I’ve been reminiscing lately as I go through old photos that I have on my computer from travels I’ve made before moving to Charleston, SC. Today’s feature… India! Actually, I think I was inspired to look at these photos after finding Seshu‘s mother-in-law’s recipe for Masala Chai on his website, tiffinbox.org. It sounds delicious!!!

I’ve traveled to India twice. The first time I was there for a month and attended the Maha Kumbh Mela festival, one of the largest gatherings of humanity ever. It was overwhelming an experience of a lifetime. The second time I visited India was in the interim between spending a year living and studying yoga in Australia and moving to Charleston.

This is one of my all time favorite photos from India. In fact, it is currently on display in the new studio. It makes me smile as I remember the family clamoring together for a photograph and they were so excited about it.

Kerala is an anomaly in India. this state has an incredibly high literacy rate, a wealth of Christians, freely elected Communism at times and is home to India’s only synagogue. Salman Rushdie’s book, Midnight’s Children, takes place here.

This sadhu performs religious sacrifices to his own body in exchange for alms. He lies on a bed of thorns and has limes sewn to his body. Ouch.

Ah, to explore the labyrinth of Varanasi again….

The Maha Kumbh Mela is a massive Hindu event held on an auspicious date every 12 years. On certain dates, bathing in the confluence of the Jamuna, Saraswati and Ganges river will cleans your karma and restore you to a clean slate. This is looking down on the crowd of 12+ million on the main bathing date.

Here’s the recipe for Masala Chai from Seshu’s, tiffinbox.org

(This recipe is copied and pasted directly from his blog)

My mother-in-law, Saraswathi, is visiting us over the weekend. So I asked her to write down her recipe to make two cups of masala chai.

Ingredients:

2 cups of Water
1 cup of either 1% or 2% milk
2 table spoons of loose or Powdered tea leaves (Darjeeling/Assam/Sri Lankan work)
1/4 table spoon of ginger or ginger powder
1/4 table spoon of black pepper
2 small sticks of cardamom
Sugar (to taste)

Boil 2 cups of water with one cup of milk
Add 2 table spoons of the tea leaves
Add the ginger, the black pepper and cardamom
Boil & Stir for 10 minutes (the tea should turn to a shade of rusty brown)
Pour the tea into a vessel using a strainer

Put the remaining tea leaves in a vessel, add a little water and boil again. Go ahead and strain this as well and add it to the original mix (this makes it nice and strong).

Sweeten your cup up to taste and enjoy!