Isha Yoga Center

I know India is supposed to be the birthplace of yoga, but I think that might be North India, at least more than the South. Here, I haven't even practiced it once, to my severe disappointment. My host family suggested I visit this place about an hour away, called Isha Yoga Center. It is located in the Nilgiris foothills and is a place of meditation, yoga, and pureness of the soul. Before entering the meditation dome, or Dhyanalingam, you must first do some exercises to make your mind more receptive. The first was to see a statue, which I honestly didn't really understand. We brought a basket of offerings, which included a coconut, some sweet, some special leaves, and other sacred things, into the cave-like area. There was a weapon that belonged to Lord Shiva, with bands tied around the center of it. The bands were mustard yellow, and signified marriage. I think you were supposed to have a long and happy marriage if you tied them.

Our next stop began with me removing all my clothing and slipping into a dress provided by the center to dip in a sacred pool. It was a large underground vault with a sphere of solidified mercury which they referred to as "Shivalingam". It was partly submerged in water which was the temperature of the Punchbowl in springtime. There were only a handful of ladies (ladies and gents have seperate timings) which were there with me, so it was easy to concentrate while touching the Shivalingam and shivering. Above was a beautiful mural painted on the ceiling of the Tamil people's history.

The dome-shaped meditation hall was dark and cave-like, lit only by oil lamps brought as offerings to the Dhyanalingam. There were 15-minute intervals during which you were supposed to meditate and maintain pin-drop silence. I got to sit in one of the little pockets along the side of the wall, so I was surrounded closely by three walls, the purpose of which was to feel the vibrations more effectively. Visiting Isha was definitely an enlighening experience which will stick with me for the rest of my life, and I am thankful for it. I am looking into their long-term classes for learning yoga and/or meditation.

Kattampaty

My Rotary club here has "adopted" a rural government school nearby Coimbatore to fund, and I was lucky enough to get to see it the other day! We drove an hour to the edge of my city, where we found the school which kids come to from at least twenty different rural villages nearby. My first glimpse of it was neat lines of about fourty students sitting on the dirt assembly area, writing on clipboards. I later found out that this was the tenth grade students who were taking extra special classes to prepare them for the board exam which every student takes in 10th and 12th. It's something like our ACTs, but they are literally tested on the entire textbook for each subject and the students have to answer exactly as the book says. 10th and 12th grade students rarely have time for anything for studying; Instead of going to art class or playing with friends they have to just sit at home and memorize the textbook so they do well and can pass into eleventh or college. I think most of these kids go home and help their families work, though.

While waiting for their morning class to be over, my host took me on a tour of the school and showed me the bathrooms they renovated for girls (boys just use the open air) and a drinking water station, which provides the children with safe, drinkable water. They had a special assembly for us, during which they recited some songs, the national anthem, and salutes. It was really.. bizzare to see the discipline of students even in first grade. They all came in very straight, organized lines, moving their arms in unison. There was no noise, and no slacking of any sort as they stood still for more than a half hour- so different from Aspen where we slouch into the dome eating and talking with no sence of discipline. I gave a small speech to the 350 students, teachers, and principle and was honored enough to raise the Indian flag. As we were leaving, all the students from the front part of the school crowded around me trying to shake my hand and talk to me. Some asked my name, my age, or where I was from, while others just looked at me. It was unnerving to be treated "like Queen Elizabeth," as my host put it.

The visit really inspired me to do some service, something I have been very adamant about since day one in India. Unfortunately, I need the permission and coordination of Rotary to do that and it hasn't happened yet. So to take matters into my own hands I am visiting the school again tomorrow to distribute sweets and pencils for Christmas. I know it's nothing big, but it makes me feel happy, and it will hopefully be a nice gesture to the children.

New Family

Two weeks ago I moved into a new family for a short period of time. They are a family of four active Rotarians and South Indian vegetarians, and as I discovered on my first morning, quite religious. They are Hindus, who have a religious practice which they follow for an hour and a half each and every morning. When I first heard this I thought, "Every day? What a waste of time!" But my host explained it as an hour and a half every day during which you see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil, which I thought was a great way of looking at it. They compared their Gods to children, which must be washed and fed every day, while listening to important mantras and chanting, some of which they sing along to.

The ritual begins by washing the previous day's decoration in water out of a copper bowl (everything is copper, because it is a metal which has cleansing powers). Then, he scrubs each of the four silver statues which represent Ganesha (the remover of obstacles), Shiva (the destroyer), a couple who I forget the name of, and one more of their family diety, the Goddess of Power. Then they are all bathed in milk which is considered very pure, and again rinsed with water. The cleansing process being over, they next move on to the decoration process, which begins with flower offerings and red and orange powder being put as a bindi on their forheads, hands and feet. From here commenses the personal prayers and sometimes prostration before the pooja area. It was a very... different lifestyle than what I have seen before, but so cool to be able to witness it.

