My existence in the virtual world

From my remote den in Mysore,I wanted to show the people I met pictures of our beautiful Mauritius. I recalled that I had in my hard disk memory through my del.icio.us tag the wonderful slide shows of my dear old friend Robert Li Pi Shan and that of Philip Lim’s and Sylviane Rochecouste’s. My public was stunned with the beauty!

Thanks to these wonderful Mauritian artists,who publish their work for the world to see,I made my night!

Last night for the first night,we got a night off from our golden den. They are so caring here in IVAC when the Medical Doctor heard that we are eating out, he immediately wanted to make sure that the food that we were eating would be compatible with the diet prescribed. He also made recommendations on the type of food we should keep away from.

Through the Administrative Manager,Pramilla I got the phone number of the owner of the Chinese restaurant. I was told that they served Hakka noodles and it was ran by Indian born Chinese. I try my luck and got Mr.Yung on the telephone.I struck gold, Mr. Yung spoken Moyen hak, my mother tongue. He immediately told me that he would prepare food for home Hakka eating. Yoopi! that made my day. He had red rice(tsao) ginger chicken soup, followed by a pork dish, fish , Hakka crispy chicken and Pipangaille stir fried with chicken breast and tung choy. A feast it was!

The Indian couple who accompanied us for the occasion said that they had eaten several times at the same restaurant but never ever before they had such dishes.

I was told that the owner’s wife also ran a beauty saloon. As it is the case in India, most chinese mostly hakka oirigin were, in the past, only allowed to open businesses in leather, more precisely in cowhide and allied industries, restaurants and Beauty Saloons.

Well I would sum up and say that I felt great to have eaten this meal in Mysore and be connected to a brother of the Hakka Diaspora. 

It was also to thank Pramilla  for the kindness she extended to us, to meet her husband and finally to fete Marie Anne’s departure today to Mumbai on her way to Canada.

From my chalet next to one of the sacred hill of Mysore, I am enjoying the view of the most beautiful Lathila palace against a blue sky in the background, whilst in the foreground an array of coconuts trees filled with a lush vegetation completes my panorama. Believe you me with the sound of Radio one blasting from the speakers of my laptop!This is the world on internet today!

A fortnight, ago on the advice of Dr. Tavane Krishna, I bought the services provided by Reliance Company for wireless internet connection through CDMA. The cost was an initial one time fee of INR. 5000 for the card and registration and a charge of INR 50 daily payable on monthly basis for illimited internet services. The service speed,I have experienced is faster that MyT back home although the cut off time for non utilisation seems to be very short. After a non activity of 2 hours the net connection cuts off when you are asked to reconnect.

I am really pleased to have the service on the desk in my room without having to go to the front office where internet service on ADSL at a much slower speed is offered. The savings made on international calls with the use of SKYPE is well worth it!
Out of the country but still connected with Radio One!for a couple of INR. I am happy. The BBC world service is perfect though RFI has been erratic.

Marlyse Grossenbacher, who I mentioned in my blog of the 12th is now spending more time at the centre to deepen her knowledge in Ayurveda massage and treatments. She is a very well versed lady in the subject and has studies years  to tune her up to run a reputable centre in Switzerland, not so many of its kind!Her web site is well worth a visit. I found  that the Vedic chanting  provided thereon  to be exceptionally soothing for relaxation and meditation. Bravo Marlyse!Marie Anne got to know her a little better. “Marlyse degage un air de serenite!”
Her set up in Switzerland is in association with the well known French institution dispensing Ayurvedic treatment in Normandie and Paris directed by Kiran Vyas who has published several books in french on Yoga and related subject.

Through the weeks, my daily encounter with the chief medical officer got me to know him a little bit better. A person of some 50 years of age, he has been practicing ayurvedic medicine for many years, after having qualified as a doctor. He has been blessed with 2 children, a boy and a girl, who are already in their early twenties and starting up their professional lives.

He is a very dedicated doctor, well known in this province of Karnataka. Before taking up his present position, he had been a professor of ayurvedic medecine in various institutes and tought at the ayurveda training school. One of his hobby is to perform as a vocalist in Karnatak classical music. Indeed, a man of many talents! I was struck by his great modesty,knowledge,kindness and understanding of people. He is jovial, warm and affectionate. What drives him is to get the best out of people, and he’s always listening, to improve himself and the others. I had the opportunity to listen to the weekly lectures that he gives to guests on ayurveda.  His demeanor was very much that of a university professor, where timing, precision  and  imparting of knowledge were of essence. I, and most of the people present really enjoyed the 30 mins talk where unusual eastern concepts were made simple to us westerners. I have now a better knowledge of vata, pitta and kapha.

