Despite my self-induced level of stress regarding traveling, all went smoothly on the longest leg of our journey. Karen and I arrived in Mumbai late last night. We met up with Chris Beach, president of IYNAUS in Newark. It was entirely a coincidence that he was on the same flight from Newark to Mumbai. A bigger coincidence was that his seat on the flight was the center seat between Karen and me! We were astounded. Karen, Chris and I had a fairly pleasant 15 hour flight and all of us managed to sleep pretty well.


We drove through crazy traffic from the airport to the hotel. Our driver to the Leela hotel told us that they are undergoing a massive expansion at the airport – building a brand new departures building so that the arrivals and departures will be in separate buildings.

Arrival at the Leela Hotel was interesting. We had to go through a airport like scanner and our luggage was x-rayed for security purposes. The hotel lobby is beautiful, and smelled strongly of incense. It was Karen’s birthday and the hotel had flowers and a chocolate cake waiting for her. We ate the cake at 11:30a at night and it hit the spot!

It is morning now in Mumbai and rainy and gloomy. Our of our hotel window we can see the beginnings of an elevated train track. They have built the elevated concrete supports in pieces for some reason, leaving large gaps of 200 feet.

We are packing up now for our four hour ride to Pune.

almost ready to launch

Last minute details are falling into place. As always, I have to give up on my ambitious plans for my last day home. Mow the lawn? Drive downtown to have lunch with my son? Harvest the garlic? Not all of these are going to happen! I did manage to get everything squared away at the yoga center and my bags are packed and ready.
I had hoped I would be less stressed out by my impending departure this time around, but I was wrong. I have managed to give myself a tension headache. My youngest son has suggested that it is "my day". He made me lunch (peanut butter sandwich, a giant bowl of raspberries and a popsicle) and declared that we should watch The Lord of the Rings. We settled on the first movie and happily joined Middle Earth for a few hours.

Here we go again

I leave for my second trip to Pune in just over 2 weeks! Writing a blog and reading your comments was very therapeutic for me so I have decided to keep a blog again. Look for more posts soon.

Home

I made it home yesterday at noon after 36 hours of traveling.

Our last pranayama class was beautiful. Geeta knew that most of us were leaving and I could tell she wanted to be sure we understood what she was teaching. After class was over we paid her our respects and she seemed to soften as she told each of us Namaskar. I don't know how this month will effect my teaching. I feel I don't know where to begin with what I have learned, but feel certain that my yoga practice has been irrevocably changed.

Then it was hurry up and wait for our driver from Pune to Mumbai. We had ended up with a rather small car, and we had to tie some of our luggage to the top, as Tina from Seattle joined us for the drive. The waterfalls that I saw at the beginning of the month were gone as it hadn't rained for some time. The Arabian Sea was silent and grey. A good hour of our four hour drive was making our way through the streets of Mumbai, where the pollution seemed more intense than when we arrived. We ate a wonderful dinner at the Leela hotel before we headed to the airport.

The scene at the Mumbai airport was surreal. We must have shown our passport to eight different people, our carry-ons were x-rayed twice, every person was "wanded" twice and we were not allowed to carry drinking water onto the airplane. There were soldiers with machine guns everywhere and we had to go through Indian Immigration on the way out. The process felt quite violating, and what we go through here in the States is minor in comparison.

I got teary-eyed as the plane touched down in Newark. I now know why people want to kiss the ground of their home. Karen and I said goodbye at my gate. Karen - thanks, I couldn't have asked for a better companion. When my plane dropped down through the clouds and I caught my first glimpse of the Columbia river I started getting emotional. My husband and son met me at the airport and I was overcome with happiness. Twelve hours of sleep later I feel almost normal, but still somewhat stunned at being home. Best of all, today is my 46th birthday and I get to celebrate surrounded by family.

Thanks for reading my blog. I loved sharing and reading your comments. Writing was an important connection to home and helped me make it through this most incredible, challenging month!
Love,

Nina

Last Days in India

First, I have to explain womp rats and Biggs blog comments. The title of my last post was “Almost There”. This was a reference to a line from the first Star Wars movie that my friend Katherine and my sister Naomi often quoted to each other. So the womp rat quote and the reference to “never getting out of here” are both Luke Skywalker lines. Consider this an inside joke!

Karen is much better now and has rejoined classes. We only have 3 classes left, plus Institute night tonight where Geeta will give a talk on Yoga philosophy. The pranayama classes have been soothing and energizing. Both Geeta's and Prashant's teachings have had insights to remember and practice.

Yesterday I went with my new friend Tina to finish up shopping. Tina is from Seattle, so I am sure I will see her around! We went to an incense and perfumed oil store that was literally a hole in the wall. The shop smelled wonderful, and we sniffed rose, jasmine, and sandalwood oils before Tina selected rose and jasmine to take home with her. The shop owner had a steady hand as he poured the oils from a large bottle into smaller one ounce bottles and then packaged each bottle with a gold top and red velvet bag. We also went to a jewelery shop and bought a set of anklets to share. The women here wear anklets only in pairs, and most stores will not sell you just one. We were waited on by two 12 year old boys, who seemed eager to find the perfect anklets for us.
We also visited a castle that Nana said was over 350 years old, and a grocery store to stock up on cookies and chocolate. Our flatmate Oscar has turned out to be a cookie fanatic, and we can hardly keep stocked up. Then it was time to say goodbye to Nana as we wouldn't be seeing him again but I did get a picture of him.

We allowed ourselves to start packing today, and this heightened our already buoyant mood. Karen put the Dixie Chicks on the iPod and we had a great afternoon.

I will post again when I arrive home this weekend.

Almost There!

Karen and I have watched all the Star Wars movies, plus the musical Hair. We feel we are "almost there" in terms of our long adventure!

Our first pranayama class with Geeta was both relaxing and energizing. The shift from the powerful backbend practice to the more subtle breath work has come just in time. I can tell that the students are tired as they near the end of the month and are welcoming the new focus. I myself was more than ready! The size of the group has shrunk, giving us more room in the yoga hall and a less hurried atmosphere in getting and putting away the props.

The needed energy (physical and mental) to keep up this schedule is remarkable, and I have stopped observing classes as I feel the need to rest. I completely recovered from last week's downtime, but now Karen has come down with a terrible cold and is sleeping much of the time.
I no longer am phased by crossing the road or the traffic, and if I ever come back I know I will be more comfortable exploring different areas.

I know how anxious I am to get home by my eagerness to start packing. But I have restrained myself, knowing that it is too early. We have only four more nights in Pune, and then head to Mumbai for our flight on Saturday. I know I am not the only one longing for home. One of my new found friends said that she felt the month was like a running a marathon - making deals with herself to get through just one more day.

I will write at least one more time!

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!