Photos: Banana plant, medicinal plant grinding room, simming pool, separating grain & chaff
In Gadag we went to see the Ayurvedic Hospital, college, and research center where they not only teach but also grow and prepare all of their own herbs. Ayurvedic medicine is very old in India, over 5,000 years old. I fully understand the herbal medicines and feel that modern medicine has forgotten its herbal roots but I’m still not sure I go for the whole ayurvedic theory, especially the use of some of the toxins, such as mercury.
We went to see several more temples and visited with a Swami briefly. He apparently had been silent for 38 years because he was praying for humanity but now is trying to get in the Guinness World Records for his silence. I’m not sure on his motives for that.
We visited the historical site of an old, gigantic swimming pool that has been preserved and rebuilt. Reportedly the royalty bathed there and we observed locals swimming and diving. The structure was amazing, much more incredible than the Queen’s Bath at Hampi yesterday, though that was a beautiful place too.
We then took lunch at Jennifer’s host’s home which had a young female Doberman, Scoofy, who could have been better behaved and was rather mouthy. I at least had a chance to get on the internet for a few minutes to check e-mail and post a blog to say I’m okay but no chance to do anything else.
Jennifer was very excited when we briefly visited a yoga school and therapy center. Upon asking the cost of going there for therapy we were told that it was a minimum 10 day stay and it cost $15.00 per day in American dollars. No wonder medical tourism is so big here!
The next stop I really enjoyed, a farm, at long last. It belonged Rotarian who had a variety of crops on an area the size of the Race Farm. The crops we saw were bananas, coconuts, mangos, pomegranate, sunflowers, chilies, corn, peanuts, and the kind of pea used to make dal. They used oxen to plow and we got to see the barn. The oxen are fed the dried corn plants after the ears were removed. We saw the workers sifting the peas from the husks by dropping it through the air to blow away the chaff. They dried the chili peppers by laying them on the corrugated metal house roof. We got to taste peanut butter balls made with peanuts (groundnuts) and jaggerty mixed together then rolled into a ball. Jaggerty is a form of sugar that looks like beeswax chips but tastes like a not-that-sweet light-brown sugar. We looked at the corn which was dried and piled in heaps waiting husking. It was small ears and kernels and the farmer explained that they had too much rain and had stopped using chemicals in favor of organic fertilizers and this had lowered the quality of the corn drastically.
We then endured a long ride to Hubli for the upcoming conference. We had a pre-conference dinner and did brief presentations about ourselves with comments on India. I mentioned that I not only am learning about India, its people, and its culture, but I am also learning about America from the people here and it has changed my perspective on America and on life itself.
My new host and his family are very nice, the bathroom is the cleanest I have seen yet and it has real toilet paper, and the best of all, they have a male 3 year old black lab that is very friendly and has manners! Boy do I miss Shadow! They have been asking me about how to do dog training and this dog, Bruno, does know sit and shake paws and I am going to try to teach him to lie down on command while I am here. He is a really sweet dog! At first I thought it was strange they would ask me how to train a dog but upon further thought, I realize that, because dogs as pets are rare, there aren’t dog trainers or puppy classes or books in Hindi on basic dog training. I hope to impart some of my knowledge and techniques to my hosts while I am here. I am in heaven having a dog to follow me around the house; I feel much more at home!
We went to see several more temples and visited with a Swami briefly. He apparently had been silent for 38 years because he was praying for humanity but now is trying to get in the Guinness World Records for his silence. I’m not sure on his motives for that.
We visited the historical site of an old, gigantic swimming pool that has been preserved and rebuilt. Reportedly the royalty bathed there and we observed locals swimming and diving. The structure was amazing, much more incredible than the Queen’s Bath at Hampi yesterday, though that was a beautiful place too.
We then took lunch at Jennifer’s host’s home which had a young female Doberman, Scoofy, who could have been better behaved and was rather mouthy. I at least had a chance to get on the internet for a few minutes to check e-mail and post a blog to say I’m okay but no chance to do anything else.
Jennifer was very excited when we briefly visited a yoga school and therapy center. Upon asking the cost of going there for therapy we were told that it was a minimum 10 day stay and it cost $15.00 per day in American dollars. No wonder medical tourism is so big here!
The next stop I really enjoyed, a farm, at long last. It belonged Rotarian who had a variety of crops on an area the size of the Race Farm. The crops we saw were bananas, coconuts, mangos, pomegranate, sunflowers, chilies, corn, peanuts, and the kind of pea used to make dal. They used oxen to plow and we got to see the barn. The oxen are fed the dried corn plants after the ears were removed. We saw the workers sifting the peas from the husks by dropping it through the air to blow away the chaff. They dried the chili peppers by laying them on the corrugated metal house roof. We got to taste peanut butter balls made with peanuts (groundnuts) and jaggerty mixed together then rolled into a ball. Jaggerty is a form of sugar that looks like beeswax chips but tastes like a not-that-sweet light-brown sugar. We looked at the corn which was dried and piled in heaps waiting husking. It was small ears and kernels and the farmer explained that they had too much rain and had stopped using chemicals in favor of organic fertilizers and this had lowered the quality of the corn drastically.
We then endured a long ride to Hubli for the upcoming conference. We had a pre-conference dinner and did brief presentations about ourselves with comments on India. I mentioned that I not only am learning about India, its people, and its culture, but I am also learning about America from the people here and it has changed my perspective on America and on life itself.
My new host and his family are very nice, the bathroom is the cleanest I have seen yet and it has real toilet paper, and the best of all, they have a male 3 year old black lab that is very friendly and has manners! Boy do I miss Shadow! They have been asking me about how to do dog training and this dog, Bruno, does know sit and shake paws and I am going to try to teach him to lie down on command while I am here. He is a really sweet dog! At first I thought it was strange they would ask me how to train a dog but upon further thought, I realize that, because dogs as pets are rare, there aren’t dog trainers or puppy classes or books in Hindi on basic dog training. I hope to impart some of my knowledge and techniques to my hosts while I am here. I am in heaven having a dog to follow me around the house; I feel much more at home!
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