Home away from home...

Our patio, dining room, drying rack - and below is our kitchen - although we eat most meals out, there is also a refrigerator.

The bucket bath - there is plenty of hot water and you just sort of crouch down there and use the smaller bucket to douse yourself - I actually like it just as well as a shower.
I promised Lucy and Grace I would get some photos of where I am living so here they are girls! My room is really small so I could barely take a picture. That bedspread belongs to my friend Randy, and I bought a pillow and some sheets so I'd be more comfortable - but honestly the sheets that were on there were quite clean.

Our house is on 8th Cross, which is the same street as the Shala - it is about a 5 minute walk because we are almost to the end of the block. I have one flatmate (not that I now think I'm British or something, but "flat" more aptly describes the situation... it's not really an "apartment", and it's not just a "room"... because we each have our own room that locks, but we share these other common areas, and there is a main door that we can also lock that goes into the whole thing - or flat) Jen who is from NYC who I mentioned before does not take classes at the Shala but rather goes to a place in Laxmipuram and studies with Ajay Kumar has one of the rooms, and Jennifer, my good friend from Virginia will take the last room when she arrives. The price for the space was $6500 ruppees for the month, which is like $130 or so US - so it's pretty affordable.

Gita

Yesterday I was very fortunate to catch wind of a class being offered by a westerner on the Bhagavad Gita. The class is at his house in Lakshmipuram, which by auto rickshaw takes about 10 minutes from Gokulum. I met Kumar who is a rickshaw driver that Mike and Erin recommended to me. He is very very friendly, and has very distinct mannerisms, that include quite the tilt of his head combined with the shrug of his shoulder as he says "no problem madam", and he knows most of the usual places that the western yoga students go which makes things much easier.

So Kumar ( I will take photo of him today) took me and my flatmate Jen (not Jennifer - she doesn't get here until Tuesday) to the class which meets on Mondays / Thursdays 1:30-4:00pm - it is on the second chapter of the Gita. I missed the first class but it was okay because we re-capped what they did during that first class. I can't find James last name but what I've learned is that he is English and he is a professor at the University of Thailand (not sure of what) and he is pursuing his doctorate - or another doctorate in Sanskrit here in Mysore. He is another one of the super smart types who live these lives of study. My only concession when I get depressed at how smart and studied these intellectual world travelers are is that I think to mysore - well of coarse they don't have children, and since I absolutely love my children and my family and always wanted to be a mother - as soon as I say that to myself I feel better. So I learned that the second chapter is when Arjuna submits to Krishna as his student and Krishna begins his teachings. James gave us a handout with the slokas (pronounced shloka and which is a two line verse) in transliteration and is making sure we understand what the markings mean, though I am usually spending more time trying to say the words in the right meter than remembering to change my tongue postion etc. So similarly to the way we've worked on chanting the Yoga Sutras with David, we will go through each sloka, 1st line, 1st half of the line he chants, we repeat 2x, 2nd half of the line he chants, we repeat 2x, whole 1st line he chants, we repeat 2x, 2nd line 1st half he chants etc.... He has a very nice voice and he repeats with us which makes it a lot easier - also the people in the class seem to be familiar with the slokas so that made learning much faster. After we'd chant a section of 10, we'd go back through and he would go through the commentary as he'd learned from his teachers. They did the first 10 on monday, and today after going through those we continued on until 21. The major theme's so far as I understand from this chapter are that Krishna is teaching the difference between the permenant enduring spirit or essential nature that we possess, and the imperment outer or physical body. The body dies but the spirt is undying - I think this is a pretty important theme because Krishna says it over and over again in different ways in particular by saying what it is to NOT have this understanding and how it is the cause of much suffering verses what it is to have this understanding. He tells Arjuna that he must be still so that he can't start to see the truth - stillness like in meditation - implying that when we are not still it is more difficult to see what is truth. (yoga citta vritti nirodaha from the sutras is saying the same) And that the body/mind must be trained to be able to acqire stillness (sound familiar?). Okay one other thing, that came up, that it is thought, and was taught by Shankara that being born in the human body form is the highest of births because humans have the ability to reach samadhi - so taking care of the human form is regarded highly in the teachings. I think at some point soon we will here Krishna talk more about this if I remember.