We are now in our 3rd week of stay at IVAC Mysore.  Judging by the amount of people we have met, it would appear that this centre is one of the choicest of its kind. We understand that it is featured as a premium ayurvedic centre in the Lonely Planet and other tourist guides. Marlise, who is herself a proud owner of an ayurvedic centre in Switzerland, agrees with us that the quality of cure given by the centre is outstanding, compared to those she had experienced elsewhere in India, where she has travelled extensively.  This morning, we got an email from Eric, another Swiss, with whom we exchanged during the last week. The owner of a lithographic company, he told us that he arrived home near Geneva safely, happy and refreshed from his Indian escapade. We had a chance to meet a flamboyant Catalan wonderful lady. Mind you, she is a great Barcelona football fan, as she works for  FC Barcelone! Just imagine to be in Mysore and to talk about Ronaldo and Ronaldino and european football!  Last night, Marie Anne had to pull me from the dinner table, as I was engaged in a very interesting conversation with my neighbours, an Italian couple, who live in Venice. He was a very well known businessman, who was the president of the the association of industrialists in his city. The conversation was about Italian culinary likes and dislikes. He told us how he loves Ravi Shankar who gave a concert 200 meters away from his home! Yes, the world is becoming a small village!

Until then, we shall have more stories of wonderful people that we are meeting.

During the past week ending on Friday, I underwent for 7 days a very special treatment practised by Ayurvedic specialists from Onkola, which is a village in the far north of Karnataka state near Goa, on persons in my condition. I am back to a normal diet today having only lost 1.5 kilos, after being fed only on rice and mung Dhal water and no solid.

I really enjoyed this morning the papaya, doss (Indian salty crispy wafers) and stir fried broken wheat with vegetables. A very festive meal for me.

A particular aspect which impressed me most was the constant prayer to God by the therapists before every treatment. During their prayer, looking at them, and hearing them sing the prayer, I could sense their deep reverence to God as God-fearing people.

Is it particular to these people of the centre, is it because they have been trained this way, is it part of ayurveda treatment which combines body, mind and soul?

I had a similar experience way back in 1996, when I visited the Madras, now Chennai, airport set up of the budding of Jet Airways, the most prestigious Indian airline for the present. Already in those days, each shift of staff taking up their duty, would get together as a team and hold hands to pray God to help them in their tour of duty. Thereafter, they would religiously recite the company’s mission statement as a mantra. The supervising manager would then ask each one what is the particular point he would watch out for the day. In turn, each individual will come up with his main objective for the day. Though I did not see first hand the break up of the shift, I was told similar ritual took place, where they all got together again to thank God for their work and would in turn, tell the assembly whether they succeeded in attaining the objective which they l have set out to accomplish.

I am in awe with such reverence to God and to the living up to their mission. This might be a lesson to learn from.

I’ve been reading the Mauritian newspapers the last few days, wherein was reported the wonderful story of CMT and more importantly, the challenge they are taking on to become the 10 biggest textile companies of the world! Hats off to Francois Woo and his team for what they have achieved from humble beginnings in St Pierre to the notoriety they have risen to.

The vision of the CMT team to look forward to play in the world class field and to equip their factories with state of the art machineries and to  train the whole of the  personnel to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Isn’t it a lesson to learn from? What better proof of entrepreneurship?

I wish them big success they deserve.

I have been quiet for the last few days because of my incapacity to approach my desktop, for fear of putting masala on the keyboard and spoiling my valuable equipment! Even today, I had Marie Anne type out what I have to write.
This morning, while I was sitting on a stool waiting for the paste over my body to dry, my wife Marie Anne came back from her royal rejuvenation treatment. Why royal? It’s because the treatment consisted of whole body massage, followed by a bathtub dip of 15 mins in hot water where herbal decoctions , ground sandal wood and rose petals had been added. When she breezed in, the perfume she exuded filled the air, whilst I was like a garlic/mustard seed/turmeric smelling monster cowering in the bathroom! Fortunately, I’m on my last day of this particular treatment, for the moment. After a week’s of normal massage with special oils brought in from Onkola, I’ll be having a second body paste regimen. The beauty is being rejuvenated whilst the beast is having the pungent smell and starving stance. This is my story of the Beauty and the Beast. To obtain a little bit of mobility in my condition, what will I not do and suffer? I really feel jealous of Marie Anne who is having an exhilarating stay here. If my jealousy would add to my cure, so much the better!

Indeed, at Ivac,we meet people of different walks of life. 2 days ago Christian Olsson, who has sojourned in IVAC for the last 10 days, left. He is German and owns a Graphic design company. He needed some rejuvenation and had a break from work. When Christian left, he told me that his time at the Ayurveda Centre not only cleansed his body, he also had time to work on his mental stresses. He is now all ready to face the challenges of his world.Christian allowed me to discover his conception of Graphic Design and we had a lot of exchanges & sharings in Marketing products as he works for Siemens, Liebherr and many other German firms. Marketing Strategy, positioning of the products to achieve better results were the themes we talked about. I was enthused!In the nutshell, what I learnt from the exchange: a top class designer’s only mission is to design for the message desired by his customer irrespective of what he himself like or dislike on the material produced. The designers’ job is to arouse the proper emotions of the targeted audience to receive the message wanted by the clients.
May I wish Christian a continued succesful carreer. I am so grateful to the Lord to have placed him on my path.