Road To Mysore

This past week has been the busiest week I've had in Mysore. We're been practicing for our dance number for 2 hours everyday since Tuesday last week. We took Sunday off though but won't be taking any time off until the big day...Tuesday, July 11, exactly one more week.

The cast is already set. There are going to be 4 pairs...for the women we have Rima (originally from Gujarat, lived in London and presently living in India, also our Priety Zinta), Faith (from DC), Catherine (from Switzerland, better half of Mark) and Philipa (from London) and for the men we have, Vincent (needs no introduction), Stanley (from Singapore), Mark (from London/as in Mark and Catherine) and yours truly. It is a cool and fun group. We're having so much fun during practice that I don't realize how tired I am until after practice. I've definitely lost some weight this past week so I'm more motivated to practice.

Vincent is the producer/director/choreographer/diva of this production. His done this many times and his confidence and experience is apparent during our practices. He is great at breaking down the steps and makes it easier for us to digest. It is because of him that I believe I'll do alright.

Yesterday, we completed the choreography which is great since now we no longer have to learn new steps. I have a week to memorize the dance and hopefully not have to look around to get an idea on what comes next. This coming week will be spent refining our movements...especially mine. Later this week we're going to have a dress rehearsal and one practice at the shala. We've already been told when we could come when Guruji is not there.

Last Saturday, the whole crew, except for Stanley and Faith headed to the city to look for outfits. Each outfit which was chosen had to be approved by everybody including three Indian consultants...Ramya (my landlady's daughter), her friend and Rashmi (my Kanada teacher). The panel of judges sat down as each one came out of the dressing room for approval. Two thumbs up was required from each person before an outfit can be approved. Vincent had the final say. The women went first and Catherine was the first to get two thumbs up. She looked stunning in her gagra (no sure how that's spelled). Philipa was next and then the guys went after. We were not happy with what we saw for Rima. We had to go to another store for Rima before we could find a winner. I settled for a white kurta with a beige vest, while Vincent was dark red. Mark didn't get one that day but with the help of Shoaib, got a black one. It was a long process but we all had a lot of fun.

Today, Mark and I accompanied the ladies to get there bangles, necklaces, earings and the forhead thing (not sure what's it's called, not the bindi but the jewelry they wear on the forehead, they always make the women look sexy). Mysore is really small because we bumped into Stanley and Vincent so they helped pick out the jewelry. Rima did all the haggling since none of the other women knew how to. They all brought their outfits with them to make sure they would match.

This whole process has been a riot. We're all tired from the practice but we're all having fun. Being with this crew has been one big party. I hope it never ends.

Presenting...direct from Mumbai...the Bollywood Capital...A Yash Johar Productions...Guuuruuujiii & The Eight Limbs!!!!!!

We're still trying to figure out how we're going to introduce ourselves. We're still not sure if we're going to be introduced as "Guruji & The Eight Limbs" or simply "The Eight Limbs". I suggested, "Joey and The Other Seven Limbs" but nobody bought it...oh well, at least I tried...ha ha ha!!! We are in the process of fine tuning our number. The whole choreography is already set in stone. We have a few minor things to attend to but other than that, we're good to go.

Today we had our first rehersal at the shala. Sharath allowed us to practice there at 2:15PM. We needed to get our bearings and know where our markers were. I didn't realize how much had to be done until now. We had friends watch us to make sure we were in the middle of the room and that we were all in-synch. Mark set-up a video camera so we can see our mistakes. According to Vincent, we still have a few "brain farts" which will be corrected before Tuesday. The Diva Director sees everything and is quick to make corrections. We're lucky to have him.

After practice, Mark burned the video on a DVD and we had a chance to see ourselves. Being able to see ourselves on the TV really makes a difference. I can see how important the spacing and synchronicity is. We've all worked so hard...looking back at where we were a week and a half ago and where we are now, I can't help but smile.

