Category Archives: yoga

In With The New, Out With The Old

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We all know that 2020 was a year to forget. A year like no other most of us have ever lived in our life time. Corona-19 virus with mask wearing, lockdowns, social distancing, Zoom meetings, jobs lost, concerts cancelled, restaurants closed, take-outs, home schooling, travel plans on hold, working from home, line ups for toilet paper, food banks, mom and pop’s going out of business, standing in line for groceries, no hugging, gyms closed, deaths, many deaths – too many, overworked front line workers, hospital beds at capacity and need I go on?

But soon 2020 will be over (good riddance) and we will embrace 2021 with vaccines and a renewed optimism.

So, let’s start off the new year on a positive note by remembering something good that happened to us in 2020.

For me, it was my trip to India which I wrote about on this blog.

I was fortunate enough to return home before the virus hit my country and lockdowns began.

So, what was it for you? What’s one good thing that you remember from 2020?

Kolam art is very popular in Pondicherry. A Kolam is drawn with white rice powder every morning in doorway entrances in honor of the Goddess Lakshmi (Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune) and to bring harmony and joy into the house.
May your home be always filled with love, kindness, warmth, joy and peace throughout 2021.

My India: Rishikesh

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Leaving South India and landing in the north is like being in a different country. While Southern India is much like a touristy-vacation spot, North India is what I have always imagined India to be and more, and why, as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to travel here.

Rishikesh

The first stop was Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world. There is a yoga studio almost every block offering different styles of practice. Although many offer teacher training courses and retreats most welcome drop in classes.

Yoga rishikesh

Rishikesh is along the Holy Ganges River at the bottom of the Great Himalayas mountain chain.

Hymalas with snow

The water in the Ganges here is sparkling clear. Certainly not at all like what I had heard and read about the Ganges.

Gange

It was here in Rishikesh that I had the fortunate experience of staying at the Yoga Nikitan Ashram (a stark room with only a cold shower, no heat – in February the temperature was still cold- a bed without sheets and a blanket under which I slept with my jacket on). The ashtanga yoga classes (based on Patanjali yoga philosophy), given by swamis or gurus (I’m not sure), were some of the toughest I’ve had, but also some of the most satisfying and spiritually nourishing.

While I was here Jivasu, the founder of the Naturality Movement was giving a workshop on A Natural Path of Awakening.

If you follow others, you will miss yourself.   

Although I was not registered for the Naturality workshop and was leaving Rishikesh the day after Dr. Jivasu had arrived I was privileged to be able to attend his opening session and only wished that I could have stayed for the entire workshop.

jivasu-pradeep-kumar

 

Naturality is a process of accepting life in its totality, which encompasses fear and stillness, sorrow and joy, turmoil and peace. It is an effort to know one’s own nature and the nature of the external world, two sides of the same reality, rather than following a system or a teacher.

 

 

“The most beautiful book to read is the book of our life”
– Jivasu  

My India: Pondicherry

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This pretty French influenced city is located along the south-east coast of India on the Bay of Bengal. Its architecture is cheerful and colorful.

Pondi pretty house

Kolam art is very popular in Pondicherry. A kolam is drawn with white rice powder every morning in doorway entrances in honor of the Goddess Lakshmi (Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune) and to bring harmony and joy into the house.

Pondi Happiness

 

The black stones are a feature of the beach.

 

Pondicherry Beach

In the evenings people dress up to walk along the Seaside Promenade. It is a beautiful site to see the women in their colorful saris. In the afternoons it is deserted under a hot Greek-like blue sky.

Pondi boardwalk

Sri Aurobindo Ashram is in Pondicherry and it is here really where my spiritual quest took a leap forward. No photographs are permitted inside the Aurobindo Ashram. Having taken off my sandals I stepped into a beautiful garden overflowing with flowers.  People sat in a circle and meditated. I felt like I was touching the spiritual heart of India.

aurobindo ashram

 

My India: Kerala

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Kerala is a state in the southern part of India. We stayed in, Cochin,  a pretty fishing town by the sea.

homestay

 

One of the nice parts of Kerala are the backwaters – a network of lagoons, lakes and rivers. As soon as I was on the water I felt a peacefulness come over me. It was absolutely delicious and delightful and appreciative to be in total silence. India is very noisy with its constant honking and motorbikes.

