Revival and Determination

Ok. I’m finally back to near normal….determined to keep my eating of Indian food down to an absolute minimum. I’m determined to cook all those organic pulses I bought when I first arrived--dare I say--on the stovetop. Oops, I think I just boiled over the milk for my tea. Yep. Darn it.


Yesterday practice session was amazing: the reason many of us travel all the way to India. Mr. Iyengar taught Sirsasana and Backbends to Patricia, Lois and Stephanie. Other senior teachers and a few us bold enough to dare to be in the shadows either blatantly tried the poses or secretly tried to mimic the actions Mr. Iyengar was giving in similar poses (this was me). Every once in while I’d try the actual pose he was teaching; but I still wasn’t quite up to the 30 or so drop-backs that the others completed—beautifully I might add. It’s amazing to watch these older (are a couple of them perhaps even in their sixties?) women effortlessly drop-back into backbends then gracefully lift themselves back to Tadasana. Inspirational to say the least. Mr. Iyengar’s comment: “Never be satisfied. Keep looking for more connection.”

Then Gabrielle, Heidi and I rented a car and went shopping. Renting a car with AC versus being choked by the deathly fumes of diesel in the rickshaws presented Heidi and me with a whole new world. Instead of arriving at your destination feeling dirty and wondering if the bus you just sat behind in traffic for 15 minutes could mean your early death, you arrive fresh, clean and feeling like a queen. For four hours of being driven all around Pune, we paid about $5 each. Clearly a private care is a worthwhile choice if you have serious shopping as Gabrielle and Heidi did. I was simply along for the ride.

The first destination we went to was the supposively largest mall in Asia, though I’m sure Dubai would disagree. Modern construction gone all wrong. Clearly, the architect watched too much Star Trek incorporating way too many long circular glass empty hallways and strange glass circular unusable upper skylight areas. Apparently, they build this anti-feng shei concrete atrocity right before the crash and so there are about 15 stores actually open in this HUGE---and I mean it looks like an AIRPORT--HUGE mall. To top it all off, we were very nearly the only people shopping there. Even the escalators were turned off. Though when we went to climb them like stairs, we were shushed down by the security guard and had to walk around to the proper “Up” escalator which she kindly turned on for us. Rules are rules, I guess. It was eerie

We followed this with a tea and cake at a very Starbucks looking coffee shop, and then continued on our way until our four hours was up. Exhausted from all the shopping, we returned to our places, showered and then enjoyed Geeta’s cold and exhaustion relieving pranayama class.

Feeling revived, Heidi, I and Richard Schachtel decided to go out for the evening. Donning his gas mask as Heidi and I contemplated that as ridiculous as it looked, it probably wasn’t such a bad idea, we shared a rickshaw all the way across town to Shisha’s in Koregaon park, near the famous OSHO ashram. This is the area where most Westerners stay and the dinner club we went to actually had live jazz. I enjoyed finger chips, white rice and an over salted salty potato parantha (think wheat pancake here), while Heidi and Richard ventured into the realm of Indian food. The best part of the entire trip (and as I’m finding eating in Pune in general) are the fresh lime soda waters that we drank. Yum.

I’m determined to cook all those organic pulses I bought when I first arrived--dare I say--on the stovetop. I’m soaking kidney beans now and will keep you all posted.