August 19, 2010
I am doing much better and will rejoin regular class tomorrow. I hope to write more about classes in future entries.

Today Mandira from Mumbai is here and we chatted and visited up at our apartment. Mandira is one of the six Indian teachers who came to Portland for the convention. She has written an article for Yoga Rahasya (The magazine the Institute publishes) about her experience at the convention and she shares her ideas with me and Barb in a lively conversation. Marian Pierce also has an article featured in this issue, and I have been given copies to bring home to her. (Marian, if you are reading this – great article!)

Jen and I ventured over to Pune Central which we have dubbed the evil mall. The escalators are set up so that you have to slog completely around each floor to make it to the next level of escalators and the elevators are a five minute wait, even if the store is relatively empty. We unfortunately had to visit each floor twice because the layout was so confusing. We both swore that we would avoid this place for the rest of our stay.

I finally have some pictures available, so enjoy!

August 18, 2010
Both Barb and I are sick on Tuesday. I am almost all better and Barb is getting better. I spent all day in bed.

Today I went to class and did resting poses while the rest of the class did backbends. This evening I will rest.

The Ellora caves were right outside our hotel so we got an early start. We had a different guide – not as fluent in English, but well versed in the caves.
The Ellora caves are not quite as old, nor were they ever abandoned. There are caves from three religions side-by-side here – Buddhist, Hindu and Jain. The Hindu temple was amazing. Our guide said that it is the finest example of “chariot architecture” in the world. I cannot even begin to describe the carvings and the immensity of it. Karen and I touch the Shiva shrine to bring good luck and leave a 10 rupee note as an offering.

The Buddhist caves are either a monastery or a temple. Our guide urges us to hurry so that we can be alone and we enter the only Buddhist temple at this site. It is long, arched and intricately carved. Our voices echo. Our guide puts down his umbrella and begins to chant unexpectedly. His chant is beautiful and fills the temple with reverberations. I am touched by this moment of quietness and sound. Without missing a beat, he resumes his narration after the chant is over. When we leave the temple he tells us he is a Buddhist.

The Jain caves are similar in many ways to the Buddhist, but there aren’t as many of them. Here again we are asked to pose for pictures. The family we pose with has some sort of portable photo printer and they come over and eagerly show us the printed photos!

Today we are visiting Ajunta Caves. The caves have incredible history. All of the caves are Buddhist at this location. The earliest was built in 200 BC so it is over 2000 years old. The latest was built maybe 700 BC, and only partially finished as Buddhism no longer was supported by the kings at the time.

We meet our guide at the hotel, and the five of us pack into the car for another two hours of driving to Ajunta. The hawkers swoop in on Karen, Barb and I as soon as we set foot outside the car. It is obvious that we are westerners (there were only a handful) and we are offered jewelry, boxes, quartz stones, cave books over and over. We stick with our very confident guide and he shooes us onto a shuttle bus that takes us to the cave location.

The caves are in a breathtaking setting. They are set around a horseshoe bend in a river, with a waterfall descending between several of the caves. The greenery is lush and there are bold splotches of colorful flowers. These caves were abandoned many years ago and rediscovered by a British tiger hunting party in the late 1800’s. In typical human style, one of the British soldiers scratched his name into a pillar – right over a beautiful mural! Our guide knew where this graffiti was, and held up a flashlight to the pillar to show us. John Smith will live on in the caves while the names of the artists and artisans are forgotten.

Our guide is extraordinary. He is from Ellora (a small village) but is fluent in Hindi, Mahrati, English, Spanish and Japanese! It is obvious he is passionate about the caves and educating us about them. He explains in great detail the stories painted into the murals, the mastery of 3-D paining and sculptures, and how each cave was carved from the front to the back and from the top to the bottom. He shows us details we never would have seen or understood without him.

I decide I am hungry and whip out a peanut butter sandwich I have brought with me. I am immediately beset by monkeys, trying to get my food. I hadn’t even noticed them before that moment, but suddenly we see that there is a group of about 20 – all watching people and waiting for chance for some thievery. Our guide scares them away and tells me to eat quickly.

There were probably only about 10 westerners present among a thousand Indians. I quickly became the most popular kid on the block. Many, many people wanted to have their picture taken with me, I guess because I am blond. They wanted pictures with Karen and Barb as well, but mostly with me. I will try not to let it go to my head! All asked politely and thanked us profusely. At one point I was surrounded by 10 teenagers, all switching off taking pictures and posing. They wanted to know where we were from – and when we said America, they repeated the word excitedly. Everyone was sweet, gentle and had incredible smiles.

In the canteen we made friends with a young woman, her sister and mother, and her daughter. They posed for us in their beautiful saris and the five year old girl again wanted to know where we were from.

We were tired from the very humid and hot day and went to bed early went we got back to our cottage.

After our morning class we had to pack and meet our driver for our trip to ancient Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves. We get off to a slow start as our driver can’t be found for about 20 minutes, but he shows up and we head out. Four and a half hours later we arrive at our cave facing “cottage” in Ellora.

The journey is at first terrifying for all of us. Americans are simply not used to the mix of vehicles, poor road quality and lack of driving discipline. Our driver, Hasson (sp?) assures us over and over “Don’t worry madam”. He must have honked his horn 500 times on the journey as we passed motorcycles, rickshaws, bullock carts, bicycles, busses and trucks. Really – I only felt that things were truly dicey one time, but it was hard to get used to. Our car, a Fiat, makes a beeping noise when he hits the speed limit of 100 kph.

