of men carrying those old thrones on their shoulders. There were 2 thrones and amazing umbrellas made of cloth were being carried by several men surrounding the thrones. The first throne had flowers and all kinds of puja to the god. The 2nd thrown had a huge statue of Shiva adorned with flowers. It was amazing! Our day had already been spiritual and blew both of us away. But just to have Sanjay say those words to us, “God is coming!” Well, he’s right, god is everywhere and a statue of Shiva is God and that is how the Indians worship here. I truly see God now in a new light. Not to fret, I am not coming back some reborn Christian or anything crazy, but I do see god now. I used to say god is everywhere, but now I know god is everywhere and I like this feeling. I feel about a foot closer to he/she than I did when I left Mr. V’s. Progress!

With my new enlightenment, I am finally joining about 20 of the yogis and going to Kumar’s 3 afternoons a week for an hour to meditate. Today will be my first class. He holds 3 classes a week, M – W at 5:30. I have no idea what will happen, but Mr. V. said I should also meditate on Fridays to keep me grounded. If you want his whole reasoning, it’s because Venus is my ruling plant, Fridays is the day of venus, so good to meditate and ground that day. So off to meditation I go. I’m also going to do the massage/past life therapy session with Kumar this Saturday. A lot of people here have done this and they say he literally stops when he hits pain in your body during the massage and then regresses you to the core of your pain. People have left healed, shocked, crying, happy, relieved, etc.

I’ll fill you in more on that after Saturday. Other than that, we have been spaying and neutering the dogs. 6 so far and all is going well. One ate my cable for the computer, so we have had no internet for 5 days. I have been working closely with the vet and Shiva, who manages the houses here. They have started a non profit Animal Rescue group. I am so honored at this and the group has come out from my work I started here. I feel honored and truly blessed at this. They are looking for a place now to house homeless animals. It will be a shelter/vet clinic. Free spay/neuter, free shots to homeless animals, foster/adoption and animal advocacy on treating all animals with respect. Those of you who have donated to this cause and there have been a lot of you, thank you!!! My goal is to spay/neuter 10 dogs and I am leaving the remainder of the money as a donation to help find a permanent place for the clinic/shelter. The group is called Sahana Animal Care Organization and there are 7 people here in Gokalum who will be facilitating this. All 7 are older amazing people, whom I know will make this a success. They are asking when I am coming back already as I would of course love to help them and be able to practice here again. In the meantime, I will be raising money for them from the states and helping them with marketing materials. They put out one brochure, but um, yeah, they need some marketing help.

So thank you everyone! We have a tribe of dogs who come hang out at our house now. Every morning the shala dogs come down, so we have about 4 – 6 of them and then the ones we have spayed/neutered come hang out for breakfast or lunch. It’s great and Mags is in heaven. Every morning when I get home from practice she meets me at the door and a new “bubba” as she calls all dogs is there to greet her.

Other than that, a few girls had us tag along to go to Pizza Hut with them last nite. That was hilarious. They have full on waiters who opent he front door for you, take your order and you dine on actual paltes and real silverware. The whole menu is vegetarian and it tasted really yummy. I’m sure that will help my practice!

2 weeks left of enlightenment. There so many more stories I could tell, but I have expelled enough wind and need to go to Sanskrit and my meditation class. The adventure continues. Namaste!

Led class was good this morning. I practiced a few people away from Govinda Kai. He is from Japan and one of the certified teachers. He is here with his wife Mai, who is pregnant with their first. www.lunaticmonk.com He is a very good soul and an amazing photographer. You can actually follow his photos of Mysore here, they are stunning: http://www.flickr.com/photos/govindakai/page1/

I got home and haven’t been able to use my key to open our door. I try and tell Laksmi not to turn the little lock knob, but with our language barrier it is not getting through well. So I walked Laksmi outside to say goodbye and slam…. Mags shut the door on us. Luckily Laksmi has a key, so I borrowed it and….you got it. Mags was locked inside b/c that little lock knob was turned. Crappy doodle. You see, our house is like a fortress and there are horizontal bars on every window, just like Compton, and the doors have about 5 locks to each one. Hmmmm.

I walk to the window and say “Mags, go to the door and turn the little knob to the left.” She said ok, grabbed my keys and started using the keys in the lock. Close. So this went on for about 15 minutes and I was like ok, we are going to need a welder to cut through the bars to get me in. Just then Jess, was driving by on her scooter taking the kids to school. I said, can you call Shiva, our building manager, and tell him to come down?

In the meantime, our neighbor came over and was trying windows, my key and so forth. He ran 5 doors down to the owner’s house, but they weren’t home. Then Swami, our rickshaw driver pulled up. We were starting to attract a crowd and luckily Mags was laughing at the window thinking the whole thing was fun. I was happy for that.

