Sunday in Mahabaleswar June 19, 2011

Do you want to take a guess what this woman is selling? I'll tell you later in the blog

On Sunday, I took it really easy in Mahabaleswar...didn’t go anywhere, did some shopping for people back home and really enjoy my last few hours before I took the bus back to Pune at 3 pm. Having lived at Zen Center for several years, I really learned to appreciate the fact that we try to get all of our produce locally and organically...and so many ways I’m very spoiled now...that I don’t even bother with Safeway or any produce that is not grown sustainably or locally. I wonder how people back home feel when I tell them that the stuff that I bought in India is either made locally or grown organically. India is just full of beautiful stuff that has either been handmade or grown locally. I don’t think there’s any feedlot or anything like that...and thank god for that. I sometimes see farmers with a bunch of goats crossing a very busy street intersection. It’s kinda funny, because they would completely stop traffic for like a minute which is an impossible thing to do in India.

The beautiful girl who made some incredible knitted clothing.

In Mahabaleswar, I saw a shop where they had knitted sweaters and shirts...very beautiful. I also found out that it was made there in Mahabaleswar and that the the person who made it was also the one who was working at the store...I was delighted when I saw her. I found out from the owner that she spent 3 to 4 days knitting the sweater that I bought for my sister...I was really moved when I learned that and told her that I really think she is really good at what she does and that my sister will be very happy when I show it to them. As I was going over my photos...I kinda hate myself for forgetting to take pictures of the beautiful clothing that I saw....darn. Surprisingly there were also 2 or 3 Kashmir stores in Mahabaleswar and I thought that I should get a Kashmiri shirt for my sister as well because this will probably be the closest as I will get to a Kashmiri shirt since I have no plans whatsoever to go anywhere close to the Himalayas this time around in India.

I forgot to take pictures of the clothes that were hanging on the wall. Maybe because I was really awed by what I saw.

Nothing else was used other than this knitting needle.

 So have you figured out what the woman was selling? It's the local honey in Mahabaleswar with all the small bees and honeycomb too. At first I saw a few ppl gathering around her and the flat half circle pancake size shape couldn’t help me figure out what she was selling. The color of it didn’t help either. At first I thought it was something unappetizing. Then after walking back and forth in the bazaar a few times, I decided to stop and take a look. With some help from the other visitors I learned that it was honey from Mahabaleswar. Ever since I've been on my trip, I haven't had any coffee or honey. While I don't miss coffee as much b/c I drink so much chai here in India, I do however miss honey. I tasted it and to my satisfaction it tasted so different than any other honey that I have ever had. I'm not saying that it's better than the organic honey from zen center...it's just different...it's not crazy sweet like some of the processed ones that I  have tasted in the past. And while at Zen Center sometimes it takes forever to liquify our honey from solid chunks which can be so troublesome to get for something so sweet, this one is quite runny...I've been using it for breakfast in my cereal...YUM!