torsdag 30 oktober 2008

Diwali

Finaly Diwali is over. The whole neighbourhood has been like a warzone for three days. Kids blowing off fire crackers all day (and all night) long. It´s been perilous to go outside! And difficult to sleep with all the noise. Besides the crackers, people light oil lamps outside their houses every evening for three days. That, on the other hand, is beautiful. Divali is the festival of lights, it´s to celebrate the god Rama (there are soo many diffrent gods, it´s hard to keep track of them all). The crackers are meant to scare away the demons.
The first eveing of the festival we went to a restaurant on top of a roof in the middle of Mysore, so that we could see the fireworks. There was so much smoke from the fireworks that it was hard to see them! What we did see were rats! Climbing a pillar just next to the kitchen!
After that we took a walk in town among workshops and the everyday life of town, and took pictures. That was great fun! Most people are happy to pose, if you just ask them. Just one old woman wanted 10 rupees. I will try to put up some pics here if I manage...

tisdag 21 oktober 2008

Practice

My first week of practice was great. I felt soo flexible!
This has changed. The last two weeks I have been more stiff. People say that it goes in circles. You are flexible for a while, then you feel stiff for a while, and then suddenly you are flexible again for some time and so on. So, I am now waiting to become more flexible again!
Sharath is humming and smiling at me when he adjusts me in Marichyasana C (my last posture). I am not advancing there for the moment. My headstands feel more secure, perhaps I am a bit stronger, but otherwise I don't really feal any improvement in the practice. Again people say it takes atleast a month for the practice to change down here. Also that you notice what has changed when you come home. At the moment, I don't want to come home!
Hopefully in a few weeks I can write that my practice is amazing:-)

Being Busy vs Being Bored

Well, I haven't written for a while since I've been filling up my days with activities, and I haven't had the energy to go to the internet cafe (you usually have to wait for quite som time too to get a computer).
Last week I had one day when I felt bored. Used to having my days filled with activities, a day without anything special to do felt boring. But I think it can be good to be bored sometimes. You need a balance between rest and activity, boredom and having fun etc.
Anyways, what have I been doing the last days?
One day I went to visit a local artist who paints these amazing works of art. Aparently he is quite famous. He was such a wonderful person. I wish he gave painting classes. He felt like a true guru. I don't remember his name right now, but I have a little broschure with his work.
Another day I went with some friends (The Swedish Collection as we are called) to visit an ashram, but it was closed, so we went to the nearby temple instead. This is really a religious country. I like that. Religion is everywhere. Every morning the women are out painting mandalas outside the gates. It's really beautiful.
Yesterday we went to visit the shala where Krishnamacharya taught Pattabi Jois and others. It was definitely different than the new shala where we are practicing now! Upstairs in that building BNS Iyengar is teaching today (not to get mixed up with BKS). Man, it was dirty! The floor was full of dirt, and they practiced on rugs that were falling apart! Anyways, it was nice to see.

tisdag 14 oktober 2008

Lunch With The Landlord

Last Sunday Annette and I were invited to lunch with our landlord. When we were in their house earlier, we wondered where they eat, since there were no tables. Now I know; they eat on the floor. We also got their only cutlery, since they eat with their hands. The Indians say that eating with your hands makes the food taste better, and improves your digestion.

So, after carefully washing our hands, we sat down on the floor and observed the family to understand HOW to eat with your hands. It's nearly an artform. Imagine to eat rice and a hot, gruely dal with just your fingers! To end the meal we were served rice mixed with curd (yogurt), which is said to absorb the heat in the food, and make your stomach calm. The only thing was that there was ofcourse spices in that too! Pieces of whole, green chilies! The small, really hot kind! You are ofcourse not supposed to eat them. But I didn't see them, so I bit in a piece of chili! Tears were flowing, and I got hick up! "Look up in the ceiling" they shouted. They gave me a tablespoon of sugar to melt on my tongue, and after a while the heat was gone. What an experience! I think eating with my hands is not for me.

In The Waiting Room

It's always a bit chaotic in the waiting room before going into the shala in the morning. Everyone is apointed a time for practice, and the longer you've been here, the earlier times you get. I started at 7.15, now I have 7, and I will probably practice earlier and earlier as time goes by. People come and people go, so Sharath moves people back so the newcomers get the late times.

It's quite democratic. It doesn't matter if you are a hotshot, or a long time student or if you are here for the first time. You get your time, and you just accept that. Maybe like five to ten people get the same time, so in the waiting room, you have to keep track of who was there before you. The thing is that some people get there really early (my teacher told me that Sharath really disaproves of this, I'm beginning to understand why now). So there is always a confusion on whos turn it is to go into the shala when Sharath shouts "One more!".

