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TV Debut at Coorg Escapade
I’m a TV star. I made my TV debut at the Coorg Escapade (see their website and mine for pics) which was a 10K run through the Coorg (aka Kondagu) jungle and shade-grown coffee plantations. Coorg is a cooler hill station area which is very wealthy due to coffee. According to Wikipedia it is famous for its coffee but it must all be consumed in India since I have never heard of Indian coffee in the US. But I don’t drink coffee. On the run there were sections where the coffee bushes were tall enough to stand under and the bark looked a hundred years old.
It was a brutal run. I should say run-walk since most of us were walking at times – me, most of the time. It started at a waterfall and the first four and a half kilometers were steeply uphill. At points the grade seemed without conscious exaggeration to be close to 30%. My pictures were all taken with the camera level. It had rained the night before and the ground was slippery mud and loose rocks for long sections so .you had to pay careful attention to footing.
At the highest point we had beautiful views out over the misty jungle valleys. On the way up the locals watched us go by. Some of them must’ve been thinking “what’s the big deal I do this every day with a 25 KG sack on my head”
It was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect, and if I had had more than four hours sleep it would have been ideal. Many of our team had driven from Bangalore and had been caught in traffic. We did not leave Mysore till late evening and it was a 3+ hour drive to Coorg. I went up with Abhishek & Archana Aannand, Abishek’s wife Deepti, Shweta and several friends. The drive itself was like a road rally with long off-road sections and it required weaving to avoid oncoming traffic even on the pavement. The drivers must have been exhausted when we got there. Of course the recuperative powers of a twenty something are better than a 57 year old.
Shweta is a professional runner and she came in second for women at 59 minutes winning Rs.15,000. Even she admitted walking part of the race. Shweta’s male friend came in at 54 minutes. The male winner came in at 41 minutes. I think he must’ve had a parasail for the flight down.
I was on TV as one of the leaders of the pack at the start of the race… for about a second till the pack passed by. Dr. Annand and his wife saw me on the local Kannada state cable channel at home. Escapade can mean foolish adventure which seems appropriate.
Golden Temple
On the way back we took a different route and stopped in at the Golden Temple in the Tibetan colony, one of a couple established when the Tibetans migrated to India. The more famous one is at Dharmasala which I visited in ’95. The main temple was off limits due to religious observances by a large group of monks out front. But even the smaller temple is quite impressive and lavish. Oddly peaceful despite numerous tourists.
Family Trouble
My friend whose future in-laws were trying to railroad her into converting from atheism to Catholicism, finally convinced her boyfriend stand up to his parents. He finally explicitly told them that they would marry and that she would not convert. She also got a chance to meet them in person as she wished. It did not go well. They insulted her like she was a gold digger although she had been his girlfriend thirteen years, since she was 16 years old and there was no gold on the horizon. He works in France at an upscale hotel but its only gilded work by comparison to the same work in India. I had been telling her to stand up for herself otherwise she would be disrespected in the marriage. I was glad to see her do so finally. It was so bad that it was affecting her mental health. I told her to pity the parents who obviously were terrified of going to hell along with their son.
Special Guest Speaker
The sister of my friend asked me to be a “Special Guest” at her book launch event in Bangalore, proby cuz I was the only foreigner she knew. White skin has strange currency in India unfortunately. It meant giving a short speech. It was a romance novel and we all know that I am an expert on that subject.
As I was sitting there in my ill-fitting borrowed black formal suit and brown shoes, crossing my ankles to cover my white socks, I talked with the “Chief Guest” speaker, a functionary at school. I asked him if he had read the book; he said no! He got up and gave a long rambling enthusiastic speach to the assembly of a couple hundred people From it I only caught occasional words due to his accent. I started to sweat thinking that he might say something that I would contradict.
Anyway I gave my short talk without incident. After the couple jokes I tried you could hear the crickets chirping – no response. My theme was that neither the Indian nor American approach was preferable; that the only solution to the central conflict of the book, love marriage vs arranged marriage was goodwill and communication. I gave my experience with Vipassana and my parents surprising eventual reconciliation with me and my unconventional life choices.
Bicycling as Contact Sport
I finally bought a new used bicycle. I got it on olx.net which is the Indian eBay, for about half the price of a new bike – Rs. 7500. It’s a 24 speed and has lightweight 700c tires; quite a noted exception compared to the single speed clunkers that most Indian cyclists have. It makes my commuting a breeze compared to the single speed clunker that I used for two months. I have had a handful of people ask to buy it from me when I leave.
I went on a night ride into downtown near the palace with a group organized by a local high-end bike store. There were about 25 of us. Not my idea of fun riding in heavy traffic at night, essentially rush hour. On a major road at about 15mph I hit a deep pothole that I didn’t see. It would’ve caused havoc if I’d been scratching my ass without both hands on the handle bars. I had a borrowed helmet so it inspired me to finally buy a helmet and gloves.
The store wants to make recreational bike riding more high-profile. Afterwards I encouraged them to have a Critical Mass event in Mysore and I’d like to help organize it. They like the idea; we will see what happens. Maybe it can be used to inspire the city govt to maintain some of the roads better if they don’t want wealthy constituent cyclists dying on their roads.
I did a ride with another bike store to the local reservoir. Half of the ride was on a major inter-city road with thick traffic and the other half was on village dirt roads which was pleasant. There were mostly young kids in their teens and 20s and only a few of us old folks. But it was fun. The kids were making harmless fun of me at the destination stop so I responded in kind. But I apologized and made a friend.
