Parotas, on the way to Tiru

After we left Ganeshpuri and the Nityananda shrine, we flew from Mumbai to Chennai (now Madras), in the state of Tamil Nadu. We spent the night at the Radisson, a good choice in India. That's where we discovered India is in love with Jon Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams' music. The server in the Regency Club played it loudly over and over and said it was the latest rage.

The next morning, after I received an ayurvedic foot massage that came complimentary with the room and Marty ate another dosa, we set off for a four hour drive to Thiruvannamalai (known as Tiru). Tiru is a small town in southern India, famous for its gigantic Shiva temple, Mount Arunachula, and the ashram of the great sage, Ramana Maharshi who died in 1950.

Along the way, our driver, another man named Ganesh, continuously beeped. It was so irritating that we were so relieved to pull off to a road side chai shop. Marty decided to eat whatever the man at the grill was making, because it was in the shape of a pizza. These "little pizzas" were later identified as parotas. This lunch was proving to be both fascinating and dangerous for our health.

The whole time the cook is making the parotas, you'll see a man brushing his teeth and washing up right behind him. Watch how the cook 'manhandles' the food after and serves it to us on a banana leaf.


We also ate the guavas that a woman was selling by the road. YUM! The chai was delicious too. We'll have a video on how to make that later from Rishikesh. We eventually made our way to the Sparsa EcoResort, a perfect place to stay while visiting Tiru.

Valentine's Day in Rajasthan

Valentine's day dinner was ours at the Lake Palace Hotel in the light of candles, surrounded by fresh flowers, exquisitely served by men with turbans. We felt, once again, that we were having our own personal concert, this time with music from a tambura (a long-necked instrument with four or five wire strings, plucked one to create a harmonic drone) and a sitar (pictured here - made famous by Ravi Shankar in the movie The Concert for Bangladesh, 1971.)

We ate a traditional meal of basmati rice and dahl, nan, followed by a coconut creme dessert. No word, no pictures even (too dark). It was our first real Indian meal (outside of the pretty good food they serve on airplanes here).

After breakfast the next day (see the blog entry below), we checked into the "other" hotel by the lake (this one is on the shore), the Oberoi Udaivillas. The Lake Palace hotel is said to be the most romantic hotel in the world, and according to Travel and Leisure, the Oberoi is ranked as the #1 hotel in the world. It's only 6 years old and no expense was spared building the hotel of 87 rooms. We had a room with a semi-private pool. This is not your father's Buick, nor the India that Marty and I remember from years ago.

When we checked in we were greeted by yet another security check through the luggage, our taxi, and our bodies, and once we passed, we were greeted and adorned with a bindi (sandal paste on our third eye) by a woman dressed in a beautiful sari. We were served my favorite new drink, a pink iced tea that tasted like rose petals. I found out it was made with rose syrup. I will be serving this at my home this summer.

We wanted to play the Om Mane Padme Hum recording we brought with us from Kathmandu. In our room there was a combo TV, DVD, CD player. I turned it on for the CD, and who was on the television? Yup, in his ruby-studded glasses, there was Deepak Chopra talking about non-violence. And his vow of non violence. (Most people I run into don't know who he is - though keep in mind I meet mostly service personnel.)

When I first heard about the vow of non-violence, we were leading a meditation Radiance Retreat in Sedona in November. Could I honestly take the vow of non violence in thought, word and deed? I know I can't control ALL of the thoughts that I hear. It's not that I am particularly violent, but it can be a reaction in my mind when I encounter a story or see people hurting each other or animals for no good reason. I often meet these thoughts with inquiry, and eventually experience the sense of non-violence, but nevertheless, these thoughts do occasionally arise without my permission, so to speak. But as I listened in my hotel room in Rajasthan, Deepak clearly said it's a vow of non-violence in speech and actions. I can do that.