The best diet ever!

Sometimes you hear famous last words and you always laugh a little to yourself, shake your head, and say, "famous last words", as if they don't, or won't apply to you. At India Song House Monday night, I sat next to a friend, who most definitely noticed my drop in weight and pale pale skin. She had done a castor oil bath the day before, which had completely destroyed her will to eat, so we shared a common bond. I was under the impression that well, if you couldn't vomit the water, you'd pee it out eventually. Another friend had confirmed this, adding that you should chase the salt water with 1.5 liters of regular water and you'd be peeing your little heart out, feeling right as rain. However, this friend said that she heard that yes, it goes right through you, but not the way you want. Hmm.

Famous last words. Never before have I experienced such incredible misery. I have almost gotten used to it. Despite all my resistance, I have decided to see a doctor and an astrologer. I think between the two, they'll be able to sort me out. That's if I can be bothered to leave the house, of course.

I've moved again.

Right next to the shala. Beautiful house. Big, clean, wireless internet, tv, dvd, a maid, someone to do my laundry, someone to do my dishes. I will never leave.

Sometimes people really surprise you. I was so afraid I might shit my pants in practice today in a very real way. Before putting down my mat, i went into the office to talk to Sharath. I think a lot of people feel like you're not supposed to talk to him, but I feel like he's my teacher, so why not? So I told him that I was feeling sick and didn't know what practice would be like today. he said to just do what I can. He really responded in such a compassionate way, that I was taken aback a little. i feel like he really is watching us, that he really does care, that there is so much more there that we'll never know because there are just so many people here.

On Monday, I saw Guruji stand up from his throne on the stage, walk toward the men's room and instead of going in, he leaned on the door so that he could assist someone in suptavajrasana! (Just like in this picture, but imagine Guruji instead of Sharath). Today, he did the same thing, and I heard later that he adjusted other people as well and tried to assist someone in back bends, but they wouldn't let him. (click here for more on this morning). Sometimes people really surprise you.

Many people are leaving, or have left. I heard tina's had like 3 people there this morning. There are lots of extra spaces in the Shala, and there is virtually no wait time at the door. Loads of houses have opened up, and its getting very quiet and a little sad as many of the 'long timers' begin to make their travel arrangements, take more photos, and begin to say goodbye. I'm looking forward to Saraswati's classes. I wonder how many people will stick around. I know for sure there will be at least 4 of us!

Happy Birthday John!

PS-I heard from a reliable source that Sharath also is a fan of the Gobi Manchurian! (see pic above).

Alex on the best diet ever:

tap water. you have one spoon in the morning, one at night, and before you know it--thin as a rail!

Between my diarrhea and her vomiting, I'd say we are the poster children for parasite-related weight loss...

Week 3 and 1/2: Getting Settled

I got an apartment! I really like the place. It is maybe a 5 minute walk from the Shala, as well as a lot of different groups of friends. It is in a big, well run building with a reputable landlord. It is all the way on the roof! The apartment is actually a (literal) one room studio with small kitchen area and bathroom (western). Apparently there is hot water on demand, and did I mention that it is on the roof with a killer view? A huge roof, mind you. I've got the place until September 14th, and after that who knows? I'm glad I found a place. I'm sure Alex is as well. I think I'll go buy her some chocolate.

Lunch at Rishi's again today. I love eating here. Rajini (the owner) cooks meals out of her house. So you just walk in and tell her you're hungry and she gives you what she thinks you should eat. It feels a lot like visiting a grandma. They always know best. But she also keeps track of my eating habits. Like, "you barely finished your food yesterday, I won't give too much spicy today. Better the cold salad and lots of chapatis." She also has a small Internet area with 4 computers. Its a bit less expensive here than Anu's.

Anu
Lunch/dinner buffet 100rs
Internet 20 rs/hour
phone 5 rs/minute

Rishi
Lunch/dinner (family style) 70 rs
Internet 15 rs/hour
phone 4 rs/minute

It doesn't seem like a lot, but it can be easy to spend a lot of money around here buying lots of little things all day long.

