Melting in Mysore

From the onset, I wanted this trip to be different. I wanted to focus on meeting and talking with the locals. I wanted to eat healthy and not drink too much. I wanted to even make some time for exercise.

Well, so far so good.

Since arriving in India I've become a borderline vegetarian without even noticing. The magic these people perform with vegetables just amazes me. I pictured the life of a vegetarian to just be carrot sticks and quinoa, I could get used to this kind of food! As for the exercise, my days have become one big workout routine. Most nights I find myself passed out by 11pm from the sheer exhaustion of a whole day spent walking. I've also boycotted Rickshaws when practical, but this leads to me getting lost almost daily...so it makes for a lot of walking. And beer? What's that? Chai has become my drink of choice. I can probably count the beers I've drank on 3 hands since arriving here (considering my love for the beverage that's a truly astonishing feat). With regards to talking and meeting the locals, I don't even have to try at this one. Every time I stop for chai or ask for directions I'm bombarded with questions and good conversation.

It wouldn't look like I'm having the "funnest" time from the outside looking in. There's no epic nights out on the town or anything thing like that. But it's how I want it for now. There's a lot of nights spent reading, days spent wandering about searching for that perfect photo op, and a lot of tea drinking....oh how I love chai. But there's also bad days just like you'd have at home, mostly it's the honking and blistering heat that really wears me down. I haven't seen a spec of cloud in the sky for over 2 weeks and the honking is just relentless.

I haven't tried yoga yet...it is on the 'to do' list. But I think I'm already using some of it's principles to get me through more than a few lose-my-cool situations. When that scorching sun coupled with the last ear-piercing horn I can stand almost makes me snap, I just think of the dog.

What dog you ask?

I was walking down one of the main boulevards in Mysore the other day and took a detour through a bustling alley way. The alley was filled with hundreds of locals buying/selling fruit and produce, just a big farmers market it was. It had cows, goats, chickens, and one lone dog. As soon as I stepped foot off the main drag into the market the pooch locked eyes on me 20 yards out through the crowd of people and just went hysterical. He did this the whole time I walked through and a handful of shop keepers were slapping their knee with laughter. I too had a smirk on my face, and as I walked back to my hotel I could still hear it going berserk a kilometre away. It makes me laugh whenever I think of it.

It's become my Opposition Thought. When India starts making me lose my cool I'm just going to think of the dog. And if that's not enough, I'll in vision what the shop keepers were saying to each other as they watched and laughed:

"Hey look, that dog hates the funny looking white guy!"