Third Week in Mysore

Monday (16) - More books
When I got to the shala in the morning at around 6:25 (6:40 shala time), almost an hour before my alloted time the week before, the foyer was full of people already waiting. It seemed that a lot of people were doing what I was doing. I waited for all the people in front of me to get a space and by the time I got a space it was five to seven. Today's practice was good. I am now doing Pashasana and going straight into back-bends without waiting for Sharath to give me another pose, but I am doing Pashasana twice each side. Saraswati came to help me with backbending today and I am feeling my backbends being really deep, but I don't feel any pain and my SI pain from last week is also gone.

At the massage course we finished the front of the legs and afterwards I went to the Sapna bookstore and then back to Ashok bookstores in town where I found the book "The Yoga tradition of the Mysore Palace", which I skimmed through. It mentioned that Krishnamacharya opened his yoga school in 1901 and that the numbers of yoga students in those days already were declining (today there are very few Indians doing yoga) and that he had to close his school in 1950. I drew parallels to Joseph Pilates who dreamed of his exercise method to be popularized around the world. Now look at Pilates and Yoga around the world. Both Krishnamacharya and Pilates never saw in their lifetime how popular their contribution to humanity would become. The book also revealed that vinyasa (breath and movement) seemed to be the traditional style of yoga and Iyengar changed this to hold poses for ten to fifteen minutes and seperate pranayama, as he believed the movement distracted from the concentration of the mind during the pose and he brought more precision into each pose.

On the way home I visited the Ramakrishna bookstore, which is incredibly cheap. It has material on all religions including Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam etc and little books explaining things like Vedanta Philosophy, meditation etc. India really is the most spiritual country in the world I think, except maybe Tibet. In 5000 years of its history India has also never waged war against any other nation, but has been invaded many times. I bought something on Vedanta Philosophy.

In the Contact Improvisation course we worked on giving weight to each other, i.e.: finding the spots on the body where we could place weight when dancing with each other and we ended with a dance which felt fantastic. My gripe about the course is that we usually start 15 mins late and then the beginning of the session is terribly slow and Yanael tends to demonstrate something for so long it becomes boring. So we ended late.

Tuesday (17) - Food tastes and ayurveda
Saraswati helped me in backbends again today and I am feeling neglected by Sharath :-(

During the massage course we went around telling each other which dosha we thought they were. I know I am a strong pitta person, but I thought my second dominant dosha was kapha as I am usually quiet and observe people rather than speaking and a few other indicators, but everybody including Kumar said that my second dominant dosha was vata. Very interesting as I definitely have never considered myself to be a giving person, but I am obviously going to observe myself more closely now. I know that while I am on holiday and more relaxed, I am a little bit more extroverted and talkative than usual.
We then went through the six different tastes in ayurveda and how they affect each dosha. I was very happy that sweet food, which includes milk, rice and other carbohydrates, are cooling and therefore good for pitta people like me. I think it explains why I love sweet food so much :-) !!!
We then learnt how to massage the arms.

In the afternoon I went back to Janiki's for lunch. I was the only one there until Ganesh, Iiling and Dimitris arrived. Kumar had told us that in South India they eat the sweet food first to seal the stomach a little, so that they do not overeat. That is why when you order Tali, the sweets are served with the rice and dal and everything else. I tried this method, but it did not help, I still made a pig of myself and ate till I almost popped!

I then had a lazy afternoon. My intention was to look for some clothes for myself... I have already spent half my stay in India and have still not bought myself anything to wear, whereas everybody else buys themselves things in the first week and they mostly wear these Indian clothes.

In the Contact Improvisation course we worked on working from the centre, extending creating long diagonal lines and contracting again. I found it terribly slow again and at the end we did a round robin where we sat in a circle and two people danced toghether in the middle and people sitting could at any time cut in and one of the dancers would sit back down. I unfortunately let Eva drop... ouch.

I had been very disciplined the last four weeks only eating chocolate twice I think but tonight I went to Cubs twice to buy chocolate. This was emotional eating because I was a little down after the Contact Improvisation. I also tasted their Masala biscuits, which were very spicy, like chillie!!! They also have salt biscuits, which are not like salt crackers but look sweet like normal biscuits. In India they also serve salt lassies. I had learnt today that one of the ayurveda tastes is salty and in India they eat a lot of salt because it retains water, good for the south Indian climate, but very unpopular in the west.

Wednesday (18) - Contact Improvisation
I had a really bad night... I stayed up writing the blog until 1 am and I was woken up somewhere after 4 by mosquitos, which happened to be a nightly occurence. I couldn't figure out why, because I had bought a new mosquito repellent that you plug into the wall when I moved in. It was obviously a problem when there was a power outage but this was not the fact this early in the morning. Eventually I figured out that the room was probably just too big, so I moved the repellent to a plug closer to my bed and this seemed to work, but I only had about 3 hours sleep. My practice went alright although my back was a little tight from something that I did in the dancing the night before. I figure that I must forget about Sharath giving me another posture on this trip :-)

My stomach was not that great after all the biscuits and chocolate the night before so this morning I had a small bowl of fruit as opposed to the big one and a spirulina & mint drink. I shaved my head again this morning and it feels so good... am thinking that I want to keep it shaved when I get home.

At the massage course we discussed the animosity between the Muslims and Indians and I found out that Diana (mexican girl doing the course) had been engaged to an Indian brahman, but it did not work out because his family did not accept him. We then revised the arms and learnt part one of massaging the stomach and chest. A new girl from Japan, Hiromi, joined us, as she will not be in Mysore to complete the next course, so she is doing the end of the course with us. She was my partner today. Of course, everything was very new to her, but we enjoyed working together I think.

I then went to the maha idli man in Laksmi Purim to find out until when he serves idli because I still had not been able to take Mel and Kerry there. He was extremely busy serving lunch... no idlis or dosas, so I had a big plate of rice with sambar, veggies and a paratha for lunch for Rs 15. Of course the plate and the spoon were wet so again I was a bit worried that I would get sick. Afterwards I went to Kirtan with James. I was very tired, and singing with my eyes closed did not help matters :-)

At 17:00 was the last Contact Improvisation session. We had decided to invite some friends to come watch or join if they felt like it, but these visitors would only arrive an hour into our session so that we could work a little before going into the dance. The girls bought some snacks and bought loads of flowers that they put on plates around the roof, demarcated a little walkway with flowers and had bags of little flowers for the visitors to throw at us. They remarked how cheap it was and that it would have cost like two hundred pounds in the UK for all the flowers. It was a really nice evening and afterwards the visitors started playing drums and even an accordion.

Thursday (19) - Hotel Mylari (Dosas)
I practiced next to Vera, a portuguese girl, today. It just so happened that we both ended doing Paschaasana at exactly the same time. Vera cannot bind and Saraswati came over to help her and when she bent down, her rear end came towards me so I fell out of the posture. Sharath saw this and just asked "Why?". I could just smile... I do not know if he saw what actually happened.

During the massage course we discussed how we help the individual who comes to us for a massage as they are coming for a specific reason, finding out what that reason is and realising that we cannot help that person unless they take responsibility for their own injuries. Then we continued with the second part of stomach and chest.

For lunch I went back to Janiki's and I met some people who gave me the directions to Hotel Mylari, which is the place that specialises in dosas, where I had gone with Myra and Jay after climbing Chamundi Hill two years ago. In the afternoon was sanskrit level 2 and chanting again.