Swami tried the keys. I said it’s not the key, it’s the little lock knob inside. He got it though he speaks no English. He ran down to get some more friends. Then the 3 Japanese girls who just moved in got home from practice. They were so cute in their soft spoken accents, “Maggie-chan, go to the door and see the little knob turn it to the left.” Mags laughed with them and kept showing them her stuffed dog. As they were trying to get her to go for about 10 minutes, 3 more rickshaw drivers showed up. I love these guys as they are all really good guys, and have been so good to us.

Mags was doing ok and the amazing thing was that everybody was really calm just working out solutions. They looked over the situation and tried to get Mags to turn the lock, but after 2 minutes Swami ran and got this long metal pole. I guess a neighbor had it. So they knocked out the screen and started pushing the pole through the bars to reach the lock. It made it, but couldn’t catch the lock. I thought, hmmm, this is a good idea.

As they were trying that and talking to Mags, 2 of the Japanese girls were back with their digital camera. They had run upstairs and made a video of them unlocking their door (same door as ours). Totally hillarious! Mind you they don’t speak English, so many giggles here. They got Mags to the window and played it for her and then the one who speaks pretty good English said, ok Maggie now you go unlock the door just like that.

I stood back, pretty calm, as I knew if nothing worked, I was going to get a welder to cut the bars and we would be in. But I marveled at the 3 countries we had here and each of our approaches to get her out. 1-US) cut the bars and get in, 2-Japan) use their lovely electronic gadgets to make a movie of how to open the door and 3- India) here comes Swami with another pole, this time a 10 foot bamboo pole and a small metal hook on the end. It was a coconut pole that pulls the coconuts down from the trees! I love it!

Now with about 12 people all hovering around and Mags smiling watching the movie babbling to the Japanese girls, the neighbors standing by and we’re talking our broken English with eachother, and the rickshaw guys all guiding this pole through the bars and talking to Mags to stand back. Two neighbors are walking up with a bamboo ladder, saying they could punch out the screen above the front door and reach through the bars to unlock the top locks on the door and then kick the door in. It was great!

Just then…click! The coconut pole worked!!!! Amazing! I ran around and had someone, not sure who had my keys, throw them to me and click again. I’m in! Everybody was cheering and clapping, the Japanese girls are documenting this on their camera and Mags started clapping. It was a wonderful way to start our morning!

I said thanks, we changed and off we went to breakfast. Just another lovely Indian day!

Tomorrow we are off to Melkote, about 60 km from here for a day trip. Rachel, a really great gal from Colorado is joining us. Sanjay, one of our rickshaw driver’s older brother, drives a car and is picking us up at 9 a.m. Rachel recently got divorced after 11 years. Her husband bought her out of the house and she is now traveling for a year maybe longer around the world. She is writing a book and teaching yoga workshops. Her next one is in Bali in 2 weeks. I immediatly liked her when she told me this story. I thought, right on girl, get busy living!

I’m sure we will have some stories tomorrow after our day trip. Early evening we go to a benefit kirtan for the Onandi Project. They are working with women and children here to stop the trade of human trafficking. It is scary and truly happens here. They have helped 1500 women and children to date. Tomorrow nite, we bring in our 2nd doggy for spaying/neutering. Busy day!

To end here, I signed up for my last month at the shala today with Sharath and paid my rupees. We actually had a little conversation and I liked that. It was nice. He smiled and said, you must get supta kurmasana. I said you got it, next week, I am all over it!

Ok, power just went out for the 3rd time today. Mags is asleep and I am getting eaten by mosquitos. Time to sign off.

Jai, jai jai!

So sorry, I thought I posted something on 3/1, but I see it is not here.

Much to catch up on.  Let’s see. I have seen no money from the India bank and my bank at home is late on sending out paperwork to file the claim. So no money yet. But my roomie, left his wallet here and it had the exact amount I lost at the atm in his wallet in US dollars. How about that for karma! I won’t see him till maybe late April, so if I need the money I have it now.

We moved houses and are back in our original house minus roomates. It needed quite the cleaning after 6 months of men living here. I mean big ick! So Laksmi, Mag’s babysitter and her friend, came and cleaned the house top to bottom. Ahhhh! Randy gave us a mosquito net too, so we are sleeping like babies now. They were eating us alive at nite.

My practice is going great, I have lost about 6/7 pounds now and am binding like I was pre baby. Hooray! The shala is also clearing out since this is Sharath’s last month to teach for 2 years here. He is quite happy, smiling and even joking during practice now b/c there are so few people. It is very nice and I feel honored to be here this month. Not that it is small by any means, but I would say we are down to 150 - 175 people from 250.

I finished sanskrit level 1 and for some insane reason started Level 2 last week. It is completely kicking my butt again as we are making full on sentences and I am doing homework about an hour each nite.

