Today is exactly three weeks in India, 21 days of dal fry and veg thali, very early mornings and intense asana practice, countless breaths spent in Ardo Mukku Savanasana (Downward Facing Dog). It’s been wonderful so far, but I am also in paradise as far as Indian villages are concerned. This has been an incredibly quiet little rural village up until now, but this week so many new little shops selling exactly the same things as the others have opened and new restaurants, guesthouses and massage clinics too.
The monsoon season is officially over and the people here are really kicking it into high gear and preparing for tourist season, all of our favorite places to eat have raised the prices by 5-15 INR! It’s hot and humid still, but I am finally getting used to the constant sweat I’ve been in, and although there is no physical change that I can see, my body feels so much stronger. When we first started the course, vinyasas were a struggle. Flowing smoothly through Sun Salutations, holding poses for the full five breaths, doing push up after pushup and rolling from Chattaranga (Plank) to Up Dog, it was all so hard and exhausting! Now its almost easy, and after four hours of yoga everyday I’m still ready to shower and go out, no longer so utterly dead tired that I could barely keep my eyes open at 7pm!
We started teaching sections of the Primary Series in our second week and have moved onto developing our own sequences and styles in the afternoon classes. I am so proud of myself, having been asked to teach more than anyone else in our class by our teacher Deepak and by my fellow students. Today after jumping in and leading a class of 19 for an hour all through the standing poses and half of the sitting, using all the Sanskrit names, mentioning dristi, bandhas and breath count, I was told by my peers that it felt like a regular class, and that I teach like I’ve been doing it for years. It was so nice to hear, so nice to have embraced this training.
But it’s almost over! Time is such a funny thing, moving so quickly these days that I barely have time to experience the days before the sun is setting! Although I grumble getting out of bed in the dark every morning at 5:30 am, there is something magical about being up before the sun and it is so wonderful to have the whole day planned out, to not have any decisions to make other than what to eat for dinner… if I could, I would do another TTC next month, I would stay in this healthy, spiritual environment as long as possible.
I’ve decided that although I want so badly to see the Himalayas and the high altitude lakes and plains of northern India and Nepal, I am instead going to head south when I leave here next week. It would be so cool to go to the mountains but I just did not pack and prepare properly for anything but the tropics. That just means that I will have to come back again, and I do not mind that thought at all.