Ma India

The power just turned back on so hopefully I can write a bit before it goes off again. There is a shortage of electricity in this state - maybe in the world, but at least here there are scheduled "non-power" periods during the day. So hi! Sorry for taking so long to get in touch. Wow - so many things have gone on for me. For one thing as predicted my luggage which at the last moment I decided to check did not in fact make it onto my flight in Paris. I of coarse hopefully waited until there was noone left at the baggage carasel hoping that there might be one more bag they forgot to put on - but alas no - it was detained for some reason in Paris along with 10 or so other unlucky people's bags. So anyway I've been wearing the same clothes for the past four days or whatever it has been. So not only clothes but right, my yoga clothes, mat etc... as well. No problem (insert head bobble) Randy - my friend whose house my taxi dropped me off at in the wee hours of the morning lent me a mat and a rug - but I declined to borrow his tight black bike shorts --- 

Randy's house (a yoga student who has lived here for about 7 years) is like a 3 minute walk from the Shala. If you know mysore it is on Contour Rd. just down from the traffic circle. Okay so Randy fed me more than once already and has been a total lifesaver - lending me a misquito netting, cover and things like that for my bedroom - more on that later - you need to know the important stuff right - like what about the shala!!

So here is the thing - I don't want to get into to minutia about what is happening in there, and if Sharath helped me in this pose or if I did this or that or you know what I mean but I will probably on occasion throw in a couple things like that:

• I've had two practices so far yesterday was wednesday here and was mysore and I'm in the last group starting at 7am 
•  yesterday I walked my hands to my feet in backbending first time ever and had the most amazing practice - felt like a million bucks, with every inhale looked up directly at Guruji's huge portrait on the stage
  
• today was led because tomorrow is a moon day
• I was in the second batch and I think there were probably between 70 to 80 people in my group - so I am guessing that in Sharath's group at this time there are between 120 to 150 people here, and there are more than that because Saraswathi has a group that meets after Sharath's - and that is also not including people who practice at some of the other shala's around here (more on that later)
• after thinking that I was pretty cool yesterday with the touching of the feet and all as it goes I was knocked humbly on my arse today by the 2 hour led class. I will just say this and you will understand - in utplitihi I was up longer than I ever hold utplitihi before Sharath even said "one"!!! I am so grateful that tomorrow is a moon day and saturday is off - so I can recover and have a little better start to my week on Sunday.
• I'm going to start a Gita class today that meets tuesday /thursday for a month
• I met Arich(sp?) and Vivian today from the Bandha Room in Olympia - they are students of Davids - I ended up next to Vivian in the led class.

I miss you all and will put some pictures up hopefully when my power chord arrives. xo

Leaving tomorrow...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/travel/10places.html

If you are on any Ashtanga yoga mailing lists you've probably seen this link already today, but in case you haven't here it is... even the New York Times says we should go to Mysore - so how 'bout it?

Dan just got back from the store for last minute things I've forgotten - a universal adaptor, ibuprofen (think there is a good chance I might be a little sore in mysore), and feminine products - not that they don't have them in India... so I don't know why its on my list but got 'em anyway. Also just found out yesterday from my aunt via my mom that new restrictions are limiting everyone to just one carry-on... so my plan to not check any luggage just changed. Now I'm going with the full on roller suitcase - my black mat will be inside, inside my mat bag - and what seems like an insane amount of vitamins, electrolyte replenishers, and other such pharmaceuticals. Ambien so I can sleep on the plane, peto bismo, cipro in case I get Delhi Belly... probably total over kill but just following advice... Today I got a little overwhelmed at one point, with what felt either link anxiety, or excitement - not sure - right now I feel like there is not much more I can do to get ready for this trip cuz it has started!

Spokane to Seattle to Paris to Bangalore - woohoo!!

just by being there...