Mags is loving it here. She has tons of friends. People shout out, “Maggie!” from cars, rickshaws, across the street, from store when we walk by. She is a true celebrity. Sharmila is back from Nepal and she plays with her in the mornings. She has also been playing with Anjenah and Nayarana, Andrew and Jess’s kids. They all get along great which is wonderful b/c they are moving to Seattle in June. Andrew will be opening a space to teach as he and Jesica both juts got authorized here to teach. Quite a big deal. Sharath authorized about 8 people in one full swoop since he is taking the 2 years off. To put the “Authorization”/”Certification” into perspective. There are about 40 - 45 authorized people in the world and about 30 certified in the world.

We started to spay and nueter the homeless dogs here. Well, we is the rickshaw drivers and Mags and I, along with the vet of course. It was quite nerve racking with our first guy. The vet shows up, gives him a shot, puppy is paralyzed but still conscious, I pick him up, lay him in the rickshaw. We drive 4 blocks to the vet, carry him in, lay him on the metal table. 1/2 hour later vet calls to pick him up. Sanjay and Swami, rickshaw drivers, pick us up from the coconut stand and we go get puppy an bring him home. No painkillers, just giving him some powder blasts on his incision and an antibiotic. Man!

He is doing great today and actually ran out on us on Day 2 and was gone for the nite. We had the whole town looking for him. He showed back up today and is asleep on our floor. We have raised $400 to date for this project, which can spay at least 20 dogs.The vet is an amazing man and he has cut his costs in half to help with this.

We are doing 3 females tomorrow and a little male on Sunday. He has quite the mange and he is in horrible pain. The vet has been giving him some solution and pills to get the mange to go away. India can be a harsh reality. In other dog news, the “corporation” (animal control) showed up and tried to sweep all the shala dogs to poison them. Siva and his guys saved all 6 of them. They then came down to our street and went to sweep and we saved 3. I didn’t see them get any from this area that day.

I saw a Vedic astrologer/palm reader yesterday. He is quite the man around town and lives across from the old shala. He was very good. All is good. He said I have an extremely rare palm where I have 6 lines shooting straight up to the planets from Mercury to Saturn. This is so rare and means I am happy all the time. I started laughing and said, yes, for the most part I am very happy most of the time. Money will be fine for us, my husband is a brilliant/smart and so nice of a man (I knew that!), we will move and run a huge farm of flowers in the next 2 - 3 years (I asked if we would have cows and pigs, but Ray will be happy thathe was not seeing that). I will have one more very tragic accident in the next 3 years. He said I must be very careful with speed and driving and to be cautious. I say one more because I have been in 3 car accidents, one where I flatlined and traveled through that tunnel towards the white light. Yes, for me there was a white light and people trapped in some limbo on the sides of the tunnel. He said this would have been fatal for me, but that I have a guardian who watched over me then. I also have fell off a 60 foot cliff in Hawaii which was quite tragic around the same time in my life that he saw this first accident. So I guess another one is coming. I’m a little freaked out, but will always be cautious now.

Lastly he said yoga was my destiny and that I would be profitable and that this will do me very very well in life.  Ithought perhaps I would hear this for my practice, but for teaching, it has suprised me. I love yoga, but I feel very much a student at times, especially here in India seeing Sharath, Saraswati, Laksmi (my sanskrit teacher), Kumar (meditation teacher). I feel so tiny in knowledge to that.

We have not traveled to Bylakuppe yet to see the Dalai Lama. Perhaps we go Saturday. My friends have been there and say it is great, but he speaks in Tibetan so you are there to see his prescense which is truly amazing. We are going to Melakote Sunday. My deity is Dattatraya. By this I mean, most yogis follow a Hindu God who they feel close to or some relation to. Dattatraya or Dattareya always has 4 dogs by his side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dattatreya

There is a temple in Melakote worshipping him.

We have become friends with a family who owns our first nuetered dog’s girlfriend and his 2 puppies. The father is a garbage collecter, his sons go with him. They have stopped by our house in the past to have their lunch. They are very very poor, but such good people. Today his wife was with him. We sat and talked as best we could with not knowing eachother’s languages. Mags played with their kids and everyone had a great time. They have invited us to their house tomorrow at 2. I have seen their house, they live in a part with many families around them and many goats, chickens and dogs running in and out of their houses. When we have seen them here resting we always bring them fruit and cold juice and water out. They are so hungry and so thankful for it. I gave them puppy food and a small bag of rice as they have no money to feed their puppies. The wife asked me what I make Maggie for breakfast, I asked her what she made today and she said rice. I know it is that bag of rice that I gave them yesterday. We’ll go over tomorrow with fruit, drinks and some rice. The rickshaw drivers and Shiva’s guys say this family is truly good people. They are both 25 and their kids are 7 and 3. I guess the father’s father was a garbage man and he grew up like his kids are growing up, tagging along on the garbage cart and never went to school.

More on that after tomorrow. We miss Ray so very much and he is done with the house remodel. Well, he is wanting it to be done. Wish he would come out here for our last month.

