Like learning how to fly

In the words of Paul from New York, "India is beautiful, horrible, inspiring, confounding, and amazing."

Last night, Alex, Nuno, David, La la (sp?), and I crammed in a rickshaw and went to the Mysore Palace (pictured) again. I didn't really feel like going. It wasn't the palace, I'm just usually not really into things like that (the Rockefeller Tree during Christmas in New York, Christmas lights on houses [unless it is really really good and I'm slightly intoxicated], top of the Empire State Building, etc.). I went anyway. I just had a lot of things on my mind. This time, it was a lot less of looking at a bunch of light balls sucking electricity on a bu idling, and a lot more like something bright to stare at and zone out into a trance like state. There has been a bit of that over the last weekend.

I haven't got a place to stay yet. I won't bore anyone with any of the details at the moment, but actually, I'm not as stressed out about it as I was before. Alex doesn't seem to hate me yet, we've worked out a good system for key exchange, I've come to peace with the feelings of uncertainty, and have embraced the thought that when a home is ready it will come. That said, this guy Brian gave me a couple of tips of houses he knew about, so when the rain stops, I'll go look. Finding an apartment feels a lot like speed dating.

I had the worst sleep last night. We forgot to turn on the mosquito repeller, and the entire night we had mosquitoes buzzing about. I was up at least every hour slapping my face and trying to pull the covers over me (sheets in India are never the right size). When it was time to officially wake up, it was okay that I hadn't slept. I was happy to go to practice. I felt refreshed, and a little wired on the idea of it.

My practice time is still 7am. I really think that is a good time, but everything we are doing is so intense and extreme that sometimes I feel like I want a super early time just for the challenge. A lot of people have left this week already. There were way less students than usual, but still there were many. In front of me was Gibran, to my right was little Nuno, behind me was big Nuno, and scattered around were other friends and acquaintances. It was really nice to be surrounded by all that energy. You see someone during the day. You see them interact, and walk, laugh, joke, and eat, and then you see them practice and its like they are possessed or in a trance or in a hypnotic state. It is amazing. So there I was practicing in the midst of all that. Really a good day of practice. Afterwards I felt so amped. When I did the teacher training with Mary Flinn, someone asked why she started practicing yoga. She said it was because it was the closest thing to learning how to fly.

Breakfast at Tina's again. I've decided the toast with spinach and tomato chutney with the banana,soy, peanut smoothie is the right combination. I'm going to try to eat more like a boy in a vegan way to see if it help me get stronger in practice. It is so funny the things people get obsessed with here!

Last night in the rickshaw back from the Palace, I rode with Fred the Swiss guy from Geneva. We were taking pictures of each other in the disco lighting that the driver had installed in his "pimped out" rickshaw. Very modern art. Anyway, he said that he was only staying for a month and that he thought that people start to go a little crazy here when they stay too long. Its not the first time I've heard that...

I'm going with Elena to Sanskrit and chanting with Jayashree again today. Elena is from Milano, Italy. She is here with her teenage son for an entire year! He is attending an international school, she is practicing yoga. She says that she wants him to have a greater experience of the world.

So how it works with Jayashree's classes is you can really drop in whenever you want. You pay either by the week or by the month. All payments are by donation. The chanting starts at 4:30 and ends around 6pm. This is Monday through Thursday. Before that form 3:30-4:30, she might hold special classes on demand. For instance, last month she broke up the sutras so that we could identify the different words in order to teach to our students back home. This month, the focus is learning basic Sanskrit. I'm not sure what we'll be doing. Maybe writing in Devanagari. maybe learning sounds. She has a very open and fluid way of teaching, it just like of happens organically.

In India, everyone has a puppy.

Yoga clothing and the 3 gunas

It has been 2 days since my last post, so I'll have to recap. Wednesday I practiced, read, ate, and went to chanting with Jayashree. Thursday I practiced, read, ate, and went to a cooking class with Tina. Life here is good!

Before chanting on Wednesday, I dropped Alex off at the hospital so she could get her nose pierced. (Everyone gets piercings done at the hospitals here. They also get a lot of dental work done as it is MUCH less expensive than in the states.) I couldn't stay with her as I had to meet Elena at the coconut stand (its always where people meet up, or the main landmark when it comes to giving directions), but apparently it was quite a show. We had spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon at the "Hotel Formerly Known As The Southern Star" (really, that's what the sign said) lying poolside and soaking up sun. I tried to read Harry Potter, but was quite distracted by the conversations around me and also the glare from the sun. The water was very very cold, but we had a lot of fun. It costs 200 for a day pass and they give you a towel. Its a pretty posh place. You can also get a monthly pass as well as nice looking salads, sandwiches, and french fries. When you spend a lot of time in the heat, your blood vessels dilate, and when you are cold, they constrict. The point? The nurse who did Alex's piercing was convinced she was an alcoholic because she bled so much! The piercing looks really nice though. Apparently you are supposed to get the left side pierced only. I tried asking several people about this, and I got something about it making you more fertile. Who knows?

