99to1

Going to Bengalooru instead.

Guess that also means there will be no more Mysore Style Ashtanga, there'll be Mysooru Style.

Not even going to count the hours... I've got to pack...

Thanks to Loren... she helped me quite a bit.

Here's the plan:
Travel from Montreal, to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Bangalore, rest and listen to the ipod
Taxi to the appartment
Unpack a bit
Travel to Jayanagar practice with Sharmila (it'll be saturday morning)
Travel back to appartment; sleep a bit
Wake early sunday am to fetch Ian and Omar, so taxi back to the airport
Travel to appartment and sleep
Travel to downtown Bangalore for a bite to eat with Ian and Omar
Travel back to appartment sleep a full night (I hope)
Start day 1 of the 20 day course

Crazy busy at work... no time for most things...
Hands can clasp on the other side of my feet during forward bends... and in just 5 days time.

Driver mix-up lead to 2 missed practice sessions :-(

More photos to come...

This is the end of week 2...
My trip is about half over, I can't imagine where the time has gone...

Just for now... here's a visual exerpt of my stay.

Tonight Omar Ian and myself leave for a weekend in Mysore... no zoo this time. :-)

Pix... (from Mysore to be posted after the weekend)

The course is pretty much 3/4's finished. I have been busy trying to keep ahead of the attendees. They're sharp, and they deserve much more detail then the clients I typically teach. I'm giong into a lot more detail in terms of how actual production is handled... difficult task... as I'm still not at that level. We've got a special lunch event tomorrow... going to put on my shirt and tie.

Ian called me from home, to say he's safe at home. Omar and I miss him... he's good to be with. He heard me answer the phone a few times when Loren has called, and when I answered his call, he greeted me with a "hello handsome lover" !

Omar and I got a rare opportunity; we got to go inside the Vidhana Soudha. This is Karnataca's parliment building. We were in both the houses. One of the students has connections and she offered to arrange this for us. I'll try to find time to scale down some of the photos, and post them...

This is the last weekend I have here... and all the shopping I have to do will probably happen saturday and sunday... going to be hectic..

It's about 22:00 hrs and Omar and the new guys are out on the town doing a movie and some shopping and likely another meal at Ullas. I've got the ipod playing... just now one of the Hindhi songs I got from Kishore came up on shuffle... I'm typing these entries and enjoying a beer... going to call it quits soon as I don't want to be up when the boys get home... I'll have to stay up... and the morning is comming too soon. Practice is at Alliance Francaise tomorrow... easier commute...

Will write later about the weekend in Mysore, stpooing by the shala to shop...and the Ayurvedic massage at Indus Valley Ayruvedic center.

Looking forward to showing Smitha and Kishore and Vidhu and Sunil my photos. Though I know it'll be an experience in the ordinay for them... just that it'll be a nice reminder of home as they've been in Montreal for so long now...

I miss Loren and Zen
Really I do

G'night...

I am loving the opportunity to practice with Sharmila again... she is really wonderful. Sha has suggested that I go early to start my practice before she arrives. So that I can get on to the postures she will assist me with sooner, as I have to be back in the car by 07:30 to avoid Bangalore's rush-hour crunch. Which is impossible to describe.

Her adjustments/help starts with the parsvatanasana. It takes me a while to get there, I still move pretty slowly. Next help comes with the prasarita Ps... she holds my waist from behind and lowers head to floor. I've still got a pretty wide gap there between feet and where head touches down. It's cute to see her little feet gently scrambling forward to take my weight as head goes down... I almost ask everytime we do ... you ready? You got me? And she always there...

Next up is utktasan.. "sit lower she says" as if she maybe is thinking I'm not sure that this is required. It's funny...

Then uttitha HP. This is quite a routine. She holds my heel in her hand at her shoulder level, and with the other hand gently assists my trunk to lower in the bow/forward bend towards knee. Our heads are pretty close together at his point. In a way i consider it a bow to her in gratitude for her help. Then there's phase 2 where she walks leg out to the side.

My ten years of ice hockey, and 25 years of cycling groin still can't quite figure out how to allow this pose to happen. It ends up being an off kilter standing twisting sideways bend. She almost always has the same verbal cue for me... "stand up straight". Her tone is so neurtal that it sounds as if she thinks I will be able to do it... I almost burst out laughing each time... then I try to stand up straight... and I become convinced that I feasably could actually yank my big toe right from my foot.

Then there's the sitting poses...
She does not help with dandasana or purvotanasana... but with pretty much everything else... paschimatan c is starting to happen, in that I'm clasping fingers on the other side of my feet. And I love her approach to tiriang MPP... her leg against my trunk/ribs to prevent me from toppling over, and a gentle downward pressure on the back to deepen.

That's the summary... I mean there's a lot more going on but I don't have what it takes to go through it pose by pose. The bad news is that on my first day of practice, under my own steam, I managed to tweak my right knee. I started the leg-cradle modification of ardha baddha paschimatan, and Sharmila suggested that I simply cross the leg and bend forward. Which I did (and have done before) and this time felt a little tick in the knee. It's pretty sore if I attempt any half-boound lotus pose. Too bad, as I really don't like to injure myslef in practice. And doubly bad as she almost has my fingers clasping in marichi B with the left leg in half lotus.

The good news is that I've managed to not shred my toes to pieces.

This am before 07:20...

Wow...
I can't believe that I'm already having to think about packing. Really wish that the Bangalore gang currently in Montreal was here, would have been a real treat to visit with them in their city.

OK, I've gone a bit over the edge...
Kishore and Smitha stongly suggested that I listen to the Gayatri mantra. I've got 7 new cds, and 5 of them are exclusively that... am currently listenning to Anuradha Paudwal singing it... like 57 minutes of sweet rythm tones and words.

In the mornings, I've got just enough time to listen to Pandit Jasraj recite it 108 times... nice way to get into an inner space to do asana. I played it for Sharmila and tomorrow she'll be giving me her ipod so I can update it with a few of these recent cds. I think also she'd like me to rip a cd for her, did she say it was Patanjali's yoga sutras?? We'll see...

Omar's last night tonight... he's in the dreaded Tuesday night conference call... 2.5+ hours...
We may watch Dogma with Aashish tonight, if the call ever ends. Shawn will move into Omars room right away... the same room I was in in 2004. I'm still in the maharanni room, the one Johnny had in '04.

Shawn's here, another colleague, and his company is welcome... Omar and I have been missing Ian...
Shawn fits in nicely with us. We've re-established what we call the Bermuda triangle... one guy on the sofa, Omar on the grand phubha reclining sofa and me on the chair with feet up on the hassac.

The new guys I've got here as students are entertaining, very different styles, languages, energies, a strong good comic blend actually. Can't explain it really...

Last night we had a late dinner at Bhaghini's (the one with the waterfall inside for those of you who know) with Glen from the office here, and a few beers... made it a tad hard getting up for practice. Though not as hard as it made the practice itself.... gosh. Despite this, a wrist bind in paschimatanasana came very close to happening this morning. Might have been the sweett pan (see attached photos). Ref, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paan

I miss Montreal and at the same time don't want to pack or to get ready to leave. I may delay my leaving by one day, to get another day with the students... and 2 more days with Sharmila.

Miss you all...