So quick update, I was being blonde again. Mumbai and Bombay = same city.  I talked with my dear friend, who has lived her 7 years, Randy. He is helping me get the money back and Tina, who is Indian and runs 2 restaurants here called her friend at that bank. 1) I am definitely getting the money credited back to my account but it may take at least 60 days and 2) I have to go to the bank and apologize to the manager for the way Joseph treated him. It is very very disrespectful in India to insult people like that. So if I apologize, then perhaps he will speed up this process.

So on to our day today:
I walked in for my normal practice time of 6 a.m. I usually wait with about 10 other people till a space opens up on the floor. Today I walked in and I was the only one in the lobby. I was called immediately on the floor. This is unheard of and shows the yogis are leaving. As the next 15 people came him he bumped all their times up to 5:30 a.m. from now on.

I have made some good friends here in just this short time. The friends who have been here before say that there are waves of groups that come where you’ll have really nice people and very strong bonds. The month of February has been like that. All of us girls and I would say at least 20 that I know pretty well, just really get along and they are good people.

You get close fast here, because we practice at the crack of dawn together 6 days a week. Then you see each other at the coconut stand throughout the day, at the same restaurants, walking the streets and so on.

Now that the month is coming to an end, people are leaving. They are off to Miami, Dubai, Portugal, Japan, Hawaii and so on. It is a bit sad, as where but Mysore can you get all these people from all over the world together? Samia and Steven left yesterday, they are from home with me and I am really sad they are going. Samia is so dang funny and Steven is just dang cool. I am really going to miss her bubbly personality. Some like Hector and Iman, have been here for 6 months and they are finally moving on. Iman is from Dubai and invited me there anytime. That is the wonderful thing about this place, not only are you working on yourself through the practice, but you make friends all over the world.

I can see why they have all stayed so long and keep coming back. You plan on coming for one month and then the yoga really starts working internally on you and of course physically. It’s what happens inside your brain and body that is amazing. So right at one month, things are starting to  really come together in our body and you feel good. Thus people end up extending and extending and extending. Till it’s 6 months, a year and like Hector who left today, we saw him dragging in two large metal locked boxes of personal items that he is storing with Murthy till he comes back next time. Others like our friends, Andrew and Jessica, ended up moving here and have been here a year now.

So the yoga truly works. It brings you closer to god, whomever he/she may be to you, and it brings you closer to the people you practice with. Mags and I walked home with Vera, a dear good soul from Portugal, whom we connected right away. She’s a surfer girl too, as well as, our 2 Canadian sister friends, so that seals it for us right there. We were walking home last night and we’re a bit sad, as we had just said goodbye to 5 friends at once. We’ll see what March brings for us. She said she is sad her friends are gone now, but that it is also good for her to be alone to be with herself as she feels she has work to do on her inner soul. I feel the same, though I am never alone as Mags is always my sidekick. (She is next to me humming and looking at the screen as I write.) I feel alone at times too and that is probably a good thing for me to dig deeper and peel some more layers of my outer self away.

News from home, I took a photographer from the PI newspaper around for a day to show her chained dogs as she is writing and shooting an article. We have been trying to get a no chaining law passed in Seattle and it is gaining speed. The article and photos are here:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/photos/popupV2.asp?SubID=4656&page=1&GTitle=Chained%20Dogs%20&pubdate=2/24/2009

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/401317_dogchain25.html

Namaste!

Much has happened in 2 days. Slumdog Millionaire swept the Oscars and anyone who owned a TV here had the Oscars on. It was pretty cool to hear it through the houses in Hindi language. When Slumdog won best picture, cheers went up throughout the city. Very dang cool!

Maha Shivarati festival was Monday. We went up to Chemundi Hill and sat in the Shiva cave with a true guru/priest man. The temple was very cool and the cave was low so you had to duck to get in. Mags loved it, especially when he started handing out spoonfuls of sugar to the kids who crawled up to him. The cave is painted light blue and it is adorned with flowers and pictures of the deities, lovely music was playing and Mags was swaying to it in my lap. You can fit about 20 people in there and waiting outside were about 20 more. After our cave time, we headed to another Shiva temple which was very vibrant and alive with people. The family who  runs the temple made two great dishes and served them on banana leaves. We savored every bit of them.

Today was moon day and we were headed to Bylakuppe to see the Dalai Lama. I decided to stop at the cash machine yesterday to get money out for us and to pay for our house. Usually the yogis take out the max amount so the ATM fees don’t pile up for every transaction. Card in, do my pin, I hear the ATM counting the money, card spits out, receipt next showing the withdrawl. Hmmm, hmmm, counting, counting, waiting waiting, counting counting, waiting, hmmm, hmmmm. Wow, that’s alot of counting. Machine stops, no money. Uh oh.