Vincent gave us the day off tomorrow...woohoo!!! We all could use a day of rest...especially him. I'm looking forward to sleeping in and a relaxing day. We have our last practice at the shala on Sunday, then we're back in my converted living room on Monday and a final walk through early Tuesday morning.

I'm looking forward to the big day but the journey has been such a blast, I don't want it to end. I've enjoyed every moment of this process, I wish I could live everyday of my life like this...

Yesterday we had our last practice at the shala. This time we had Sharath and Shrada watching us practice. It was initially strange having him there but once we got going, it was fine. Sharath approved of it which made all of us feel better. Shrada definitely loved it because she stayed in the room the whole time and even danced a bit with us. When we were ready to wrap-up, Saraswati came down. We asked her if she wanted to see it too. We were all so tired but wanted her approval before the big day. She sat on Guruji's chair and I could tell by the expression on her face that she enjoyed it. We're all glad that Sharath and Sarawasti has seen it. Its taken away any pressure we had.

A few people have asked us the past few days if we were ready and if we were nervous. At this point, it's as good as it's going to get. I don't know if I'm supposed to be nervous but the truth is...none of us is nervous. The strange thing is that we're having so much fun, there hasn't been time to feel nervous. I am more worried that it will be ending soon. Even if we screw up the choreography as long as we're having fun, we'll all be alright. I doubt we'll screw up the choreography though...we're ready.

I cannot begin to tell you how I am presently feeling. It is not for me to say if the dance was good or bad, only the audience can make that judgement. All I can say is that we had a blast. During our practices, Vincent kept telling me to smile and project to the audience. At the end of each practice my cheeks were hurting. It's not easy forcing a smile. It does not come naturally for me.

When we were doing the actual performance, I could not stop smiling...I'm still smiling now. The audience went wild. We drew a lot of energy from them. It was easy to smile today. I know I've said it many times and I'll say it again...it was soooo much fuuuun. I'm tired but my adrenalin is still flowing. I hope I'll have enough energy to get me through the day.

I didn't have a chance to talk to Sharath but I got to talk to Sharmila. She said she enjoyed it. It was really chaotic after and we knew that most of the family were busy so we didn't get to talk to them. Saraswati allowed the dancers to have a picture with Guruji right after the cutting of the cake. I will alway cherish that picture. After all this dance was for him.

It's only 2:45PM and I feel like I had a full day already. I still have so much to do. In a few minutes, I have to pick up the DVD from Raman's. Then I'll call the whole crew for a viewing. We plan to have dinner together and then head to Planet X to PARTEEEE!!!! Wooohooo!!!!

PS. Pictures and the video will hopefully be posted shortly after we recover.

It's midnight and these are the only pictures I've managed to post. I had a couple of chais late this afternoon so I'm still wide awake. I have about 120 pictures at the moment so it's been difficult chosing which one to post. I expect to get more pictures from other yoga students so I have a lot of work to do. Anyway here's a preview of our dance. I did get our video and it's awesome except for the fact that the guy accidentally switch off the last 10 seconds of our dance...oh well, worst things could have happened. It was nice to see ourselves dance.

PS. I had a problem sizing the pictures. If you click on the month of July, you can get the whole picture...I think.

Mama and the four limbs. This was before the dance

Eight limbs in action

More action

Aaja Mahi Ve

Oh Soniye

Chanhda Meri Chanda Tujhe Kaise Mein Yeh Samjhaoon - Mother and daughter.
Yeah, I know mama is blonde and daughter is Indian but it will have to work.

Guruji, Mama and the 8 Limbs

So much has happened since my last blog entry, I don't no where to start. I was hoping that things would slow down a bit after Guruji's birthday but it hasn't. The last 5 days I've spent gathering pictures from friends. I'm in-charge of centralizing the pictures, sorting them out and then providing the cast with a CD. I finally got it all together yesterday and now we have 444 pictures. More people have approached us but I think we have more than enough. I've also been helping out on getting the DVD together. The person we hired messed it up a bit. In the last 10 seconds of the dance he ran out of batteries so he missed the finale. We've been able to get another video from a yoga student so hopefully Mark can piece it together. Other than that, it would have been a great video.