Backwaters

Kerala is also known for the iconic Chinese fishing nets along the Fort Kochi shoreline. In the evenings people gather by the shore where the fishermen sell their catch.

 

Cochin nets

It was at a yoga studio in Kerala that I had a wonderful yoga experience where the instructor had me do a head stand, something I hadn’t done in ages. That day I learned that yoga is also about physical memory and overcoming my fears.

 

Head stand

My India: Goa

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Yoga and meditation was the theme of this yoga trip. As it was winter in India, starting off south made sense to take advantage of the warm, sunny weather. Also, Southern India is less of a culture shock than Northern India. This was especially evident by the yoga teachers and participants who were mostly European or Australian.

Yoga ashram

The lush vegetation was soothing as I walked from my room to a yoga class.

Ashiyana yoga center Goa

An easy stroll through the village towards Mandrem Beach, reminding me that I am in India.

Street in Goa

Goa, located on the western coast of the Arabian Sea, proved to be a perfect place to limber up my body as I practiced different types of yoga with different teachers and prepared for the trip ahead.

Goa beach

 

 

 

 

My India: Mumbai

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One of the books which I read before coming to India was Behind The Beautiful Forevers : Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo – a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist recognized for documenting the lives of people in poverty.

“Here, in the thriving Western suburbs of the Indian financial capital, three thousand people had packed into, or on top of, 335 huts. It was a continuing coming-and-going of migrants from all over India – Hindus mainly, from all manner of castes and subcastes.”

Slums in Mombai

The Gateway of India taken from a sea view seat at the Sea Lounge Café in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

mumbai taj hotel

The University of Mumbai, The Supreme Court, and The Chhatrapati Shivaji train station.

University

mumbai university 2

 

train station

Mumbai is a city of extreme contrasts. Extreme wealth and extreme poverty are openly displayed throughout Mumbai.

The number of people living in the slums of Mumbai in 2020 is over 9 million. 

 

 

 

 

 

My India

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Juhu Beach 2 Mombai

Since I’ve returned from my trip to India I have been feeling quite rusty about posting. First there was the jet lag and then the putting our clocks ahead an hour. I was grappling for all kinds of excuses to put off getting back to my blogging habits. After all, there was lots of washing to do, bills to settle, phone calls to friends and family, groceries, cooking and cleaning.

And then there was what to write about.

For years, I have had a romantic relationship with India.  There was that time the Beatles went to visit the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ashram in Rishikesh to learn transcendental meditation. That gave me a nudge. A place I’d like to go to someday.

Then, there were all the yoga classes and workshops I took: ashtanga yoga, hot yoga, hatha yoga. I got interested in Bhakti Yoga (the path of love and devotion), Karma Yoga (the path of right action), Rāja Yoga (the path of inner illumination), Jñāna Yoga (the path of wisdom). Those all peaked my interest, especially Raja Yoga with its lure of inner illumination.

There was the literature written by Indians which drew me in. Anita Desai whom I mentioned in my novel Getting to Mr. Right and Bharati Mukherjee,  Rohinton Mistry  and Yann Martel. The list of fine Indian writers with amazing talents is long. I have always loved reading a novel with India as its setting.

India also interested me because of their sacred cows, their holy cities, arranged marriages, Hinduism, Buddha, karma, reincarnation, meditation and Bollywood.

I travelled to India with a friend I met at a yoga class. Without going through a tour group we designed our own trip with yoga as theme.

Except for Mumbai and Agra we had the opportunity to practice yoga in Goa, Kerala, Pondicherry, Rishikesh and Varanasi with different yoga teachers both from abroad (mostly Europe and Australia) and from India.

Spending five weeks in India both in the south and the northern parts is hardly enough time to know a country so large and diverse as India. I was barely able to dip into its traditions and missed most of its day-to-day life.  At times, during the trip, when I was sick and tired of its constant honking of horns and trying to cross a street amongst tuc-tucs, automobiles, scoters (lots of them – practically touching you), whenever I was confronted with the dirt and poverty I vowed to myself that I will never return to India. India is too hard.

Yet, at the same time it is soft. That is part of its beauty. The photo in this post was taken at Juhu Beach in Mumbai. A typical Indian family out for a Sunday afternoon stroll along the beach.

Click for some spectacular photos of Juhu beach

I  hope that you will enjoy my series on My India.