Of couse the bank is closed too for the holiday. I pull our rickshaw driver, Swami, over to me and explain. He hardly speaks English, but we always manage though pointing, me pulling out my iphone, showing him what I need and we get by. He calls the security guard who speaks no English either. He thinks I am blonde and didn’t know how to work the ATM, so he starts telling me to put my card in and tells me to enter my pin. I say…..no, no money. He shrugs and says, bank closed, tomorrow. I don’t have a good feeling about this, but what can I do.

I stop by Ganesh’ on the eay home, cancel the car to Bylakuppe. Call my girlfriends who were going up to Byla with us and tell them I’m out, have to go to the bank in the morning. I calmly breathe and say, ok, this is the universe’s way of saying…No Bylakuppe for you tomorrow, not a good idea. We’ll keep you here in Mysore, so go to the bank.

I tell Joseph when we get back to the house. He says best to have a man with you as they don’t really respect women in these situations. I am quite the snappy turtle and can hold my own in these situations, but I say ok, I need all the help I can get. I’ve seen how women are treated here and agree, I’m not in the west anymore, dorothy.

Off to the bank. We go in, tell the story, show the receipt, woman sends us to the first desk. That woman says, hmm, may take a month to investigate. Unacceptable, we move to the next guy, same thing, only he says I need to write a handwritten complaint letter and he gives my receipt to the security guard with rifle in hand to make a copy. I’m thinking, odd that his job is copy guy too. Again, unacceptable. Branch manager next. Joseph was quite hot headed, not the way I would have approached this, so I tried to keep the peace, but the manager was not dealing with me. Ok.

He then asked me to write that handwritten complaint, said it will take 2 weeks for the corporate office in Mumbai and Bombay to review it. (Those 2 cities are not close, which is the main office?) He says that the corp office will see I did not get my money and they will credit my account. I now am not happy, as I clearly see the chunk of change is disappearing every word that comes out of the man’s mouth. I have heard that India can be corrupt and I feel my money lining someone’s pockets. I finally calmly speak up here as Joseph and him are now arguing and Mags is popping her stuffed dog through my arms, over my head, under the desk, so I take over this conversation. 1) How will the corp bank know I did not actually receive my money?, 2) Will they review the video tape showing my transaction?, 3) You count the ATM cash everyday, why can’t you show me the reconcile sheet for yesterday and see that I didn’t get my money and give it to me now?, 4) What is 2 weeks, first you said 2 days, your other 2 employees said a month, which is it?

Clearly he doesn’t like either of us as he scowled at me, stood up and walked out as if conversation is done. He handed my note and copy of my receipt to the 2nd guy we spoke with to send off to Mumbai (or Bombay, who knows at this point) and took my email address. He said someone would email me in 2 weeks. I said, I am a foreigner, do not have 2 weeks, I have a child to take care of, you can’t keep my money like this. He wouldn’t have it and the 2 security guards now with rifles moved a bit closer.

So that was that, people looked a bit shocked who worked there. Apparently Indians do not like confrontation, so a cowgirl in there speaking up was probably quite shocking.

I left with no money. Though, I have a good Indian friend who this is her bank and her bank for her restaurant and my American friend who has lived here for 7 years is going to see what they can do. Both are smart and calm, cool and collected. I am popping in there in 2 days to check in and will keep doing that as well.

Other than that, 2 days off of practice and we start back tomorrow morning. Bylakuppe maybe tomorrow after practice as the Dalai Lama is definitely speaking tomorrow.

More later as the Indian soap opera unfolds.

Now that we have been here for 20 days and we are getting the lay of the land, I have had the urge to explore! Tomorrow is Maha Shivaratri, a huge celebration for Shiva, the amazing deity. So off we go to the palace tonight to see the palace lit up. They turn the lights on from 7 - 8 p.m. on Sundays and it is stunning!

We spent the early evening after conference with Sharath at the shala and then we met this great couple from Austria with their 1 year old boy here. We had breakfast with them by chance and after conference, the lovely mom, Mags and I headed to this Austrian bakery that she heard of. It was great and they had like 10 different coffee drinks on the menu. It felt very Starbucks. As in India, you order coffee and you get coffee, black. Maybe in a french press if you go to one of the western restaurants.

After the coffee, Mags and I headed to the palace. Wow! Gokulam is hopping on the eve of Maha Shivaratri. People come out everyday in the early evening and there are rickshaws, cars, ox, people walking, people praying in the temples for the early evenings prayers, people eating on the street, cars honking, dogs running around, cars pulled to the side of the road with Punjabi music playing, vendors selling food, just busy busy. It’s a trip and the city is really “alive” at this time of nite. Being with Ms. Toddler, it is rare we are out after dark, but we had to see the palace and with the holiday tomorrow and Shiva’s main temple within the palace we HAD to go.

