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.