Practice was good today. Not as powerful as yesterday, but deeper. I go into the breathing in a really heavy way. After, I went to breakfast at Shakti to wish Stina fair well. She's had enough of Mysore for now. She's fairly new to yoga and came just for the experience. On one hand it can drive you crazy listening and seeing 100% yoga all the time, the lack of structure to the days, the endless discussions on what time is the best to eat in order to take a good shit before practice. On the other hand, it is absolutely inspiring to see the dedication and the practice.

Once I was talking to my cousin about how I did a lot of yoga, to which he replied, "I did a couple of poses once, but is so self-centered." I was so busy thinking about myself that I didn't even notice that before. He's so right though. For most people it seems that you cultivate an inner garden and then after it blooms, you take the flowers out. How nice to simply pack flowers in. I think that we get flowers all the time, but to really understand how special they are, we have to grow them ourselves.

Stina is always very concerned about me being in India. She says, "are you sure you're going to stay? You are going to have a very hard time." As much as it may seem that India and I don't mix, I feel like this place is only for me. It can be like a Disney World for yoga students. You can sit on the floor everywhere you go. Sometimes you can even recline. Everyone takes their shoes off at the door. You get to eat with your hands. Everything is super cheap. You can take classes in anything you want. Ayurveda. Chanting. Yoga books. Indian music. You can talk to anyone for hours and hours about yoga. You can meet people that don't say a thing about yoga but will change your life. Scooters are fun. Animals are everywhere. I get to live in my own private oasis.

Student rule regarding the reception of poses #248
Sharath only gives poses on Mondays and Wednesdays.

*shrug*

Always on the prowl for downloads:
Sun salutes and standing:
http://www.tevenei.com/yoga/img/astanga_A_1.jpg

Primary series and finishing:
http://www.tevenei.com/yoga/img/astanga_B_1.jpg

And of course, the post would not be complete without an image of a pose. This is from Advanced Series. Check out more stuff from www.absolutelyashtanga.com

Sugar high

Jaggery. Honey. Sweets. Chocolate. Chai. Sugar. Sweet drinks. Jams. Lassi. Sweet milks. Sesame brittles. Candies. Cakes.

I met a girl on Chamundi Hill who was in Mysore studying the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in India. I'm wondering how long it would take me to get to that point and also how long it will take for yesterday's sugar fog to wear off. This morning I told myself I would think savory for breakfast. I had a fenugreek roti with spinach and tomato chutney at Tina's with a fruit salad and ginger mint tea. They also brought me honey for my tea, and like the strong yoga student that I am I said "no, thanks!" (I was probably rocking back and forth in the corner when I said it.) Miraculously, I lived. Take that sugar! I've managed to overcome the physical pressure for sugar, and also that of habit. Then next challenge: sugar peer pressure. Will I be able to withstand? Check back tomorrow...

Practice Update:
Here I am at week 3. I haven't gained any poses since I've been here, but I haven't lost any from primary either. I've heard that in the first month, they (they being Sharath and guruji) like to watch you. The second month, they like to break you. The third month, they put you back together again. Alex's version of this is: the first month, you feel fat and fart a lot, the second month you look skinny and strong. Okay. It was hard to stay focused today in practice. I was right next to the men's dressing room and so there was a constant flow of people walking around my mat. I tried not to notice people getting new poses around me and the rise of jealousy as their heels came to the ground in pasasana. For me it seems like the first month will be trying to get comfortable practicing in the space. The second will be maintaining that feeling. The third will be gone in a second.

I had back bends again with Sharath. He really finds my turned out feet in ankle grabbing very funny. I wish I knew why.

Real Estate Survival Course: The emotional, angry, homesick, baby-boo post

Last night I slept from 7pm to 7am this morning. I was still tired when I woke up and my face was puffy from all the mosquito bites. I tried to get a cup of water from my water jug (everyone rents a water jug to put in their room with filtered water). I was pleasantly greeted with a broken tap that I had failed to notice the night before. Fabulous. I got ready in a hurry for our day trip (Elissa, Miriam, and I) to Bylakupee Monastery. The whole trip cost 1500 rupees (divided by 3) plus food. More on the trip later.