The whole girls and dance culture kind of scares me - it brings up images of curling irons, buns and makeup, lots of pink glittery outfits, dance teams with young girls in trashy outfits unknowingly objectifying themselves at basketball games and then if you were to be any good at it it's a forty minute drive one way to a two hour lesson, every day, eating disorders, more revealing outfits, wigs, pageants, a land as foreign to me as Narnia. It sort of worries me that girls are bombarded with the whole Disney / Barbie / Fairytopia 100 times more intensely than when I was younger - and even back then in the 70's I was acutely aware that I was a lot bigger than all the other girls in the ballet class that I begged my mom to take me to ... so I worry about my girls who are very likey going to be around six feet tall - and who both LOVE to dance and very much want to do all the dance stuff other girls are doing.... But there is a style of dance that seems just a little less girly to me, and that is Irish dance. When I was rowing, one of my mates who is at least 6 feet tall, went to two Olympics, competed in numerous World Championships etc... did Irish step dancing all the way through high school. So when I found out that there was a good Irish dance group in Spokane I decided that if Lucy wanted to do it I would help her get started - my thinking is that this is a style of dance that a "tall girl" can do - and that spending years doing Irish dance wouldn't necessarily preclude Lu from doing sports as well - I don't know- there are wigs involved too. So last weekend we took the girls to the Bing to see An Dochas and the Haran Irish Dancers for their Christmas concert and out to dinner afterward. Lucy and Grace were on the edges of their seats during all of the dance numbers, which were breathtaking. Lucy was doing her steps down the street back to the car and as we sat eating dinner she said: "Mom, I got better just from being there."Like by osmosis? or transmission? from her teacher who danced in front of us to her... hummm... sounds like the natural ideal of teacher student interaction. 12 more days till I leave for Mysore....

back to the kitchens...

So I never finished that last post regarding the kitchens etc... which is in regards to finding a place to live while I am in Mysore. But to give the full picture you need to know that I actually have an email in my inbox from Sharath Rangaswamy saying "We have received your application and it has been accepted by us. So you can come according to your dates.
Please do not respond this mail, this is just for confirmation. Thank you,KPJAYI, Mysore." And you also need to know that according to the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute website the shala is "full" from January 10 through March 9th. (and I arrive on the 12th) BTW I am still rather doubtful that I am actually going to be going to India. I gather that January is usually a "full" time at the Shala but the rumor is that this January might be the fullest ever seen. Maybe with a lot of first timers like me who after Guruji's death last May approached going to Mysore with a renewed conviction. For me it all started when we realized that there would probably be a big memorial this coming May, as is the Hindu custom. May would be about the worst possible time for Dan, because of the rowing season, whereas at least for the majority of the time I'm gone Dan is indoors and spring racing won't have yet started....

Anyway, practically speaking what this means is that there could be upwards 200 westerners descending on Mysore all at once this January... all of them looking for the best deal for the best room. And some of the advice I've gotten is:
Be specific about what you want, and clear about the specifics of what's offered. For example do I want an independent house, a flat, or a room in shared house?
If not an independent house: are the owners co-resident (could be just fine, could be a problem)? ground floor or upper floor? separate electric meter or shared?
Number of bedrooms? Kitchen? For one month yes. If kitchen, is there gas, stove, basic utensils for cooking and eating? umm yes.. Water purifier? If not, arrangements for water can delivery? yes? Western or Indian toilet? not sure what that means, thinking western? Hot water? yes, Shower? yes, Ceiling fans (especially in bedroom?) Dependable water supply (typically from underground sump)? How close to the shala? walking distance? What furnishings are provided (being here for just a month, the less you have to do to make things livable the better)? How much light?
How much air? enough to breath? Window screens (i.e., curtains)? Mosquito mesh on windows or net for bed? yes! Sheets, pillows, top cover for bed? I'm told I can buy these for just a few rupees. Electricity included in rent or separate? (I've never heard of water not being included.) Is housecleaning included in rent or separate?... okay so you can see this is a fairly daunting process. Luckily though I have some help... for one a man I met a while ago when I was in Virginia, Randy lives there in mysore (see photo above)and he is okay with me coming directly to his house at 4am on the 12th to get my bearings and figure out where I'm going to try to go and what I'm going to do... Thank you Randy.

Planes, cars and kitchens...

Ok so I arrive in Bangalore at 12:35 am on the 12th (which will be 12:35 pm on the 11th here, I think) and I'm going to have a car come pick me up at the airport. My understanding is that I need to call Ganesh (not to be confused with the elephant god :)) or send him an email to arrange a car and it should cost between $30-$40 dollars. There are apparently a few entrepreneurial individuals associated with the Sri K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute who help the western yoga students with anything and every thing. So there is probably a good chance I won't be the only yoga student being picked up that morning. I've heard stories from the "old timers" that this 86 mile drive can be VERY slow depending on traffic and for the fact that the road used to be in great disrepair, but I believe several years ago the road was repaired, and I'm hoping that getting in so early in the morning will make it an okay trip. This is not the most economical way to make the trip from Bangalore to Mysore (there are also buses and trains) but I am told the easiest especially for a "first timer".