Yesterday and today there was this guy who came after me, and after a lot of people who were waiting to go in. I know he has the same time as me and others waiting. He just went in before everyone else! We were just looking at each other like questionmarks. I wish I had said to him "Have you studied the Yoga Sutras, I mean, really studied them?". Just as well I didn't.

There was also this incident in ledd class when this girl asked another girl who had stopped in an earlier pose to move so that she could get more space! You are supposed to sit on your mat in padmasana and wait to join the finishing postures. Luckily Saraswati saw this and asked the girl to come back.

So, there are a lot of big egoes here. I'm thinking of asteya- non stealing. If you rob someone of there time and space, that's a form of stealing.
Most people are really wonderful and humble here, but there is a group of people who are "the cool ones" with big egoes. Some people say "hi" to you, some don't even see you. I guess you get this everywhere, even with yogis. I just try to avoid them, but since I wrote this post on the blog, they got to me somehow...

lördag 11 oktober 2008

Feeling Great

Two weeks in India, and I am feeling great! This a lifestyle that suits me....

The fact that I am not stressed, and not sitting in front of a computer 8 hours a day is evident.

Furthermore, the heat does me good. It is not so humid as I feared, so this is good. I am more flexible, and I have no pain in my hip, and my joints don't crack as much!

People here (the yogis that is), only eat twice a day. Breakfast and then a late lunch in the afternoon. We go to bed early, so it works fine. You don't get so hungry when it's hot either. The food is really healthy and nutricious. This is an an eating habit that fits me well. I have more energy, because the body has time and space to digest the food.

My skin is really good, I have lost weight, I have a nice tan, I feel fit from practicing 6 days a week (both physically and mentally), I meditate every evening, and I have time to reflect, so my mind is still. Yeah, I really feel in harmony with myself and everything around me! I wish more people could experience this! I hope it will continue this way...

måndag 6 oktober 2008

Ayurveda Course

Today I started taking a course in Ayurveda with a Dr. Anil Kumar. He is supposed to be one of the best here in Mysore. It will be twice a week for four weeks. It's an introductory course. He seems very good.
We where told to meet at the coconut stand at 11 am, and then we would go together. Somehow the woman who organised the course didn't show up, and we didn't even know if there was going to be a course or not! But after a few phone calls we decided to go anyway. When we got there there was no problem. I guess that's India; you never know how things are going to work out, but they somehow!

lördag 4 oktober 2008

Shopping

Today it is quite cloudy after a rainy night. We decided to go shopping. We went to a store that is called "Rashinkar". They have yoga books, yoga mats, yoga bags, scarves, silk....
I shopped a lot. But it is soo cheap compared to Sweden! For 4560 rupees I got five yoga books, good ones, a "monk bag", three scarves (two in raw silk), a cotton yoga mat and a yoga bag. I think I might have to shipp some things home! Books and mats weight a lot! I bought a cheap cotton mat on my first day here, but I am not so satisfied with it. I also bought a rubber(or was it plastic?) mat today. The one I brought with me is tearing up the skin under my big toes. I had forgotten about this. These mats I will leave here when I go home. Even though everything is cheap, it all adds up! I will have to start making acounts to keep track of my shopping. And to think before I buy things. Many things are really bad quality. Like a nice bag I bought the other day for 150 rps (20 kr). Really unecessary. It's already falling apart. But, there are still many things I want to buy! Hmmm.
Going home now to read some in my books before I go to Anus for some dinner. Life is easy here.

Ledd Class

Friday was ledd class. Sharath was counting and saying the name of the postures.....samasthiti, ekam inhale, dve exhale.....
When he had counted to two, I had counted to five, at least! So in that way it was tough, to hold the postures for a longer time than what you are used to!
They say it is good for learning the vinyasas, to know exactly when to inhale and exhale.
There was a French TV-team there filming us. They were making a documentary for French television. I was interviewed!! It might come out on You Tube.....in a way I hope they cut me out. I was soo sweaty and probably red in the face!