South India Tour Part II

The group really wanted to go out to these two islands just off the coast of Kan Yakumari, so we stayed an extra day in order to be able to do that. The five minute ferry dropped us first at a temple on a small island. It was a place where a man named Swami had meditated for 30 days; I meditated there for an hour. It was really something, meditating in India finally! Then we ferried over to the next island two minutes away where there was a huge statue of Swami, I'm pretty sure. We climbed up the foreboding staircase with water dripping down unexpectedly out into the open air at the statue's feet. His big toe was larger than two of my feet put together. After being out in the sun all morning, we returned to the cool A/C of the bus with tons of Aloe lotion for our lobstered faces.

The bus headed for the next beach town of Tamil Nadu- Kovalam. It was a beautiful, and, above all, clean stretch of beach that was surprisingly uncrowded. I think this is due to the fact that many Indians have never learned to swim. I don't know why, but I think there are very few. Indeed, all the Indians in the water were staying where the water only covered mid-thigh, which was great because it left all the good body-surfing waves to us. After an unfortunate number of "nasal cleanses", I retired to shopping with Julia along the colorful stretch of beach. With a "Madam, please" here and a "looking is free" there, here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a "sister, good price for you only". Old McAnna had $80, and how she watched it go.  Every girl on the trip got these awesome pants that were like a skirt with the middle sown together. Two holes at either corner of the fabric triangle made room for your feet.

Next day we crossed the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border and headed for the backwaters, where we took a boat to our island hotel. Just a small island in a big river, and a 1.5 hour wait for your dinner. After the food I was the first to get a traditional Kerala massage, but I was sadly disappointed. It took place on a wooden table where this lady rubbed at least 1/2 kilo of coconut oil on me. Not BAD, but surprisingly dangerous as I found out when I was asked to roll onto my side and almost slipped off. Consequently, I had coconut oil in places it should never be (ears and belly button). After listening to one of the two boys' accounts of his massage, I am so contented with mine. He wasn't too psyched about the full naked man-to-man oil rubbing.

We visited a few other towns, but I don't remember their names or what we did so obviously they weren't of much consequence. The last two days were spent near Kochin. We woke up at 6 in the morning to drive an hour and go wash elephants in one of the backwaters, but to our severe disappointment, we arrived too late. We got to see the babies eating, though, which I thought was cool. They wrap their trunk around a bamboo branch and pull off all the leaves to eat. So we packed up, ate cucumber sandwiches, and headed off on another long drive to a waterfall. The last day of the trip we went to an old palace. The guide said that the palace was only in use for one year, and had just been re-opened after sixty-something years for tourists. The architecture was amazing-all the dragons, dancers, lotuses, and so many other designes carved into the ceilings was by itself stunning. And with that our trip ended and the three of us Coimbatorians headed back home.

South India Tour Part I

The trip began on November 17, a wonderful Wednesday. We three Coimbatorians- Julia from upstate New York, Oskar from Germany, and myself- took my first train ride to Bangalore to meet the other exchange students. They had gone to a zoo to see elephants and tigers and other Indian animals and so we didn't meet them until dinner. It was such a relief to meet other "inbounders". The next day we drove in a big bus to a place called Mysore, which is pretty close to Coimbatore. There we went to a bird sanctuary and, although it wasn't much, we saw crocodiles chilling on rocks and a bunch of white ibuses. Then we continued to our hotel before going to a lights and sound show later that evening. The show was about fifteen minutes of Hindi music with a fountain shooting up in different patterns out of a pool, illuminated by colored lights. It was pretty cool... I was impressed.

Next we went to Ooty which was about 40 degrees F, and freezing! We didn't do much there except see a waterfall on the drive and go shopping for a while in the night- only the first of the two-week shopping spree. 

On Friday we traveled back down the Nilgiris (meaning blue mountains) to our hometown of Coimbatore where we met Julia's Rotary club and had dinner with them after a long meeting. Julia and I went shopping. 

Saturday we spend almost completely in the bus, traveling to Madurai. This was one of my favorite places because our hotel was in the middle of the city and only a few blocks away from the famous Meenakshi Temple. It was a huge temple, with five entrances each made of an enormous..... tower of sculptures about eight stories high. It's difficult to describe, but it was so beautiful. Our group stood in the long line to enter the interior of the temple. I saw two camels for the first time... exciting! Inside was a beautiful pond and fountain in the very center under the open sky. The painted ceiling covered the dozens and dozens of God statues and symbols to pray to and gift. There was a painted elephant somewhere in the enormous space, and I got a goofy picture with it. It's trunk touched my head just as the pic was taken and I was a little freaked out. The group split up after this and migrated towards the more attractive tourist shops, or, in Julia and my case to the ice cream shop. 

Sunday was another long day in the bus. This time we traveled for another eight hours, more or less, to the southernmost tip of the subcontinent. It was a town named Kan Yakumari. The interesting name was explained to us by our tour guide: Kanya means virgin, and kumari means girl. It was named after a girl who was so in love with Lord Shiva she vowed never to marry or have any relation to a man unless it was Lord Shiva. Poor woman never got her dream. So they named a town after her, and wow it was so beautiful. We got there just as the torrential downpour started, so we weren't able to do our tour. The 18 of us tried to wait out the rivers that ran along the small streets, but after an hour we spotted a Baskin Robbins. What American would choose freezing in the rain over ice cream, even if we did get soaked up to our  knees from the whitewater flow. 

TBC...