February 19, 2025 - Colombo
For administrative reasons, I left India a month ago to visit Sri Lanka. Straddling Western and Indian customs, here cows do not roam freely on the roads, trash bins are in use, sidewalks exist just like washing machines, and temples have set the sound system volume to a reasonable level. These are appreciable improvements for the tourists who are very present on the island of Ceylon, whose capital, Colombo, promises exotic flavors.
That said, the island has retained some essential folkloric specifics such as its countless stupas, its gigantic Buddha statues, and its tuk-tuk bakers who announce themselves with Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’ played on a synthesizer. There is also the famous Paan, a preparation made from areca nuts, tobacco, and snail shells that is chewed for its euphoric properties. It stains their teeth and gums bright red, so Sri Lankans do not laugh yellow but red.
I mainly spent time on the paradisiacal beaches of the southwest where one can see the sun rise and set over the Indian Ocean, and where fruits like mangoes, jackfruit, and durian are abundant. I walked and cycled through these coastal areas where wild dogs come to be petted and where one can swim with colorful fish and turtles.
In parallel, I deepen my meditation and yoga practice for 4 hours a day. Recently, I took the online course ‘Inner Engineering’ by Sadhguru, which is a prerequisite for the transmission of a public yogic practice called ‘Shambavi’ that includes asanas, pranayamas, bandhas, and mantras. In the theoretical part, we find the basic teachings of the miracle course, positive thinking, the power of the present moment, and compassion, Vipassana, the law of attraction, etc. The remarkable originality is that it is the only spiritual personality (to my knowledge) to introduce a part on nutrition and health that aligns with hygiene.
A few words in honor of Jackfruit:
Appearing in Asia during the time of the dinosaurs, jackfruit is the largest edible fruit in the world. It can measure up to 90 cm long and weigh 40 kg. It is now cultivated in most tropical regions for its nutritional qualities and strong, sweet flavors that delight enthusiasts. It can be found quite easily in markets where it is most often sold chopped before ripening. It is then generally consumed cooked in the form of achar or as a meat substitute. For this reason, it is nicknamed the ‘poor man’s fruit.’ With a bit of luck, one can find a few that have escaped the machete and had time to ripen. At the price of 40 cents per kilo, the poor man’s fruit obliges, I eat to my heart’s content of this delicious fruit that is so nourishing it feels like eating appetizer-main course-dessert! Also nicknamed ‘miracle fruit,’ it is said to be very rich in antioxidants, vitamins, etc., but that’s just talk. What matters is eating the fruits you love because those are the ones you need; besides, all fruits (and vegetables) contain plenty of very interesting phytoactive substances for the body, no need to chase after them. Another peculiarity of jackfruit hides under its spiky skin that resembles a dinosaur’s skin. The jack tree produces a very sticky latex that ends up on fingers, mouth, knife, and it’s a real hassle to get it off (last time I shaved my beard to get rid of it). It was last year in Réunion at @vivreaunaturelreunion that I was shown the trick of using oil (any kind) to remove the latex in a snap. I recount this anecdote because it illustrates an interesting chemical property of glues, namely that they are not soluble in water but in oil. And it is precisely for this reason that oils (like castor or olive oil) are used to clean the body of its glues. To learn more about glues that you are not taught in school, read this article on starches.