I met Kerry and Mel for dinner at Tina's and then had some cake at Cubs with them. The cake was very synthetic, but I bought some more chocolate.

Friday (20) - Kerry and Mel leaving
This morning was lead class with Saraswati and after my usual big bowl of fruit salad for breakfast at Tina's. At the massage course we talked about how our experiences in childhood affect us and the emotions we store in our bodies and the energies that we emit from our bodies. He said we can heal our bodies by expressing stored emotions - this comes from his Past Life Healing experience I think. We then continued learning about massaging the face, which was quite difficult actually and quite strange having oil smeared all over your face by a stranger!

I then drove to town and did some shopping for gifts, bought some more books... I have realised that I have an addiction in India... buying books... I have no idea how I will carry everything home :-). Afterwards I found the Hotel Original Mylari, which I had got the directions for on Tuesday. It is not the same Hotel Mylari I went to two years ago, but I do not know which one is the "original" one.

In the afternoon I met Indra, who is leaving Mysore, at Alia's. Then I quickly made a stop over at Iman's place as she is having a birthday party. Iman had gone to a lot of effort to set up a markee on the roof of her apartment, lots of flowers etc. I could not stay long because I had to be in Lakshmi Purim at 18:30 for dinner at Nagarathna's for Kerry and Mel's final dinner in Mysore. They are leaving tomorrow, but I will see them again at the International Yoga Festival in a week. The food was absolutely fantastic again. I think we were about 10 people and the food just kept coming. I was so stuffed afterwards and we had a good time. Afterwards I went back to Iman's party, but did not really connect with anyone so I went home.

Saturday (21) - Ice Cream!
I had a very big and expensive breakfast at Alia's Om Cafe: toast with humus, pancakes, and afterwards french toast. We had massage course today so that we could take Monday and Tuesday off. We discussed dealing with emotions, our own and that of the client, during the massage and then we learnt how to do a shoulder massage. Afterwards I went to the pool at the Southern Star for the first time on this trip to Mysore. I had a nice chat to a german guy and an american girl who had met in Australia and she was now moving to germany and they were planning to get married after he graduated in one and half years. They invited me to their party tomorrow night.

I then joined some guys for some gelato at Just Gelato. Of course I had to go back for seconds. The Coconut flavour is awesome. I then finally bought myself some clothes from Sudha. She has a shop in a garage in the street I live in, but she is not always there and everytime I have gone passed she was closed. She had some nice stuff. Lots of yogis buy from her. I also went past Vastra and picked up some pants there.

For dinner I met Garth and some others at 6th on Main. It was Garth's final dinner, as he was leaving tomorrow night after the party. The food was delicious and afterwards they introduced me to the "Ice Cream Corner". So of course I was ecstatic! I will definitely go back there soon.

Sunday (24) - Conference
After lead class I watched second series again and then went to get breakfast as I did not feel like going to the green market today.. Santosha had sign up, closed until Wednesday, Tina is closed on Sundays and by the time I had found all of this out, there was not much time left, so I rushed to get my scooter and drove to the new location of the stand up cafe, that David told me about at the pool yesterday. The food was good and I actually went back for lunch.

At Kumar's, we continued the discussions about dealing with emotions and then learnt how to massage the head. In the afternoon I had sanskrit. I had missed Tuesday and today was a test. I was lost and did not enjoy it very much.

After chanting was the conference with Sharath, which was very good today. He started off talking about the breath in our practice. This is what he started talking about last week when he was told the news about Guruji being ill. Guruji is much better by the way. They found something in his oesophagus, which they are treating and he is now eating properly and is now walking around again with help.
Sharath told us that he had seen demo's in Mysore where the yogi's took a huge gulp of air with open mouths before dropping back into back bends, which we all laughed at. His point was that we have to breathe through the nose and he explained that from his experience he gets more energy this way. I love it when he talks about his personal experiences. He told us that when he was seven, around the time Nancy, who was in the audience, first came to practice with guruji, he started playing around with asanas, but it was only in 1990, when he was 19, that he started doing Ashtanga seriously. He also said that he had also tried body building when he was a student, when he talked about the fact that some yogi's have a very bendy body, but cannot do a headstand because they don't have the bandhas. His point was that yoga needs to give you internal strength and stamina too. He said some yogis do 6 advanced postures in their practice, but when you ask them to do 35 postures in a flowing sequence they die. The breath is what allows you to have energy and stamina. He said that we can only begin pranayama practice once we have mastered the bandhas and have developed a good asana practice with ujjayi breath. Pranayama must include lots of kumbaka (holding the breath) for a long time.
He said that it took him 2 years to realize the benefits of a disciplined regular practice and he said that everybody will feel that within 2 years, which I relate to. It has been two years since my last visit here, which is when I started becoming serious about my yoga practice. He talked about having to drive from his home in the rain at two o'clock in the morning to guruji's shala to practice while guruji was watching him and then helping guruji teach. He said that until two years ago, after he had been practicing Ashtanga for 19 years already, guruji still watched him practice, making sure that he performed the asanas correctly.
He told us that guruji made him do Advanced A and then Advanced C series after another to show him that using the breath, he could sustain the energy in his body. He also told us that once he went deep into Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (One Foot King Pigeon Pose) last posture in Advanced A, and he heard a huge crack in his upper back. When he got home he could hardly move and guruji phoned him that day saying that he had to do a demo in Mysore. (He explained that he could not tell guruji that he couldn't do it). He does not know how he did it, but him and another student, a relative, did the demo, but afterwards he could not move for 15 days. His point I think was that using the breath, he was able to do this.

Somebody then asked him if he had any trouble balancing his home life with his dedication to his practice. Sharath was quite funny in his response. He immediately said that he had absolutely no problems. He explained that in India, they only marry one person, not like in the west, where you have so many choices. He gave the example of guruji and his wife being together for 65 years. He said that being married to his wife and having a family meant that he was not distracted and can concentrate on his practice. He recommends that all yogi's get married!

He finished by saying that tomorrow (a public holiday) we should go to the Shiva temple and we are not allowed to ask for money or anything else, we must all ask for discipline in our yoga practice.

Garth and I then went to the Pizza Hut to buy some Pizza and garlic bread for the potluck party we had been invited to. The party was great fun and the house Teresa and Shauna are staying it is awesome. It is painted bright pink, so it was not difficult to find. The owner and his brother are architect and engineers and they had quite an interesting design and had even built a meditation room on top of a reading room.

Second week in Mysore

Monday (9) - Visit to the Tibetan Settlement
Today was moon-day, so the plan was to visit the Tibetan settlement called Bailakuppe, which is about 70 km away from Mysore (about 2 hours drive in India). I never had the chance to visit this the last time I came to Mysore, so I made a point of not leaving this till the last minute. Sylvia organised a minibus through Ganesh, which cost us Rs 1 900 and we could split that between six of us because two swedish ladies joined our group. I met Sylvia, Miranda and Mia as well as Kerry and Mel at the Om Cafe for breakfast at 8:30 and around 9 we left.