Whisking through the streets to the palace, lights all around us, families of 4 on a motorcycle or scooter, families piled in rickshaws with like 8 people in one rickshaw, it’s just busy busy. We get up to the palace perimeter and WOW! It’s huge and amazing. Mags is saying, “wow, cool!” I think she got that from me. We pull up and people are everywhere, selling popcorn, fruit, veges, balloons, toys, kids are coming up to us trying to put balloons in her hand saying 10 rupees. It’s totally like Disneyland in India. I whisk Mags and her stuffed dog (not a real dog) up into my arms and we head to the entrance snapping pics like crazy tourists. People are stopping us, taking photos of Mags, pinching her cheeks, saying, “What is your name?” in their great Indian accent. The Indians, especially all women love children. They are all true mothers in their hearts. We get to the line to get in and it is seriously about 3 - 4 blocks long. I couldn’t believe it! Oh,  Maha Shivaratri! You start worshipping and chanting at 5:30 a.m. till 6 a.m. the next day. That is why everyone is here, it is the eve and they are getting ready. Everyone is dressed in their amazing saris and clothes. Just a gorgeous site to see.

I swoop her up, while a trail of kids selling balloons and trinkets follow us saying, 20 rupees, 10 rupees, how much? make the trek with us. We are heading to the next entrance to see if that is better. Cheek pinching, a few more photos and we make it to the next entrance. No one is hardly there. We walk through a metal detector and there we are. Amazing! Just stunning and Maggie says: “Maggie’s home!” I said, “Good girl, way to have high aspirations.”

Very cool to see that and all the people there, it was fantastic. Now we are home. Mags is crashed and I am going to have an apple. On this lovely holiday, you fast till the next day which is a moon day. Two great days back to back. We have no practice the next 2 days, so perhaps with my fasting, chanting and praying to Shiva I will find a little bit more of my inner self.

Happy Maha Shivaratri Day! Jai!

I walked to the shala in the dark at 5:30 a.m. this morning. It was quiet, except for the occasional dog barking as I pass by the houses and a bicyclist here or there headed off to their work. I saw hello to the ox tied to the post in the vacant lot. Friday is led class and I am in the 2nd group, which starts at 6 a.m. I get there early so I can have a place on the main floor and not have to practice in the restroom or the lobby.

I took my place on the steps with about 15 others who got up earlier than me, waiting for the first led class that starts at 4:30 to get out. I actually wish I was in the 4:30 class, but Laksmi our sitter thought I was insane to have her at our house at 4:00 a.m. I listened closer to the led class and Saraswati was teaching not Sharath. I like Saraswati, she is Guruji’s daughter and Sharath’s mom. She has a great sense of humor and she leads very much like her father. She led the classes for the first time in Islamorado when we went there to see Guruji. Her counting of the primary series is a good pace for me. I smiled as this made me very happy to have her today.

Sitting with my eyes closed on the lovely steps, yogis start to quietly file in. You can hear whispers of everyone and all languages are being spoken, Russian, Japanese, Portuguese and the lovely brits all saying, “Is that right?” I smile again as I am so happy to be here and so lucky to be here.

Right at 5:45 I hear the most beautiful singing from a man. It’s like an opera almost but longer syllables and words are dragging on. Then other men start to chime in. They are chanting and not all in one place, but from their houses. The chorus rings out through the neighborhood and you hear them for blocks. It is truly amazing the devotion in the Indians with their gods and their worship to them.  Every morning they chant, every evening they worship in the temples and every day they put flowers on statues and temples and their own puja rooms in their houses. This is the real deal. At home, many people go to church because they have to or they feel it is their duty and that they will be a better person if they do. Here in India, god, deities, their devotion is a part of their being since birth.

The chanting stops. I listen again to Saraswati counting the series, “15, 16, 17…” I am thinking, crap she is counting headstands to 20 counts today. Ok, no problem, bring it on!
Finally they end with the closing prayer:
http://www.kpjayi.org/closing-prayer.html

Those of us on the steps stand up and get ready to file in. I make it to the main floor in the back. My mat is touching the people on each side of me. Saraswati walks in and says: “Samasthititih!” We all stand up at the front of our mat and she starts the opening prayer:
http://www.kpjayi.org/opening-prayer.html

I smile. I am in Mysore, here in the shala, ready to go and ready to deepen my practice.
Om!

Well I have lost 5 of those 12 pounds already. A couple things I attribute this to:
1)    I am stuck for the time being in sputa kurmasana, so Sharath is like Guruji and will leave you in that pose till you can do it. First you get a little bummed that you have to stop there, then you say ok, I am here and that is fine, now with this going on my 2nd week, the real work has begun. This is what they call the real inner yoga begins to work on your mind, body and soul. You start saying to yourself, alright what do I need to do to get this pose and be able to move on? The answer: get my hips to open more (which I am a really flexible girl already) and lose some lbs. in the hips so I can bind behind my back. My legs are bound over my head, so I’m halfway there.
2)    It’s hot here. No one wants to be wolfing down fattening food. So coconut juice, veges and some dosas are good. Oh yes, and must have my cup of coffee in the morning. I feel like I am eating more though, but it’s all healthy food.
3)    It is so hot in the shala. By time you finish the 4th sun salutation A you are dripping in sweat. You can’t help but lose a pound each morning.
4)    Ms Toddler has decided that she would not like to walk anymore and I am carrying her all over the place. It’s not easy in the heat nor the distance we have to travel sometimes. I understand more now why she has come to India with me – to help me shed the lbs. I feel it’s her dharma to help me lose the last 7 as she helped put on the 60 lbs. when I was preggers. (That’s right, 60! Ray says maybe I had one too many burritos during my pregnancy.)