Mango Mela
The reservoir was low because the monsoon has been slow in coming. We’ve had rain on intermittent days and it has cooled off the weather somewhat. Foreigners who leave India in March, April, May because of the heat miss out on the beautiful June weather more importantly mango season!
I’ve been living to a large extent lately on mangoes. There are half a dozen great varieties like Raspuri, Malika, Alphonso, Badami etc. and I have been eating a couple of kg most every day. After listening to Kingsolver’s audiobook Animal, Vegetable, Miracle I have been more inspired than ever to eat local organic. Its a great book about living for a year on just what her family could source from their own garden and local organic farmers. She reads it well with her soft Kentucky accent.
Organic
There is somewhat of an organic movement here. There are three outlets that I know of in my section of Mysore. One is quite upscale; the others quite modest. And I have gotten to know the proprietors. With one in particular I have regular discussions with him and his brothers.
On the rare occasion when he has some, he sells me a variety of banana grown in the Mysore district town of Nanjangud which is famous for the Nanjanagudu rasabale variety. It has been given a GI (geographical Indication) Tag #29. I had never heard of this designation although I knew the concept. Only bubbly wine makers in the Champaign province of France can legally call it Champaign. I didn’t know this applied to particular varieties of produce. The flavor of this banana is incredible: so subtle and sweet, almost like a pear crossed with a banana.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjangud#Nanjanagudu_Banana
The “hotel” bananas we get in the US are so impoverished in flavor. Why we eat them instead of all the incredible local fruit available is a mystery to me. Proby takes more calories of fossil fuel to grow, spray and ship them than we get back by eating it. They are shipped so green that the shipping box might have more nutrients. There are hundreds of varieties of bananas, and every one that I have tried is better than what we get. The good news is there is a fungus that is wiping out our mono-culture banana plantations, so change is a-coming, whether Chiquita or Delmonte want it. This is the Achilles heal of agribusiness, but we might all pay the price with famine or at least impoverished choices someday.
As Kingsolver makes clear we have already lost many hundreds of varieties of crops and are losing more every day to mono-culture and GMO crops. It’s everyone’s responsibility to start seeking out and conserving heritage varieties of crops. They can be lost in a single season; gone forever.
She relates that after liberalization in the 90’s the Indian government forced all the small oil mills to shut down, destroying the business of millions of Indian oil-seed farmers. It also forced India to turn to mostly imported canola, soy and corn oil which by coincidence the US was ready to supply in abundance at cheap prices subsidized by US taxpayers thanks to the Farm Bill. A quid pro quo of some sort? You’ve proby heard that hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers have committed suicide due to their debt burden.
Mysore Zoo
I visited the Mysore zoo which is not large but impressive. I had never seen giraffes so close (maybe 30 ft) with a fence one could look over, nor ever seen a Gaur or saltwater crocodile. It’s like seeing dinosaurs. The bull Gaur (aka Indian buffalo) had to be much taller than me at its shoulder. Its built like a steer on steroids and is supposed be the largest bovine. See my pictures. I hope I never see a salt croc without a barrier between me and it. India has some beautiful native herbivores displayed there. Its a shame they have mostly been replaced with European cows. I read one time that a study showed African native foragers are 12 times more efficient than the cows that replace them, which also destroy water supplies.
I liked the helpful sign at the lion cage that showed the fence jumper being mauled and led away by police with only the heavily bleeding stump of one of his arms. “Animals might eat you and that might make them sick. Offenders will be Punished.” Do they really need punishment at that point? I don’t think that sign would pass the PC test at our zoos.
Distractions
I stopped playing tennis; I wasn’t up to the level of the competition at the Mysore Tennis club. There were lessons available in the middle of the day but I didnt think I could handle that along with the hours of strenuous Ashtanga yoga. I did do some strength training at a local gym owned by some friends for a month. Dr Annand, my landlord, and I have been watching tennis on the wide screen; most recently the French Open.
He is also a fan of American action movies so I have accompanied him to some like the latest Tom Cruise shoot-up the aliens 3-D movie. Don’t waste your money; the good guys win. If it wasn’t so cheap (less than 3 dollars) I proby wouldn’t go.
Homeopathy
I am studying homeopathy online in my free time. Went to a local highly recommended homeopath for treatment for a severe bout of diarrhea which had been lingering for many days. Was over it that night. He has a 3 month waiting list but fit me in earlier in the day. Homeopathy is not so popular in south India as it is in the north; very few practitioners here and there isnt a pharmacy in the city.
Ramesh Devu is back in Mysore after completing the 30 day Vipassana retreat. He is planning on doing another 2 months of yoga.
Next Stop
My visa expires in early July and I have been trying to decide my next stop. I will proby go to Sri Lanka for a month; visit some Vipassana centers and monestaries and lie on the beach. Looking forward to the beautiful countryside and the food.
I had planned to get some more Scenar therapy training in Australia but it looks like that wont be possible. There does seem to be a woman on the coast in Sonora Mexico who can do the training. Sounds like a nice situation, out of the path of the drug war. Might be fun.
I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking when possible for these blogs so the amount of background noise is critical. I live in a pretty quiet part of Mysore but day time is when construction work occurs, the Indian Pop-40 radio is played continuously at full volume, the dogs are barking frequently and the neighbor’s maid is outside washing dishes. This is a very prosperous part of Mysore and they’d still rather have a maid with bare hands and no soap wash their dishes. I am sure they could easily afford a dishwashing machine.
Btw, I found a good herbal cockroach spray called Just Out made by Strategi Labs in Bangalore. So far working well to repel the roaches at the yoga shala.