I really love that my nearest internet place also happens to have the best music collection on its main computer so if i arrive and the owner is not already rockin' out to some super funky tunes, then he loves it when i turn on some of his music. So when i come here it's kind of like a disco, a little mini vacation from my austere and perfect ashram life of reading, flute playing, and all that. I get to come here for a little funk, when i am missing music. Real music, not devotional music. Don't get me wrong, I love the devotional chanting and all, but a change is always nice.
So anyhow, it MUST be peacock mating season. Every morning now for like 3 weeks its been sounding like there are about 50 hungry cats outside in the bushes near my window as the hills come alive with sound of calling peacocks. Its such a cool sound.
Today I helped send responses to inquiry emails at the ashram on their computer. We have a new manager, and he's in delhi right now, so the whole family is holding down the fort: Vishwa's brother, and mother and niece and a couple of others. Its wonderful on the weekends because all his nieces and nephews come and its a real family affair and mata-ji (his mom) stays there all week and the other day she braided my hair for me. she's always looking out for me, even though we each only speak like, 3 words in eachother's language. I like it when the whole family are all there. But when the manager is away, there is no one whose english is good enough to respond to inquiry emails that flood in from all over the place. So tonight we sat down and responded to them all. It was really fun. Figuring out what they want to say and me typing and translating. It was a real group effort . Indian style. It takes 4 people to do the job of one, but we have way more fun doing it, so work becomes play.
I had to get someone to teach me how to get my whites white. The morning yoga teacher, his name is Gaurav, he always shows up with his white clothes so brilliantly white they hurt your eyes and i KNOW they are not new so i had to ask him the secret. Because mine just keep getting greyer and greyer. So I had to have a man show me how to do laundry. That's gotta be a first. Turns out he has a secret powder he adds to his regular detergent. I can't find bleach anywhere in stores so this powder must have bleach in it or something, cause it works. like a charm. so now my whites can be whiter than white. yipee!
I finished this weeks' classes of teaching yoga. My first week. It went by very fast. Today was my day off, Sunday. and tomorrow we start in again. And the ashram is filling up in an amazing way. My teacher is back in Canada but people are arriving out of the woodwork. I thought it was going to get quieter and i was thinking I would end up teaching 2 or 3 people, but no, the classes are going to get bigger it looks like. wow. where are all these people coming from.?
Tomorrow I wanted to go to the waterfall, so I sort of organized an outing. We will all go together. It seems we are about 13 people going. lucky number 13.
The weather is getting so warm in the day. I don't know how i'm going to stand it in two months. Already i have to hide out from the hours of 12 to 4 in the afternoon. and i've been feeling unbelievably dopey and lazy during those times... i thought maybe something was wrong with me, but after asking around, my Indian friends assure me this is totally normal with the weather change like this and they encourage me to just relax and sleep like they do in the afternoons, so i think i may have to just do that. That's what i WANT to do, and i've been sort of fighting it, because between lunch and dinner, i do basically nothing, so it just seems like i'm eating and sleeping, eating and sleeping. At least my room is nice and cool. A nice place to hang out.
The streets are alive at night, so I guess everyone is siesta-ing in the day and coming out at night.
The food.
Funny thing with the food at the ashram. You know, it can get a little plain and boring after a few days, so last night i took myself out for palak paneer (my favourite dish of indian cheese and spinach) and a nice fresh salad. you know, because i thought maybe my low ernergy was due to not having any raw vegetables or greens in my diet lately. So i skipped dinner at the ashram to go out and do that.
and then today.... at lunchtime... at the ashram, they served palak paneer!!!! with the paneer homemade from the milk of our own cows!!! AND salad, fresh cucumber and radish, YUM! how did they know? that's what I want to know. I didn't speak a word of this to ANYONE about having gone out to a restaurant, the german bakery, and had palak paneer and salad, yet, somehow, mysteriously, this "coincidence". maybe they have spies at the restaurant where i went last night that told them that i came in for palak paneer and salad. because i've been here so long, people know me, and people talk. The community is pretty small and everyone seems to know everything. its really tight knit. so you never know , its possible, someone could have snitched on me. haha..... oh well, i like the result. The ashram palak paneer was a dozen times better than the restaurant one anyway. The food is prepared with such love.
I am very excited about all the new arrivees coming into the ashram.
i originally committed to stay until the middle of April but if the afternoon class continues to flourish the way it has been, i may be feeling to stay on til the end of April. But then I have to leave if i want to start my ayurveda course in may.
gosh, time, time, time.
well, i better sign off for now.
lots of love to all you lovers out there,
i love ya!
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