Sunday, August 24, 2008

Sunday is a day of rest and blogging

A sense of ending has come over me in the last few days. We are busy making plans for our departure, exchanging email addresses with new friends and finishing our gift shopping. We have six more classes this coming week. The focus will change from backbends to pranayama (breath work).

Even though I couldn't participate fully in last week's backbending “extravaganza” I know that my poses have changed and opened. I was not feeling well for a couple of the classes and had to sit them out. But the classes I did take were fabulous and pushed me to my limits. And the corker (as our new English friend would say) was that today I got an amazing private lesson this morning from a teacher who shall go unnamed. She took advantage of all the work done this past week, and zeroed in on the areas of my body that are still stubborn, stuck and unwilling. She gave me some insight into what needs to happen so I have some work to do.

Karen had a major breakthrough- she accomplished “dropping back” from standing into a backbend. She was very excited to have achieved this milestone, something she hasn't done since she was 14!

We are enjoying teaching our Spanish flatmate English sayings. His favorites so far are "pedal to the metal" and "easy on the eyes". I have discovered that while English knowledge is required to take classes here, the level of proficiency varies. Some students can speak only haltingly but can understand quite well, while others are fluent. I suspect that there are also those who really don't understand much English at all - they must be following along as best as they can.

Pune is preparing for the Ganesh festival. Marigold garlands festoon store fronts and rickshaws. Strings of lights are being hung and animated elephant statues (Ganesh shrines) are appearing everywhere. Large scaffolding structures are being erected in the middle of busy intersections for more displays. The traffic is already chaotic – it will be interesting to see how much more congestion will be created by these towers. I am not sure of the date of the festival, but I am sure it will be soon. We hope to get some pictures to share.

After a week of no power load shedding, we are back on 3-5 hours a day of no power. Our building does have a generator to run a few things, but it is noisy. Just before the load shedding began the paper ran a story that there was enough power and that no more power outages were expected. This is just part of the India experience!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Nina,
Thanks for keeping up with the blog - I enjoy it very much. Now the time is suddenly sliding by quickly, no? Soon you'll be home and it will all seem like a dream.......
Bill M.

Don Gura said...

Nina,

I've enjoyed reading ad finally figured out how to respond. Pranayama week is the best of all. I remember my first trip to India and Pranayama week. It finally made sense ans I've never missed a day of Pranayama since. Get there early and bring your hanky. See you soon.

Don

Naomi said...

I'm sorry you're not feeling well. Are you better?

Unknown said...

Andrew's garden is full of marigolds, so I am imagining gold and orange ones, is that correct?? They smell wonderful here, hopefully there in India too!! Your blog makes me want to go try a backbend!! That's it, off I go... I'll report back, hehe! :-D

Anonymous said...

Nina,

I have enjoyed reading about your yoga experience in Pune. I had a lot of empathy as you described your experience with Urdhva Dhanurasana. While I don't have your years of experience, I feel the same way after doing that pose just a few times in class. I cannot imagine doing the pose many times over! Enjoy these last few days.

Theyoginme said...

Nina, I am in Chicago visiting family with the girls. We were at the Hindu temple where we did puja for my mother's 4th death anniversary today. I remembered you as I wondered how your temple visits went. Hope you made it to the Hanuman Mandir at least.

The temple has many inspirational signs. One that caught my attention was right by the area of the puja there was a sign that said "if you are angry, count to 10 before you speak, if you are really angry then count to a 100 - Thomas Jefferson".

I couldn't stop smiling after I read as I kept inserting yoga poses instead of the "count" in mind. I probably couldnt go past two in Urvadhanurasana - seriously modified and supported. I am certain the anger would be miles off.

I am eager to start classes in September. I was boasting along with Care that I had not had a cold in 2.5 years since I started yoga.... well it returned last week with a vengeance with a super hard gym class with Nuvana... go figure..

I hope you enjoy your last few days in Pune....

Nitin