Last Thursday during practice, while Saraswati was adjusting Pam (she practices beside me), she turned to me and said, "We appreciate your dance. Next year you do three. Two Bollywood and one English." I smiled and said "OK". That was the first time I spoke to her since Guruji's birthday. I'm not sure what she means by English. I'm assuming that she means a Western dance. This was the first time I heard anything from the family. I know a lot of the Indian guests enjoyed it but I didn't have a chance to talk to Saraswati or Sharath during the party.

Last Friday, Vincent and I headed to Bangalore once again. Elena our Italian friend from Milan decided that she too wanted to have Lasik Eye Surgery. She's been wearing eye glass since she was 6 years old. She have left the day before since she had a morning check up before the surgery. We met her at the hospital around 1PM. Vincent had a camera to document the whole thing. He took pictures as Elena walked in the hospital, during the operation and after. There was a glass window so we could see her from the outside. They also have a TV outside and they show the whole procedure. We could see the doctor cut the eye and all that...sorry I don't know the technical terms. The procedure took about 10 minutes for both eyes...amazing. Elena said she had 20/20 vision immediately after the procedure.

After the operation, we brought Elena back to the hotel so she could rest. I headed to the Forum to get a few things Mark and Catherine requested. I was back in the hotel by 5:30PM. At around 6:30PM, Vincent and I paid Sharmila (Sharath's sister) a visit. She lives in Jayanagar where the hospital and our hotel are located. In fact, our hotel was on 4th block and she lived on the 5th block. It was about a 10 minute walk.

It was nice to see her. She is the easiest amongst the family to talk to. I can talk to Sharath and Saraswati anytime but I keep my distance. They are my teachers so I don't want to be too friendly with them. Sharmila on the other hand is almost like a sister. She hugged us when we entered her house and also when we left. I found that a little surprising because, most India women normally do not hug men. I think she's used to being around Western yoga students.

We sat down in her living room as she was telling us how much she enjoyed the dance. She said that Sharath and her were the ones whistling loudly. I knew that Sharath was whistling but I didn't realize she joined him. She told us that Sharath taught her how to whistle when they were little. She said that most of the performances in the Guruji's parties have been classical/serious and that this was the first time it was fun and light-hearted. They are hoping that future performances will be less serious. She also told us that the Indian guests were expecting us to go out again to do another dance. Unfortunately we had only prepared one dance.

It was important for Vincent and I to see her because she was responsible for making our dance possible (see June 27 post titled "Maahi Ve"). Vincent did not have the guts to ask Sharath. If we had not bumped into Sharmila on the Shatabi Express 3 weeks ago, it would have never happened. Seeing Sharmila that day felt like we had gone full circle.

The following day, Elena, Vincent and I took the Shatabdi Express and headed back to Mysore. Ironically we sat on the same bench in the train station where we met Sharmila 3 weeks ago. Vincent showed me the picture since he still had it on his camera. I'll try to get it from him and post it one day.

I was lining up after practice yesterday when Faith approached me and said that Guruji asked her, "You danced, I want to see photos." I told her I would get her the pictures as soon as possible. When I got to the front of the line, I knelt down, touched Guruji's feet and thanked him. He normally gives me a small smile and says "thank you". This time he had a huge smile and said, "You danced?" I said "yes Guruji". He said, "I want to see photo. You bring." I said "yes Guruji. I will bring." I have never gotten a smile that big from him in more than 11 months I've been in Mysore (when I leave in 10 days, I would have been here a total of 12 months...it feels like only yesterday). I was happy to know that he enjoyed our gift. We all worked so hard and put a lot of hours so to see him smile like that was priceless. The group has been asked to do another performance at Tina's for those who could not see it. We all agreed that this was our gift to Guruji and to do another performance would only lessen it.

