Up for early yoga class with Surandar, so a banana and handful of almonds in my room, then out to meet Jackie and so on. We take a rickshaw
(known as a 3-wheeled tuk-tuk in Thailand. they are usually customized with decorations:)
along with 6 or so other people (all jammed in, but in a cozy, not uncomfortable, way) to get to class. We meet Anup, who leads us through winding alleyways and rubble-strewn paths,
and points out the tall green building where class is held. We hug him goodbye and head to the bilding entrance, up 3 or 4 flights of stairs and know we have arrived when we step onto a level covered with shoes all the way up into and on top of the cubbies provided. We remove our shoes, collect some mats and blankets, and settle into the narrow strip of landscape that we will call ours for the next hour and a half.
I stretch, wake up my back, and sit in quiet until he arrives, complete with his beaming cinnamon face. Beginning with Om and other chants, he gently guides us through the rhythm of opening our hips and our hearts. When a series of poses is complete, he thanks us in a singsong voice. When he walked through the bodies (about 37 in a room small enough that we’re all but mat-to-mat), he would help here and there, dole out “very good” and let go let go let go as if to provide just that extra little bit of juice needed to move into the pose even more fully. I turn around and mouth to Kaita “I love him.” Wonderful life force in this one, Luke.
After the first part, we had a shavasana (Nikki’s favorite pose), but it was over all too quickly as we moved into more complex poses. There were a couple I tried, at least until I knew my body had no desire to go further, or watched him as he summoned the whole class over to show how to move better into a particular pose.
When my body told me, I would move into child’s pose to provide release for my back, but overall felt the practice was helping things open up in a very healthy and beneficial way. When the poses were done, we covered ourselves with our blankets, and followed the instructions/requests that he sang to us. This singing, again, was the extra juice that allowed me to breathe in a little more, let out a little more, and open up a little more than I would have otherwise. The wisdom and intention he shared with us as we breathed in completed the holistic experience and class was over.
Class worked up quite an appetite, so we headed over the Ram Jhula bridge
to Ramana’s again (not Monday!), order our meals and head up to the second level where we have a lovely view of the Ganga and several beautiful (and unusual) trees. It’s a leisurely and delicious lunch. I really dig into and enjoy my green salad starter (Kaita informed us that here they wash all organic veggies with grapefruit seed oil and apple cider vinegar to kill all bacteria, so very safe for us.
After the meal, we head back to the hotel, I pack up my stuff, and Anup meets me with his motorcycle/scooter. I pile on with all of my stuff:
and we are off. What an incredibly fun ride! I am seeing the streets and experiencing it all just as so many Indians do, I can’t help but grin like the cheshire cat the whole way over. And what aggravation he has saved us all not to lug my stuff over the uneven streets, up the hills and through the alleys. I hang out in a room (waiting for big American group to leave so I can have a room a bit higher, which means a bit quieter) until 3 o’clock, when I head out to meet Kaita, Jackie and Prashant in a rickshaw. We ride out of this area to Rishikesh city (the whole are is really several small areas, like North Boulder, South Boulder, Lafayette, but on a much smaller scale. Here it’s Rishikesh City, Ram Jhula and Lakshman Jhula (Jhula means “bridge” and these areas are on opposite sides of the Ganga/Ganges from each other). The first being the city/town for locals to conduct commerce and do the things we all need to do to keep our physical/practical life moving forward. The second is the quiet area of Rishikesh, but nonetheless filled with Ashrams, yoga studios, uber-small restaurants, spas and spa wannabes,
and the ever-present roadside stall/stand that may be nothing more than clothes hanging along a pole and all over a wagon, up to and included an actual stall that you can walk in.
A long rickshaw ride through town and we arrived at the Baba Sri Nem Karoli Maharaja Ashram,
which is dedicated to Neem Karoli Baba, also call Mahara-Ji, who was the guru to many American visitors as well as to the spiritual teachers Ram Dass and Bhagavan Das, and the musicians Krishna Das and Jai Uttal. We enter and remove our shoes, and I walk quietly between the 3 or 4 small buildings that each contain a shrine of some kind to Neem and one for his wife/mother. Between the buildings are beautiful flower gardens filled primarily with dahlias of all sizes and colors. There is a large outdoor statue of Raman, the monkey god, because that is the Hindu god with which Baba Sri Karoli was devoted. I snap a few pictures from outside the walls, just to give an idea of what it looks like.
some cool-looking old dudes, hanging outside of the Temple walls:
When we are done, it’s still a bit early for dinner, so we walk along the main shopping street.
(see dude sleeping on his cart, waiting for customers and gentleman with blue machine of levers that he turns to crush sugarcane and make yummy, sweet, flavored drinks)
A live action shot:
I’m thinking of getting a pair of baggy pants that I can use for yoga (when Kaita was providing me tips on packing vis-a-vis respecting local mores and customs, she said no tight pants; the baggier the better. however, i didn’t realize at the time she was not referring to yoga dress. i’m so literal!), but quickly slip out of the mood for shopping and just enjoy the sights. As we get further down the street, I see the Ganga ahead, and we pass more and more shops selling flower leis, bowls of flowers and other offerings
and I recall when Matt and I set our flowers to float away on the river at sunrise during our stay in Varanasi. We arrive at the Ganga and sit on the steps to watch as people come down to bath in the holy waters, light candles and place in offerings left on the steps, and light a candle (or not) in a beautiful paper holder of flowers and set it free to ride the currents as they raise their hands pressed together to their hearts and heads in prayer.
The Arti ceremony will not be starting at 5:30, but at 6, but we decide to wait to witness this local version (really, no other tourists around here) before heading back for dinner.
For Prashant, this is like waiting for a Macy’s day Thanksgiving parade that happens just about every day, and he’s seen it plenty, so he heads to the gym with plans to meet up with us after. We enjoy about 20 minutes of the ceremony,
then walk back to the main drag for dinner just as it’s ending.
And dinner – oh my! We pass a counter of sweets impossible to imagine or make a guess at what they are (you’re not in France, Toto):
and wade through tables chock full of diners to a small, airy back room. Prashant and Kaita order a variety of foods for us -my only request being a big, crispy dosa-
and before we know it, the table is covered with intriguing, colorful dishes, and odoriferous steams is wafting through my nostrils and permeating my senses (laying it on really thick here!). The dosa is divided, and we all dig in. Not much talking for a while other than the occasional utterances of appreciation for flavors and textures. Honoring the classic presentation, here’s the before:
and after:
Beyond sated, we pay and Prashant walks with me back to the sweets counter so I can purchase a small box as a thank-you for Anup (the man who rode me and my goods from one hotel to the final destination on the other side of the river), and another as a sampler for me and everyone. A rickshaw ride back, they drop me at the entrance to the alley that’s a shortcut to the hotel (it seems that with all the winding alleyways, there’s always two ways to get anywhere), and I discover I have been moved to room 305 at the Dewa Retreat hotel. Most satisfying. I place the two boxes into my (oh yes indeed) mini-frig, hop into bed for a bit of gaming to unwind, and it’s off to sleep in my new, more comfy digs.