Around and About

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Responding to your suggestions: more photos, less words.

Here's a piece of interest from The Hindu (daily national newspaper, from the local Mysore edition):

A Restaurant with a Difference

It is a restaurant with a difference; an effort to bring people from the mainstream face to face with sex workers and help mitigate the stigma attached to them. It also aims to provide an opportunity to former sex workers to begin a new life. Ashodaya Samiti, a community-based organisation of male, female and transgender sex workers established to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Mysore, launched the restaurant. Though the restaurant was opened three months ago, it was formally inaugurated on Monday to mark World AIDS Day. Secretary of samiti Bhagyalakshmi said, "This is an important effort to support sex workers living with HIV and address issues of stigma and discrimination against them." The samiti bagged a Rs 16-lakh World Bank grant, a portion of which was used to open the restaurant. The restaurant is at present run by 12 members, including four sex workers. Vegetarian snacks and South Indian meals are served at the restaurant. "The response has been overwhelming so far," Ms. Mhagyalakshmi said.

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Photos

In front of the yoga shala
The entrance to the K.P.J. Yoga Shala, some students are hanging out on the stairs. Lots of students are still practicing inside.

Across from the yoga shala
Students hang out after practice, sipping coconut water.

Open wastewater disposal system
Photo doesn't capture the smell. This one is actually quite nice, with the "green space" on either side of it.

Open wastewater disposal system (cont.)
This is ithe other side of the little bridge over the sewer that I walk across on my way through the neighborhood.

Grumorti
Security Guard at our apartments.