Quick update

We spent the weekend "in the jungle"!!!!

We'll have more photos and stories soon. We will also bring photos of Guruji's 92nd birthday party and a bit of a yoga update. We have had 4 days off yoga and tomorrow (Wednesday) is our first day again.

We are all well. Tai and Barney are over their tummy upsets. Neither lasted very long.

Thanks for all your emails and good wishes
love
Peter, Daniela, Tai, Barney and Felix

Karanji Lake

ON Thursday 26th, we went to Karanji Lake, which is inside the boundaries of Mysore City. There were heaps and heaps of waterbirds, especially ibis, pelicans, darters and herons. And ducks. It was a lovely green oasis/haven in the middle of this bustling, high-density city. They have a number of labelled trees showing off the different local species, and there were a few trees familiar to our Australian eyes.
This is a picture of a chameleon. the first one we saw (this is the second) ran off the concrete path where it had been sunning itself and up a tree. It immediately began changing colour. As we drew closer to see better the chameleon moved futher up and around the tree trunk, only to step on another smaller chameleon that had completely taken on the colour of the tree trunk. So close to the trunk colour was teh smaller lizard that we had not noticed it at all. The smaller lizard promptly bit the other chameleon, which sprang into the air and moved further up the trunk

Karanji Lake Park has a HUGE bird enclosure, with very few birds in it. We did see a peacock displaying its tail for about ten minutes while it attempted to intimidate a rabbit. That's right, a small brown domestic rabbit, that was happily chewing away at the grass (near the peacock's bowl of food) and ignoring the peacock's hissing and shaking of tail and turning from side to side. Meanwhile a chipmunk made free of the peacock's food, straight from the bowl.

This is a Lady Amherst Pheasant, the photo doesn't do it justice.

Every where we went in the park there were couples quietly sitting together. The culture generally frowns on public displays of affection between opposite genders. It's ok to hold hands with your same sex friend, or walk along with your arms around each other, but not if its boy/girl. therefore, in every quiet spot in the park young couples sit quietly chatting, maybe giggling, heads together. One or two really outrageous and out-there couples were holding hands. No kissing. No walking about hand in hand.

At the far end of the park there is a small island which is called the Butterly Island. There were many of the species pictured (sorry forgot to get species name)

this is another of the same.

To finish off our time here the boys took a boat ride on the lake, seen here on the other side of the karanji.

Dani's Yoga Update N. 3

We have just finished our first full week of practice (with no moon days or other interruptions). It began on Sunday with a led class, and ended today with another led class. The led class runs in two sessions (one at 5 am, one at 6.30), and today I am told that Guruji taught the second session. Peter was lucky enough to be there and hopefully will write something about it. Inbetween led classes, all other days are Mysore classes, where people practice at their own pace. This week, Sharath has expanded my practice to include all of Primary Series and about a third of Intermediate. It's a long practice!! At first, I thought that the backbend adjustment (see my previous yoga update) would be easier after doing all 8 backbending poses of Intermediate in a row, but it turns out that by that stage, my back has sort of had enough and doesn't want to play anymore. I stagger into the finishing room, trying to catch my breath and hoping there's a spot to fall into.
Practice session have tended to alternate between feeling easy and hard; if there's a day when I'm focused, everything flows, my breath stays steady, I can lift and jump back smoothly, the difficult poses are accessible etc, then I can be almost sure that the next day everything will hurt, I will be conveniently distracted by whoever's around me, my breath will feel like it's all in fits and starts, I'm stiff as a board and lumbering around my mat like an elephant. So it goes.
On Monday is the celebration of Guruji's 92nd birthday. In honour of this we are having 4 days off practice starting from tomorrow. We are off to the jungle! There will be lots to tell, no doubt, when we get back.

The Palace; The Birthday; The Guru

This first photo is of the king's throne. It has 250 kg of gold in it.
Felix’s Blog: Palace
Today we went to the palace where the king of Mysore lives. There are glass boxes where all the kings of the past belongings are except for the kings treasures. There were weapons, gold paintings, carriages, old utensils, old cutlery and quite a few other things. The palace is very big.

There are lights everywhere on the outside of it so at night when they turn them on you can only see the outline of the palace, which looks very cool. You can go through nearly the whole palace except for the part that the king is in. Most of of the old painting are of gods or goddesses. There are also old pictures of the king. On top of the palace there are four big red domes and one big golden dome.


This is one of the lounge rooms in the palace

The stained glass ceilings came from Belgium. The palace was rebuuilt in1897 after fire destroyed the previous wooden palace. It took 15 years to build. All the columns you see are cast iron, and were made in Glasgow, Scotland and shipped out.