I found out that at chanting we are actually practicing for a performance on Guruji's birthday. Someone mentioned that they weren't sure they wanted to do it because they heard that if we chanted incorrectly, he would someone was watching and would clap for me when I do something good. Instead, there is absolutely no recognition. In turn, my jump backs (I think) have gotten much better and everything feels a little deeper, a little stronger, and a little lighter. On Wednesday after At chanting, I found out that we are actually practicing for a performance we will give on Guruji'sdefinitely call us on it. (Guruji used to be a sanskrit scholar.) Jayashree explained that "Gurus are here to criticize us ... Even if he says 'you [Jayashree] have not done it properly' I will say 'thank you'". She continued, "if I say you are very good, you will not grow". This got me thinking about practice (although you could apply it to a lot of things) and how I've back tracked quite a bit in what I'm doing. Sometimes I wish someone was clapping for me every time I do something good, but in spite of this, I feel like my jump backs have gotten a lot lighter and my practice as a whole has gotten stronger and deeper. On Wednesday during back bends with Sharath he said "good". Its nice to know he probably meant it.

My Mysore time has been moved to 7am. Yesterday, I got there early, and still there were TONS of people waiting. Alex says its like that every Thursday. People are tired from the week and so are practicing a little slower. Well, there were people with 6:30 time slots still waiting to get in at 7:15. Its also really crowded for the birthday. It seems that a lot of people have come in for just a week and that still others are leaving right after the birthday. But maybe Alex is right about Thursdays. I felt really tired and heavy at first. I'm partially convinced that its just the pants I'm wearing. I'm sure I could argue that clothes can be tamasic because every time I saw my pant legs hanging about, I felt like I was just hanging about. These did, however, used to be called my favorite practice pants. But since I got the American Apparel leggings, I feel there is no comparison. The leggings are close fitting so you can see your bones, but also there is no extra fabric flapping about. I'm sure the fact that I'm hand washing the other doesn't help. i might see if Krishna tailor can shorten them a bit.

Back bends with Saraswati were a riot. I did 3 half way down and on the fourth went straight down to grab my ankles like I do with Sharath. But she was like "no no hands down walk in!" So I put my hands down to the floor and tried to walk in. I took my right hand to my right calf and was dangling there. She let go of my back with her arms so that she could help me grab my left calf with my left hand but without the support, I toppled over like a wheel onto my forearms and then she brought me back up to stand and "tried" to explain to me what she meant. I went back again, this time taking my hands to the floor. I walked my hands close to my heels then took my right hand to right calf. My other arm just hung there, she held me this time and reached for my left hand, instead, she grabbed my hair and gave it a tug (I think her had got a bit tangled). I yelped as she finally got my left hand and took it to my left calf. It was funny. Here is a video of Sharath doing drop backs. Enjoy!

At 1pm I had my cooking lesson at Tina's. It was like an interactive cooking show. She made Spinach dahl, stuffed eggplant, and chapathis. Here is how you make the eggplants. It is super super easy and SO SO good!

Super Tasty Stuffed Eggplants Tina Style
Get some fresh ginger and fresh garlic. It has to be organic. Put it in the blender and blend. You now have ginger garlic paste. This will keep in the fridge for 3 months! You might also be able to get this at the supermarket.

Now get yourself some eggplants. They have to be skinny and long. Preferably they are small (like only a couple of bites long), or you will chop them later. And obviously, they should also be organic.

Take a knife and slice open the eggplant lengthwise, but keep the stem on. Do this to all your eggplants.

Now take your fingers and glob some of that ginger garlic paste inside it and smoosh the 2 sides together. Its okay if the paste squishes out.

Heat some sunflower or safflower oil in a pan. NOT OLIVE OIL. This is Indian cooking!

Throw your eggplants in the pan. You want this to be medium to low heat. Cover them and everyone and a while toss the pan a bit so they get cooked all over. It is important that the heat is low and that it is covered as this will ensure that they get cooked all the way though, not just charred on the outside.

When you are able to squish into the eggplant easily with a spoon, they are ready. You can either serve them hot, or room temp. They are like super delicious and tasty roasted peppers Italian style. This is fast and you will love them!

