A full day--3 Sisters and Chanting.
Last Friday after led class with Saraswathi, which was very difficult, I met a new friend, J. at the coconut stand and went to Sanskrit chanting class in Lakshmipurim. The class is a combination of chanting the sutras and also some teaching of what the sutras mean... it's fun but utterly exhausting. We got there at 1030 and class ran until 1245. There are several westerners (22, I counted) packed into a small room with two teachers. Each class is 300 Rupees but the first time it's free. Today there are 2 Indian boys (men? It's hard to tell) visiting as well, they just graduated from the Sanskrit college. They came to be around English speakers and to participate in the class.
We opened with a call and response chant and then followed with several sections of a sutra. Sometimes the teacher chants and we call back sometimes we all chant together. The teacher is Dr. M. A. Jayashree she sings with us and guides us. Along side her sits Prof MA Narasimhan, he teaches TM meditation and yoga philosophy, he also sings with us. He is her cousin. Together they make quite a pair. Both clearly are enjoying themselves and seem to revel in the interest of the westerns. They crack jokes --Indian jokes from my experience are often on the silly side. Sarcasm is not there--and smile a lot. They are fun and sweet. It is nice in this room but also, for me a little awkward to have so many of us westerners again in segregation.
After class my friend and I walk down to the 3 sisters for our Ayurvedic massage appointments at 1 and 230. She goes first. I'm exhausted and take rest (sleep) in one room of the house while she gets her caster oil massage treatment (basically the exact same massage as mine except 1800 rupees and with caster oil).
My friend calls the house modest. This is the most polite way imaginable of describing what I'm looking at. It is dusty, dirty, sticky feeling inside and hot. The house smells of cow dung, talc powder, oil, and nag champa incense. There is also a faint sent of sweet wafting in and out as I sleep. After I adjust to the scents I sleep very soundly. 1 sister cooks and is the cashier, the other 2 sisters give the massage. The sister that cooks flutters in and out while I sleep. She tells me she is going to "work" (what Indian woman call house work duties) and to call to her if I need something.
When it's my turn I head out of the sleeping place next door to another part of their house. First the small sister measures my waist with a piece of string. She tells me to get undressed. "everything!" as she's ripping a piece of cloth from a roll. She wraps the string around my waist and tucks in the piece of cloth covering only the bare minimum of my nether region. Next she has me lie face down on a red tarp set up on the floor. I do as she is instructing. She begins pouring oil all over the back of my body. The oil is warm. Before I know it she is suspending herself from ropes hanging on the ceiling and rubbing my body with her feet. She works on the right side of my body for a few minutes before the 2nd sister comes in (the bigger sister, that does most of the talking) and begins to rub the left side of my body in the same manner. From my neck, arm, back, all the way down my leg to my foot. It's repetitive and nice. The pressure is firm and intense but since it's rhythmic it's not too much. I zone in and out enjoying the new experience and trying not to think too much about the roughness of the bigger sisters feet. When she is on the soft spots of my body it feels a bit like a pumice stone... but not in a bad way. I am told to flip on my side and they do the same sort of rhythmic foot rubbing on me in this position all the while chatting to each other in Kannada. A language that rolls around the tongue and sometimes sounds aggressive. The bigger sister tells me I am full of fire! Pitta is there. "So much fire" she says. How do you know I ask. "my feet they tell me" she says.
I am flipped again, this time on my back and again the foot rubbing all up and down the side of my body resumes. It feels lovely. I especially enjoy the massage on my arms, it's deep and thorough in a way I have not experienced before. For the final piece of my massage I sit up. The bigger sister grabs a cloth and wraps it around my front above my chest. She scoops her feet around rubbing my lower back and then has me lie down again to massage my face, with her hands. I decline the hair/oil aspect of the massage since I am not interested in having the oil in my hair for days. With the bucket bath it can be difficult to get the oil out. I had given myself a hair treatment with coconut oil a few days before so the struggle of getting it out is fresh in my memory. They leave the room and I wipe off the bulk of the oil with the cloth left for me. I am greasy and relaxed as I look around the space that I just received my massage in. In America this would qualify as appalling conditions. Certainly not appropriate for body work. I snap a few pictures while I am alone and head back over to pay the cashier sister. 1200 Rupees is my total. This is a western price. (about 26$ USD) Other massage I have had here is in the 500-700 Rupee range. (11 USD-16 USD). I am okay with the price since I know this will be an experience I will take with me always.
