India 2006
The Gokulam Flat

Disclaimer: Some of these pictures were taken in 2005 but since I am staying in the same flat, I didn't think anyone would mind. I've indicated where changes have been made, so you can see and feel the difference yourself.

The front of the flat. From a distance, it looks like a marble spaceship with two multicolored smokestacks. The architecture throughout this neighborhood (and most of Mysore) is bizarre. I plan to take pictures of it and add it to the site.

2005                 2006               2006
Here is the view of the living room taken from the front door. The floor throughout the entire flat is marble -- it gets awfully slippery when you walk with wet feet. Since I was last here, the wiley landlord, Mr. Bhat, bought furniture and a refrigerator. I didn't know I could request household items, so this time I requested he hook up the internet. I am still waiting to see if it happens. He's like Don Knott's character from the t.v. show, Three's Company.

View from living room, looking out to the balcony. One bedroom is located on the right wall and two more bedrooms are located on the hallway. My bedroom is on the right side of the hallway. Please notice the paint-job.

The cow inspired display on the living room ceiling. I actually used the living room more last year when you had to sit on the floor. This year, I just sit a lot on the balcony floor.

The gothic cathedral-spaceship inspired window in my bedroom. .

My bed and the bedroom windows. The book on the floor is called the Ramayana. It's the story of Rama, an incarnation (or avatar) of the Lord Vishnu (one of the three Major Hindu gods. The other two are Brahma and Shiva. One of the interesting things about Hindu mythology is that there are thousands of Hindu gods, but all of them are really the three main gods, which are really the same one). In the Ramayana, Rama, his consort Sita, and Rama's brother, Lakshmana, were banished to live in the forest for 10 years. During their stay in the forest, Sita was captured by a powerful demon-god named Ravana. He held Sita until Rama, aided by the monkey-human Hanuman and hundreds of thousands of other monkeys and birds, attacked Ravana's island. Ravana was defeated and to prove her loyalty and chastity to Rama, Sita threw herself into a fire. Thus proving that without a doubt, she was innocent of any wrongdoing while she stayed with Ravana.

A view from my bed, looking out the door. The door outside the door opens to the balcony.

Here's the kitchen and the stove. Don't worry, I recently put the propane tank outside the window in case of any leaks.

And the squat closet. I actually prefer the squat toilet. It's good for the knees and the lower back. You can't really read (or move) inside the squat closet but for most other purposes (i.e., the purposes toilets were designed to accommodate) it's much better than a western style toilet. I priced these gems last year and I might just buy one this time around and install it in the Oleander house (but shhhhh, please don't tell Karen, it's going to be a Christmas present).

The shower closet is a nice place to squat too because the shower is actually a bucket bath (the hose-like shower head device wrapped around the faucets serves purely as a tease factor -- it doesn't work). The luxurious bucket  bath consists of filling the bucket with water and then using the smaller bucket to pour it over your body and head. The marble floors not only challenge your stability, ability to squat for long periods, and core strength but they also provide a cool surface for those brisk 4am showers.

Here's the no fuss sink area with lots of room for a mirror. Unfortunately, the walls are concrete so it's pretty difficult to hang anything around here. The shower closet is the first left (the dark space on the left) and the squat closet is the second left (directly to the left of the sink)

The outside of the house and more marble.

And, the steps leading to the flat.

And the second set of steps. The door on the left is the front door of the flat. The steps then ascend to the roof.  If you haven't noticed, the entire outside and about 80 percent of the inside of the house is made of marble. There is no air conditioning and no heating because the temperature in Mysore doesn't change much. It's a semi-tropical climate with three seasons: Monsoon, Winter, and Summer.