A few things from today. First off, a fantastic breakfast at Sri Durga Bhavan.
What you see is set dosa with beetroot sagu and coconut chutney. The dosa is a fat pancake made of a fermented batter of rice and beans, and it’s spongy and a bit like sourdough when cooked. You dip pieces of it into the sagu and chutney (spicy!). No silverware, just your right hand (I keep my left hand behind me while I eat so I don’t forget). SO good! A little chai tea and you’re all set. Sri Durga Bhavan is a great little place with counters outside on the street, so I can stand and eat my breakfast and watch the goings-on on Main Street. It’s a real treat – just standing there eating breakfast all by myself.
Later I hung out with Angie and she shared an ayurvedic booklet that includes a little gem that may well turn out to be the “theme” of this trip: “Please bear in mind that there is nothing mystical or ethereal about this process.” Indeed.
She also shared a delicious ayurvedic treat: a spoonful of a paste made of ashwagandha, ghee and honey.
And now I am typing as three cleaning ladies look after the apartment. They come on Tuesdays and Thursdays. According to the notice posted on each floor of the building, you are supposed to leave your keys at the office (a few doors up the hill from the apartment building) if you want your apartment cleaned.
I verify with the doorwoman this morning, “Do I bring my keys to the office?”
“Yes,” she says.
I walk up the hill to the office and try to give my keys to the fellow at the front desk. He takes them and looks at me. “You are going out now?”
“Yes.”
“When will you be back?”
“Um, around 2:30?” I venture.
He holds my keys to his forehead as if memorizing what I’ve just said. "We will be there at 2:30,“ he pronounces, and hands the keys back to me.
"Dude, seriously? No way you’ll be there at 2:30!” (I thought, but didn’t say.)
Sure enough, the cleaning team showed up at 3:45. I’m catching on to how all of this works. There is nothing mystical or ethereal about this process.