We started at the Golden Temple housing an 18m tall Buddha, with two slightly smaller ones next to him. I then took a leisurely walk around the Namdroling Monastery complex and found some schoolboys throwing stones into a lake with slingshots and others playing cricket in their monk outfits. Sylvia and the rest had gone to lunch. At 1pm we had the priviledge of sitting in on a meditation session and to my surprise it was not a quiet affair at all. The schoolroom was filled with boys of different ages, the smallest one seemed to be in charge of beating the drum, the eldest were in charge of blowing the horns and trumpets, while all of them were reading and chanting. They also served biscuits and tea during the session and even offered some to us visitors. That was the highlight for me.
Afterwards we drove 2 km to Sera village and the Sera Jhe Monastery. The village was absolutely spotless with absolutely no hint of any litter. There were of course many signs requesting people, I guess mainly visitors, not to litter. There was also a sign indicating that visitors needed special permission to visit certain areas, but Sylvia and I took a chance and walked around the village a little. The rest seemed to be quite tired and waited at the minibus. On the way back we stopped at a traditional Tibetan Thangka maker, however, these were not anything I had seen before. They were made using different colours of silk cut into shapes instead of painted.

The trip home was a little quicker and we arrived just before 5pm in time for supper at Anu's Internet Cafe (Ganesh's wife). Afterwards I met Mel and Adan, a mexican who was practicing with Mel with Saraswati in the mornings, and when I said I needed to go to Yogic Supplies in Laksmi Purim to pick up my new cotton yoga mat, he offered to take me, which was extremely nice of him.

Tuesday (10) - Exhausting day
Today was the first day of the Ayurvedic Massage course. I had been looking for a massage course since my arrival and there are about 3 Thai Yoga Massage courses, ranging from 5 to 15 days, and are offered by westerners here in Mysore. It turned out that the universe did not want me to do one of these because the start and end of the courses just did not coincide with my time in Mysore. I then found the ayurvedic massage course and I thought that I would rather do the Thai Yoga massage course in Thailand and the ayurvedic massage here in India. The ayurvedic massage course was offered by Kumar, a local Indian. The course is quite expensive at Rs 15000, so I asked around if people had heard good or bad things and I got some good feedback, so I finally decided to go ahead with the course, but I was still very sceptical. A few days into the course I was very happy that I had decided to go ahead with it because I really enjoyed all the knowledge Kumar imparted on ayurveda and his massages were well liked by many people around. He also gives a past life healing course and seems to have a gift of understanding people quickly.

I knew that Sharath has new people registering every week and people leaving every week and since this was the first Mysore style class this week he would give people new times for the week. I made a point of being at the shala early so that I would be given a nice early time and so that I could have enough time to shower and eat breakfast before the massage course at 10am. When I got to the shala, the foyer was empty and Sharath called me in immediately and gave me a 7:30 timeslot (1 hour earlier). That meant I finished by 9:15, had a shower at home, rushed to have a very quick breakfast at Santosha's and then to Kumar's home, which is in the same road as the shala and where I live.

Kumar introduced himself and he is quite open about himself. He also gave us some insight into Indian life during the course. Today I learnt that Indians have to fill out what class they are on government forms and school enrollment forms etc. This surprised me, but the explanation was that the government is doing a similar thing South Africa is doing with Black Empowerment. So the lowest class will get their text books for free and will be given 20% added to their final mark for instance to help them get through. Kumar is a brahman (highest class) and had to buy all his books and got no percentage added to his marks. He said it infuriated some students when they saw the students who had been given the text books sell their books for half price two weeks into the semester.
The first one and half hours of each day is spent learning about ayurveda (starting with the dosha's) and then Kumar domonstrates the days section on massage after which we pair up and massage that part of the body on each other. Today was the back of the legs.

The course is 3 hours long until 13:00. I felt absolutely exhausted after the course, but I still had my sanskrit reading and writing course as well as the chanting course in the afternoon and afterwards I went to the Kirtan at Annie Paise (from Colorado) house. We sat in her lounge in front of an altar and got given sheets with the words of the different songs and mantras. I did not enjoy the Kirtan so much today because the musical instruments were too loud in the very confined space and the fact that there was a statue of one of the deities all lit up in yellow and read lights put me off a little. I am still struggling to reconcile my christian faith, which prohibits idolatry, with that of hinduism. In my opinion, when we chant in sanskrit or do kirtan, even though we are invoking the names of hindu deities, these names represent the positive attributes that we try to cultivate within ourselves, the godliness in each of us and the objective is to awaken the devine energy in ourselves through the vibrations we generate within our bodies. I do not treat it as a form of worship.

Wednesday (11) - Kirtan
Today was the first day I was allowed to do Pashasana (Noose Pose) - the first posture of the second series. I was tempted to do it yesterday while Sharath was not looking, but I decided to follow his instructions and wait until today. I was able to bind, which is only because I had been practicing the posture at home for about two months, but I struggled with my balance. I have been struggling with balance ever since getting to India. I cannot seem to do the balancing postures in the standing sequence without falling over a few times, but I am not focusing on this negative and just ascribing it to all the travelling I have been doing. After Pashasana I sat down and waited to see if he would give me another posture, but that was wishful dreaming :-).

After practice was rushing to breakfast and the course again. Second day doing the back of the legs. I was happy that I was not so exhausted after today's course though. After the course I had a bite to eat at home from the stash of bread and almond butter I had bought from the man selling it outside the shala every day. Very expensive but the bread is better than bread you can buy in local Indian shops.

I then met people at the coconut stand to take 3 rickshaws to Laksmi Purim for some Kirtan with James. This was the highlight of my day today. James is from england and teaches at a university in Thailand. While there, he started learning sanskrit at the department downstairs (4 years ago). He wants to do his Phd in sanskrit next year. He now comes to India to learn sanskrit during the holidays, so he has been here since Novermber already, but will be leaving soon again, so we have asked him to do another session on Sunday. We basically sat on the floor in a circle in his lounge with a garland of flowers placed in the middle of the circle. There were no instruments and no sheets of paper with the words of any songs. When we sat down James asked if Kirtan as new to anybody and explained a little about what Kirtan is. I then asked him what the difference is between Kirtan and Bhajan. He explained the sanskrit meaning of each, which were very similar - both devotional, and that the root of Bhajan means to approach with reverence. Bhajan has more complex songs, whereas Kirtan has simpler mantras. James has a very good voice and lead us through the songs very well. It takes quite a bit of concentration to repeat and sing words you have never heard or read in another language you do not understand. After about an hour he aske for requests and one girl asked for the Gayantri Mantra. He then explained why he did not feel qualified enough to lead that song. Traditionally a brahman child starts singing this from early age and later is taught how to lead it and once taught, he has to do it with his teacher 30 000 times before he can start doing it by himself. James did sing it for us once though and then he started explaining the mythology behind it. This is what I found so fascinating. He is a good story teller and kept us all captivated for at least half an hour talking about Visvamitra and Vasista and then related this to the first two asana's of the third sequence in Ashtanga Yoga, why the one pose comes after the other. Absolutely fascinating!!!
Kerry and Mel were also at the Kirtan and upon my question to James, Kerry asked Mel and I to join her at the Atma Vikasa Shala where she trains with Venkatesh every day for Bhajan at 18:30. Venkatesh is a very serious teacher apparently and the men, of which there was only myself and another guy, had to sit on the right side of the room and the ladies on the left in rows like at school, but on the floor. It was a nice experience going to a different shala and getting a little insight into what Kerry is experiencing, but Venkatesh does not sing with you when you are repeating what he sang, so I found it extremely difficult, especially with songs that have hardly any repetition and no sheets with the words. The ambience was nice and spiritual though, with the single candle lighting the room as the sun was setting and I found the devout atmosphere in stark contrast to the noise of the busy streets and goings on outside that could be heard from within the room on the first floor.

