A bit of the basics. Ernie (we met at an ashram 5 years ago) and myself are staying in a private house with the owner (a woman in her 60s). We each have our own bedroom and own bathroom. There is no kitchen which means we have to walk to the dusty, busy Main Street for grub which is inconvenient after class at 8pm. For breakfast, we’re putting the kettle which Ernie found in her room, to good use. Armed with containers, in go oats, powdered milk, flax seeds, dried and fresh fruits. Topped with hot water and voilà ! Complemented with a choice of tea or coffee.
We do have the option of having a tiffin service (lunch/dinner) delivered and will be looking into it for the coming weeks. A delivered tiffin starts at 25 rupees (100 rupees is $2 Canadian). For .50 cents, you will get a South Indian meal consisting of rice, 2 curries and naan. We both prefer north Indian though. The landlady also can provide lunch for 50 rupees. She’s ripping us off! 😉
Our dwelling is about 5 houses from the yoga school and about a 7 minute walk from the 2nd studio on Main Street. I wake up at 4:30am to get ready for asana practice at 5am. Thought that by signing up for a course outside of an ashram would allow me to sleep in but the schedule changed because of the high number of students enrolled in this course. Yay. 😒. Its only been a week but a very tiring and challenging one. My last 2 trainings were at ashrams (this one is not). Staying in an ashram is definitely preferred. The atmosphere is conducive to yoga, sattvik food is provided, and it builds a better community and learning experience.
As mentioned in a earlier posting, this area has many yoga schools and this business has caused the community to flourish like nothing I’ve seen in India. Houses are large (enough to rent out separate quarters like apartments or villas) and beautifully designed. A lot of people speak English. Being of Indian descent, people speak Malayalam (the local language) to me. When given my perfected blank-look, they will try Hindi then some other dialects and finally ask in english where I’m from…which takes a while to explain or draw (a map). The guaranteed next question comes up, “what are you doing here?” I now dread this question because yoga is SO commercialized in Mysore that the whole thing seems fake and therefore embarrassing to confess “yes, I am here swimming in this soup of new age hippies and meaningless namaste’s.”
Tomorrow we have the day off and plan to head out of the village sightseeing or indulging in Ayurvedic treatments. First, we plan to sleep in (near impossible with the noise of traffic or dogs or people closing gates etc) but will stuff in the ear plugs.