We opened with a call and response chant and then followed with several sections of a sutra. Sometimes the teacher chants and we call back sometimes we all chant together. The teacher is Dr. M. A. Jayashree she sings with us and guides us. Along side her sits Prof MA Narasimhan, he teaches TM meditation and yoga philosophy, he also sings with us. He is her cousin. Together they make quite a pair. Both clearly are enjoying themselves and seem to revel in the interest of the westerns. They crack jokes --Indian jokes from my experience are often on the silly side. Sarcasm is not there--and smile a lot. They are fun and sweet. It is nice in this room but also, for me a little awkward to have so many of us westerners again in segregation.
After class my friend and I walk down to the 3 sisters for our Ayurvedic massage appointments at 1 and 230. She goes first. I'm exhausted and take rest (sleep) in one room of the house while she gets her caster oil massage treatment (basically the exact same massage as mine except 1800 rupees and with caster oil).
My friend calls the house modest. This is the most polite way imaginable of describing what I'm looking at. It is dusty, dirty, sticky feeling inside and hot. The house smells of cow dung, talc powder, oil, and nag champa incense. There is also a faint sent of sweet wafting in and out as I sleep. After I adjust to the scents I sleep very soundly. 1 sister cooks and is the cashier, the other 2 sisters give the massage. The sister that cooks flutters in and out while I sleep. She tells me she is going to "work" (what Indian woman call house work duties) and to call to her if I need something.
When it's my turn I head out of the sleeping place next door to another part of their house. First the small sister measures my waist with a piece of string. She tells me to get undressed. "everything!" as she's ripping a piece of cloth from a roll. She wraps the string around my waist and tucks in the piece of cloth covering only the bare minimum of my nether region. Next she has me lie face down on a red tarp set up on the floor. I do as she is instructing. She begins pouring oil all over the back of my body. The oil is warm. Before I know it she is suspending herself from ropes hanging on the ceiling and rubbing my body with her feet. She works on the right side of my body for a few minutes before the 2nd sister comes in (the bigger sister, that does most of the talking) and begins to rub the left side of my body in the same manner. From my neck, arm, back, all the way down my leg to my foot. It's repetitive and nice. The pressure is firm and intense but since it's rhythmic it's not too much. I zone in and out enjoying the new experience and trying not to think too much about the roughness of the bigger sisters feet. When she is on the soft spots of my body it feels a bit like a pumice stone... but not in a bad way. I am told to flip on my side and they do the same sort of rhythmic foot rubbing on me in this position all the while chatting to each other in Kannada. A language that rolls around the tongue and sometimes sounds aggressive. The bigger sister tells me I am full of fire! Pitta is there. "So much fire" she says. How do you know I ask. "my feet they tell me" she says.
I am flipped again, this time on my back and again the foot rubbing all up and down the side of my body resumes. It feels lovely. I especially enjoy the massage on my arms, it's deep and thorough in a way I have not experienced before. For the final piece of my massage I sit up. The bigger sister grabs a cloth and wraps it around my front above my chest. She scoops her feet around rubbing my lower back and then has me lie down again to massage my face, with her hands. I decline the hair/oil aspect of the massage since I am not interested in having the oil in my hair for days. With the bucket bath it can be difficult to get the oil out. I had given myself a hair treatment with coconut oil a few days before so the struggle of getting it out is fresh in my memory. They leave the room and I wipe off the bulk of the oil with the cloth left for me. I am greasy and relaxed as I look around the space that I just received my massage in. In America this would qualify as appalling conditions. Certainly not appropriate for body work. I snap a few pictures while I am alone and head back over to pay the cashier sister. 1200 Rupees is my total. This is a western price. (about 26$ USD) Other massage I have had here is in the 500-700 Rupee range. (11 USD-16 USD). I am okay with the price since I know this will be an experience I will take with me always.
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| Loin Cloth |
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| Massage room |
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| Ropes above massage tarp |
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