Afterwards Kerry, Mel and I and another girl practicing with Kerry went to eat at Nalpak in the area, which was fun.

Thursday (12) - The Dosha's
My left Sacro-Illiac (SI) joint had been painful for months already but during the last two weeks here in India, the pain seems to have completely disappeared, even though I am going into very deep back bends every day, however, today the pain was back strongly and it was because of the massage I had received yesterday. My sacrum was not supported properly during the leg stretches. Today when I waited for Sharath to give me another pose, he told me that I must finish and that he will tell me when he will give me another pose.

At the massage course we went through the third and final dosha, kapha. Ayurveda has the view that everything including humans are made from 5 elements, earth, water, fire, air and space. There are three types of people called vata, pitta and kapha. A vata person has more air and space, so they think very fast, they are very creative people, they give out their energy easily and also loose energy very fast. They are giving people and spend their money easily etc. They don’t sleep long and have difficulty falling asleep. They have a long and light bone structure and their skin and nails are drier.
A pitta person has more fire and water, they have a very good digestive system and have good energy for long periods of time, very intelligent, they love to learn and they love to eat. They don’t like wasting time, sleep is normal, but can go without sleep for long periods of time.
Kapha people have more water and earth element and are lazier. Their bone structure is heavier and their joints are more stable. I have realized that I am a pitta person, with a little bit of vata and kapha. I find it so interesting and feel that something like this should be taught in schools as it would promote acceptance of peoples differences and understand how to handle different people. So pitta people like me, when we get angry, just give them some food and they will be happy :-).
We then did part one of the back massage. I am realising that it will be very difficult to remember everything and it will take us a very long time to the massage on the whole body, which we will have to do on the 14th day of the course, which will be the day before I leave Mysore.

After lunch I searched for Janiki's house where I had had a lunch two years ago. She cooks a Thali lunch for yogi's every Tuesday and Thursday and charges Rs 90. Everybody loves her food, but Anu's is more popular because she cooks every day except for Thursday and has the a bamboo hut on the roof with wireless internet. I eventually found it and there was Dimitris and Iiling having lunch. I had met Iiling at the party at Santosha last Friday night, where she performed the Odissi dance. The meal was fantastic and very filling with more chapati's coming continuously. We finished the meal with a chapati that was smeared with ghee and then drizzled with jagaree and some chai. Very sweet but nice. I told them that I was going to the Idli man on Saturday for breakfast and they immediately jumped at the chance to try somewhere new.

In the afternoon I had sanskrit lessons again.

Friday (13) - Charity Concert
As usual it was lead class at 6am in the morning. I found it difficult getting out of bed because I usually get up much later. Sharath lead the class, and I got muscle spasm between both my shoulder blades... middle fibres of the Trapezius muscle, the same place I got it 2 weeks ago in lead class with Lino Miele when I was sick, but that was only on the left side. I don't know why this is happening. I was in absolute pain when I got to the massage class and when it was time to massage I asked to be massaged first. I was very lucky that it was revision of the previous day, back part one, plus today's work, back part two. Kumar said something interesting, that the muscle spasm happens in reaction to a fear, so when he massages, he does not go deep into the muscle, but holds it and gives it a trusting and reassuring energy to let it relax. Kumar did very little work on me, Sherry was my partner and she did a good job because by the next day I was alright.

In the afternoon I finally hired a scooter from Rajesh at the Chakra house for the next thirteen days that I am spending in Mysore, as I was going to start doing many trips. I wanted to go the maha idli man tomorrow, the railway station to organise my ticket to Bangalore, do some shopping in town and I wanted to do a Contact Improvisation course in Laksmi Purim, which would be every day from 17:00 for two hours while the sun was setting on the roof of an old building across the road from the Mandala Shala (see previous blog two years ago about Sheshadri).

Friday evening was the charity concert at the Sri Krishna temple hall. It seemed to be organised by the yogi's and it was a famous flutist from Bangalore as well as a Tabla player who had lightning fast fingers. Tickets were Rs 200 and the proceeds went to the mental health centre. At the door we were given english books on the Bhagavad Gita, which was a nice touch.. Santosha provided some free ice tea with Tulsi as well as chocolate milk, which of course I had lots of! :-)

Saturday (14) - Shopping
On Saturday morning at 8am I met Iiling and Dimitris, who also invited Hamilton, at her apartment, because she had a motorcycle accident the day before and could not ride here scooter to the maha idli man. There have been so many scooter accidents in the recent week. But I was not surprised. I do not really like rules very much... coming from Africa, I really thought countries like Switzerland for instance are over the top with bureaucracy and rules. In South Africa, people do not abide to the letter of the law all the time but there is order. In contrast, in India traffic lights only exist at the main intersections in the very centre of the city. Even there, special traffic police is deployed to keep people in line, including pedestrians, who just cross the street whenever they feel like it. So at a large traffic circle in the centre of town that means a seperate policeman at every road entering the circle, so four or more. In the rest of the city there is a traffic cop standing in a little stand in the centre of a traffic circle, trying to direct traffic, but I cannot see them being very effective. The intersections and roads in the rest of the city and country are just left without any stop signs, road markings or any other rule to abide by. At first I thought, this is great... everybody just uses common sense and everything works... traffic flows much better and you do not have to waste 60 seconds of your life at every intersection.
However, judging by the many accidents (students come to the shala in the mornings with scratches and bruises) I am not convinced. Many rickshaws drive without any lights on at night. Pedestrians walk across the road or along the road without paying attention to traffic and I mean without regard for traffic. At night they are difficult to see especially since there are no street lights and the light provided by the surrounding shops in busy areas are not enough when there is a power cut. You also have many many speed bumps and potholes to deal with, which are also incredibly difficult to see, and you have the occasional cow standing in the middle of the road or a bunch of goats walking in the road, the street hawkers push their wooden carts, which are the size of small cars on the road, holding up traffic. People are very impatient and instead of stopping at an intersection they will continue driving, hooting to make sure others know they are coming. In India you drive on the left hand side of the road; however, motorbike riders when turning right and there is lots of traffic on the lane they have to cross, they don't stop either, they then turn right close to the edge of the road into oncoming traffic, and when a gap opens they will cross the road into the left lane, so you have to watch for motorbikes and bicycles driving in the wrong direction. The roads other than main roads are also extremely narrow, so with the sides of the road used by pedestrians, and building material, parked motorbikes etc it is often the width of one car. There is no line drawn in the centre of the road and cars and motorcycles constantly overtaking each other, whether there is a save opportunity to or not, leaves very little space for oncoming traffic. Even big buses move onto the other side of the road to overtake when you are on a scooter in that lane. Everybody drives like a madman hooting every ten seconds to let people know they are coming and it seems to be everybody elses responsibility to move out of the way and they have to, otherwise there would be accidents left, right and centre. Nobody has a concept of using "lanes": scooters, bicycles and motorbikes squeeze into every little space between cars, trucks and buses at intersections, trying to get ahead of everyone else, so it looks like a big jumble of vehicles as opposed to an ordered line. At places where there are traffic lights, there is a big digital clock showing the amount of seconds until the lights will change. Engines are turned off until this shows about 10 seconds to go and at 5 seconds to go everybody starts anticipating the light and starts moving and at two seconds to go the first people start going across between the stragglers of the crossing traffic -- unless of course there is a traffic cop on hand. I should also mention that the the exhaust fumes are also usually quite visible!!!
I asked Kumar the following week after I had almost hit a pedestrian who walked into the road without a glance at traffic, why there is absolutely no sign of road rage in India, yet he said that Indians are very fiery people. He said that they cannot afford to get into a fight because of all the repressed anger that they have, if a fight did break out, everybody would just join in and start clobbering people and even the beggars on the side of the road would start throwing rocks into the brawl!
Another interesting thing is that in India only the driver of the motorcycle has to wear a helmet. You should not have more than two people on a scooter or motorbike, but there are regularly three, a man and two women, or a family of three, but I have also seen families of four, including two small children on a motorbike. It seems that only the driver of the motorcycle needs to be protected.

