2nd Practice, 1st Trip to Doctor, July 2, 2008

July 2, 2008

Same routine as the day before; up at 5AM (well 2:30 in my case...again couldn’t sleep), morning meditation and pre-practice warm up and at the shala before 7.

This morning’s practice rocked!!!! I was just starting my seated poses and Saraswati came up to me pointed her finger and said, “You need help you ask!”. “Thank you I will,” I replied and ask I did. She got me into Supta Kurmasana, (which I can do if the teacher brings my arms together behind my back so that I can grasp my fingers). What I didn’t plan on was her putting (forcing really) my arms between my legs in Gaba Pindansana. I’d never done that before (fat thighs) and it was bloody hard. I can get one and not the other. Even with spraying myself down with the water bottle I could only get it part of the way. She was adjusting someone else and kept saying, “keep pushing, keep pushing,” but I was getting exhausted!!! Finally she came over and yanked me through and then spun me around a few times and told me to go up into Kukkutasana, which I did for a breath or two and then collapsed laughing. The good news is so was she!

If you can believe it I sweat even more than I had the day before and just felt great.

We went for Pongol (rice and dal / lentils) and dosas (fermented rice and another type of Dal that apparently has more protein than meat) made into a pancake. I had no appetite at all! That should have tipped me off that something was wrong, but being in India and doing this intense practice I just chalked it up to that. After breakfast I braved my first rickshaw ride by myself and met Jude and Peter at Jame’s house.

James is a friend of theirs that they met one time when they came and lived across the street from him. He’s British, from an aristocratic family, and came to India when he was 21, over 30 years ago to study meditation. He never left. I met him last December when he was in NZ. He sold some land in the UK and had to stay away from India for a year to avoid paying taxes on the very considerable gain. He spent 4 months in Canada, 4 months somewhere I can’t remember and 4 months in NZ. He’s a fascinating man and knows more about American politics (and loves talking about same) than I do. Anyway, we stopped by so I could say hello and he started warning me to watch what I ate and drank and started describing the symptoms I could get if I ate and drank the wrong thing. Little did he know that I had just started to feel those symptoms! Nausea, diarrhea, fever...they all hit the hour I spent talking to he and his wife Sandhya. I came home and went straight to bed. Well actually the couch. I slept for most of the day.

Joseph came over and suggested I see Dr. Kumar, the local Ayurvedic doctor. He made the appointment and called the rickshaw driver. Peter accompanied me. Dr. Kumar is wonderful. Lovely man with clear eyes and great energy. He took my pulse, looked at my tongue, asked me questions about my symptoms, gave me two kinds of pills and sent me off with a prescription for another kind of pills and some sickeningly sweet kind of liquid. He said I should start feeling better the next day.

I spent the night on two sets of cushions on the living room floor in case I needed to get help fast. It was actually a really good night’s sleep and I woke up the next day feeling much, much better.