Living in the Real India Thanks to Ravin and His Family
Sat. July 26th Woke up very refreshed this morning. Did my regular meditation, yoga and pranayama for the first time in India. It was quite pleasnt to know this is something you can take with you wherever you go. On Monday at 11 I will go meet the assistant director of the Desikachar Yoga School here.
Getting used to having servants is very easy. This morning I gave my laundry to the laundry lady/. Breakfast of delicious porridge-toast and onion and tomato omelet plus my new medications before and after.
Both his parents are so worried about him not being married. They seem to think I have some influence over him and if I speak to him he will change his way of thinking. Parents are the same all over the world but Ravin also has a true predicament. Life is never simple...never the way we imagine it will be. The Universe works in strange ways.
Well, anyway, after breakfast we went out to change money and get plastic sheeting for my massage. Went again on the bike. The weather is overcast but so far I've seen no rain. Chennai is a different sort of city...smallish...only 6-7 million!..I have to say that coming to live here with Ravin and his family has added a whole new dimension to my travels. These 2 weeks I am truly living in India.---middle class India, but still India. Not tourist India. I am living in a house with servants and all the modern conveniences and it is very strange to me on the one hand....then going out in the streets and seeing the regular street scenes and the contrast continues...from hovel shops to fancy (very fancy) shopping centers. The paradoxes here are many and extreme. Ravin's mother Rita ( meaning empty) confiding in me at breakfast that "you have to really push them and watch them all the time to get them to work"...and yet everything still seems to be done in such a tranquil, harmonious and easy going way. Nothing like Israel for sure.
I am now sitting on the balcony which overlooks a school. There is no school today and yet from early morning I have been hearing music-the tune used on Star World to advertise programs "Absolutely Everybody" and couldn't understand why I keep hearing it over and over. Now I am outside and I see the kids. Seems like Junior High age, practicing a dance for some class show-Same type of modern dancing done all over the world-excellent choreography I must say ...quite pleasant to watch them...just as good as any "lahaka" (Dance Troupe) at home...but, what a difference between this group and a similar group in Israel (I've worked with this age doing the same thing in preparation for dance productions so I know what i am talking about first hand) Such quiet and discipline-no shouting, no carrying on-even in between when they are resting.. soft spoken tones-even the boys...there is a general atmosphere of calm rather than tension. Ravin cannot sense this because it is normal and natural to him. But I am VERY aware of it.
Well back to shopping...Getting off the bike at the first stop I burnt my calf quite badly on the hot exhaust pipe. Thank goodness I always carry Rescue Cream around with me. It did not blister but is open and raw and quite red all around it and I am a little worried about it becoming infected...also put some "burn ointment" on it but will continue with the Rescue cream (it is now actually 6 PM and it is looking much better and it actually stopped hurting after about 1/2 hour. it is no longer red and seems to be "browning" over.)
Next we went to the market (Ravin is now sitting over my shoulder reading this report and he is making fun of what I wrote about my burn...these men!!! pains in the ass all of them! He says to tell you all he thinks I am making a mountain out of a mole hill--OK...now he is happy)
So...to the market like shops-rows of small kind of cubicles with very small doorways and very long from front to back with walls covered with shelves from floor to ceiling filled with merchandise. Rita sent Ravin to by plastic sheeting to use for my massage today and in the end we bought a kind of straw mat to place on the floor instead. Rita wanted him to take it back and get plastic instead but in the end he didn't and we covered it with a sheet and it seemed fine.
When we got home we have a really delicious lunch. It's kind of like a "do-it-yourself" Thali. All different things are put out each meal on the table which is set with stainless steel dishes...a large plate with high rim, a cup and a small soup bowl...then you take, e.g. rice, dahl, some chikpea dish called chopa I think with fabulous sauce (Rita told me how to make it...quite complicated but simple at the same time) cooked veggies of all kinds, fresh cut up salad etc. etc...and curd and chapati.
I am getting used to the spiciness of the food. They use no chilies here but more black pepper than I do and there is still something in the masala (seasoning) which I am not used to. But I find myself enjoying the new tastes so much that I cannot resist. And my stomach does not complain at all...just burns my mouth for awhile...I think it will be very difficult to settle for restaurant food after being here for 2 weeks. I am really being spoiled
Then I had my first of 14 massages. Absolutely wonderful=meant to treat my arthritis. The lady barely speaks English, her name is Cicely and she is a Christian. But with her very little English and my non existent Tamil we were able to communicate, as all women seem to be able to do, about children, husbands (or lack of them) grandchildren, mothers etc. Also asked about massage in Israel and I told her about Aviva (my daughter who is a massage therapist)...she asked what type and I told her deep tissue not thinking she would understand or know what it was...and she said "too much pain too fast!" So I guess she must know Aviva....She says "pain must come out slowly over many days"...I guess there are many different ways to achieve the same results. Then to my great surprise-at first I thought I didn't understand her properly-SHE gave me a bucket bath-soaped me up-poured boiling hot water over me 2x from head to toe. Then explained to me to do it again later myself. to get the rest of the oils off, (forgot, the massage is done with hot prescription oils which the doctor prescribes for different ailments)
The whole 14 days will cost 2450 rupees and I think I will give her 3000 she is very sweet and good at what she does.
And now, just had a cup of ice coffee the maid made..very nice...I am feeling some tiredness today-probably the delayed reaction to the whole past week. But another couple of days resting should do it.
Don't know if anything else will happen today...I have had some interesting thoughts channeled to me today-not sure if I will write them this same journal.
