I was super excited to be heading back to Rishikesh - I’d had such a great time there, and although they say you should never go back, I was keen to head back to the yoga school to see my friends graduate from their courses.
I arrived back on the Friday, after a night of no sleep (attempting a snooze in Old Delhi station between the hours of 2am & 6am had not been overly successful) and charged into the yoga hall to massive hugs from Lindsey & Courtenay. It felt right to have come back. On my way to grab some food I bumped into more familiar faces - Woody & Pe’era, the guy from the chai stall, Negi from the store, and the staff at Moondance café. It felt great to be so welcomed back.
That evening was the final lecture, so Lindsey & I headed downstairs for it, seeing other familiar faces - Ragga, Mac & Michael, and meeting some new ones.
Next day was the final ceremony - so after a marathon, full power FOUR HOUR (Yes, FOUR HOURS) yoga class in the morning, Lindsey & I decided to go & visit the astrologer recommended by the yoga school. I’d decided to go as a bit of a scientific experiment - how much could be cold read, and could he pick up anything that was pretty impossible to guess?
Some of you know what he said, but here are just a couple of highlights for the rest of you (after all, you can’t know all my secrets…)
He knew I was in Marketing, and said I was successful in my current company & should stay for 3 years (good news Sanchia J )
He also knew I’d recently been in Cambodia, that my Father had health problems but came from a healthy family and he also said that my Mum & I had been sisters in a past life and had fallen out over a man.
I have a habit of trying to fix other people, and I really should find my peace from inside myself.
Something made me make another appointment for the Thursday.
The closing ceremony that evening was lovely - everyone got their certificates, and were given a garland of flowers, a mark of protection on the forehead, and a protective string on the wrist (alright, alright, I can see you all rolling your eyes - it was a bit cosmic, but really quite beautiful. And we got cake.) Although I hadn’t completed the full month, I got everything but the certificate too.
Then it was time for people to showcase their talents. I hadn’t had chance to prepare anything (I would have done a reading), but Courtenay did a gorgeous freestyle ballet performance, Lindsey blew everyone away with her singing of Janis Joplin, Woody & Mac both gave inspirational readings, and we had a demonstration of Laughing Yoga which had us all, well, laughing actually. And then Woody stitched me up by making me do a reading with him. About cricket. I may be English, but the only thing I know about cricket is that they stop for tea (which I always thought was an excellent idea for a sport)
We repaired to the Moondance café for one last fruit shake blitz - Pe’era & I went crazy & had watermelon - very off piste from our usual mango. After a good re-bonding session, it was an early night for Lindsey we & I as she was heading off super early the next morning.
The following day, Courtenay & I decided to do An Activity Other Than Yoga, as we’d spent most of our time doing yoga, and not a lot else. We hiked in the midday sun (now I’m not calling Courtenay a mad dog, but I’m definitely English…..) to a waterfall for a dip, then met up with Pe’era & Ragga for the inaugural meeting of what became known as the International Shakti Group (ISG). Shakti is the feminine energy of the universe, and we’d been encouraged to embrace our femininity & what better way to do that than over food and gossip? Having put the world to rights, we agreed to a follow up meeting the next day.
The next day I went with Ragga to the astrologer to write notes for her, did some early morning practice (Yoga! At 6.30 am! Me!) and generally enjoyed mooching around Rishikesh. Tuesday was spent in similar fashion - spending time hanging out with Woody & Courtenay, then the three of us went to watch the Aarti ceremony on the river as the sun set.
Wednesday was shopping day - I randomly bought a sari, and Courtenay’s ajna chakra (I.e her head) was viciously attacked by the auto rickshaw, and also saw a lot of our friends heading out of Rishikesh, so we had a final dinner at Moondance, and another meeting of ISG, this time with a special guest speaker of Woody who was there to provide a masculine a counterpoint and tell us how to find a nice man (you see, we’re very deep & spiritual at our Shakti group meetings)
On Thursday I had a bit of a strange experience - I went with Courtenay to the astrologer (as scribe again), then we went for a dip in the Ganges (karma all cleansed again - I’m so pure now), then headed back to the astrologer for my second appointment. Now, I had a bit of a weird experience here. Prateek the astrologer was telling us a story about a film star & a director he’d done a reading for, and before he could finish the story, I piped up ‘it was Nicole Kidman & Sidney Poitier, wasn’t it?’
He was freaked out. So was I - I just knew who he was talking about. I’d seen the incident before. Like déjà vu. Prateek is now convinced that I have the gift of second sight, and wants me to be an astrologer. I’m not so convinced, but it was very, very strange. Which in addition to a number of other strange things in Rishikesh, has led Ollie to dub it Rishi-la-la land and give me a severe talking to about science and the brain and stuff.
But it would be cool if I really DID have second sight. Just think of what I could achieve if I could HARNESS this power…..my yoga teacher has instructed me to meditate with an orange ping pong ball to enhance my powers, so WATCH OUT……
The freakiness continued when we decided, for a giggle, to buy some Goddess tarot cards and played with them. It was particularly odd when I asked the cards, in a restaurant, if I’d become a mother. Not only did they come up with the Goddess of fertility & true love (which means I’ll meet my soul mate & be pregnant by spring next year - which is nice), but at that exact moment, SIX western women came in with SIX babies. Now you very rarely see babies in Rishikesh - it’s not really family holiday territory. It was a SIGN.
(Ok, reading this back makes me sound completely nuts. I promise I have not shaved my head, or grown dreadlocks, and donned some kind of white robe. I am not going to become an astrologer, nor have I joined a cult. I haven’t yet meditated with my ping pong ball either. Just to clarify.)
On Sunday we left Rishi-la-la for the final time, heading down to the holy city of Haridwar, where Pe’era & Courtenay were going to undertake a Puja ceremony at the temple to cleanse their past lives which were causing them trouble. (I know, I know, we’ve all gone totally mad). The Puja was fascinating though - pouring offerings of milk, curd, honey (with the addition of fruit & muesli you’d have the perfect Rishi-la-la breakfast) over the Shiva lingam, making offerings of bananas to Ganesh & lots of chanting. Even Ragga & I received some cleansing benefits, just by our presence, which was a bit of a bonus.
After a fond farewell to the newly cleansed Pe’era, it was time for Ragga, Courtenay & I to head to Delhi for the next leg of our adventure.
*ä Ollie
