Ponto de Vista

Certain canines move in higher echelons than even we do… Here’s one that’s being driven somewhere in air-conditioned comfort…

I learned recently that the US and India have agreed on a trade – Mangoes in the US for Harley Davidsons in India.
The first South Indian mangoes are already in Delhi. Red and green on the outside, golden orange and pulpy inside, they are divinely sweet.
Mmmmmm
mmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm.

Here’s a description of some varieties that India produces. And here’s the Press Information Bureau of India’s scientific take on the nutritional properties of the incomparable mango: “Good mango varieties contain over 20 per cent of the total soluble solids (sugars). The acid content of ripe dessert fruit varies from 0.2 to 0.5 per cent and the protein content is about one per cent. Mango is also considered to have medicinal properties. The ripe fruit is fattening, diuretic and laxative. It helps to increase digestive capacity and the brain power.” 😉

One achy week, I asked around for a recommendation for a massage. I have been fascinated with the idea of an ayurvedic massage — of hot oil infused with herbs that are purported to heal you inside out — since my mother tried to get her bum thumb cured 😉 Tripti recommended the Sivananda Center, an ashram for yoga and meditation that also offers Kerala massage. On Saturday, right after a very delayed lunch (I don’t recommend this schedule if you get a massage) I went to East of Kailash and was then stripped and put in a langoti (for lack of a better word) and massaged down with hot, hot oil on this bizarre, slippery table that you see. (I snuck a photo when she left me to change back into my clothes). Afterward, I was shut into the little cupboard with the holes you see on the left that is attached to a pressure cooker (Yes. Really. Look!) and with my head sticking out and the rest of me inside the cupboard, I was steamed till I thought my internal organs were nearly cooked. Then I took a shower in the adjoining bathroom.

The massage left me somnabulating, and dying for a nap. It was relaxing but it hadn’t done much for the stiffness in my hip and my shoulders. But then, not much does …