This is my third visit to Mysore, India, to study Ashtanga yoga in six years. I really do feel at home here, albeit jet-lagged. I spent my first few days taking care of logistics, catching up with some other students and sleeping… as well as re-establishing chai and coconut stand habits. While life moves much more slowly here, it’s easy to find everything you need and Mysore is very livable. I’m told the city was named the second cleanest in India.
Since my last visit, several new restaurants and a grocery store have opened. And the weather is mild. November is the end of the monsoon, the beginning of winter-while it’s rained a bit the past few days, it’s relatively warm. As the photos tell, motorcycles and scooters are a preferred mode of transport though it’s also quite easy to walk and rickshaws are ever at the ready…which is what I’ll be using for transport until the long-haul travel fog lifts.
Deborah Crooks (www.DeborahCrooks.com) is a writer, performing songwriter and recording artist based in San Francisco whose lyric driven and soul-wise music has drawn comparison to Lucinda Williams, Chrissie Hynde and Natalie Merchant.
Singing about faith, love and loss, her lyrics are honed by a lifetime of writing and world travel while her music draws on folk, rock, Americana and the blues. She released her first EP “5 Acres” in 2003 produced by Roberta Donnay, which caught the attention of Rocker Girl Magazine, selecting it for the RockerGirl Discoveries Cd. In 2007, she teamed up with local producer Ben Bernstein to complete “Turn It All Red” Ep, followed by 2008’s “Adding Water to the Ashes” CD, and a second full-length CD “2010. She’s currently working on a third CD to be released in 2013.
Deborah’s many performance credits include an appearance at the 2006 Millennium Music Conference, the RockerGirl Magazine Music Convention, IndieGrrl, at several of the Annual Invasion of the GoGirls at SXSW in Austin, TX, the Harmony Festival and 2009’s California Music Fest, MacWorld 2010, Far West Fest and many other venues and events. She toured the Northwest as part “Indie Abundance Music, Money & Mindfulness” (2009) with two other Bay Area artists, and followed up with “The Great Idea Tour of the Southwest in March 2010 with Jean Mazzei.
