Un Quarto Mejor in Bangalore


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Asia » India » Karnataka » Bangalore
September 9th 2006
Published: September 10th 2006
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My new digs My new digs My new digs

my room
Translation: a better room in Bangalore. I was going for the rhyme thing.

I am here at my month long destination and it feels good. It's about 10 degrees cooler than Delhi, maybe a tad bit less filthy--maybe, and seems to be a pretty progressive city for India. I have only seen the city's innards by night and i felt guilty for being happy that most of the billboards were in English and i saw more than one pizza hut. I stayed at an annoyingly expensive hotel last night ($26) because i arrived in town late and that was the hotel the yoga place reccommended staying. For 26 bucks i was expecting some air conditioning and a room that at least had a top sheet. Alas i was denied both of those things, but given the added bonus of several LARGE COCKroaches. The shower was decent looking so i went for it......the first one since i've been here and it felt good. Without thought i strolled around the room naked....feeling cool under the fan for the first time in days. My twenty six bucks did buy me a television that had BBC--woohoo! and so i settled in for a comfy
My new digs My new digs My new digs

our dining area
night of naked solitude. I was disheartened to see footage of simultaneous bombings in india, apparently linked to al-quada. My little safety net was shaken a bit and my eyesight became drawn to a mysterious moving light past the television. It danced in rave like fashion and then disappeared. Danced again, and disappeared. Like Eve i suddenly realized my nakedness. I had completely and honestly forgotton to shut the curtain because i had opened the window to let some air in. i was on the second floor and didn't even THINK about the possiblity of someone being able to see me. Whoever it was, they appreciated my 26 bucks. I felt violated and scared. i shut the curtains deadbolted the door, curled in to fetal position and felt depressingly alone. I had to put on my headphones and keep the tv on for distraction, and even with those aids it took me hours to fall asleep.

This morning was better. i walked to the yoga studio, but class was in session. I awkwardly waited outside, surveying the various shapes and sizes of the flip flops and trying to visualize whose feet they belonged to. I was way off. The yoga teacher is Master Ji......he's very dark skinned with a 1980s haircut. His accent is thick, so thick that it's virtually impossible to understand him. It'll take some getting used to. He had one of the other students show me the housing and i was immediately sold. For $300 i get my own room in a shared house. There is a kitchen and two bathrooms, it's bright and impeccably clean, and to top it off there is a maid. We get our laundry done, our dishes done, and our meals cooked for us---all inclusive baby. It felt so good to settle in and put my things in drawers. i have two roommates. One is Indian/Australian and the other is from singapore. Chelsea (singapore) has been here two months and has a few weeks left. Sugi (australia) has been here two weeks and has a couple weeks to go. They seem nice, but i can't help but feel like the new girl invading someone's slumber party.
I sat in on a pranayama class, having never attended one. It's basically just a breathing class and i felt incredibly weird. The teacher scolded me for biting my lip because apparently it is a sign of tension and/or anger and changes the karma of the room. i watched for over an hour as the class plugged one nostril, then another, panted rapidly from their abdomens and squeezed their upper chests as if they were examining how good their boobs looked in a new bra. It's an intimate setting. The regulars are my roomies and a japanese couple. i of course had the mat next to the japanese man and he was an everyday Rodney Yee. He could change positions via his arms and is flexible, toned, and skinny. I felt familiar waves of competitive Sybil coming back, but have since resigned to the fact that i won't be parading the american flag in the yoga olympics.
Tomorrow is an off day. I hope to do some wandering and catch up on some sleep. I gotta run.

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