Delhi Last night in India

My last night in India before heading back home to Malmo and I'm looking forward to getting back to my family and sharing with them, all that I have encountered and experienced during the two and a half weeks I've been away.

Two and a half weeks in India is far too short a time to grasp a shred of what goes on in this vast country seen through the eyes of a tourist, although I prefer to refer to myself as a visitor. I struggle to align with all the poverty, squalor, misery, injustice, filth, superstition and tradition. How does yoga fit into the scheme of things? And on the other hand enjoying the luxury of staying with my dear friends in their home, being taxied around by private chauffeur, doing yoga in the privacy of my friends home under the guidance of a local Iyengar teacher, golfing on Delhi's oldest golf course, and then travelling to Rishikesh and Varanasi on my own to explore the environment and yoga scene in those places. So many contrasts that I knew I would be dealing with before embarking on this trip I was unprepared for my reactions and have tried to identify what it really was that I had hoped to find during this visit to India.

It's been a journey searching for inspiration, depth, authenticity and truthfulness in my yoga practice and the yoga that I wish to teach.

Before leaving tomorrow I need to conclude by saying that I really love this place. It's complex, frustrating, infuriating, generous, selfish, judgemental, accepting,

full of sadness, full of joy, hospitable, recognisable, full of contrasts,.....probably all the things we experience in everyday life wherever we are but to the power of 20 or more. Confronting is how I would choose to sum it up for the moment. Again, I feel like a novice in the face of this experience.
The yoga I've found here has been diverse. From classic yoga at Swargashram in Rishikesh to, in my opinion, groundbreaking yoga taught by Diane Long in Varanasi.
I will be back in Malmo again tomorrow.

Varanasi India

This morning I decided to rise early (0530) to head down to the river and take a boat out to view the early morning activities taking place on the steps leading down to the water. The air was foggy and hazy and even with the increasing visibility as the sun came up the light was filtered through the haze of fog and smoke giving an air of mystery and enchantment. Thousands of pilgrims and religious devotees from all corners of India visit Varanasi to perform rituals of devotion on the great Mother Ganges. Tourists are here to witness the rituals in all their peculiar glory and try to make sense of what it is we are witnessing. Everything from the public cremation of the dead to the morning immerson in the chilly waters of the Ganges. Making sense of it all is more than I can pull off but it sure makes for an exciting and colourful environment!! India is in the midst of the wedding season right now. In the early evening the streets are blocked by huge wedding parades with an assortment of hired supporters accompanying the bridegroom and his family. Musicians, fireworks "specialists", rice throwers and the most peculiar of all, a group of men women and children carrying flourescent light bulbs (tubes) balanced on a platform on their heads!! The power source for this is a noisy generator pulled on a cart behind the procession. There is a real sense of carnival in the early evening and sights that just have to be seen to be believed!!
Many of the foreigners are here for 6-12months to study music, Hindi or Sanskrit or all of the above. It seems that the schools in Varanasi are particularly well known.
In a conversation with one of the chatty vendors here I heard about an ashram at the southern end of the river. I met the yoga teacher who owns and runs the ashram and decided to try his yoga this afternoon. I practised on his dusty rooftop overlooking the Ganges with two other women. Although the air is never completely free from haze it's still dramatic to have the sun set behind us and see the full moon rise over the river and in the background an orchestra of sounds from the settlement right below us. Oh yeah...and dust!!! At least he had yoga mats!
Tomorrow morning another early start to join the class at 0700 at the Sri Mandira Ashram

Varanasi

I arrived in Varanasi at around 2pm today after a twohour delay leaving Delhi airport due to heavy fog. The drive into Varanasi took over an hour through the chaotic traffic comprising mostly of motorbikes and rickshaws. It seems like the tonnage rule applies here, the biggest has right of way!!! I checked into my little hotel which is again adequate and centrally located. I took a wander down to the Ganges through a labyrinth of alleyways with school children calling out their greetings. Once down at the river the hectic atmosphere of the busy streets and alleys was replaced by a sense of calm. It's possible to walk stretches of the river just people watching and taking in the atmosphere. It is very beautiful but at the same time everything seems to be in advanced stages of decay. The alleys and streets leading down to the river bear witness to filth and squalor. Life just goes on with everything taking place on the streets that are a mixture of farmyard and heaving city. An assortment of domestic animals, goats, cows and sheep parked outside buildings and the constant tooting of car, motorbike, rickshaw, bicycle and horns.
Well, I'll see what the river has to offer at sunset. Hopefully a little reprieve from the street madness and time for a little reflection!!

