First Practice, July 1, 2008

July 1, 2008

Woke up at 3AM. Wide awake and too excited and nervous to sleep. My alarm rang at 5 and I had a quick shower. I have the only tub in the house and one of the few tubs in Mysore, apparently. Not that I’d want to actually bathe in said tub, it’s pretty dingy. The downside is no shower. :( Well, that’s not quite true. There is a shower hose, just no curtain and you have to hold the hose yourself. But it gets better. Every other day or so you have to fill the tank above the house with water by flipping a switch. You know it’s filled when it starts to overflow. If you catch it on time it only starts to run on the roof. If it goes on for much longer it starts to flood the driveway. Efficient system. :)

To heat the water for the house you have to flip the switch in my bathroom. I’m lucky because I’m close to the tank I get hot water right away and I can go 2 days without turning it on. The girls downstairs use a big, common shower and it takes forever for them to get hot water. Peter and Jude never get hot water and use a bucket system where they fill a big clay pot with water and heat it with a big metal prong. Once hut they sit on the toilet and throw buckets of water on themselves. Jude swears by it, but I prefer my shower, no matter how rudimentary it is.

After my shower I joined Jude for a pre-practice meditation and warm-up. Jude regularly does an hour of warm up poses before her 2 hours of yoga. Great idea when you have the time; which I do now so I joined her. Made all the difference in opening my hips. Wonderful!!!

A few minutes before 7 we wandered down to the shala and, to our surprise were able to walk right in. They have a system in Mysore where they start a class at 5AM and unless you’re given that as a start time you show up at your designated time, wait for someone to leave and the yell, “one more” and quickly point to a place. Sometimes the mats are so close that you’re not sure where they are pointing to. Mat real estate is pretty dear in Mysore. But, not a problem. There were places available when we started.

I was so overwhelmed by actually being in Mysore that all I could think of during the sun salutations was, “Oh my God, I’m actually in Mysore!” I sailed through those, probably too fast and couldn’t focus. Then I settled down and had an amazing practice!

Guruji is getting too old to teach regularly and Sharath, his grandson and successor is at a yoga conference in Hong Kong until the 8th so Saraswati is handling the whole class until then. She, herself is in her late 60’s (Guruji turns 93 in 2 weeks) and it’s a big job, but she has an eagle eye and doesn’t miss a thing!

I sweat like I’ve not sweat since practicing in Austin during August and was able to come out of Bhuja Pindasana for the 2nd time without putting my feet back on the floor (the first time was in Thailand). I also went into Setu Bandhanasana for the first time ever as I felt that my neck was strong enough to support it. Peter has since advised me against doing this so I’m now doing an assisted version keeping my hands on the floor next to my neck.  I also did Mathsyasana and Uttana Padasana for the first time ever.  First time my core muscles were strong enough to handle it.

Peter and I did breakfast again at Tina’s and I had a repeat of what I had the day before. Lunch was at the other Tina’s (one only does breakfast and the other lunch / dinner). Pretty unsatisfying.

We ended up going into the city for Jude to get another cell phone as hers seemed to be broken. She wanted to show me her favourite silk place. Boy was that a mistake. I spent way too much money on custom made pants (2 pairs), a skirt, a linen jacket, two silk jackets and three cotton shirts. All mix and match though and cheap, cheap cheap compared to other prices. We had a great time. They served us Chai (almost as good as Jude’s) and showed us every piece of silk in the place. It was a bit overwhelming, but oh so beautiful!!!

Our rickshaw ride back...let me digress as I don’t think I’ve property explained rickshaws. Rickshaws are open air, three wheeled vehicles where the driver sits on one seat in the middle in front and the passengers (three easily, four at a stretch, but I’ve seen many more than that) sit in the back and hang on for dear life. No seat belts, flat bench seat. You have to convince them to turn the meter on for westerners. They will say, “No Madam, my prices are very reasonable.” Don’t you believe them. Be insistent on meter usage or once you get to know distances negotiate a price ahead of time.

Anyway, after 6:30 the place comes alive. Everyone shuts down in the afternoon to sleep and avoid the heat but shops and Doctors (more on that later) open back up between 4 and 6 and go quite late. Because of all the activity the pollution get really, really bad. Jude and I had to cover our faces with scarves. CRAZY.