With some excitement, but mostly trepidation, I departed San Francisco on Friday afternoon and arrived at Isha Yoga Center in Tamil Nadu, India, around 36 hours later. And it felt that long. I really neither knew nor cared what day or time it was when I arrived, I just wanted a shower and to be able to stay in one place for a while. The taxi ride from Coimbatore to Isha Yoga Center was enough to revive me a little, though. The mass of vehicles, pedestrians, families on mopeds, and cyclists was startling. My driver seemed to want to overtake everyone and everything and there was constant honking of the horn to communicate his aim with those sharing the road. We passed a multitude of people, many of them moving along with some goal or another, some sitting, standing, or squatting with nowhere to go or be, some having animated conversations, others still at work in the variety of roadside stores and stalls. Cows stood at the side of the road, or sometimes in it, chewing and looking on with disinterested gazes at all this mayhem. Oh, and there were monkeys on the side of the road where the taxi pulled in to Isha. Haven’t seen any on the grounds though, just some cows, pretty birds, and an occasional dog.
Sun up is around six and it’s fully dark when I come out of dinner around 7:30pm. The temperature here hovers around 90 degrees, not oppressively hot, but enough to be uncomfortable for a northern California native. The lush, green mountains surrounding the ashram often have mist and clouds shrouding them. Intermittently the clouds gather and darken, threatening rain, but there have been only a few light showers so far. I had anticipated some monsoon rains, but people here tell me the time is past.
I was so proud of myself for getting up at 0422 when I woke on Monday morning. Yes! I got onto the time zone effortlessly, I thought. Ha! That afternoon at one I lay down to rest before setting out to volunteer, and slept for five hours; of course, that was 1am to 6am California time, plus I didn’t get to volunteer - lame! You have to understand that I do NOT nap, cannot, have no interest in it even when I’m extraordinarily tired. We’ll blame it on jet lag and never speak of it again.
Things at the ashram are getting busier come Tuesday, there were a lot more people at brunch this morning, many wearing badges identifying them as part of the teacher training. Today I moved into Nalanda #326, the room I will inhabit for the remainder of my stay here, it’s lovely, and has air conditioning. I will get a roommate, but she hasn’t arrived yet. As long as she doesn’t talk all the time, have flatulence, or snore, I’ll be happy! And if she is a chatterbox, farts and snores, I’ll deal, it’s the yogi way, right?
Walking to meals is a fun time, everyone from around the ashram is walking or biking there from all points, including the home school kids (so cute in their uniforms, wish I could snap some photos, but it is forbidden). We all remove our shoes and mill around outside the dining hall till they open the doors, then we enter, wash hands, and walk down one of numerous reed mats set on the floor. The mats have metal plates set out in front of them. We take a seat cross legged in front of a plate and wait for everyone else to sit, volunteers with metal buckets of food walk up and down the isle in front of the mat and serve different items. Someone starts an Aum, we complete three, followed by a chant that I don’t know the words to yet. Then we dig in, eating in silence using the fingers of the right hand; I surreptitiously watch other people’s technique, and am getting better at it!
Brunch menu today: curried potatoes, carrot salad, boiled peanuts, hummus and sticky brown rice all seem to be a staple based on yesterday’s meal; in addition we had brown gelatinous glob (!), really don’t know what it was, a bean congee maybe? It tasted OK mixed with hummus or the spinach gruel that came later. Papaya slice and tiny banana, yum. And a drink of something that tasted medicinal and not so great; I chugged it, figuring it might be good for me. So far I am not missing caffeine, sugar or alcohol, there’s a tea kettle in my room so I’ve had cranberry tea a few times a day and other than that just water. I’m really pleased that they have water filtration systems here, and have coolers of water placed strategically about. Have been taking my anti-malarial (plus probiotic) for three days now with no ill effect, so far-so good. There are zero mosquitoes here at present, I encountered just one, at the Mumbai airport, which I executed with a slap before it could molest me.
There are so many cultural norms that I am unaware of, I feel like a blundering, insensitive idiot some of the time. But really, how am I to know unless somebody corrects me? I wore my flip flops on the flagstones outside the dhyanalinga temple yesterday and a lady in a sari started gesticulating at me. OK, I get it, shoes off outside sometimes too. Geez! I’ll have it all down cold in no time, right?
