- Our house has two chess sets. Upon opening the first, we found every piece absolutely hairy with mold. The board of the second set is warped to such an extent that rooks topple right over. It is ridiculously humid here. Even the TV has mold on it, honest.
- I've been studying at my new tabla teacher's place for 4 to 6 hours per day. My legs are a bushel of ache. Progress is slow, but I'm being hooked up with tabla master Lachchu Maharaj for study in Varanasi (some of you have, eh hem, seen the video of him playing). To say he's my first choice is putting it mildly. It's probably the equivalent of a novice cellist studying with Yo yo. But such things are possible here. The dollar lubricates all. I'm intimidated, but stoked.
- There is a yoga class conducted every evening at dusk on a rooftop here in Rishikesh. The teachers are 10 years old. The students are between 8 and 10 years old. No body puts them up to this.
- Seems that there is not a single door in all of India that shuts properly.
- The clothing stores have the least flattering mannequins I could ever imagine. They're terrifying and I want to break them.
- We smoosh a few roaches per day and no longer worry about cleaning them up. There are legions of tiny-tiny blonde ants (they remind me too much of head lice) that carry away with remarkable efficiency anything that is dead.
- Private yoga lessons every morning is a luxury I never want to do without. The increase in my flexibility is astounding.
