om shakti

apsaras

Wednesday Evening Missives from Bharat,

We are now rounding the halfway mark of our time here. Lila's morning questions were first; "What is a blouse piece?" (Answer: a small piece of fabric, which is stitched by a tailor into the small top that is worn under a sari. We giggled for a moment that it would be considered a 'blouse" as it consists of a hankie size piece of fabric...there's nothing 'blousy' about it) and second; "Do we have to leave India?" ...I'm a bit stupefied that she is so enjoying all of this- its not as if it is familiar or easy in any way though we are renting the apartment upstairs from Shyamala and have settled nicely into a daily grove we both still wax poetic about the merits of hot showers and snow and many other things. Shyamala always opts to rent flats that have only cold running water which trickles sleepily out of a spicket located on the wall about 2 feet above the floor, it takes some getting used to (ok--yes, that is the understatement).

Dance class has been fabulous. Shyamala is not currently working at the high school where she teaches biology, making it possible for her to focus a lot on dance. My classes have been about 2.5 hours long each day. The minute-by-minute detailing (mostly for the Boulder students) is as follows: we've completed the first 2/3's of Daneke Varnam, abhinaya and all. ...Oh! It is so magnificent...I'm feeling utterly blessed that everything continues to work out for me to let this dance 'be done to me'...in this moment its just really big. In class last night, around 9pm (we start late because the temperature is less...just say it with an Indian accent and it'll make sense) I felt as though I became Shyamala's canvas and she was painting the expressions (colors) onto, around and through me.

This morning the apartment was flooded with some very frisky abhisheka (ceremony) sounds. I drearily made my way downstairs for my daily intake of caffeine via sugar (a.k.a - chai) and was greeted not by a legion of bhahmins but infact only THE TELEVISION! It turns out that on the days when Shyamala can't make it to the temple by 6 am she simply turns on the old tellie...a virtual puja as it were. Apparently these programs air live for about an hour each morning...I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this one. Yes, I've got some issues around bringing my palms together (anjali mudra) in front of the idiot box...I expect I'll get worn down in another day or so..when in Rome and all that....

Two note-worthy entries were added to the running tally of inspired business names driving through the automotive district yesterday: Om Shakti Transmissions and Kwalithy Tyrez.

There are currently only 37 hours remaining in 'Wedding Season' so when spontaneously invited to one of these gala affairs I figured it was now or never. I managed to throw on a sari and get out the door in 4 minutes to catch the wedding van 3 blocks away (no shock absorbers of course means my kundalini is still asking what it ever did to deserve such treatment). The whole thing felt so rushed as the cosmos threatened to shift the stars into an unfavorable alignment for marriage...I kept having visions of the huge stone door closing down on Indiana Jones in The Temple of Doom. He slides under with only seconds to spare...SAVE! The knot is tied, the camphor is burned, the gifts are given and the flowers tossed. The wedding favors were...the fabled "blouse pieces", coconuts and mysore pauk (the afore mentioned mass of sugar, ghee and ???). The wedding lunch was a full on culinary presentation of no less than 20 different dishes slopped onto a huge banana leaf plate, rice as the entree. It must be mentioned here that these people eat unbelievably fast. Everyone was speaking to me in Hindi because I am often assumed to be from North India...if I said it once I said it 100 times--Pani Nahee (translation: No Kind Sir, You can keep your water jug away from my cup and yes that is a fine looking cow you have, now good day to you!)

Lila's commentary, "Eat it quick before it jumps off the banana leaf!

Ok Ok Ok...I'll stop there....but there's sooooo much more!