Back.

Alright. This is the inaugural India 2010 blog post. It's gonna be quick because the power is out and this internet cafe is on its backup batteries. So far, I have spent a week in Mumbai, where I...

-stayed in a tiny, 4x10 hotel room with a gnarly shared bathroom

-saw Avatar and a Bollywood movie called 3 Idiots (they have intermissions here!)

-was approached by a grey-haired Sikh man who asked me what my name was, shook my hand, and after some further questioning, with our hands still shaking, said "you leave my hand now"

-ate my first Cherimoya and loved it

-took the following pictures:


I didn't look at the menu, but I bet they were chicken... or worse, potato patties. Beef is rare in India, and not in a tender, bloody way.


Har dee har har.


This is part of long mural painted on a wall inside the grounds of an art school.


Some okra and weird multi-colored noodly things sun drying.


This guy hung out outside of Crawford market, a major produce market in South Mumbai just down the street from my hotel. He had a sort of froggish voice, not unlike this guy from my last trip. He croaked "Happy new year!" at me a few times.


Most of the buildings in Mumbai seem to be sort of rotting. And some of them are decorated with murals of horses galloping at the speed of light. This one has a little of both.

On my 24-hour train ride from Mumbai to Mysore, I slept in the same compartment as an old couple on their way to visit their daughter. It turned out she lives just four or five houses down from the shala where I will practice. When we were served our Indian Railways lunches (tv-dinner style chickpea curry) the couple gave me some homemade methi chapati.

I spent my first day in Mysore with a throbbing head, diarrhea, and a sore throat. That was yesterday. Today I feel fine, but I woke up with tons of itchy bug bites on my ankles and lower back, probably bedbugs. I'm hoping they were in the bed at my hotel in Mysore and they didn't hitch a ride in my clothes from Mumbai or the train. If that's the case then they might follow me to my new room in a house just down the street from the shala. That might warrant a bleaching of my entire wardrobe or something.

My start time for practice is 5:15 AM, but on Sunday, the first day of practice, I'll go in at 4:30 for a led class.