The house where I rent a room is a very social location- Internet center and healthy buffet with lounge-y atmosphere bring many yogis in this direction. Although I love to read while I sit on a few cushions on the balcony, with all the action during lunch and dinner hours, sometimes it is hard to study. So I find a coffee shop to do some work in...

There are two cafes in Gokulam which resemble US coffee shops. Resemble is not a strong enough term- they fully belong in the US, standing out on the streets as much as I do in a crowd of Indians. They are fully equip with "leather" couches, milk frothing machines, well organized merchandise shelves, a random assortment of American music ("I'm a Barbie Doll in a Barbie World" song to an old Kanye West album) and their coffee is reliably delicious. Indian coffee (instant coffee mixed one part water, one part milk) is available at most chai stands, but the atmosphere at these spots are very different (and wonderful.) They consist of only men, most of them smoking. Here you sit street-side on plastic chairs or the cement stoop inches away from piles of street garbage and/ or a loitering cow. Your 3 oz shot of coffee (or chai) is 5 ruppees and is served to you with all five fingers touching the circumference of the small glass (a no-no I learned long ago from serving tables, but something I have become totally okay with in the past four weeks.)

About once a week I make the half mile trek to BARISTA LAVAZZA (middle A in LAVAZZA is twice as big as the rest of the lettering) to enjoy one of my few vices I have access to here- coffee. As for the walk, I have my choice of either a residential neighborhood or the two main streets in Gokulam. I usually take the residential route. The main road forces you to be on guard of swerving traffic, barnyard animals, and random stretches of dangerously disintegrating walk ways. The neighborhood walk is still on streets sprinkled with trash and school children asking for your "country coin," but the air and noise pollution are much more tolerable.

The building is clean, crisp, and welcoming (my first indication that I am not in India anymore.) BARISTA LAVAZZA- "this season we are going nuts about coffee" The fact that they acknowledge seasons, and that things will change in a season (other than the fruit you are selling off your cart) is very western. Most things around here don't seem like they have changed in hundreds of years (if ever) and no one is going nuts about anything, especially for just a season...

My double cappuccino is expensive at 61 rupees ($1.50) I could buy two lunches with this much money, but it is worth every cent. They place 5 huge packets of white sugar on the saucer under my cup (which they bring to me on a tray with no fingers touching any part of the perimeter of the glass.)

Although the heat has heightened my sweet tooth, I am resisting adding sugar. At my recent visit to the Ayurveda Clinic, Doctor Kumar recommended that I only eat natural sugars. I LOVE that I think twice about my sugar intake now that "my ayurvedic doctor told me that unnatural sugar isn't good for my dosha." Like I had no idea that sugar was bad for my health prior to this visit! He also mentioned that I should stay away from fried food.

"ohhhhh..."

I think I actually wrote those things down in my notebook when he said them!

At the BARISTA LAVAZZA I can take my scarf off of my shoulders without receiving any scolding eyes. I am so sick of this scarf on the shoulder thing. My guy friends can all wear tank tops, I do not understand why I am actually following this culture's norm. My shoulders are offensive? Well I find this rule to be offensive. And I find it offensive that there are never any Indian women in this coffee shop because they are busy at home cooking and cleaning in the heat (with their shoulders covered). I can tell I have been drinking milk-water instant coffee, I am starting fights in my head with cultures older than dirt because of the strength of this cup of coffee.

Other than the 5-men staff in orange Polo's and black sweater vests (Indians get cold in air conditioning) and baseball hats with "more coffee?" embroidered with orange thread, the bathrooms are what impress me the most.

I pray that I do not have to use the restroom while eating at the two Indian diners that I most frequent. Be their toilet squat (hole in the floor) or western (damn if anyone isn't squatting anyway) I often feel as if I am playing the game Twister, except if I lose I get Diphtheria (please note- this is a thing that I made up. mom, I will not catch Diphtheria from these bathrooms. end note.) Right hand on Purse, Left Hand on Toilet Paper (BYOTP here in India) Left and Right foot aware of the random faucet and bucket situation going on to the left...and staying away from the puddles of water on the floor.

Then you step out to wash your hands (which does not make them feel clean.) And last night I had the treat of washing them next to the sink where a woman was vomiting. If I was only allowed on item to bring to India it would be hand sanitizer. period.

This is something I will not miss when I leave India. The BARISTA LAVAZZA has a bathroom that by far surpasses the cleanliness of even the doctor's office that I visited last week. Truth.

So BARISTA LAVAZZA is where I forget about the pollution, the horns, the sexism, the sanitation issues, the praised cows, the wild dogs, the beggars, the poverty, the jump back from Bhujapidasana... Here is where I write, I read, I get my second and final buzz of the day- yoga being my first and usually the only: )

I leave the air conditioned safe zone and hit the thick confrontational wall of India's reality. I walk home, stopping to get fruit from the man who pushes his business on a flat-bed cart with two giant prehistoric looking wheels. He measures the weight of the bananas with an ancient hand held scale, bananas in the dish on one side and metal weights are placed on the other dish until the two sides fall even.

This is his life. I love the simplicity. Maybe that is what I can do when I return to the states... or I could string flowers for alters and carry them in baskets on my head if I want to sell things but fruit is too hard to get... Just some ideas. This is just a day and I am living here and thought you might want to hear about it. In case I failed to mention- I am so happy!