Anyway, enough ranting! Iiling had to have 3 stitches in her knee the day before and the driver of the motorbike had deep wounds on his leg and left palm. So both of them will not be able to practice for a while... that would be my biggest frustration!!! The three of them decided to get a rickshaw and I led them to the maha idli man in Laksmi Purim. They absolutely loved the idli's and Iiling also had some Bissebelle Baht. I had five idlis as well as some vada. We all some chai and the bill for all 3 of us came to Rs 100. I pay up to Rs 180 for myself at Alia's Om Cafe in Gokulam and I do not feel half as full afterwards!

I then went into town to look at my options for train tickets and went to Ashok bookstore which was still closed. I had to wait thirty minutes until 10am and went into my favourite market of all my travels, the Devaraja market, and just took in the sights and sounds taking photographs and responding to the greeting from all the vendors and answering the questions as to where I am from. I started in my favourite section, the fruits. One vendor insisted I come see how he makes incense and made me smell all of the essential oils he had for sale. Another invited me into his stall and showed me all the surfaces that I could paint on with the different coloured powders made from plants and rocks, which just needed to be mixed with some water.

At the bookstore I was looking for books like the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and learning sanskrit in 30 days, both of which I needed for my course, as well as the Ramayana and Marhabarata for insight into the stories of the deities like the one James told. These were sold out of course, but I found so many books I would love to buy, such as a book on the best speeches ever, Sun Tzu's "The Art of War", a book on the interface between yoga and ayurveda, the Yoga Tiravali, a book on Hindu Mythology, a collection of essays and reflections on Ghandi etc.
I found out later that the special that the post office had two years ago on shipping 5 kg worth of books no longer existed, which means I will have to pay twice the amount for the books to get them home, or I will have to carry them. I know I have 4 kg to play with, although space is an issue!

At three I met Iiling and Dimitris and we drove to Ganesh's house where three other people joined us to do some Yoga Nidra (yogic sleep). Ganesh, who was the driver of the motorbike that Iiling had the accident on, took us through the meditation. It was only about half an hour, but quite deep. We all enjoyed it and asked him to do another one next weekend and he promised to do a longer one when he felt less pain.

In the afternoon I had the first session of Contact Improvisation with Yanael. Contact Improvisation is like a dance without any choreography. Multiple people just dance together and the movements you make are completely organic coming from "listening" to what others around you are doing, while you make your own movements, constantly trying to stay in contact with the people around you, so you do not dance by yourself. There is probably a better explanation on the net, but I have no internet connection as I write this. The first session was spent exploring the sense of touch and then exploring the support that the ground gives us and we finished with a little "dance", which I enjoyed very much. I found that I was still very sceptical of Yanael the teacher, but I must say I enjoyed the dance.

Afterwards I rushed to Yogic Supplies, where I had bought my cotton yoga mat. Nagaratna had cooked dinner for six other yogi's including Garth, Mel and Kerry. They had gone there at six and I had booked seperately and let them know I was coming after seven. Everybody else had finished eating by the time I arrived, but they warmed up a Tali for me and the food was fantastic. She charges Rs 100 for the meal. Nagaratna (Yogic Supplies) is around the corner from the Mandala Shala and guruji's old shala in Laksmi Purim. Guruji moved to his new home in Gokulam four years ago only, so Nagaratna was the person who used to look after the yogi's for a long long time, cooking breakfast, lunch and supper. She told us that Richard Freeman met his wife at the table we were eating at and that Brian Kest used to sit in front of her kitchen and used to take her kids to the swimming pool to teach them to swim. She is such a sweet lady and extremely shy when we tried to take pictures with her. She seems to miss yogi's coming to her and we offered to help her create a poster that we would put up in the yogi hangouts in Gokulam.

Sunday (15) - Hectic day
Sunday morning was lead class again. As usual, all of us doing the second lead class had to wait outside the shala in the dark, until the first class finished and then we had to rush inside and try to find and emptly spot, otherwise we would be practicing in the change rooms, or the foyer. I got a spot right next to the door, which was good as I planned to watch the second series after the practice. Saraswati lead us again this Sunday. It seems that the Sunday routine is Sharath leads the first class at 4:30, Saraswati leads the second, and then Sharath leads the second series. (There is no lead second series on Fridays.)
I was a bit scared of practice this morning due to my muscle spasm on Friday, but the practice turned out to be good. Afterwards I immediately put my mat at the edge of the door in the foyer, so I had full view of the shala during the second series.

I left as they went into the finishing sequence at around 9:15 so that I could still visit the organic market before my massage course at 10. Mel joined me. The market officially only starts at 10, so we were half an hour early, and vendors are apparently not allowed to sell before the opening time because if they do, a lot of the good stuff will be sold out before they even open. But they are actually happy to help and I explained that I had to be somewhere at 10, so I bought Ginger and Lemon concentrate, which I mix with my drinking water and I bought some balls made with nuts and herbs that I like to eat as a snack. We then had to rush back for me to make my class.

In the massage course we considered how we would identify the dosha of a new client and what we should be aware of when massaging each dosha. We then revised part two of the back massage and worked on the front of the legs. After the course I had a quick bite to eat at home and then rushed to Laksmi Purim for Kirtan with James. I arrived late and I was the reason the Kirtan was at 13:30, because I had sanskrit at 15:15 (shala time). So I left early to get to my sanskrit & chanting class and then at 16:30 was supposed to be the conference with Sharath. A few seconds into the conference though, after Sharath started talking about the breath, he got a message that guruji felt ill and they needed to take him to hospital so the conference was cancelled. This meant I could make the Contact Improvisation course at 17:00 on time. at 19:00 my day was finally complete and I could go eat some supper and go to the internet cafe.

First week in Mysore

Monday (2) - first practice in the shala
I arrived at 8:15 (8:30 shala time) and the foyer was already quite full with people waiting for a spot in the shala. Sharath would regularly come to the foyer and see students that have been here for a while and give them new earlier time slots for the next day and they would be allowed in first when somebody finished their practice. I had to wait about twenty minutes before I could get in. I got a spot right in front of the podium, so I had to watch that I did not bang my head on the step each time I jumped back during the sun salutations. My practice felt good and went by in no time at all. I knew I was not allowed to move into second for at least the first week and then only when Sharath actually gives me the first posture of the second series. My back bending was a little tight because I had not done the practice in two days but when I came up by myself, Sharath came to me and said, "You take it easy... first day!" meaning that I should not do drop backs today. The energy in the shala was high as usual, which I found a little distracting to my "moving meditation" and of course you have Sharath and Saraswati constantly shouting "Next" when a new space opens up!
There was a woman practicing next to me and Sharath saw her doing something wrong and she did not correct it immediately when he shouted the correction to her, so he told her that she must come to the beginner's class tomorrow with Saraswati. Sylvia told me afterwards, that her practice was extremely fast also and when she heard Sharath tell the woman to come to beginners class, she was shi***ng herself :-).

