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.
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