Our room is small, but comfortable and we fall asleep to crickets and birdsong – a welcome change from the noise of Pune.

Today was busy! We started with a practice in the morning and then scurried to be ready for Nana to pick us up. Nana is a rickshaw driver who caters to American students. He has a cell phone and you can make an appointment with him for his driving services. This is very unusual. The best things about Nana is that he is super sweet and that he will always get you where you need to go.
We head off to the tailor’s, but our clothes are not ready. We will need to come back Tuesday. Then we decide to go to the “tea place” and buy Rebecca Lerner the tea she has requested that Karen bring back for her. It is a black tea. Nana stands in line for us and buys a kilo of tea. It come wrapped in newspaper and tied with a string – kind of suspicious looking, but it smells great! On our way to the tea place, we get into a bit of an incident with another rickshaw. Nana is navigating a narrow alley that is partially blocked by a raised steel grating. Another rickshaw comes the other way. Both drivers decide to go for it and the rickshaws become almost intertwined. Words are exchanged (of course we don’t know what was said) and Nana gets out and pushes his rickshaw backwards. Then slowly, like a crazy dance, both rickshaws edge forward again and clear each other!
My day was rounded out with an Ayurvedic massage, evening class and shopping for our trip tomorrow.

My last two classes were challenging! Yesderday, Mr. Iyengar instructed the class through Abhijata and Gulnaaz. He observed that we weren’t really doing the actions that were being asked for and we were held in the poses for a long time until the actions started to come. We got to know our top thighs and our metatarsals quite well!

This moring’s 7am class with Prashant was “back bending”. Prashant said we should not be slogging through our back bends. Instead, we should be tranquil and placid. He said our faces should look angelic during and after the difficult poses. I found an ease in Viparita Dandasana that I hadn’t found before.

On the domestic front, we have a wonderful cook. Yesterday she was making fresh paratas (sp?) and encouraged us to eat them straight off the pan. They were delicious. Also, we are puzzled by our washing machine. One of the wash settings is “fuzzy”! I am not sure that I want fuzzy clothes!

This weekend we are headed to the Ellora and Ajanta caves. It is a long drive but we have heard it is worth it. I will be offline until Tuesday and will write about it then.

I had dinner with Care Parker, Karin Brown and Barb Stief last night. It was fun to hang out with everyone.

We have settled into a great rountine at our flat. Karen, Barb and I are getting along great and enjoying each other’s company. We are exctied that we have a clothes washing machine and an iron availble in our flat. This makes life easier.

I have met several other Americans and made friends with a young German man. His English was excellent and he said he might come to the States to study for six months, as he is required to go to an English speaking country to complete his degree. This trip there seems to be many Italians, Germans and Americans. Last time there were more Spainards and British folks.

Yesterday, Barb and Karin delivered some supplies we had brought to a local orphanage. We had brought vitamins, bandaids, shampoo, lotion and other needed items. Barb said the children were beautiful and one of them sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star for them.

From our 10th floor flat I can see how truly big Pune is. The city stretches on in all directions and is much bigger than Portland!

In just the two years since my last visit many things have changed. There are far more cars on the road. Also, many more people are sporting western attire. Jeans and t-shirts are everywhere.

As to the yoga – every day we notice the absence of Geeta. She is not in her usual space in the practice hall and has not taught. Everyone misses her presence.

Today’s morning class was again “taught” by Abhijata with Guruji relaying instructions and observations. The class was absolutely packed. We worked on our feet in numerous poses. We were told to take our toes to the ceiling in all our inverted poses – something new to work on. Our Sirasasana (headstand) felt steady due to this foot work.

The monsoons came back and it rained all day on Saturday.

I was exhausted by evening and we spent a quiet evening at home talking and reading.

Sunday is a day of rest with time to catch up with work and blogging!

There is always something going on at the Institute and today was exciting. A film crew arrived and set up to tape Guruji (Mr. Iyengar) explaining his method and teaching a class. About seven Indian teachers were part of the “class”. It was fun to realize I knew several of these teachers – Gulnaaz, Rajlaxmi, Nuvana’s teacher Jawahar, plus Neeta Datta’s brother. I hadn’t seen Jawahar since 2005 but he remembered Barb and me.
Guruji taught for several hours with vigor and conviction. His instructions were clear and simple. The students were pushed hard and were asked to jump from downward dog to advanced arm balances. All categories of the poses were covered – with and without props. Almost all of us stopped our practice to watch, listen and learn.
In the afternoon we went to Sunita the tailor to pick out fabric and get measured to have some shirts and pants made. It was an immensely enjoyable afternoon to be able to dig through stacks and shelves full of vibrant, colorful fabric. In the end we had to make our choices and in a week we can pick up our new clothes.
Rajlaxmi taught the evening class. We did about 12 jumping sun salutations intermixed with some fun standing poses. A great class!
We watched the rest of The Fifth Element on my laptop. I figured out that the iPod speakers could be plugged into the computer for better sound, but that meant the laptop had to run on battery power as we only had one outlet converter. We almost made it to the end!