I met Sylvia for lunch and we went to the Green Leaf for a South Indian Thali. In the afternoon I went to the shala to register for the second level Sanskrit course and then I spoke to Lara and Matthias who both offer Thai Yoga Massage courses. The universe did not seem to want me to do these because the dates or times of both courses weren't possible for me. I had also read about an Ayurvedic Massage course with Dr Kumar and I thought that I would rather do the Thai Yoga Massage course in Thailand and do an Ayurvedic Massage course here in India. I eventually got hold of Dr Kumar on the phone and registered for the course, which starts next Tuesday.
By the evening I still had no appetite which is strange for me and at 7 I suddenly felt quite ill. Something at Green Leaf had not been so kosher and two hours later, my body purged itself of everything in it, after which I thankfully fell asleep and had almost 8 hours sleep, which was good.

Tuesday (3) -
I woke up just before 5am and spent the morning relaxing until my practice time. My practice was quite hard due to a lack of energy. Afterwards I found where Tina had moved to, but it was not as nice as it used to be. The garden in her new home which she used as the seating area was more open, so less cosy, there were fewer people and I just did not have the same vibe. I then met Mel and Kerry at Santosha, a place that had not been around 2 years ago. It was much like Tina's old place, seating on cushions in and around the house with low tables, but it was run by a western couple. The food was fantastic, there were more people around still (even though it was 11:30 by now) and it had a friendly atmosphere. They are planning a party for Friday night with Rs 400 entrance, which will go to an orphanage. 95 people had already registered.

The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling until my Sanskrit course at 16:45 and then the chanting course. Afterwards I met Mel and Kerry at Tina's restaurant for supper. We had a very good discussion about yoga not being a sport, but a lifestyle and how it can change your belief system.

Wednesday (4)
My practice was uneventful until Sharath came to me during my back-bending. I was pretty stupid because I was waiting for Sharath to push me, verbally telling me to walk my hands in more, but he did not. He pulled me back up quite quickly and said to me "You work harder"! I guess that was a reprimand :-).

Afterwards, I had a big bowl of fruit at Tina's home where she serves breakfast. Still the best place for a big fruit salad! I was watching some of the westerners eat, mentally noting that Indian people would laugh at us because we use our left hand to put food in our mouths. Very few Indians use toilet paper and they wash themselves with their left hand, so the right hand is used to put food in their mouths.

In the afternoon I met Noah Williams, who is supposed to be a great teacher who is also based in Hawaii like Nancy. He was telling some yogi's how he had this bulge coming out of his abdomen on his right side, which was excruciatingly painful and constantly feels like he had been kicked in the balls. He was quite funny when he described how he was thinking that he might be sitting on his balls while riding his scooter. I knew exactly what it was, because of my recent experiences regarding the long time it took to diagnose the start of an inguinal hernia on my right side. When he explained that before the hernia happened in Dwi Pada Sirshasana (both legs behind the head), he had dropped his bike and felt a tearing in his left obliques, I remembered that before I got the hernia, I had pain in my left oblique muscles for a long time doing Marichyasana D (deep twist).
The we all shared the stories of how we got involved in Ashtanga and I realized that the girl sitting next to me was the receptionist at the Miami Life Center (Kino McGregor's studio) when I was on my business trip to the USA in December 2007 and visited the studio for a few days. She remembered "the South African", who bought all the books. It is quite interesting how the universe brings people together.

The rest of the day I spent chilling at home and actually slept a little. I think I should make better use of my time before I start the massage course. In the evening I met Sylvia and Miranda at Tina's restaurant and I arranged with Sylvia to go shopping at Fab India tomorrow and I am trying to arrange a trip to the Tibetan community on Monday, which is moon-day (no practice). I did not eat anything as I was not hungry. I was craving something cold. In India they make something called a lassie, which is made with curd and is quite refreshing. I don't normally like curd, but the lassies are quite nice, similar to a milkshake. Keeping ice cream frozen in India is difficult because of the constant power outages. In Kovalam, there was a power outage for half an hour every night at a specific time, which they change every week, but that was manageable. Here in Mysore, the power went out this morning, this afternoon, three times tonight already. I remember how South Africa was bitterly complaining about the load-shedding last year. Well here in India, people seem to have just accepted it as the norm. In Kovalam there were a lot of generators, whereas here people use backup batteries that store power when the power is on for computers etc, but often the power is off for so long that the battery also dies. So then there is no internet available, lassies and fruit juices (they are made from the fruit and vegetables on site) are all not available. So, in other words, due to yet another power outage, I could not get a lassie (Anu's internet cafe makes awesome lassies) and I went searching for something sweet. Cubs is a bakery and small restaurant, which is quite posh. It has a few TV screens up and seems to have proper power backup and I found some awesome chocolate and ice cream that is safe to eat because there is constantly power.

Thursday (5)
Today was a very special day, although I did not really feel elation or anything of the sort when it happened. I had completed my compulsory first week of doing primary series and when Sharath came to help me with my back-bends he asked if I had done Paschasana the last time I came to Mysore, to which I had not. But the good news was that he did say that I could do Paschasana from next Wednesday. I felt that it was a validation of the fact that I had started moving into second series by myself. Sharath allowing me to move on meant a lot, because it is here in Mysore that they don't allow you to move on until you have "mastered" the primary.

I met Kerry & Mel at Shakti House where I had breakfast and joined Sylvia and Miranda to go shopping at Fab India and three jewelry stores. Fab India is a very well known chain store around India that has silk and cotton clothing and home goods such as bed spreads, table cloths etc. Jewelry in Mysore is known to be cheap, but I think not by South African standards. Miranda and Sylvia bought a lot at Fab India and Miranda did end up buying some bangles.

In the afternoon I went to my sanskrit classes and then met Kerry for supper at Chakra house. I have been asking at Chakra house to organise me a scooter, but secretly I am glad that they have not done so yet. I am enjoying walking around, taking life slowly, and not being drawn into the stresses of the traffic. I suppose that soon I do want start exploring further out of Gokulam and I want to see if I can remember where all the secret little gems are, like the 'Maha Idli man'.

Friday (6)
Time flies by so quickly. I have already been away from home for 3 weeks now. Fridays is lead class of which there are two, 4:30 and 6:15. I have to go to the later one because I am a student who has just arrived recently, so I awoke at 5 and got up finally at 5:30. We waited in the dark on the steps outside the shala while the first class was finishing and then rushed in to find a space in the shala and place our mats side by side. It was my first lead class with Sharath since 2 years ago and I was excited and attentively listened to his chanting when he began. In the last two years, I had learnt the chanting off by heart and since I began teaching I wanted to get all the pronunciation and intonations right. I had done the Sanskrit reading & writing and the chanting courses and had bought a lot of chanting CD's of Manju, Richard Freeman, Sharath and Guruji. I had decided that I liked Manju's chanting the most and did not like Sharath's at all, but I listened to Sharath with a fresh ear and I realised that he was the intonations, just more subtly. He then took us through primary and to my surprise he made us do five Sun Salutes for A and three Sun Salutes for B. On his DVD, he does only 3 each and he counts really fast, which was also my experience two years ago. People called him the steam train, but this time he took it really slow and the entire practice lasted for longer than an hour and a half. Headstand, which he counted 15 for, I actually counted sixty of my own breaths, and he even let us lie down and rest after completion of the series for a few minutes. He still has his trademark humour. He does not allow anybody to rush him, i.e.: you cannot move into upward dog before he has said pancha (five), so when somebody does, we would all be holding chatvari (four) while he would reprimand the person saying something like, "Why you in a hurry, are you hungry?" or "have you got a?".

