July 6, 2008

Pics: Yoga Shala and Pattabhi Jois' family's house, Coconut Stand (great electrolytes), Rickshaw Drivers, Peter and Jude at Nalpak.

Lazy day today. Did the led practice at 6:15 and the energy was really heavy. It felt like we were swimming through jelly. Jude and Peter had breakfast plans with an Indian family they know so I was on my own. Tried Santosha's for the first time. Really good. I had been craving eggs and had an omelette and a piece of toast with hummus, tomato and cucumber on it. Felt nice and healthy. Met some new people; an anti trust lawyer from Sweden named Eva, an actuary from the states but living in Ireland named Kelly and another American who lives here now named John. I think he just does yoga.

Came back and took a nap and went to Nalpak for lunch with Peter and Jude. Walked back and took a few pics (my first in India). Tonight I plan to read until the inevitable power cut and then maybe watch a movie.

More Shopping, July 5, 2008

Goodness, I’m exhausted! Rest day today (Saturday). Met James for Pongol at Nalpak with Peter and Jude and then Jude and I went back to the Southern Star, she to pay her bill, me to buy more shawls (mostly for pressies, but couldn’t resist another for myself.) I also bought two table runners and a gorgeous silk rug.

After that we went to Fab India where they have ready to wear and I bought a couple of pairs of pants, a skirt and three tops.

Picked Peter up for lunch and they took me to Anu’s Bamboo Hut, right around the corner. GREAT food. Lots of fresh veggies and some really nice curry type stuff. Good roti’s too and I finished it off with both a mango smoothie AND banana custard. Mmmmmm.

I met this delightful couple named Alia and Bruno and their two sons, Darjeeling and (crap I can’t remember, it’s the Hawaiian word for ocean). Their French, met in the US and came here for her to study yoga and to raise their kids for awhile. Better place than New York. They’ve bought a breakfast cafe. He’s a surfer so they’re actually thinking about moving to Aussie or NZ. The best news is that they know of a chiropractor and gave me his number. I will call for an appointment.

After lunch I had a little adventure. I went back to Nalpak or rather the grocer next door to pick up some supplies for the house. Not only food but mossie repellent (they are eating me alive and carry Dengue fever so I’m a bit concerned about being bitten). I also got a torch (flashlight) so that I can see the money if I take a rickshaw back after dark (I couldn’t last time, God knows how much I ended giving him) and a spray bottle to contain filtered water so I can wash my face more easily. I decided to walk back (it’s only about 1/2 mile) but in the heat and dust very exhausting! On the way I saw a pretty skirt for about $7 and bought that and two tops for about $1 each. Super cheap!

Came home, washed the fruit and now I’m going to take a nap!

First Led Practice, July 4, 2008

Happy 4th of July! No one much cares here though. Up at 4AM (3:30 for me again) for meditation and pre-practice and then down to the shala by 5:45. Fridays and Sundays are led classes where they take you in two massive groups (latecomers had to be on stage or in the foyer). Saraswati counts you through the entire practice and everyone flows together. It was slower than I’d expected, but the counts weren’t at my own rhythm so it was a bit stressful. Plus the fact that I was still getting over food poisoning. I had a lot more energy than I’d expected. Unfortunately I seem to have tweeked my lower back.  At first I thought it was my sacrum, but I've since determined it's probably good ole L5, that I always have problems with.  This is on the other side than the one that normally bothers me.  I'll have to watch that.

Breakfast was at the Southern Star. This wonderful (felt like civilisation again) hotel that appears out of no where. Buffet was fairly typical western, with a few Indian dishes thrown in. We met John and Lucy Scott. John is a senior teacher most known for teaching Sting and Trudi Styler as well as Madonna. He’s a Kiwi that lived in London for years. He and Lucy have come back to NZ and have a shala in Nelson. I’ve taken two of John’s workshops before.

After Breakfast Jude introduced me to yet another shop where I bought two beautiful pashminas and some cushions for my bed.