Mostly I felt horrible. My stomach feels heavy. I've been eating a bit of dairy, sugar, and gluten, all of which I don't ever have at home and I think it is catching up to me. When we got back, I went to pick up my cellphone after 3 days of the cell guy telling me to "come back tomorrow, come back tomorrow." When in the meantime, they probably called all their family members in the states. Luckily it was there and now I have a plan. Then off to the tailors to pick up my shirts. They came out very nice, or maybe I just wanted to go home. Last stop was to Krishna Murthy to get my water replaced and to tell him how unhappy I was with my living situation. When I went with him to see the place everyone told me that it would be cleaned and ready for me by the time I moved in that night. It wasn't. It took like 3 days to convince them to clean the toilet. There are no window coverings, I'm being eaten alive by mosquitoes, there are ants in the cabinet, and I'm convinced that someone is using my toilet. Today when I got home the toilet seat was up. Anyone who knows me knows how crazy I get about the lid up, no less the entire seat. Why on earth would I do that? I opened the bedroom to let Murthy in to change the water, only to find that the whole room was flooded because the water tank had leaked all day. When I asked the landlady for cleaning supplies, she went into my bathroom to get my bathing buckets to clean the floor! I can only assume that this same philosophy was applied for cleaning my toilet. In all probability, i have been taking bucket showers with the same bucket used to clean my toilet! !#^&**!%%!!!

Part of me wants to scream, cry, go home, crawl under a bed. But what can I do? I cleaned up the floor, went to the store for homemade chocolate, and tried to call "B", who didn't answer.

This girl Rachel told Elissa that coming to Mysore you can't reach for things like you can at home, instead you have to reach for yourself.

Universal Real Estate Tips:

1. Don't hand over the money until the space is EXACTLY how you want it to be.

2. See tip number 1

3. See tip number 1

4. See tip number 1

5. Don't under any circumstances hand over money until the said space is EXACTLY how you would like to live in it!

Sleep

A full night's sleep at last. I moved into the new room yesterday, and after looking around realized that I could have probably done better. I imagine it was a lot like meeting someone somewhere dark, and they appeared incredibly attractive. Then, you met some other day in the light and...

(This picture is from yogapath.info)

I really did not expect to sleep at all. I was actually kind of grossed out. There were ants in the cabinets where I was supposed to put my clothes, which would not have been a problem if I had hangers on which to hang my clothes. There was no way I was going to fold my clothes and put them in there only to get eaten by ants. So I did the only logical thing. I took every clothing item and hung them on the windows, thereby killing two birds with one stone. (The other bird was the lack of window coverings. Not so good when your windows face the street.) Last night, I hung out in Elisa's room (another yoga student staying upstairs). She got in a couple of days after me, so we both could relate on the jet lag thing. People around here say it takes about a week to get over it. No one really says what the symptoms are, but apparently I must have had it.

Anyway, we tried desperately to keep each other awake until 10pm, thinking that maybe that would help us wake up at 6am instead of 1, 2, 3, or 4am, like on other nights. She told me about her day and the things that she's seen. I mumbled things back with my eyes slowly closing. She mentioned something about a cockroach falling on her head wall she was sleeping a couple of nights ago. (Our rooms don't have mosquito nets over the beds.) Her room is cleaner and nicer than mine. Not very confidence-inspiring. And then, I saw a lizard crawling on the wall. Elisa jumped up and was screaming, I tried to catch it but it was too fast. I thought it went out the window, so we closed the window and she pounded the curtains with some large metal object that was just lying around.

We made it to 10pm and said goodnight. I sulked down to the maid's quarters, took a deep breath, and slid into the sheets. They were damp. Lovely. I could hear Elisa screaming upstairs. I think the lizard came back.

I like to take a hot shower in the morning before practice. I woke up this morning at 6am, went to the bathroom and turned on the water heater and waited. I turned on the water and started to fill up the bucket. No hot water. I waited for a while and came to accept that this morning's shower would be cold, and I wouldn't enjoy it.

