Eleventh Post From India

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

No classes today as usual. Just three more days of classes, a ride to Mumbai and then 23 hours of flying and about 8 hours of waiting and I’ll be home. I know how to have fun.

I practiced in my flat this morning planning for what I am going to teach next week. I am psyched to get back to the students and the studio – and the other parts of my life.

I had my final massage with Bhybu today. It was the Chavetty Uzhicull treatment – the one where the feet are used to massage. He asked me to sit in Padmasana. Very funny Bhybu. If there was one pose I was working on while here it was Padmasana. Let’s just say I have not completed the asana yet. Progress yes, completion no. The massage started out like Uzhicull the full body massage. Then Bhybu held onto the ropes on the ceiling and started to use his feet. It was like a dance on the back of my body and he used the same movements and motions as if he was using his hands. Same thing on the front of the body. It was awesome. As I said before Bhybu is the man. Vanseh (one of the doctors) took my picture as I left and they wanted to make sure I emailed them later to let them know how I was doing. Great doctors, great massage practitioners and sweet people.

A student of mine from People’s Coop is a big fan of Meher Baba. I was told that there was a shrine by the place I get my massages so I searched it out today. I wanted to place an offering for my student and take some pictures. I found it after walking up and down the street for awhile. That’s for you Harry.

I must look like a native now. I was talking to my friend Alex and had just told him that if he needs to get something done in India that I was his man. A school boy about 10 years old walked up to me and asked me where the train station was. I said two signals down, go left one block, then right and it is down on the end. He said thanks and walked on. Alex looked at me like I was nuts. I only know a few places here and the train station is one of them.

I have one more task to try and complete before Sunday. The whole time I have been here I have been looking for new blankets for the studio. Nana has been looking all over and we have not been successful. Time is running out but Nana is confident he can hook me up. I am looking for 120 blankets (they are thinner than the Mexican blankets I currently use). The Institute usually sells them but they have been out for a while. These blankets are perfect because they are cotton, they don’t have any bumps and because they are thinner they are more versatile. If I can find them I’ll have to have them shipped and that takes up to two months. The shipping cost per blanket is more than the blanket costs but it still ends up way cheaper to buy them here. It’s India folks!

Thursday, 28 January 2010

Prashant’s class was exactly what we did on Monday.

Prashant Gems.

Learn that in every asana and every pranayama that the breath is different.
Resist taking a consumer approach to pranayama. Don’t think what the benefit is or what your next pranayama will be.
Resist being habitual in the practice.
Be creative when breathing.
Come up with your own vocabulary for the breath.

It seems like everyone I know or have met here that comes from the west gets some kind of stomach upset while they are here. Sometimes severe, sometimes mild. It’s my turn and fortunately for me it is mild. So today I’ll skip the practice session and rest and see how I feel about tonight’s class.