Yes, something else did happen today...this evening, after dropping Ravin's parents off at a once monthly Punjabi gathering (will write more tomorrow)...I met two Israelis who live just down the street from here...more tomorrow..I'm tired.
Getting used to having servants is very easy. This morning I gave my laundry to the laundry lady/. Breakfast of delicious porridge-toast and onion and tomato omelet plus my new medications before and after.
Both his parents are so worried about him not being married. They seem to think I have some influence over him and if I speak to him he will change his way of thinking. Parents are the same all over the world but Ravin also has a true predicament. Life is never simple...never the way we imagine it will be. The Universe works in strange ways.
Well, anyway, after breakfast we went out to change money and get plastic sheeting for my massage. Went again on the bike. The weather is overcast but so far I've seen no rain. Chennai is a different sort of city...smallish...only 6-7 million!..I have to say that coming to live here with Ravin and his family has added a whole new dimension to my travels. These 2 weeks I am truly living in India.---middle class India, but still India. Not tourist India. I am living in a house with servants and all the modern conveniences and it is very strange to me on the one hand....then going out in the streets and seeing the regular street scenes and the contrast continues...from hovel shops to fancy (very fancy) shopping centers. The paradoxes here are many and extreme. Ravin's mother Rita ( meaning empty) confiding in me at breakfast that "you have to really push them and watch them all the time to get them to work"...and yet everything still seems to be done in such a tranquil, harmonious and easy going way. Nothing like Israel for sure.
I am now sitting on the balcony which overlooks a school. There is no school today and yet from early morning I have been hearing music-the tune used on Star World to advertise programs "Absolutely Everybody" and couldn't understand why I keep hearing it over and over. Now I am outside and I see the kids. Seems like Junior High age, practicing a dance for some class show-Same type of modern dancing done all over the world-excellent choreography I must say ...quite pleasant to watch them...just as good as any "lahaka" (Dance Troupe) at home...but, what a difference between this group and a similar group in Israel (I've worked with this age doing the same thing in preparation for dance productions so I know what i am talking about first hand) Such quiet and discipline-no shouting, no carrying on-even in between when they are resting.. soft spoken tones-even the boys...there is a general atmosphere of calm rather than tension. Ravin cannot sense this because it is normal and natural to him. But I am VERY aware of it.
Well back to shopping...Getting off the bike at the first stop I burnt my calf quite badly on the hot exhaust pipe. Thank goodness I always carry Rescue Cream around with me. It did not blister but is open and raw and quite red all around it and I am a little worried about it becoming infected...also put some "burn ointment" on it but will continue with the Rescue cream (it is now actually 6 PM and it is looking much better and it actually stopped hurting after about 1/2 hour. it is no longer red and seems to be "browning" over.)
Next we went to the market (Ravin is now sitting over my shoulder reading this report and he is making fun of what I wrote about my burn...these men!!! pains in the ass all of them! He says to tell you all he thinks I am making a mountain out of a mole hill--OK...now he is happy)
So...to the market like shops-rows of small kind of cubicles with very small doorways and very long from front to back with walls covered with shelves from floor to ceiling filled with merchandise. Rita sent Ravin to by plastic sheeting to use for my massage today and in the end we bought a kind of straw mat to place on the floor instead. Rita wanted him to take it back and get plastic instead but in the end he didn't and we covered it with a sheet and it seemed fine.
When we got home we have a really delicious lunch. It's kind of like a "do-it-yourself" Thali. All different things are put out each meal on the table which is set with stainless steel dishes...a large plate with high rim, a cup and a small soup bowl...then you take, e.g. rice, dahl, some chikpea dish called chopa I think with fabulous sauce (Rita told me how to make it...quite complicated but simple at the same time) cooked veggies of all kinds, fresh cut up salad etc. etc...and curd and chapati.
I am getting used to the spiciness of the food. They use no chilies here but more black pepper than I do and there is still something in the masala (seasoning) which I am not used to. But I find myself enjoying the new tastes so much that I cannot resist. And my stomach does not complain at all...just burns my mouth for awhile...I think it will be very difficult to settle for restaurant food after being here for 2 weeks. I am really being spoiled
Then I had my first of 14 massages. Absolutely wonderful=meant to treat my arthritis. The lady barely speaks English, her name is Cicely and she is a Christian. But with her very little English and my non existent Tamil we were able to communicate, as all women seem to be able to do, about children, husbands (or lack of them) grandchildren, mothers etc. Also asked about massage in Israel and I told her about Aviva (my daughter who is a massage therapist)...she asked what type and I told her deep tissue not thinking she would understand or know what it was...and she said "too much pain too fast!" So I guess she must know Aviva....She says "pain must come out slowly over many days"...I guess there are many different ways to achieve the same results. Then to my great surprise-at first I thought I didn't understand her properly-SHE gave me a bucket bath-soaped me up-poured boiling hot water over me 2x from head to toe. Then explained to me to do it again later myself. to get the rest of the oils off, (forgot, the massage is done with hot prescription oils which the doctor prescribes for different ailments)
The whole 14 days will cost 2450 rupees and I think I will give her 3000 she is very sweet and good at what she does.
And now, just had a cup of ice coffee the maid made..very nice...I am feeling some tiredness today-probably the delayed reaction to the whole past week. But another couple of days resting should do it.
Don't know if anything else will happen today...I have had some interesting thoughts channeled to me today-not sure if I will write them this same journal.
Yes, something else did happen today...this evening, after dropping Ravin's parents off at a once monthly Punjabi gathering (will write more tomorrow)...I met two Israelis who live just down the street from here...more tomorrow..I'm tired.
posted by Jane @ 10:36 PM
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