Practice was uneventful. I got no adjustments, except back bends with Saraswati (who gives very a very one-of-a-kind drop back). Ankle grabbing was fine and I skipped finishing postures. Tomorrow is the led class and I'll be doing finishing postures. I hope I can hide in the back, I don't want to get picked on in headstand again!

I saw Guruji yesterday. Alex had to pay her Shala fees and I went with her. While we were there we went to the Shala "store", which is less of a store and more of a storeroom. They have AYRI bocks, shirts, posters, and T-shirts with Guruji's face airbrushed on them. On the way out, you have to walk through the practice area. I peeked into the office and saw Guruji. Things are changing.

Today was harmonium hunting...

The Ladies' Holiday

I woke up this morning to a marvelous surprise--the crimson tide. What luck. All yoga traditions and many different cultures have their own policies with how to deal with the leaking woman. Among Ashtanga practitioners, you are supposed to take a certain number of days off per month. You take 3 days off for your period, everyone takes off Saturdays or Sundays (depending on whether you are practicing with Sharath or Saraswati), and everyone takes off moondays (days of the full or new moon). I've heard a few different theories about this.

1. A friend from New York told me that she never honors the 3 day vacation because she said the reason was Guruji and co. who are brahmins considered it "unclean". I'd believe this because it wouldn't be the first time I heard a culture with that sort of view... read more

2. Another theory is that you want things to go down and out and not in and up. In ashtanga practice there is a lot of in and up.

3. Sometimes you just need a break. You're tired, achy, your balance sucks. Who wants to do a headstand?

Anyway, I went to watch practice at the time I was assigned to practice (7:15am). I was up at like 2am, so I could have made it to the 5am to watch, but decided that Sharath might be like "Why are you here early?" Like I was getting to big for my britches. So I went at 7:15am. There is a little waiting room/mud room when you first walk in and all the students waiting to practice sit on the floor in there and watch people practicing. All you can hear is people breathing and the occasional "next!" or "next 7o'clock", or "you, come!". Finally there was no one left and Sharath came to the door and said "you, come!". I said "I'm not practicing today". To which he replied, "ladies' holiday?" I said "yes". He said " come back tomorrow". Now I don't think he meant come watch tomorrow because he seemed pretty perplexed that I was there. I guess the unclean theory isn't true.

Yesterday I packed my bag and moved out of the b&b, confident that I would find a place to cover the next two weeks. On August 1st, I'll be moving into Shelli's room which is in Saraswati's house. Its so crazy! Saraswati is Guruji's daughter and she teaches with them at the Shala. She had her own classes in said house until Guruji got sick. Now she only teaches at the main shala and so the house is filled with yoga students "in residence". I walked around the other day and you can hang out in the practice room whenever you want and all her pictures and stuff of the family are on the wall. So weird. This house is directly and I mean directly across the street from the Shala. I think (not counting the stairs), it would take maybe 7 paces. (I found this pic on the net.)

I dropped my bag at Alex's and went to meet up again with Murthy. He's the "needs" guy for AYRI. Basically you go to him with any needs you got and he helps you sort them out. I found a place maybe 4 blocks from the shala to hold me over until Aug 1. It will cost 3000rs which is about $75 for 2 weeks. Its not bad, not the greatest, but not dirty which is good. For those of you that can recall my Washington Ave apartment, you'll have an idea of what I'll be dealing with. The perks: its got mosquito netting on the windows, bedding, a lock on the door, a fan, a private bathroom, a western toilet. The cons: bucket shower, old smelling.

Yesterday I did this crazy "chakra breathing" meditation with this guy that the local students swear by. It was interesting, weird, and I felt like I huffed some nitrous for about 15 minutes afterwards.

This morning I tried to wash my hair with the bucket shower. Eh. Besides the fun feeling of being a baby in the sink, there's the ick feeling of standing in a flooded locker room.

Super cool things about India: easy and cheap to rent a scooter (but I have a wicked burn on my leg from the exhaust pipe). super cool and cheap clothing.