Getting To Know People

Saturday and no practice. I slept to 8:30 pm! I had a good nights sleep. Am I getting used to the mattress? Last night we were invited to a party at Collette's place. She is a Canadian woman that Britta knows from chanting class. She rents a room in a house that is owned by a Norwegian ashtangi called Alexander Medin. He lives a great part of the year in Mysore, so he has built himself a house here in Gokulam. Very nice, modern, whin a zen-ish garden. If I come here again on my own I might consider renting a room in that house! Really, there is no problem coming here on your own. It might even be good. You get to know people very easily. After practice in the morning, people hang outside the shala and drink coconut and chat. After that you go home and change and then go for breakfast. There are a few places to go for breakfast. So far I've been to Santosha and Om Cafe. Most people are easy to talk to, especially if they are newcomers. I've noticed that people who have been here a while, or come every year are somewhat reluctant to talk to rookies. In a way that is understandable, since people come and go all the time. On the other hand you can sense that there is a kind of hierarchy. I prefer the humble people, those who think it is interesting to talk to other people despite if they are advanced yogis or newcomers. And there are ofcourse many of those too!
At the party I got to know a nice Brittish girl who tipped us about an Ayurvedic course that starts on Monday with a Dr. Kumar. I am going to go and see what it is. I really want to learn more about Ayurveda, and also it will be twice a week. It will be nice to have something more to do, and to have a routine. It might be just enough, people are saying how easy it is to get too busy here, when what you really need is to focus on the yoga and also have time to relax!

onsdag 1 oktober 2008

The Shala

When I went to register, I was nervous. Guruji was sitting in his chair, but he is looking very old and perhaps a bit senile. I hardly dared to look at him! Sharath asked us to fill in a form, gave us a card and asked ut to come at 7.15 am.
The next morning we arived 15 minutes early: 5 minutes earlier as said Sharath and an extra 10 minutes ealy because the shala clock goes tem minutes before!
There was a lot of energy in the room, and it was very warm and sweatty! But I was soo flexible! My god, what a difference! But as I anticipated, he stopped me in Marichy C. Fine with me. When I was going to do headstand I was really nervouse, since I had only done it on my own a couple of times. The first few attempts were shaky, but then I made it. Ouff!
After practice you can buy a coconut to drink for ten rupies and chat with the other yogis before you go home to was, change and the go for breakfast. Lots of Japanese people are here, Brasilians, Americans and Italians. There are also other Europeans, Finns, Irish, Brittish, Turkish, but I think we are in minority!

More to come!

Getting Settled

The Apartment
We live in an apartment that is built on top of a house belonging to an Indian family. It is a newly built house, very nice in a quiet area, five minutes walk from the shala. You walk up a staircase on the side of the house. It has a fairly big living room, a kitchen, one bedroom, a nice bathroom (after we cleaned it) and a lovely terass! The house is on a hillslope, so it's quite high up, which gives us a wonderfull view! We can see Chamundi Hill from our terrace.
There had only lived one person there before, a Chinese woman, but the place was soo dirty that we had to scrubb tthe place despite that an Indian cleaning lady had cleaned the place bofore! We decided to do our own cleaning. The Indian cleaning is not what we Swedes would consider clean! But, if I can get used to the hard bed, or eventually buy another mattress, I think I will enjoy living here.

Arriving in Mysore

Finally, I'm in Mysore! The plane was 8 hours delayed, so we had a long wait at Heathrow. Our preordered taxi waited for us from 4 a.m till 12.00! Then it tokk nearly four hours to drive from Bangalore to Mysore (180 km). Bad roads, cows, traffic jams, you name it. It was hot and we were tired. We finally arrived at the Green Hotel and just crashed. No dinner, hard beds, very noisy, but I slept uninterupted for ten hours! It was a very nice hotel though.

Next morning we went to Gokulam, which is the area where the shala is located. It is Mysore's posh area. We looked up Shiva, who is one of the two "brokers" who can help you with just about everything. He is a man in orange clothes and a long beard who greats you with "Namaste". Not the kind of man you would think of as a businessman, more of a holy man, but I'm sure he makes big money! He said he only had two possible apartments for us, one with just one bedroom, and one with two bedrooms, but it was very dark. We looked at the one with one bedroom, thought it was nice, but could we please see a few more before we decide? Preferably with two bedrooms? "Why you want to look at other?" "If you like this one, you take it!" Ok we said a bit shaken, we take it. Then we went to have a coffee at Vivienns, and we talked to some people who said that 12 000 rupies for only one bedroom sounded very much, so we decided to look at a few more apartments the next day.

We found two other brokers, Murthy and Raju (actually a rickshawdriver with connections), but all the apartments we saw were too dark, too dirty or too far away from the shala. So we finnaly settled for the first one: the one with one bedroom for 12 000 rupies. Ok, finally we can settle down.