OK, Mark finally set-up the video clip of our dance for the internet. It's 35MB so you'll have to be patient on a slow connection. It uses Quicktime so you may need to download it if you're on a PC. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Here goes....

http://web.mac.com/mark.haylock/iWeb

It's 3AM and I'm wide awake. That's what jetlag does to you. It should be around 3:30PM in Mysore now so that explains most of it. We landed in LAX at around 8:30 last night and found our way out of the airport an hour or so later. Vincent's parents, sister and nephew picked us up. The first thing his dad said to us when we entered the car was, "Wow, you guys smell like India!!!" It was his diplomatic way of saying that we stink and yes, we did. I would have not gone close to me myself.

We had a 10 hour stopover in Singapore yesterday. Stanley picked Vincent, Sidney and I at Chiangi International Airport. We headed straight to his apartment to take a shower and freshen up. We had breakfast and was planning to get a little tour of Singapore. Vincent had already decided that he wanted to sleep after breakfast but I wanted to paint the town red. Unfortunately after breakfast it hit me. My body just said no and I ended up sleeping on the couch for two hours. We all ended up staying in the apartment that morning.

At around 1:30PM, Stanley brought us to a buffet vegetarian restaurant he fondly called "Steam Boat". It's like a Shabu Shabu in the US where in you cook the vegetables in front of you in a broth. It was really good but I could still feel breakfast so I got full pretty quickly. After lunch we walked around the shops and I got myself a Singapore sovenier T-shirt...yes, I'm a sucker for sovenier T-shirts. We headed to the airport at around 3PM and bid Stanley farewell. We're going to miss him.

The last week and a half was really hectic in Mysore. I was attempting to extend my trip to another 3 weeks. We bought a 3 month ticket which expired yesterday. Our travel agent told us that we may be able to extend because Singapore Airlines had cancelled all 3 month tickets. I was already making plans to head to either Kovalam where Mark Yeo is teaching and a lot of friends were going or Rajastan and maybe travel with Trish and whoever wanted to come along. I was so ahead of myself, I was checking airfares and all that crap. I was not ready to leave Mysore or India. I still wanted to hold on to whatever I could because I know it will be sometime before I can return. I was devasted when I found out that I couldn't extend. I'm told that there is a reason for everything and that maybe I was not suppose to extend. At the moment I have no clue to why it happen. All I know is that I should pay a little more and get at least a 6 month ticket and maybe not to purchase a ticket when I still don't have the money. I could have paid an extra $100 to $200 for a six month ticket but at that time I was too broke to pay that amount...oh well.

Chapter 3 is over. My third trip to Mysore has been unquestionably the best. I know now that it will only get better each year. I spent 3 amazing months and I wish I could have stayed longer. I think I'm ready to move to Mysore and stay a year or two now.

Vincent and a few other friends who were leaving said that they were ready to leave after 3 months. I will never understand that. I learn so much about myself when I'm here. This is the only place I know wherein I am almost living every moment. I am livnig in the present here more than I am anywhere else. I do miss the West occasionally but after one or two months in the US, I'm ready to head back to Mysore.

This trip I've had the most drama ever...3 to be exact. I have to admit that I was responsible for one of them. The other two was more "drama by association". I have no regrets about the dramas I was involved with. I learned a lot about myself and other people because of it. This practice goes beyond the asana practice and everybody's personals issues come up to the surface in the process. It's like a bomb can explode at any moment...it's an inward journey. Oftentimes we don't like what we see about ourselves. I for one have a lot of demons to confront. It's a frightening process but everytime I get past one of those demons, I realize how trivial they were.

Many of the students keep to themselves to avoid this kind of drama. I'm a relatively social creature but I'm slowly trying to learn to keep to myself. It is going to be a long process I know but it's not about getting there...it's about living every moment.

PS. I miss Mysore already :(