7-20 October 2011: Weeks 2 and 3 in Rishikesh

Wow. I'm already halfway done with yoga camp. Classes are getting more difficult and the asanas more advanced. I'm making steady progress in my practice and am starting to attain poses that I previously considered inaccessible. I'm gaining strength, balance, and flexibility daily. I still have a long ways to go--not that there's an ultimate place to "end up"--and plenty of struggles, but I'm satisfied with the growth. I get super frustrated with a pose and then as soon as I stop caring, it just starts to happen. I have native flexibility and pretty strong legs from years of hiking, but my upper body is (was?) fairly weak. It feels good to correct that. I'm also gaining a lot more general body awareness. I feel fantastic physically.

Brief rundown and highlights of the last 10 days or so:

2 early morning dunks in the Ganga, before sunrise, no less

1 trip to a goddess temple situated on a mountain at the end of a tortuous, single lane road

70 muscles (soon to be) memorized
1 sitar, tabla, Indian flute performance
Near daily photo ops with Indian tourists

40 Oms a day, minimum

Countless cups of chai (I'm developing a sugar addiction...):

7 chakras meticulously drawn and colored 

1 reading from a vedic astrologer (I should wear my hair long, I was a dancer in a past life, I will move states and change jobs in the next year, I should teach yoga and become an astrologer, seek self-employment)

1 visit to the now derelict ashram where the Beatles turned on, tuned in, and dropped out

Maharishi's meditation pods

Miscellany:

I just found out that the school doesn't have a fridge! Including staff, they're feeding upwards of 60 people 3 meals a day. Pretty impressive.

I love papaya so much. It reminds me a bit of cantaloupe, which I thought I didn't like, but I'm excited to try it again.

I miss my dog. A lot.


I'm so glad I brought my Chacos. I live in them and have only put on sneakers once. They're a lot sturdier than flip flops while still being convenient to slip on and off. 

Today I raft the Ganges. Afterwards, I'm going to an Ashtanga vinyasa class and then out to dinner.

This is the best way to spend $2 in Rishikesh:

Muesli, yogurt, and tons of fruit

Waterfalls and Holy Nights

The days are starting to run together. The first week of school flew by, yet I feel like I've been here a long time. The posts are going to be short for a while as the minutiae of my day-to-day comes off a bit boring in writing, though it's fascinating and loads of learning for me so far.

The evil Ravana prior to immolation.

Wednesday night we attended Dasara. It was festive and amusing. There was an impressive fireworks display within yards of the crowd. I've never been so close to explosives. In addition, the above statue was filled with fireworks which were set off at the end of the night. He went from statue to a smoldering frame within seconds. It was loud and impressive and made me grateful that I've never seen a war because the lights and sounds and suddenness would surely trigger any latent PTSD. Regulatory bodies in the U.S. would never let this fly.

More monkey. These langurs are not as aggressive as the macaques.

Bathing ghat on the Ganges

 

Today, Sunday, is our off day and it was awesome! I ended up hiking a couple of miles out of town to some waterfalls with a couple of the women from my class. It felt so, so good to hike and get into nature. I'm consistently surprised by how tropical it looks and feels here. Judging from the native plants (many of which we use in landscaping in Arizona), it never gets below freezing.

Holy calves love bananas.

Hare Shiva

 Tonight, the entire class headed to the river for Ganga Aarti, which is a ceremony performed every evening at sunset. There was lots of singing and chanting as we stood before a statue of Krishna. Even though I didn't know what was going on and the fact that the gods themselves hold no meaning to me, I found myself choked up several times. I think it's just the humanity of this place and the sense of community you feel when sharing an experience that's meaningful to a majority of the participants. The divisions between individuals start to melt away a little. Oh no! India's already making me woo woo and wishy washy. In related news, I've quit shaving for the duration of my stay at the school.

Hairy Jordan

5, 6 October 2011: Rishikesh

View from the yoga room. There are mountains beyond mountains, but the fog obscures them.

Not much to report. I'm settling into the routine here at the school nicely. I like waking up so early. I like the balance of structured learning/practicing/eating and open free time.

I might look into doing another ashram-type experience once I'm finished here. I'm also looking into WWOOF opportunities in India (working on an organic farm in exchange for room and board). Having spent time in both Delhi and Rishikesh, I definitely prefer smaller communities. The pace is less frenetic and the people less forward and pushy. People invite you into their shops here rather than following you for a quarter mile begging for your patronage. Plus, it's a tourist town and they're very accustomed to Westerners, so there's less obtrusive staring.

Yesterday, I had my eyebrows threaded. It took ten minutes and cost $1. I'm pleased with the results, though the brows are much thinner than I normally shape them. It was more painful than waxing or plucking because she had to keep going over the same areas over and over. I had to hold the skin of my eyelid taught while she threaded. It was a good experience and I'll continue to groom my brows this way for the rest of my stay.

After that, I wandered into the village and sat in a cafe that overlooked the Ganges for an hour drinking a papaya lassi. $0.50.

On my way back to the village, a monkey jumped off a wall and started approaching me. Aggressively. A village woman saw the altercation and successfully chased him off. I'm now a bit less enamored of the wildlife, but that doesn't stop the nervio I experience every time I see a baby monkey. Squee.

My evening asana class is moved up so we can attend Dasara on the river. It's my understanding that a large statue, an effigy of negativity, will be burned at sunset. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited to see this.

Yesterday we watched a documentary called Dirt. The teacher is very passionate about food systems and sustainable agriculture. I didn't expect to be talking about this sort of thing, but it feels like a complementary subject. I'd somewhat lost interest in gardening over the past several months and this program has surprisingly reignited it. I look forward to setting up another garden wherever I end up once I'm back in the states. As an aside, Paul Stamets, my favorite mycologist, was featured in the documentary, and I got a little choked up seeing someone so (tangentially) familiar to me in such a foreign place.

I like living with an international community. I like communal living in general so far, which, as an introvert, is a little surprising. There are students from Iran, Singapore, Holland, England, Russia, Canada, Mexico, China, Malaysia, France, New Zealand, United States, Turkey, and Australia. And those are just the countries I can remember. It's a very positive and open group, and I look forward to getting to know everyone better over the coming months.