I then went home and had a quick shower. It was 8 o'clock and I felt fantastic, with the prospect of a full day ahead, a party at Santosha tonight and a rest day tomorrow. However, I soon found that I was actually battling to adjust to the fact that I nothing to do. Not something I remember having felt in years!!! Kerry made the comment that it will be good for me to do nothing, and Garth commented that at home we often do things that we think are important, but in actual fact are not and that it is important for us to sometimes not do anything. I just feel I want to be productive, learn something, experience something, etc. I don't even feel like reading a novel, because I could be reading something about yoga and learning something new!
Just the other day, Kerry said she was grumpy because her teacher Venkatesh said that the actual pose does not matter, as it will not help you achieve self-realization, but that we should experience every moment of the journey into the pose and this reminded me of a quote of David Williams, that Nancy told us, "It does not matter if you can touch your toes or not, it will not bring you any closer to God anyway!".

On Friday evening I went to a party at Santosha. They had over 130 people buy tickets for Rs 400 each. The money would go to Operation Shanti, which looks after 23 street kids from Mysore. When we walked into the party, they had about 6 children sitting on the floor and eating. They were so incredibly cute!
There were buckets of food and we all sat on the roof and chatted while the sun went down. Then there was an Indian magician doing tricks for us, then there was a guy who goes around catching snakes from peoples houses for a living. I had seen him on another day dropping off school kids. He says he lives on what people donate to him to catch the snakes, as the government does not support him and he feels that humans are encroaching on the snakes territory and we should not kill the snakes. He looked a bit like a pirate, with a bandana round his thick long head of hair, a pair of big sunglasses on top of that, armbangles on his arms and a big ring on every finger. He brought a few snakes to show us, which was quite exciting. One incident, which was quite funny, was when a big fast moving snake that he held up was twisting and knotting itself around his arm and someone shouted, "look the snake is doing Marichyasana D", which is one of the deepest twists everybody struggles with in their practice.
Afterwards, there was an auctin of items that had been donated, like ear-rings, a painting by a renowned Mysore artist, shirts signed "Guru" by the coconut stand man, a massage, a trip in a car for a whole day etc. The mood was very good and we had lots of fun, and people really spent a lot of money on these items, as all the money was being raised for Operation Shanti. They said that last year they had raised over 100 000 dollars. Afterwards there was a raffle (we had all also bought tickets for that) and then two yogi's demonstrated some Odissi dancing they had learnt while staying here in Mysore. The night ended with some Kirtan.

Saturday (7)
This morning I woke around 7, but snoozed until about 10 and headed to Alia's Om Cafe for some home-made muesli for breakfast (oats roasted with huney and butter, peanuts roasted and crushed and mixed). I was glad to have a day off, and it felt good to just sit and chat until 12:30. Garth, who had been on the Anatomy course this week, said that the Chiropractor giving the course siad that a chiropractor should be clicking the bones that are not normally clicking and leaving those bones that normally click alone. We should not click bones very often. It is a bad habit. Big joint, such as the hip or shoulder, clicking is not bad, but the small joints should not click.
Afterwards I went to a book shop and then finally got a scooter.

The scooter's odometer, speedometer and petrol gauges do not work so I guess I will be running out of petrol some time soon! At least the scooter did come with a helmet. On my last trip I had been fined Rs 100 and Kerry has already been fined and then went to buy a helmet, which cost exactly the same amount as the fine. I spent two hours just riding around town reacquainting myself with the lay of the town. I found the Maha Idli Man again, and I got a sunburn.

At 4 I met Garth, Shelly and Mel to go to movies. Garth had looked on the net for a movie, because the local Kannata (that is the language spoken in Karnataka state) movies are apparently terrible. He found a Hindi Bollywood movie, called Raaz - they msytery continues, which was a horror movie. I was seriously considering not going because I am not into horrors and we had had some other recommendations (like Slumdog Millionaire, Luck by Chance and Chandy Chowk goes to China), but decided to just go for the experience. It happened to be in the same cinima house I went to 2 years ago. I only know of 2 cinema complexes here in Mysore. Mel bought us all some popcorn, which comes in little packets and is masala (spicy). The movie was actually very very good and I have not jumped like that in a long long time, but it was strange having singing and dancing during the romantic scenes in a horror movie. The movie review did mention that Bollywood has not quite grasped the genre yet. Another interesting thing about the movie is that there was actual tongue action in the movie and the actress was showing a lot of skin, which has made headlines.

Sunday (8)
My practice this morning was really hard and then I realized that it was moon-day tomorrow. I am trying to make sure that this moon-day thing is not just something in my head, but Sharath does also say that our bodies are stiffer on moon-day, and my practice was not good even after a day of rest. After practice I quickly found a spot in the foyer, close ot the door, to watch the 3rd lead class, which is second series. Kino McGregor was in the class and watching those people, it seemed like they definitely did not experience any bad effects from the moon! It looks so beautiful and graceful. Inspirational!!!

Then I rushed off to the organic market, which still happens every Sunday at 9, but had moved away from the Green Hotel. The market was disappointing today, so I went and chatted a while over breakfast. I organised with Kerry for her to show me RashinKar's Book store and Yogic Supplies where I bought myself some books and a yoga mat. The yoga mat still needs to be embroidered, so I will hopefully be able to pick it up tomorrow evening, so that I have it before Tuesday morning's practice.
Then it was Sanskrit course and afterwards there was an exhibition called Taxi at Alia's. I photographer who is based in London had taken some photos of taxis and rickshaws in India. I went to socialise and met Indra, who is also going to the yoga festival in Rishikesh, and who actually ran course on yoga for kids this weekend. I was sad I had forgotten about it, as I would have liked to do it.

Arriving in Mysore

Saturday (31) - travelling to Mysore
I got up at 5:30 to finish packing. It was still dark when I walked along the beach to meet Ayapam, the rickshaw driver I had arranged to meet at 6:30, but there were already people on the beach, some meditating, some appeared to be fishermen.
Ayapam was actually waiting for me, so I was quite pleased. The morning was fresh and the trip to the airport in the open rickshaw was quite windy and I was sick. I checked in at the airport to find out the flight was delayed by half an hour, so I sat down and watched the Indian version of CNN. There was nothing about a hijacking, just something about a student having been arrested on a flight to Mumbai for harassment of the cabin crew and endangering the lives of others.

