Getting Ready

I am definitely getting ready to be home. Not so much that i am ready to not be here- although I find myself more frequently dreaming of food that is not the color of turmeric and that has a texture other than soft- but mostly I find myself thinking of home a lot. The upcoming immersions, classes at YogaYoga, classes at the school, some fun places I have on the travel schedule for the fall like Vancouver and Prescott...

We had a most excellent practice yesterday and this morning. Lunch today was an all-time low. Now it is not that i do not like okra. I mean batter fried and dipped in ranch dressing, it is a perfectly fine vegetable. Even stewed with some tomatoes I can eat it. But at least once a week our cook makes us "Super Okra." There is some strain of okra here on the Indian Subcontinent that is as long as about three cucumbers and whose slime is in direct proportion to its larger-than-average size.It is like okra on steroids.

So our very nice cook makes subji out of it with very little else to soften the blow of the slimy, not-so-great tasting vegetable. No onions, no tomatoes, no garlic or interesting spices...just this sort of bland, slimy, pumped-up okra to go with plain Basmati rice and dahl. Now it is not that I have a problem with dahl either but it is not in anyway interesting enough that it takes the edge off the 'roided out okra. And today was an all-time low because we did not even get the roti/chapati like usual. Instead we have thsee strange fritter things and leftover dahl from yesterday (which does not improve over night) and leftover sprouted mung beans, which not only did not improve, but certainly declined in their appetising value after their overnight stay in the fridge.

I know, complaining about the abundance of bad tasting, unappetizing food in a country where many people are starving is about as low as it gets, but there it is. Like Ari says, one must "keep it real" in blog-life. (Any Dave Chappelle fans out there ever see his skits on "When keeping it real goes wrong"? They are very funny and I cannot use that phrase without an immediate image of what my "Keeping it real going wrong skit" might look like. In this case, perhaps some small Indian woman would throw the uneaten mung beans at me and Anne and accuse of being imperialistic swine, ungrateful spoiled white girls or something equally instructive... any other ideas?....But I digress...)

Anyway- we then took a nap, are planning to try to return a defective DVD at Crossword after our blogging(I am not hopeful about that mission) and then pranayama class tonight with Geeta. We are planning to go to dinner tonight with some of the New York crew, which I am hoping will make up for my disappointing lunch. (yes, I know- I am very food driven. What can I say?)

Tomorrow I will post a most excellent inquiry on the nature of yoga bloomers from J-Mo, my friend and yogi extraordinaire. So that will be something for you to look forward to!