The heart of it all....Today, I had 5 e-mails from my friends in Mysore...One question:

How come I am not there and here?

Ehhh, there is no reasonable answer.

One friend was writing to tell me about his new job and how much money he will make. The other mails were on general stuff like feeling really happy about being in Mysore, the guys at the bookstore about my order for the world's smallest Bhagavad Gita, my friend's 80 plus academic rating (very important in a country like India) and best wishes for Sankranti (the festival marking the beginning of the harvest season). The only downer amongst the messages was the last one. When I returned the mail it was pointed out to me that the Sankranti message was not for me.

Message: "Not for you ma'am".

Me/ma'am: So why am I on the list?

Well, all things being equal I wish them all a nice "HI" in return!

Ah, yes the heart of it all....Mysore, aka: Yoga, Ashtanga (i.e., Krishnamacharya, Pattaabhi Jois, Yogacharya Venkatesha) and now countless other wanna-bees. Right. Too many yoga teachers and too little (or none at all) teaching standards (this is material for another post). Anyway...

In thinking about Mysore it is interesting how much it has changed and is changing all the time. Mysore, Mystore, has changed a lot from my first visit in 1999. It went from an old-charming suburb to pretty much a big city. 10 years ago the Lonely Planet stated there were 100,000 people. Today, I would guess there are at least over 1 million. My hotel buddies always say it is not as bad as Bangalore (yet) in terms of traffic. And I certainly hope it remains that way.

On the note of commericalization, however, believe it or not there is a store in Mysore named My-store. Funny. I find it funny.

Another funny is My-"sore". There was an actor who studied under Pattbai Jois years ago and he jokingly referred to the city as My-sore; making reference to the fact that you cannot leave the city and not be sore if you practise Ashtanga!

That is also funny.

Hearing from my pals in Mysore certainly drums up many memories. Nice to hear from them while it continues to snows here :-0