Whats up with men wearing skirts? From Rob.

I am not talking about Indian men. It's true, in the south here some do wear kind of a sheet wrapped around sometimes like a long skirt, sometimes like a diaper, but whats with the western tourists doing it? I understand going to a place and trying to fit in, for example, not eating with your left hand, apologize if you touch someone's foot, be polite and chat with the locals--but wearing a skirt?

First off, only the labouring castes are the ones wearing them, to stay cool while they are working. Also because it doesn't cost much to tailor a sheet to fit. Basically one size fits all. The fact is actually many Indians can't understand why western tourists who come from rich countries dress like some of India's poorest. What are these hippies thinking? "I want to fit in, so I will dress like a bum."

As a side note, I can't understand uber yoga hippie logic anyway. When in Kharjuraho last week, I got up early, rented a bike a rode 15 minutes to a free yoga class. Glenn stayed in bed, but I figured, what the hell, its free after all. And of course, I thought it could be good for my back. The yoga class actually ended up being about yoga philosophy, meditation, etc. I stayed for nearly 2 and a half hours. There was the teacher guy, named Yogi Sharma, 4 other "students" including another skeptic like myself. I mostly just listened. I got a real kick out of people explaining how they "know" reincarnation exists and hearing them talk about memories from their past lives. It was great. I meant to get the yogi guy to read my aura, but I am sure it was red anyway. I left rather abruptly after comparing views on chemistry. His periodic table of elements consisted of earth, water, air and fire. Try as I might, I just could not wrap my head around it. I guess I need to meditate more. You can make yourself believe anything if you put your mind to it. But I tried to understand, I really did.

"So you are saying, if I have a glass of water--cold water, and I put it on a scale and weigh it, then I add fire to it and make it hot water it will weigh more then it did when it was cold??"

"Yes!"

"Alright! I have to go. Thank you very much!"

And I got up and left. That was my experience with those crazies. I came to ease my back pain, and instead came away more sore from sitting for so long. I guess if you can believe that there are only 4 elements, wearing a skirt in India might make sense. But I wonder, if they went to Scotland, would they wear a kilt? If in Africa would they run around in a loincloth, or wear a giant diaper in Japan?