This is the Mysore Palace.
This is the front view. Under/behind the big arches, in the shadowy depths, is the 'front veranda' (see below).
This is the 'front veranda'. to the right of the picture the palace opens out to the courtyard and gardens. It is the epitome of opulence

More "Gully Cricket"

Tai’s Blog: Palace We woke in the morning did all the usual things, then we jumped into a rickshaw and went to the palace were we saw an old beggar with no arms so we gave him some money. After we had bought our tickets we went into the actual palace. The first thing we saw was the courtyard! We walked around the palace and even the throne and then we saw one of the huge red domes. The roof was made of glass and the glass was decorated with peacocks. After we got out we went to the Palace museum where there was amazing pictures of gods and goddesses. After that, near the end, there were all of the weapons. When we went down a long flight of stairs to some shops where people were trying to get us to buy things from their stalls. We went to the pool and played with some of our friends and then went home. It was my mum’s birthday so we had a big party. In the morning we went to the yoga Shala as usual, but we came back and I was very excited because we were going to meet the guru which is very special because hardly anyone gets a chance to see him. The people who are being taught are taught by his grandson. Then we went to a hotel the Green Hotel where there was a small organic market. After that we hopped into a rickshaw that took us back home. When we got back, we went on the street to play with the Indian kids until we went to dinner at a place called Anu’s. Then we hopped into a rickshaw and went to the palace. We got through the crowd of people to the gates just in time to see the gates light up. When we got through the gate we saw the most amazing thing of the whole trip, the whole palace was lit up and from where we were first standing it looked like it was fake. If you squinted it just looked like an outline, when we got closer a band was playing. After that we saw a parade of soldiers on horses. After we followed the horses we had one last look at the amazing castle before going home.

Every Sunday night (at 7pm) the Mysore Palace is illuminated by thousands of lights attached to the outside of the palace itself and outbuildings. People from all over India come to see the spectacle.

John and Susan are professional orchestral clarinetists from Dublin, Eire, and played duets from Mozart's The Magic Flute at Dani's 34th Birthday party
Not one, but two birthday cakes! Naughty yoga students!!!
This, of course, is what to do with birthday cake. Note Dani's new koorta top.

The picture of Ganesh up above our heads is a wood inlay picture Dani and Peter gave to Guruji as part of our wedding ceremony. It was placed in its present position on the occassion of the wedding and is still there!

This is the view into the Shala from the main entrance doors. Usually when we come in there are 50 - 60 students all sweating and breathing deep slow loud Ashtanga breaths
This is the chair on the small raised stage that Guruji sits in to talk students through 'lead practice'. His health hasn't permitted him to do lead practice for over a month now. Sharath leads the practice now, but never sits in this chair, rather, he sits in a plain red chair behind and to the right of this one.

This is a picture of a photograph of Guruji and his wife, Savitri. She passed away over ten years ago

Mysore Market

There was one 'ologist' that amused us most on this sign.
This is how we travel. Mostly, however, there's all five of us in the back.

The Market Entrance:

Felix’ Blog: Markets !!!! Noise, Noise.
Today we went to the big markets which were very busy. I bought a birthday present for Mum because it’s her birthday tomorrow. The way to get to the markets is to go along a street where they kill chickens for meat. We bought quite a few things in the Markets. There were lots of different things that you could buy in the markets. Every day the markets are open. I saw cows eat the food from the people that sell food. We saw a few beggars that ask for money so we gave them some. In some places it was filled with people and in other places there weren’t many people. In the markets there are amazing smells, beautiful statues and fantastic carvings. Some people sell flowers and others sell coloured powders. Some people play music.

Chicken man
Many choices of fresh chicken
Dodging the pools of chicken blood and giblets from where the chickens are freshly slaughtered
A random dead chipmunk. there are many of these little critters dodging about in all sorts of places

Shopping enthusiasts
The Fruit stand
The grain stand

Wood carving of Ganesh

Mysore Zoo

Barney’s Blog: Zoo stories
Today when we woke up we went to the yoga Shala and had a coconut, then went to Tina’s for a beautiful brekky again. When we got home we got ready and then went to the zoo.
When we got there we first saw a giraffe then some birds. My favourite was the golden pheasant. After that we saw too many animals to list: snakes, frogs, crocs, tigers, lions, lemurs, leopard, monkeys, bears, rhinos, the only gorilla in India. But my favourite was the African elephant. When we left I was feeling sad from seeing all those poor caged animals.

After we went to the zoo we caught a rickshaw to Planet X. Planet X is an awesome place with a golf course, pool, ten-pin bowling and a games room. It has the best playground ever and my favourite was go-cart racing. Me, Tai, Dad and a Swedish friend called Alex had a race. I was terrible. I came last and was overlapped bout five times and went straight into the wall once.

All the things we did today were fun and it was probably the best day in India so far.

Monkey Mama

Monkey family
The Chimp!

Hephalump Boys!
African elephant
Indian elephant

Leopards!!

We've never seen a slippery slide like this one before

White Rhino pics
Barney being lapped by Tai at the Planet X go-carts