Moving on. I am sometimes too nice of a person. My tailor made some great pants and dresses for me and did this amazing embroidery work. But he gave me the price, then asked for more for the embroidery. I was not happy about that, but then I agreed as it was a ton of embroidery work. He delivered the pants today and asked for even more money. I was not happy, but was stuck. He needs an operation and what I am to say, we are talking about $40 more dollars here. But I do not like doing business like that and if he just asked me to help with some money towards his operation, I would have. Most of you know that I would give anyone my shoes or clothes if they honestly needed it right there. So he is finishing some pants for Ray and we are done.

I think as he left with his additional $40, he must have told the flower boy who sells pooja flowers at the shala. Because he showed up 15minutes later with a bag of flowers and told me the whole story of his dad dying and he and his 4 sisters sell flowers. His mom is sick and everytime it gets too hot they have to fan their mom from hyper ventilating. He says he needs 2400 rupees for a ceiling fan. I gave him 100 rupees for the flowers and wished him well. This happened too when I was taking out the trash, a woman who lives on the streets took the trash can out of my hand, emptied it them asked for money.

Of course I would like to help everyone, many children and moms come up to me and other yogis and beg for money. They will follow you around and keep tapping you on the shoulder pleading, till you either give them money or sadly tell them no for blocks that they give up. It’s a hard feeling and really pulls at my heart.

I am waiting to hear about our trip to Bylakuppe for the Dalai Lama. Hopefully this will work out as I am hearing you need special tickets. Makes sense, but I think the trip is still worth going to see the Golden Temple.

I did a cooking class today and learned a lot. I am glad they are emailing us the recipes though as we did 3 recipes at the same time, so I am pretty sure I wrote some steps on the wrong recipe.

Other than that, I am struggling in Sanskrit and need to really study tonight. I started the class 4 classes late in the session and am catching up. I am 1 of 3 of the special need’s students who the teacher has now partnered me with 1 of the brainy, glasses student. She is my helper now and English is not her first language. So I feel a bit lower on the totem pole as she is working on language #3. Perhaps I will free myself from the remedial Sanskrit section next week.

Mags is doing great. Everyone knows her in town and they forget my name, but call out her name. She has friends everywhere and all Indians stop and pinch her cheeks and talk to her. She is starting to joke with them too which is quite fun.

Lastly, we saw our Momma dog! She was running down the street with a safeway size bag full of trash like it was a prize this morning. I was so happy to see her. We were in our rickshaw and I shouted, “Mags, there is momma dog!” She screamed cow and threw an apple out the window to her.

I need to be up at 4:45 for the led primary class. Good nite everyone!

As if it just couldn’t get any better! Here I am practicing at Guruji’s home and shala, the birthplace of Ashtanga here in Mysore. I’m eating my breakfast with Mags and I hear, “So are you going to see the Dalai Lama?” I’m like holy crap, what! They say, “yeah, he is coming to Mysore tomorrow morning (the 18th) and then to Bylakuppe, the Tibetan Refugee Settlement, for 2 weeks.” I’m blown away!

Saturday is no yoga practice as always, Monday is a holiday, Maha Shivaratri, and Tuesday is a moon day. What better days then to have a driver take us 85 km to Bylakuppe. Since it is a Tibetan Refuge Settlement, you can not stay there without a permit. These permits take about 4 months to get, so we will go up for the day and hopefully see His Holiness. I was fortunate to see him in Seattle last year, so this is truly a blessing to be graced with his being again this year. We’ll go straight to the Golden Temple.

Sunday afternoons Sharath holds what is called “conference” at the shala. Everyone gathers and Sharath talks about anything about yoga or the practice. These usually last about 15 minutes. Sharath started and then the family came in and started talking in their language. Sharath called the end of the conference right then and said Guruji was not well and they had to take him to the emergency room. He is 94 and is very thin, he can barely eat anything and they have him on medications. He’s there now in the intensive care unit. I hear he is in good spirits, but it is so sad. He is a such a great man and a great guru. I have always had this thing with my life where I am in the right place at that right time. I don’t want that to be true on this venture here in Mysore.