I landed in Bangalore after the one and a half hour flight and was very surprised by the airport and terminal, which I later found out was only about 11 months old. It is a far cry from the airport I used two years ago. The new terminal is big, spacious, clean and organised. They even had Baskin and Robbins ice cream and Subway, so I got myself a subway sandwich for lunch and then went to the Airport Shuttle bus (something I have not seen anywhere in India before). I had earlier gone to the prepaid Taxi counter and asked them how much it would cost to the city bus station and they said around Rs 600. They did not bother to tell me that there was a shuttle terminating at the city bus station for only Rs 125. Anyway, it took an hour to drive into the city, so the new airport is obviously quite far out of the city, whereas the old airport was in the city.
I then searched for the bus to Mysore and passed an old rickety bus that I was told would take three hours for Rs 89. I found the 'deluxe' air conditioned "Volvo", as they refer to them here, for Rs 225, which was supposed to take two and a half hours but took about three and a half hours. I remember taking a 4*4 taxi at night two years ago with Michael Gannon and two others, which I described in my blog. The traffic is still the same with ox drawn carts being part of the traffic using the highway.

In Mysore I took the rickshaw to Gokulam, to the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute, guruji's shala. Unfortunately I could not register as it was closed on Saturday, which meant I would not be able to practice the next morning. I then went to look for the room I had arranged with Jyothi, which was luckily only six houses up the street from the shala, but it is quite small. I then went to The Coconut Stand (capitalized because it is a landmark that everybody knows :-)). Guess who I saw, Iman from Egypt, who had been with me on the Purple Valley retreat in Goa two years ago. She has been in Mysore for 4 months already and she told me that Leena, who had been with me on my last trip to Mysore, had been here for 6 months and was then told to leave as that is the maximum time you can spend in Mysore. I also saw Kino McGregor, whose studio I practiced at in Miami in December 2007.
Then I went to Anu's Internet Cafe, a favourite hang out, had some supper and by coincidence got an email from Mel, one of the yogis I practice with at home, and I realised she was online with me, so I found out which internet cafe she was at. I knew her and Kerry were going to get to Mysore a week before I did. We walked to Nalpak restaurant and caught up.

Sunday (1 Feb) - getting settled in Mysore
Today was lead class in the shala. The first class is at 4:30 am and the next is at 6:15. The students that have been around for longer and are more advanced go to the first class. I was considering going to the shala at 6 and asking Sharath if I could practice, but decided to take the day off to recover from my cold. You are also not allowed to watch.
For breakfast I tried Tina's, who's cooking courses I had attended 2 years ago, but she had moved, so I had breakfast at Shakti house, which has changed ownership and is now called Alia Om Cafe, where I found out they were charging Rs 1 500 for one night. I met Miranda who was at Purple Valley with me a week ago and she said that Jason, Nancy's assistant, and Sylvia had also just arrived. Later I also went to Chakra House to look at the courses that were available. I am interested in a massage course, a Yoga Sutra course so that I am productive over this month.

The first thing I organised was to get a SIM card for my phone so I could make calls to the yogi's around here. I had not organised one in Goa or Kovalam (Kerala State), because making calls with a SIM card bought in one state will incur more costs when making calls in another state. Local is only considered local if it is within the same state. Getting a cell number from an Indian Telecommunications company was quite interesting to me because I work for MTN at home in South Africa, which is a telecommunications company that had been in talks last year with both Bharti and Reliance Communications for a merger or acquisition. The talks however failed with both operators.
I had the choice of four operators, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea (changed their name from Spice) and Reliance Communications, however, Reliance does not use the GSM technology and would have required the purchase of another phone. Idea is the cheapest of the 3 left and also has a yellow corporate branding like MTN, but its network is apparently not so good and because Vodafone is a direct competitor of MTN via Vodacom in SA, I decided to go with Bharti, which is also supposed to have a very good network. The cost of the SIM card was Rs 300, which included Rs 100 prepaid talk time. Calling cost will be Rs 1/min and Rs 5 per SMS (about ZAR 1) to South Africa. Apparently calling to SA will also be a lot cheaper if I make the call from India, than if calls are made from SA to me.

The next thing I did was to look for new accommodation, because the room I had was terribly small and not the cleanest, but I was thankful that I had it in case I did not find anything. I asked Shiva who organises self catering apartments and he showed me something with share kitchen and bathroom, which was also not that nice. Two years ago, Misa Finland showed me her room where she stayed and I was absolutely blown away with how nice the place was. This was actually right next door to where I had the room now, so I asked and yes, there was a room available... just as beautiful as I remember it. The house has marble floors throughout, beautiful wooden windows and doors, with gorgeous door handles that even have shutters for the keyholes so nobody can peep into the rooms. My room is on the first floor and is very very large about ten times as big as the one I stayed in the last night, it has an attached bathroom with bath, and the room has built in cupboards and a huge double bed. There is no kitchen but there is a fridge outside my room. It cost me Rs 9 000, which is more than double than what the room at Jyothi's would have cost me, but it is worth it!! I showed the room to Kerry and Mel, who were very envious and said to me that I am not living in India... so I said to them, "I am, I am just the Maharaj (king)" :-)

Then I had to organise some money to pay for registration at the shala. The cost of registration in the main shala with Sharath is Rs 27 530 for the first month, thereafter it becomes cheaper, but I unfortunately only have 1 month. If you go to the beginners classes, which start at nine with Saraswati, then you only pay around twenty thousand rupees. Since the maximum daily transaction limit at the ATM is twenty thousand rupees, I had to use two separate debit cards to get enough cash for registration.
Registration was at 15:30 and luckily I went early because the clock in the shala is 15 mins ahead... mental note to use this time from now on. By the time I had registered, there was a huge queue outside. Sharath actually remembered me, which I was pleased with. First thing of course he asked for was the money! He has a banknote counting machine in his office to speed the process of counting all the money. At registration he allocates you your practice time, newcomers get late times and people who reregister get earlier times starting at 4:30 until 8:45 at 15 minute intervals. 9am is when Saraswathi takes over. I got an 8:30 timeslot.

At 16:30 was conference. This happens every Sunday (two years ago, it happened once in the four weeks I was here). All the students registered at the shala can come into the shala and listen to Sharath talk about yoga and ask him questions. Sharath started saying that yoga cannot be learned from books and DVD's, but that one needs a guru who passes down the knowledge, then he talked about the Ashtanga Yoga (eight limbs) of Patanjali, describing the first four limbs as the external practice and the last four limbs being the internal practice. He then described pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), the fifth limb, by telling the story of a yogi walking into the palace of a maharaj who was in the pool with his harem and the maharaj was upset that this guy had just gone through all the security etc, so he called the yogi to stop, which he did not do, so he took out his sword and as the yogi carried on walking, the maharaj cut off his arm, but the yogi just kept on walking... he did not feel it. That is when the Maharaj realized that this was not a normal person, so he went up to him with the arm and asked him to forgive him.
Then people started asking questions such as when one cannot do a posture, how many times should one try to do the posture (here in India, you are stopped when you cannot do a posture and you are not allowed to carry on with the series, you do finishing sequence and end) to which Sharath said just once or twice. Then there were questions about which Upanishads we should start off reading, as there are about 110. I could not hear the answer, but Sharath continued that we should start by reading the Bhagavad Gita, which contains something from all the upanishads. Sharath will often quote the Sanskrit from memory from one of the sacred books and then explain it. I asked the last question, which was whether we should jump through with crossed legs or parallel legs. His answer was that it does not matter which way, it is something we can choose, however, the traditional way is with crossed legs. I like this answer!
I spoke to some yogi's later during my stay and they said that asking questions during the conference is not as good as aking him one on one, as he will spend more time explaining during one on one sessions.

After the conference I met Mel and Kerry for supper at Nalpak again and ended the evening by going to Anu's Internet Cafe.