This morning I was dreading the led class at 6:15. Headstand. When Elissa and I got there, I was tired and moody and a bit miffed that we had to wait outside because there were so many people. We could hear Sharath counting inside and it sounded like a hard class because he went more than 15 minutes over and they had what seemed like a 30 second Savasana. When those students started filling out, we started moving in. I claimed a pot front and center and hoped for the best. We seemed to be waiting a little longer than usual, and when I saw Saraswati escorting Guruji to the stage, we all could see why.

It was a nice surprise that Guruji taught the class not only because its Guruji, but also because he taught super fast and it made the struggle almost non-existent in headstand. I was actually quite funny. He was counting very quickly until he got to 7 and then he just stopped counting. I could hear him walking across the stage and I figured he had gone to help someone. I could see people starting to come down, but Sharath would say come back up. This went on for some time and then I came down and went back up and heard "eight!" Everyone laughed a bit. Elissa was practicing on the stage and she said that he actually had gone to the men's room! After uthpluthih, Sharath said "too easy!"

Many people are preparing to leave soon. Its strange to think that I will be here for some time still!

Inner tourism

Shelli, Shoba, and I were walking past the main coconut stand after breakfast at Shakti House when Shelli noticed the massive pile of opened coconuts and used straws in a pile next to us. This pile was HUGE and it was definitely from about a day. People have a lot of coconuts here. She said something about how you would think they would separate the straws because they use the coconut shells for burning. Shoba, always the sage, said, "don't waste your energies thinking of this because it will never change." I found it to be such an intense statement for such a small thing to be commenting on, but she's right. Its all those little things that get us worked up and unhappy.

It took me a while to get settled in New York. I feel like I have been trying to find myself here. Today I got a bit closer. Its like I'm here, but the other part of me is still jet lagged. But this morning, in practice, I could hear myself breathing, and I could feel a bit closer. Today at chanting at Dr. M.A. Jayashree's, I felt like BAM! Centered. I think usually practice does this. Yoga practice, I mean. You feel kind of scattered, and then you go to an asana class and then BAM there you are, and you leave feeling as one. But I've been practicing for a week, and I think it has been hard because I haven't been getting that. I know people say they are less distracted here than at home, but I had been feeling very distracted. Or maybe just different. Its such a different environment and it must have taken me a bit longer to get used to it. But today in practice I felt a bit closer and like I said, today and chanting, the hovering me slammed into the physical me, and BAM I was centered. Nice. I stopped being bothered by the little things.

Usually for me, yoga practice does that, which is why it is nice to practice in the morning. I get centered right away, and I'm able to put the whole day into perspective. Looking back over the last week, its funny to read these blogs.

I made lunch today for some of the students. At least I tried. I know it wasn't that impressive, but everyone was very nice and pretended they liked it. I made chili, but the pressure cooker didn't really cook the beans, so some of the beans were cooked, some not. I also made guacamole, but the avocados were a bit different than the ones in the states. They taste like the large green ones. Very buttery. In fact here, they call them "butter fruit". I tried to find nachos but had to settle on "spanish style" lays potato chips. The rice came out fine.

Can you believe I got a copy of the new Harry Potter book? A fellow student, I-Ling, pre-ordered it at Ashok Book Shop and read it in a day. She let me borrow it and I just started. I fell asleep reading it last night and forgot to turn on my alarm. I awoke this morning to a crash. I saw the clock and it was 10 till! I figured that crashing sound must have been Elissa leaving for practice without me and that she must have thought that I was still sleeping. But when I looked outside, the gate was still closed, so I got dressed very quickly and knocked on her door. Return of the Dehli Belly. Poor Elissa got hit bad. Good thing she has a western shower because I don't think her bathing bucket will be of much use anymore.

Today after Dr. M.A. Jayashree's for chanting, we walked toward Devaraj (sp?) road so Shelli and Alex could pick up some stuff. (Shelli had a duvee [sp?] cover and shams made from Saris and Alex is getting her nore pierced tomorrow, so she needed a ring.) On the way, we walked by BNS Iyengar's studio who teaches at the Patanjala Yoga Shala. Which, I think, is where Krishnamacharya used to teach. We snuck into the temple and spied on an Indian asana class. It was very cool.

More back bending today with Sharath. He laughed at my feet again. Note to all: feet out in back bends is a VERY hard habit to break!

As Guruji's birthday draws near, many students are flooding Mysore. Lino Miele was hanging out at the coconut stand. Shelli was hanging with David Swenson. Rolf was at the Green Market. Etc., etc. The led classes on Friday will probably be very crowded, but fun to watch. I hope they do a led second. that would be nice to watch. We have no classes Saturday-Tuesday. Saturday is a day off (unless you are with Saraswati). Another day is a moonday, the other celebration, and the last just because.

PS-Any requests for bed coverings? I give you good price!