We are settled into our new place. We have a great room and the the whole downstairs of a house to ourselves. There are 2 other bedrooms for rent on this level, but no one is here. That has given us the full run of the downstairs, with a living room, a kitchen and a tub. Yes a tub to ourselves! Our bed is a great 4 poster bed with a mosquito net, so we have been sleeping like babies. I have decided not to actually run a bath since Mags occasionally likes to sip her bath water. There is a nice shower head over the middle of the tub, so showers it is for now.

My practice is going well. Our babysitter didn’t understand me when I said we moved, so I had to miss 2 days of practice, till I could catch up with her and the translator to let her know we were in our new place. All is good and we are back on track. My sanskrit class is going smoother and I am actually writing some words now. I have to use a cheat sheet, but I feel a bit more confident.

Manju, the tailor, gave me one of the dresses he made for me. He did a great job and I am super excited to see the pants with the embroidery. I said I want the clothes to represent “color and happy.” I definitely got that and am very happy! He is also making pants for Ray. We’ll see how they turn out as Ray swears he is a 34 length, but Manju says it’s not possible at his height. I said 36 max, so Ray may have to roll them up a bit, but Manju would not budge on making them 34. He even had a few of the guys stop and he took his tape measure out to prove that Ray is longer than a 34. I smiled and gave up.

Mags lost her playmate from Nepal, Sharmilia. Her mom is due in 2 weeks with their 2nd child, but she was so homesick and driving her husband crazy to go home, so they left. They were completely poor and actually starving there, Sharmilia weighed half her weight that she is now. But her mom wouldn’t have it, so they left last nite for Nepal. They have to take 2 trains, a bus and walk for 2 days to get back to their village. It is so sad, and I know she will probably have the baby on this journey. I am wishing Sharmilia and her family good wishes.

We’re still feeding the dogs around town. I keep looking for the momma dog, but I am pretty sure they must have poisoned her too with her puppies. Our spay/nueter for the dogs begins first of March.

This week we are going to venture a bit and go to the Mysore Palace and a few of the temples. Time to explore more of Mysore than the coconut stand, the shala, restaurants and pool.

I am missing Ray very much and wishing he would come out here. He is the middle of the kitchen and the basement remodel so I don’t think we’ll be seeing him.  We skype with him almost every morning our time, so that is helpful. He even gets to see a mini Maggie tantrum once in a while. I guess when he gets really sad for us, I can just skype him when Mags is melting down, so he can be thankful for the quietness he has right now.

I am writing this by candlelight. The power goes out about twice a day for a few hours sometimes. So best to have your candles ready. Mags is eating grapes and trying to blow out the candles, saying, “wow, cool!”

We had another busy day. Fill up the dog’s water and food bowls outside of our house, breakfast, cows, rickshaw, grocery store, pool and then off to Jessica and Andrew’s for a play date. Mags fell asleep on the floor within 10 minutes of getting home.

We’re moving to Joseph’s tomorrow for 2 weeks. We don’t want to move, but Mags is doing well on a routine and our roommates come home tomorrow. They are working on a big project and like to practice their music during Mag’s nap time, so we’ll get out of their hair for a bit. Our rickshaw driver, Swami, is coming at 10:30 to haul all of our crap up there. It’s about 6 blocks from here and about 3 blocks from the shala. We have the whole downstairs of a house now, so we are losing a bit as we’ll have a bedroom with a shared bathroom down the hall. Luckily we won’t be sharing at this time as we are the only ones there now.

One of our other stops today was to the Gokulam vet. Really nice guy. We talked about the homeless dog situation and he has been so kind as to offer to spay and nueter the homeless dogs for 1000 rupees each. That is about $21. A few of the yoginis have offered to take up collections and help with getting the dogs into the vet and watching over them for 3 days after the surgery. I figure we can maybe get to about 12 -15 in a month. Maybe the great Indian deities will shine upon us and we can get more than that done.

Why have a I taken this on? Well, 1) they are literally starving to death and 2) I found out yesterday that Gokulam’s animal population control is to find the puppies and the moms and poison them. My friend, Jessica, has lived in an apartment building 1/2 block down for the past year. She said puppies were crying at nite in their complex, so “someone” comes by, finds them, takes them away and poisons the pups and their moms. I am very saddened by this as I am pretty sure the mom was one that we had been feeding. She is sweet, literally skin and bones and very shy. Her pic is on my Facebook page. January/February is puppy season here and every year this is how they control the population. There’s a reason for everything and that I believe this is my dharma and why I am here. This is my yoga off the mat.

We skyped Ray this morning to wish him a Happy Valentine’s day. I miss him so much and wish he was here with us. He seems a bit sad and lonely and I keep saying please just get on a plane and come out. I keep hoping he does.

We’re off to bed now with candles in hand. Sunday is led class and not Mysore, so I have to be at the shala at 5:25 to not have to practice next to the toilet. I also have to get the sanskrit cowels and consonants from the shala wall as my homework is due Monday for class. Happy Vday!