The Real India and Oops. I missed Wednesday.

I checked out of my hotel yesterday morning determined to have a flat by the end of the day. At $25 per night, this hotel was no deal. I had already put a note up at the Towers, the fancy high rise next to the Institute, requesting housing and I doubled my efforts by writing a note and placing it on the entry table at the Institute right before the morning practice session. “I’m looking for a room. Please find me practicing: red shorts, pink watch and a ponytail”.


I was nearly the first person there to practice. Ahhh, the rope wall. Every yoga prop you can imagine. Space to practice. Amazing. As people filtered into practice one by one, it began to seem like an old high school reunion: some of the crowd I know well, some of them seem vaguely familiar and several of them I’ve never seen before in my life. The December crowd, it would appear, is predominantly American, though yesterday did not seem busy at all. My guess is that the room will fill as the jet lag wears off.

A dressed to the tilt, Indian woman in an expensive sari sits waiting for me as I take a bathroom break during the practice session. She has an apartment, “not more than one mile from here”, that she wants to show me. She has a book with photographs and while her seeming disparity---she was a bit too eager to show me the space—should have clued me in, a Russian fellow and I went to look at the apartment anyway. As we are weaving in and out of traffic in her vehicle on one of Pune’s busiest and most polluted streets, we realize that this apartment is just way too far away from the Institute. We tell her this: she insists that we see the room anyway because “we’re almost there” and we might have friends. It takes us another 20 minutes to politely decline (again) and get back to where we started. I should have known better.

I lunched with Sharon Conroy at the new Italian restaurant around the corner from the Institute. Super sparkly high end and excellent salads (thank you Deborah Bristow for the tip) and again expensive. I think I spent $15 on lunch! But it was great to have a break from Indian food….and I counted the hours until I could plug in the clay cooker I brought with me though all those security check points.

Then I looked at a room for $300 with internet available in the apartment…..and mold. Then I looked at another nice room with its own bathroom for $400 in a large house across the street from the Institute. No wi-fi here and, according the one of the roommates, roaches rule the kitchen in the morning. This clearly will not do. Then I looked at a lovely free-standing small apartment, also close by, with its own kitchen and bathroom….and wi-fi if you stand in the garden. They wanted $500 for this space and it’s only available for December. By 3pm, the choice was obvious even though a fair bit more expensive than I had hoped for. I talked them down to $444 and moved into the apartment. Spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and moving furniture around, before getting ready for my first class at 6pm. I missed my afternoon nap because of the move and hoped that this might be the final transition into Indian time (since it’s 12.5 hours time difference from New Mexico).

Now the real India begins: the mosquitoes are vicious here. I guess I’d forgotten. I was thoroughly munched on yesterday. It takes 15 minutes to heat up the hot water (which is extremely humorous for those of you that know my plight in New Mexico) AND there is no electricity for 2 hours in the middle of the afternoon (thus no hot shower).

Luckily, the hot water turns on just in time for me to be able to take either a scalding hot shower or a cold one before class. Maybe I haven’t figured out how to balance the two into warm yet, but I have my suspicion that this just could be the way it is.

Perchant Iyengar is teaching tonight. We did 1.5 hours of Marichyasana III  followed by Utthita Trikonasana. The focus was breathing into the back, then breathing into the chest, then becoming aware of our “facial awareness”. His emphasis was to really be in our bodies and he refused to give technical instruction. You are not beginners, he told us. Meanwhile I started seeing stars about half way through the class (since I’d been up since 3am and I’m sure those twists were releasing some toxins). Last pose, Setubanda Sarvangasana. Classes are cancelled next Tuesday because the Iyengars are going to a wedding.

After class, I visit to the horrific, expensive mall across the street to buy some groceries, flee home to make a bit of dinner, ready to drop into bed from exhaustion. Ba Boom, Ba Boom, Ba Boom Indian disco techno greets me at my gate. It sounds like a night club right and I mean right behind my new apartment. I go to ask the landlords if they perhaps forgot to mention that there’s a night club behind my quiet little apartment. They assure me not. But this help matters at the moment, my computer speaker playing “om” hardly dents the techno dance. Thank god for the earplugs I brought, I thought, as I dropped into bed with my head squashed between two pillows. I thought of you, Camille.

I woke up at 4am, thrilled to finally start the clay cooker with breakfast so that I could begin Pranayama while the food cooked. The first sound of the morning? POP. Lights went out and everything. The end of the Clay cooker. A failed attempt. So sad.

So I’ve been cooking my precious supply of quinoa and some eggplant, tomatoes and mung beans stovetop while writing this entry. Unfortunately I can’t cook stovetop and breathe at the same time. My mind keeps going back to “is it burning yet?” Alas, I suppose I will have to buy a regular old crock-pot today and hope that the lead content in the glaze is minimal.

And now I must go to the garden to post this entry……oops, they forgot to give me the password for the Internet….


Oops. I missed Wednesday.

I accidentally slept through my first class with Geeta today. Wednesday is the only day that class is in the morning. I forgot it was Wednesday, went back to sleep around 6am, woke up around 9am and decided that it would be okay if I strolled into the practice session a bit late. Instead, I rolled into class way too late to join it. I watched the women’s class from the stairs then got smart, went to the upstairs studio and though I couldn’t make out Geeta’s instructions, I could peek down the stairs at Gabriella and follow the practice. Ultimately it was better this way….I used the support of the rope wall and the horse to finish all the standing poses. The sequence when I joined the class (about half way through) was Utthita Trikonasana, Utthita Parsvokanasana, Parivrtta Trikonasana, Parivrtta Parsvokonasana, Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana, Sirsasana, Janu Sirsasana, Pachimottanasana and then Salamba Sarvangasana. A pretty strong class for a bunch of jet lagged ladies.

After class, I decided to search out the Organic Grocer across town. A half an hour through the black smoke of diesel traffic, I arrive in the neighborhood Koreegan Park only to find out that the shop has closed forever. So I get back into the rickshaw and have him drop me to my next favorite shopping neighborhood next door to Ruby Clinic, a famous hospital in Pune. I look for my favorite clothing shop: it’s been replaced by a Panasonic store. I do find a smaller version of the shop, though it’s been reduced to essential oils and incense. Thank god! I buy an assortment of anti-mosquito essential oils in hopes that I might avoid future feasts by the ravenous beasts. Then I find a health food store packed with organic grains, spices and even more essential oils. Though compared to the States, the price of my purchases is negligible, but I am still managing to spend some serious cash here in India.

Then I find my favorite dairy with fresh butter, fresh ghee and curd and of course milk. Then I find my favorite music store but am by now ravenous myself and search for my favorite place to buy a Thali. This Punjabi (read that as SPICY) restaurant offers the typical white rice, wheat chapatti, two small veg dishes, a soup and a bit of curd (yogurt) for less than $1. At this point, I’m exhausted (after the wheat dish) and I decide I can visit the music store another day as I head for home.

I lay down for ½ hour to nap, determined to make it to the afternoon practice session. I slept three hours instead, got up and practiced at home, ate some dinner, paid my rent, read some, slept some more and am now having a cup of tea. It’s 12:30pm and I am, of course, totally awake. Oops….so much for all my time zone transitioning. In the end, I don’t really mind….yoga is about listening to the body and its needs. I worked hard to get here and if it takes me another few days of rest to recover, that’s okay. In the meantime, I hope not to miss another class or practice session…..