Lazy afternoon talking to Isla and Bill and Tina, two friends of Jude and Peters. Bill is from NZ and met Tina here awhile back. She’s from Sweden and they both live there now.

I went down to the shala to register for a chanting class and a yoga sutra class and Jude and Peter went out for a light supper.

We were going to watch a movie tonight but the power went out (not unusual) and sat around talking. Came back on around 8:30 but we couldn’t get the DVD to work so I’m off to bed.

I’m feeling more comfortable getting around by myself and starting to recognise some landmarks. I can’t be outside of Joseph’s house for too long as it’s still a bit overwhelming. The traffic, the noise, the filth, people everywhere.

That and, since I’m not doing anything really I really feel the affects of the practice working on my nervous system. My nerves felt extremely jangly all afternoon. Jude’s advice: let the practice work and just go with it. New experience for me.

Happy Birthday, July 3, 2008

Happy birthday to me! Woke up feeling pretty good. Small breakfast brought back by Jude and Peter. It was a moon day (new) anyway so no practice. I spent the day talking to Jude. Had a wonderful conversation about all sorts of things. She’s so knowledgeable about all things India having been coming here for so long. Especially cooking. She’s a great cook and I’ve been pumping her for as much knowledge on Indian cuisine as I can.

Towards the end of the day we sat out on our front patio. Lovely space. Early to bed. Early practice tomorrow.

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.

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.

1st Day in Mysore, June 30, 2008

June 30, 2008

I woke up at 3:30 this morning. I thought it was 5:00. My travel alarm was set for Thai time and my alarm still set to wake me up for departure from Phuket. Hang on you say...why did it wake me up at 3:30 if the alarm was set for 5:00? Yes indeed, Mysore is in one of those crazy time zones that changes by the 1/2 hour and not a full hour so we’re an hour and a half behind Thailand.

Anyway, I didn’t cotton onto that fact until I lay awake for almost 2 hours waiting for the sun to rise and the household to wake up. It was lovely though, listening to the rain in the coconut palms and the blissful quiet.

No one actually got up until 7AM local time so I laid there for awhile too excited to sleep. My house mates include Peter and Jude, my friends and yoga teachers from NZ and two single women, Isla from the UK and Rachel from Houston (originally Connecticut). Both much younger than the three of us but lovely. Rachel had my room for the previous two months but I’d booked before she did so I booted her out of it.

My room is indeed on the roof. It’s not as nice in my opinion as Peter and Jude’s but it’s more private. I have coconut palms growing outside and I can see the whole neighborhood as ours is the tallest house in the neighborhood.

Rachel, Peter, Jude and I went to breakfast after Rachel’s practice. Tina’s kitchen. We had a wonderful fruit salad of the best mangos I’ve ever had along with papaya, banana and figs, fenugreek roti and a veggie omelette.

After breakfast Jude and I went shopping for fruit and veggies for our dinner (heavy breakfasts and lunches with barely any dinner is the routine here). I then did some laundry. The have two young girls here that come in to clean every day and they do laundry as well, but apparently in India they still beat the clothes against rocks so anything you don’t want pummeled to death you do yourself.

For lunch we went to Nalpak which is traditional Indian and apparently off the beaten track for most western yoga students. I can’t even tell you what we ate but it was delicious! Rice and some sort of unleavened break with a number of different sauces and soups.

At 4:30, excited as I could be, I walked down to the yoga shala (school) with Jude and paid my money to practice for the month. It was actually pretty uneventful. Guruji was in his office but was with someone. His daughter, Saraswati, was there and asked me if I’d sent in my form. I held my breath and said yes, in February. This is what I was afraid of; I’ve come all this way and they won’t have received my form. You send it via snail mail and they never acknowledge whether or not they’ve received it. For the last few days I’ve been coming up with different scenarios of what I could do now that I’m in India if I can’t practice. Peter and Jude told me it would be fine, that they’d vouch for me.

Lo and behold, not to worry, they didn’t even check. They just took my money (a big wad of rupees) filled out an ID card and off we went.

Fruit salad for dinner.