Delhi

Delhi seems to be living up to it's name for me right now with a mild case of Delhi belly!!! Who knows where it comes from considering I am at present staying with friends and have only eaten food prepared by their cook and nobody else in the house is feeling anything. May very well have been that cucumber I didn't peel!!
I arrived back in Delhi on Thursday night after a very comfortable journey by train from Haridwar which is about an hours drive from Rishikesh.
The day before I was due to leave Rishikesh I began considering returning to continue with more yoga at the Trika yoga school that I found at Swargashram. Once I left Rishikesh I decided against returning this trip but will be keeping it in mind for further trips to this region.
I was fortunate to find (after 2 days of looking and asking around) this yoga school, presently run by an Indian guy and an American girl. Each day comprised of about 6 hours of yoga and yoga philosophy. Two hours in the morning when a new asana would be introduced detailing the chakras related to the asana. Unlike any other yoga I have practised the poses are held for a minimum of 5MIN. Hmmm, not surprisingly my aching left hip seemed to like this form of yoga.
Rishikesh proved to be a place of supreme energy, considered amongst yogis to be the holiest of all locations in India.
I liked Rishikesh a lot with it's ashrams dotted in the hills and along the Ganges, with it's mixture of Sadhu (holymen) and beggars, backpacking seekers and curious tourists and vendors trying to sell an assortment of "spiritual paraphenalia". Here you can find the blissful and the destitute and the blissfully destitute. Ashrams offer a quiet refuge for meditation, reflection and contemplation.
Before joining the yoga classes at Swargashram I did an Iyengar yoga class with a teacher at the small Hotel I was staying at. the class was adequate but not really up to what I had in mind for my stay in Rishikesh. The next day I did a great Ashtanga class at a small Shala right down by the river. Great to do such an energetic class and the teacher was outstanding.
My original intention was to try and attend classes with the renowned Ushu at Omkarananda Ashram. Regrettably they offered no open classes. Classes were restricted to those attending the week long course at the Ashram. I am grateful to have found the Trika school where I attended classes for 4 days.
During my short stay in Rishikesh I decided to change rooms to a cheaper room and share a little of my prosperity with the beggars and Sadhus as well as with an assortment of vendors.
Now that I am again in Delhi I have an opportunity to do some much needed washing, enjoy Peter and Elisabeth's company and indulge in a few days of rest and recreation before heading off to Varanasi. Everybody tells me it's a little crazy there with vendors and beggars more aggressive in their attempts to grab your attention.

Rishikesh

My first blog disappeared when there was a power cut and now I don't have the inspriation to rewrite it. I am off to see a prayer ceremony at a temple down by the Ganges at sunset. I will have to return to the blog later. I spent an hour writing my first posting only to have it disappear in a powercut. Ho hum..

Rishikesh

Rishikesh India

This is my first entry on this blog and hopefully not the last. I am a novice in the blooging world and am now initiated into the world of internet cafes.

I arrived in Rishikesh on Saturday after a comfortable journey by train from Delhi to Haridwar where I was met by a driver who drove me the distance to Rishikesh. I'm not even certain what the distance is and in fact distance says nothing, it's more about the time it takes to cover the distance and the car journey was about an hour. rishikesh lies on the banks of the Ganges river and is where the Ganges leaves the foothills of the Himalayas to continue it's journey across the plains. On either side of the river you can find an assortment of ashrams offering an assortment of accomodation. I have decided not to stay at an Ashram but instead at the guest house I had originally booked. I spent the first day and a half wandering, looking, taking in all the sights and sounds, smells and looking for prospective yoga classes or teachers. this is no shortage of classes. Everywhere there are signs offering yoga clases, meditation, massage, astrological readings, ayurvedic consultations and each place trying to outdo themselves on the credibility scale by calling themselves an institute or college. The classes I had been hoping to join and the teacher I had hoped to practice with was unfortunately unable to take drop in students. there is a week long course under way at the moment at the Omkarananda Ashram where I had hoped do some classes. Instead the first morning I practised with an Ikyengar teacher who the guest house recommended. It was OK but not realy what I am looking for. the second day I joined an Ashtanga class, which is always energising, at a wee shala on the steps leading down to the Ganges. A great class with a great teacher, full of energy and experienced. Yesterday morning I decided to check out the yoga a place advertising Trika yoga at Swargashram. The yoga is very different from anything I have practised before. Poses are held for a minimum of five minutes!! I have decided to participate in these classes that include yoga and a lecture every morning followed by an asana class and again in the eveing. I have jumped in on the second week of a four week course which they don't mind people doing. I have decided to continue attending these classes until I leave Rishikesh on Thursday. So far I have been introduced to a new perspective on yoga and like some of what I hear although I am not impressed with all the teachers. Now the third day of my stay here I am already beginning to feel like an old hand. Rishikesh is so tiny and the same people greet me every morning as I bustle off to yoga class. The assortment of beggars, holy men (sadhus) cows wandering the streets, people selling everything from bindis (marks for your forehead) to fruit and vegetable, hot chai, fish food for the fish in the river. The list gones on. I love the smiling greetings, the quick interaction as they all try to ply me with their goods and engage me in some kind of exchange t hopefully get a little cash out of me. I have decided that a small offering everyday to either a beggar, holy man, vendors selling stuff I really don't want is what I will do. Although that one offering is often multiplied many times over throughout the day. As a tourist from the first world visiting the third world I have an obligation to spread as much of my travel funds around to these people in need. I can't solve India's problems of poverty and injustice but I can with share some of my resources with a minute number of local people wherever I go and do so with a little dignity and humility and at the same time receive something in return and reward their efforts trying to sell some little thing to me.