August 21, 2008

Feeling much better today. For the most part, this hasn't been the greatest of weeks. Bylakuppe (the Tibetan settlement) was so disappointing, followed by the Royal Walk. Two Indians came to speak with us at Alia's one day during breakfast last week and told us about this walk they have developed showing us "the unseen Mysore". They were so cute, software engineers, originally from Mysore, that now live in Bangalore. They wanted to create this walk to show off the city they are so proud of.

It was okay. The best part about it was seeing the Sanskrit College where Guruji taught and Jagn Mohan palace where he and Iyengar learned yoga from their guru, Krichnamacharia. The rest I could have lived without. I did learn some interesting things about Hinduism though. But after blylakuppe a morning in Mysore city dodging cows, their dung and listing to the noise did me in so much that I declared to everyone who would listen that, "I hate India!" The day really went downhill from there.

The other thing that's added to my malaise is the fact that the people that are here now are a very different vibe from the older students here around the birthday. The energy is very different. And, quite frankly most are pretty boring. I haven't had many interesting conversations since last week with either new or old people. Thank God for Christian and Eva, they are at least keeping me sane.

The bright spots of my week have been my practices...amazing to say the least. Like Christian said today, my base line practice exceeds my best practice ever at home! I'm going truly deep in forward bends and twists, back drops rock and my jump throughs and backs are even getting pretty good.

I also finished my TM class. I've kept up with my twice daily meditations even between the instruction days and I've really enjoyed them. I feel so peaceful and serene afterwards. It's the only meditation I've ever done that I've been able to stick to.

The other two things that have lifted my spirits include the fact that I remembered that I have a bunch of books on my iPod and have started to listen to them. Barbara Kinsolver, oh to write like her! That's made me feel more normal.

But, even more than that is the fact that I rented a scooter! I picked her up yesterday and rode here on roads without traffic for about 45 minutes. Traffic is chaos. There are no stop signs. You beep to signal that you are approaching a crossroad. You beep to signal that you are coming up behind someone, you generally beep to signal anything and everything. The only rule seems to be, if you see a gap go for it! It's like driving in Boston on steroids...except you don't have the luxury of a car around you...just a scooter. Luckily you can go faster than the rickshaws and there aren't that many cars on the road. The busses give me a bit of a fright though.

I didn't have a chance to ride today until late and by that time I'd almost talked myself into turning it back in...but I made myself get on it and ride. I felt confident enough to go down Contour Road along side of my neighborhood and then...up the main road, past the CRAZY traffic circle and up to the roadside helmet place. For $7 NZ I got a helmet that, according to Christian, makes me look like Schultz from Hogan's Hero's (EXACTLY the look I was going for!) I think I'll be confident enough to ride to town by Monday for chanting and philosophy class. It just gives me such a sense of freedom. It rocks!!!! It's also a real challenge to be able to ride in this craziness. It's chaos, but at least it's not aggressive chaos. Om Shanti.