Slackline · 21 January 2010

Spent a lot of time at the desk this week, so today I blew off and was a yoga bum. Here’s the schedule. It’s what every day looks like for many people I know, with the exception that most people drive their own scooters instead of rickshaws, and skip the walk to go out for a delicious south Indian dinner.

4:00 Get up, do a little email and skype

4:30 Regina starts chanting downstairs, rumbling the whole house. Get on the mat for abbreviated asana practice, plus pranayama and a short sit.

6:20 Walk 10 minutes to the shala, take a seat among the others in the entry way, watching practice in the big room. Listening to the billows of breath and the occasional calls for “One more” from Saraswati and Sharath. This is the most conscious 40 minutes of my day, an opportunity to enjoy incredible energy of the whole community, and a powerful Shinzenian sight-flow meditation. But I’m often tempted to let the eagerness to get in to the room take over the experience. Each morning, I’m getting better at letting the wait be an end in itself, and am going earlier and earlier to enjoy just sitting there, watching the shapes move inside the room and feeling the rhythm at which the practice in there moves.

7:00-8:30 Practice. Enough said.

8:30-8:45 Drink coconut (still don’t like the ritual, but the electrolytes feel like a good idea and they’re starting to taste good to me), watch monkeys play in the trees, sit around and talk to some practitioners outside the shala

8:45-9:30 Run home, shower, talk to housemates, drink wheatgrass and weird fermented energy tonic with housemates

9:30 – 11:00 Go to coconut stand to meet some sociologists on vacation. Take them to silly ashtangi breakfast joint where we sit in a beautiful courtyard alongside my Indian friend S and several other acquaintances. Eat fruit salad, an omlette and ginger-lemon tea: the exact same breakfast I’d order at any of four identical restaurants in the neighborhood. The bill is scandalously expensive for Mysore: $3.20.

11:00 – 2:00 Do some admin and writing, lunch with housemate.

2:00 – 5:00 Rickshaw over to the Regaalis. Lie out on the grass with some Brazilians and Canadians, Germans, an Austrian and a Portuguese. And an erstwhile American who has just moved permanently to Mysore (from Detroit). Swim intermittently. Read Cosmicomics  and laugh out loud (thanks, G.) Others are reading: Murakami, Svoboda, Patanjali. Thank god no Shantaram or EPL. Chodron’sThe Wisdom of No Escape is lying around, unread, under a beach chair. Hahaha.

5:00 – 5:15 Take the hottest shower in town at the hotel changing room, pick up some baked goods at the Regaalis restaurant, catch the best rickshaw in town back to Gokulam. The young driver asks if I would like music, and in response to a yes, blares Bhangra out of speakers behind my head. Yes, the ride is equipped with a pair of sub-woofers. They change everything.

5:15 - 6:15 Quick-change and run out to slackline practice with the regulars at the park. First day of slackline – at one point I get six steps in a row. Frustrating but intriguing. Slacklining. Second only to working on the tan as afternoon business for the Mysore regulars.

6:15 – 6:30 Check messages, change clothes.

6:30 – 7:30 Evening walk

7:30 – 9:00 Skype, blog, meditate, good night.

Posted by (0v0)        
Categories: astanga yoga

Comment

1. You ate eggs?

   Posted by: LI Ashtangini · Jan 21, 05:46 AM · #

2. Seemed like the right thing after a few days of weird stomach and little food. Not tasty, but I felt great today.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Jan 21, 05:56 AM · #

3. Is the line more slack than tight rope walking? Or is that just the fancy new name for tight rope walking?!
   Sounds like you’re having some very nice days…

   Posted by: Liz · Jan 21, 09:14 AM · #

4. Wow you stay up LATE! :) What’s the day rate at the pool these days?

   Posted by: boodiba · Jan 21, 01:20 PM · #

5. nice way of calendaring doership. and the relationship of cause of effect governing our journey into the land of an imaginary avatar. but the scenery sounds delightful. mysore, that is. a wish fulfilling tree laden with fruits of selfless love and timeless devotion. all that really matters.

   Posted by: charusheela · Jan 21, 04:58 PM · #

6. Sounds lovely, I like this hour by hour report. Very de certeau-ian.
   DIdn’t know that Shantaram was a no no, I recently bought it as a student of mine recommended it, but I haven’t read it yet.
   And what is it that you don’t like about the coconut drinking ritual, do tell.

   Posted by: Fatou · Jan 22, 02:35 AM · #

7. Sounds rough, man… Enjoy! Seems like a well earned segue into life in Michigan.
   p.s. Gotta love the bhangra. There are awesome bhangra dance classes here in nyc. Maybe next time you’re in town.

   Posted by: liz2 · Jan 22, 04:52 PM · #

8. Slackline has a lot of give, and you do it without a balance pole. It’s also low to the ground and eventually you learn to do all kinds of fancy stuff on the line. An old friend of mine from LA is here and teaching me – he is the ultimate yoga slacker. Thurs he was too, um, incapacitated to balance so just gave me verbal instructions. Basically: internal rotation of femurs, mula bandha, stand up straight, use the eyes, breathe. DIFFICULT! A few Mysore bums around here have great skill at the slackline. Takes practice.

   Boodi, 200R. I’ll probably go once a week . No tan to speak of, but my hair is turning to the weird strawberry blonde color I avoided last time by dying it dark brunette. Oh well.

   Charu… nice image. The place is what you make it… like many “destinations.” Around here, we’re all still ruefully laughing that Mysore is #4 on the NYT’s new list of “Places to visit in 2010.” Talk about embarrassing.

   Fatou… I guess that’s the contrarian in me. Last year, so many people were running around drinking coconuts and reading that book, and exclaiming how “amazing” and “perfect” they found both to be. I was annoyed. But… this year I’m breaking down in favor of the coconuts because it feels like they have some kind of nourishing property I’m not getting elsewhere.

   Liz… admittedly, I do love the bhangra. And a lot more. Mysore is full of so many beautiful sounds… more than any other place I have lived. It really feeds my love of auditory stimulation and my tendency to revel in—and be transported by—sound.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Jan 22, 07:54 PM · #

9. P.S. Some western music cycling through my head when I am slacklining: Queen of the Savages by the Magnetic Fields, Southside of the World by Bonnie Prince Billy and Do Your Best by John Maus.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Jan 22, 08:11 PM · #

10. Glad to hear that the stomach has settled, just the possibility of tropical parasites can get scary over here!

    Posted by: cij · Jan 23, 04:25 AM · #

11. :-)

    Posted by: (0v0) · Jan 25, 12:47 AM · #

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