Chamundi Hill

I think Chamundi Hill is like the Empire State Building of Mysore. Everyone asks, "have you been up the hill?" Or you catch conversations, "I just got back from Chamundi". So, today after a leisurely breakfast, Elisa and I went to the hill.

Fridays are Led Primary. I'm in the second group that meets at 6:15am (the earlier group meets at 5, and the third group meets after my class). The door was closed today, so we weren't sure if we could go into the vestibule to watch the early class. It was definitely too cold to stay outside on the steps. Peeking through the window, we could see one person sitting on the bench and a guy practicing. Since the guy was on the bench,we figured we could do the same. So we pushed the girl ahead of us forward, Elisa sat on the bench, and I hung back in the corner next to the door. I didn't want to get called out if we weren't supposed to come in. Probably the door was closed so that the guy in the entrance wouldn't get cold. People kept coming in after us, and the poor guy got a hit of the draft every time. People say its getting pretty crowded right now because of Guruji's birthday. So there are a lot of first-timers and such and the classes are packed.

After the first class, everyone kind of rushes to claim a spot because no one wants to practice in the entrance or the dressing rooms. I was somewhere in the middle again. I wasn't shaky today like I was yesterday morning, but I was tired. I didn't really sleep very soundly last night because of all the lovely mosquitoes in my room. I woke up in the middle of the night scratching and slapping my face. I had bites on my arms, legs, even on a nipple! I tried to hold out for as long as possible but then caved and went up stairs to Elisa's room for incense and bug spray. It worked while it was burning. I didn't have an incense burner, so it burned the plastic vase I had put it in.

Headstand was better today. I was proud of myself for staying up to about 13 breaths. 13 is counted much slower than you might think. Every time my breath got to 10 I started over at one hoping that I could trick my body into staying in the pose a little longer. After class was the usual coconut and jelly where I ran into Guy, who has just arrived.

We had breakfast at the Shakti house, which was really good. I had a banana and soy milk smoothie. I always have to convince people that I really don't want milk and that seriously, I don't want sugar or jaggery. It was really tasty. This was followed by an open faced hummus sandwich on r...? bread. I think it was made of buckwheat, but I don't recall. The hummus was really good, not very garlicky. Its hard to find food with garlic around here. I just don't taste it. Slices of cucumber and tomato were placed on top with some spices. This place is also known to serve good pancakes, omelets and other wholesome, hardy fare at a decent price.

Elisa and I took a rickshaw to the steps of Chamundi Hill. It was quite crowded and at one point we were at the outskirts of the city entering what looked like a parking lot. The driver turned off his engine and the rickshaw was quickly surrounded by dozens of Indian men holding plates of rice offering us "good food". I think they were just trying to be nice, giving us something hardy for the journey we were about to make, but after we said "no, thanks", they just wouldn't let it go and our driver got out, and we got nervous. Elisa grabbed the driver by the shirt and we were yelling at him to get back into the rickshaw and that we wanted to leave.

pic of auto rickshaw from the net...

The rickshaw driver left us at the bottom of the hill so we could walk up the steps. (For more on Chamundi Hill, click here.) Elisa had gone there a couple of days ago, but decided against it because she felt really uncomfortable being all by herself amongst a bunch of loitering men, beggars, and monkeys at the base of the steps. When she got home, our "house mama" told her that you should never go alone because a cheetah lives up there and attacks people. Hmmm.

This time, however, there were loads of people. Chamundi Hill is well, a hill. There are steps leading up this hill carved from stone. I thought there were a hundred, and after a while of climbing was confused about the number of steps. Elisa clarified that actually there were 1,000. At the very base of the steps, men and women were praying and putting together burnt offerings. There were piles of red and yellow powder smudges around the offerings and we noticed that actually the markings were on the corners of every step leading to the top. Women with bags or bowls filled with the powder would kneel and mark each of the 1000 steps all the way to the top. In the places where there were no steps because there was a bit of a plateau, they would mark every few feet. The result was a beautiful stone staircase, colored with red, yellow, and orange, like fall leaves.

The long walk up would have probably been quite peaceful and spiritual had we not been pestered by teenagers the whole way up. "Hello, how are you?" "What is your name?" "Where are you from?" All seemingly harmless questions, but to these boys, these questions were all about the art of seduction. They were laughing shouting, getting bolder all the time.

About half way up the hill there is a little cave/temple. Around it vendors sell pineapple and cucumbers and wreaths of flowers. We took off our shoes, but to the dismay of all, carried them with us toward the temple. I sat outside with our shoes and Elisa went in first. She came out a second later and kind of just shrugged. I went in next. I had to crouch down very low to get in the small opening of the cave, which has a tiled floor. To the left was the cave swami. People were holding out there hands and he was giving them something and then they would turn to the right and dab their fingers in a bowl in front of a shrine. I sat there and looked at the Swami and asked him "what do I do?" He said put out your hands and so I did and he said "no the other one" (my left hand was on top, a big no no) and he dropped a pile of sugar in my hands. I asked him what the other stuff was about and he said just pointed to the red spot between his eyebrows. People were making some kind of offering and then dipping their fingers into red powder and putting a smudge between their eyebrows. He patted the floor next to him, motioning to sit down, so I did. He was so calm. I felt like I didn't want to leave but I also had absolutely nothing to say to him. So I asked him his name--Swami Jamanagiri. He asked me mine and where I was from. Once he found out I was from NY, he asked me if I knew Eddie Stern, Regina ("She is coming?"). I told him Mary said to see him. He nodded like he knew who that was. I sat there for a little while longer. The tiny cave was getting quite crowded with school children who were climbing and touching everything. He got quite angry and got up to yell at them. Again, I didn't want to leave, but I didn't know how to stay, so I left. The sugar was melting in my hand. We became celebrities on that hill. Families wanted to get pictures with us, children wanted our autographs. It was surreal. We continued up the mountain.

At the top was the crazy building you can see at the top of the page and a lot of people, vendors, and cows. Always the cows. Swami Jamanagiri said that there were many people today because the month was very auspicious. This is the month of Chamundi and so every Friday, "thousands, not hundreds" of people come. At the top we met up with some people we recognized from the shala and Rishi's. Nuno and his friend Nuno from Portugal. We sat on a wall and looked at the incredible view over the city. The way down was less than thrilling for my knees and by the time we got to the bottom , we had an entourage of schoolchildren and very wobbly legs. Tonight is Dosa night at Anu's. Very exciting.

PS-Elissa thinks that the people here think I'm a Bollywood star and that's why we go so much attention. Who can say?