First class with guruji

Last night after writing the blog entry I went to Anu's where a wrapper by the name of Nicholas was saying good-bye to everybody after a lengthy stay here. He calls himself MC Yogi and what he does is rap about India, the Baghavat Gita, and Ashtanga etc. I did not expect anything spectacular, but Michael left a message at Randy's for me to come. I am very glad he did, because he was brilliant. Every verse had the audience laughing.

Afterwards I had some supper, which was very oily and gave me heartburn. Still trying to find all the good restaurants. I then had a bucket shower... A lot of homes don't have baths or showers. The toilet has a drain and you basically pour the water over yourself, then wash yourself and then rinse yourself by pouring water over yourself again. Then you use a squeegy to dry the floor. At least Randy's home had a proper western toilet. Most Indian homes have holes in the ground you squat over, just like in South East Asia.

I then stretched for almost an hour before going to bed. Lots of nervous energy before the 6:15 led class with guruji.
I did not feel that well when I woke up, but after doing Nauli Kriya to cleanse the colon I felt better. Nauli Kriya is a technique shown to me by Michael last year in which you use your abdominus rectus muscles to massage the colon and get a bowel movement going. He said you should do it every morning before your practice so that you are empty when doing your practice. I have been doing it for about 3 months now and am getting better at it and it seem particularly useful at times like this.
Ok, you might have felt that that was overshare :-)

I arrived at the shala at 6. The first class that started at 5 was busy finishing. (It is quite impressive that guruji at 91 gets up that early every morning to teach.) Once they were done we all rushed in. It was so crowded, 2 girls had to actually do their practice on the stage next to guruji's chair. We formed 5 rows of about 14 or 15 people in each. I spoke to a Mexican girl today, Licha, who arrived in September last year and said that it was very different when she arrived.
I landed up in the very front, right under the nose of Sharath and Saraswati. Guruji, who led the first class seemed to take a break for this class and just sat in his chair watching us (and dozing off sometimes). Sharath led the class walking around, correcting, adjusting and saying the dreaded word "Stop". One of the things you agreed to when registering is that you have to stop when one of the teachers says you have to stop in your sequence. Basically this means that you are not ready to continue in the series and you have to wait for everyone else to get to the finishing sequence and then you finish with the rest of the class. Leena was just behing me and was told to stop at Bujapeedasana. I luckily got through the whole series, but that does not mean it will not happen in future.
After our led class was the intermediate series led class at 7:30, which Michael was part of. I sat outside the doors to the room and watched. Guruji led this class again and Sharath walked around and told people when to stop. There were about 4 rows of people that started the session which was far less cramped. 40 minutes into the practice the dreaded stop started and by the end of the class there were only 22 people left. In this session, I guess because there was enough space, when people were told to stop, they moved to the back and did the finishing sequence.
Interesting to note is that the ratio of men to women here is almost 50:50. Of the 22 people who did the whole intermediate series, I think 12 were men.

Afterwards I went back to Randy's and had another bucket shower and then had a red banana for breakfast. Very sweet and slightly thicker than the bananas at home. They also have the small yellow bananas here, but the red ones are the best.
Then I registered for the yoga anatomy course that started at 11:30 and I had an Id photo taken, which I did not have when I registered with guruji yesterday.

Then I took a rickshaw to the green hotel where they have an organic market every Sunday morning. Had some more to eat and then back to start the anatomy course. The course is Rs 1500 for 4 days from 11:30 to 13:30. I know my anatomy from my exercise science courses, but I was told this will be different and will relate to yoga. We covered the feet and legs today and it was very good. Ken, the teacher, is referred to here as the rolfer, as there are many Kens here. He has been "rolfing" for about 12 years and when he teaches he also talks about the Gestalt theory, the Alexander technique and the Feldenkrais method. So he is very knowledgeable and had some good material including videos of the feet of cadavres that have all the outer tissue removed and show the muscles and tendons moving the bones in the foot. We finished applying the knowledge by "sensing" our feet on the ground while doing a simple forward bend and back bend, mainly understanding how the muscles even to the back and neck are affected when we are not balanced or "grounded" properly.

After that I had an appointment with Anne to look at her flat, which I took. It is on the 2nd floor, with balconies, has a nice view, is new and modern with shower heads in the toilets and proper toilets. It will cost Rs 13,500 for a month plus electricity. It has 3 bedrooms so now I need to find some house mates.
Michael then took me to the Green Leaf on his scooter where we met Licha and we had a South Indian Thali for lunch... and yes, I did eat with my fingers... that felt strange!!! Could have used a spoon, but I decided to give it a try :-)

Afterwards, I went back to Randy's to figure out the details of renting the flat... have to organise some mattresses and maybe some chairs and get the one bathroom fixed.
Some Sunday afternoons guruji has a conference session which is basically a Q & A session, but when we arrived there today, we were told that there would not be one.

Now I need to go and move my stuff into the new place...