Mooooove: The Ways We Navigate Mysore

(from February 1, 2014)

While it was difficult to say goodbye to our Chinese roommates (quite literally), we are now settled into a place of our own, in the more remote, family-dense neighborhood of Vijayanagar. 

Below is a virtual tour:

Our personal terrace is furnished with a DIY coffee table and equipped with an all-you-can-reach coconut tree.

The kitchen is splashed with every possible shade of pink. As to be expected, Taylor finds comfort and security with such hues. Tiffany does not.

The living room has been converted into a yoga/ conditioning space. Basically, this involves Tiffany assigning Taylor asanas to hold or exercises to complete, while she lounges. (See upcoming blog post to understand more about this.)

Both bedrooms are outfitted with a chic mosquito net, for all those paranoid (yes, Tiffany).

Guest room, anyone?

Over the past month, both of us have shed nearly twenty minutes off of our bucket-shower times. It is with this pail, and in this bathroom, that our personal records have been attained.

Believe it or not, we have a washer and (sort of) dryer on the rooftop! Supposedly, Tiffany still has no idea how to work them, so she admires Mysore’s sunsets, while Taylor labors to hone his newfound craft, in order to give the local Brooklyn Laundromats a run for their money.

Because we are somewhat removed from the bustle of the city-center, and since we did not want to depend on rickshaws toting us around every time we wanted to go exploring, we got ourselves some wheels. 

Although the rules of the road continue to baffle us, we are attempting to piece together meaning. For example, while we have not detected any sort of pattern in the correlation between the length of a vehicle’s honk and its purpose, we do know that a blast of the horn may mean one (or more) of a multitude of things:

1. The driver intends to pass you and is, therefore, eliciting your attention.
2. The driver is going through an intersection, which is void of yielding/stopping signals, and is making it known that he/she is passing through without yielding or stopping. (This, of course, becomes confusing if both parties entering the intersection perceive their road to be the dominant and, therefore, both fail to yield.)
3. The driver is not sure if a driver in front of, beside, and perhaps even behind is aware of the vehicle’s existence and is making its presence known.
4. The driver is pissed that you cut him/her off.
5. The driver wants to wave to you or take your picture. (This is real.)
6. The driver sees an animal-obstacle in the road and is trying to get the cow/dog/rooster’s attention. Moooooove.
7. The driver realizes everyone else is honking and is therefore seeing possible reason as well. (We admit to do doing this sometimes, for the purpose of assimilation, of course.)

Thanks for joining us for t time.  For our next "cup," we'll pour some updates about our attempts to take on the local way of life.