International yogi-be's

Nov. 27th, 2011

It's my day off from Usha's intensive course where I have time to compile some overflowing thoughts and photos. Otherwise, I'm mostly seeking respite to rest my stretched out muscles, tendons and what not from class!

One of the most fascinating and captivating aspect of my yoga travels has been the people I meet along the way. Back in Rajpur, I had the opportunity to get to know a few yoga students better than one normally would in typical travel settings or yoga retreats as the thirty plus of us are housed in groups of 3-6 people where we spend 3 weeks together in the very tiny town of Rajpur. When I was in Rishikesh a few weeks ago attending Rudra's classes, I also got to know a couple of gals (Sophie from France and Else from Holland) since it was a smaller group where the few of us would typically head off to famous Papu's lassi after class. Now that I'm in Usha's 9-day intensive course with 50 students, I continue to meet incredible yoga practitioners from all over the world. My initial thought was to write about the few I've gotten to know a bit more than the friendly namaste, especially about their life's work if it had any semblance of making the world a better place since yoga, to me, is about the betterment of one's life, and hence contributing to a more peaceful world. The list of people keep growing quite large, and so I decided to compile them all into this one entry. There are plenty more I could've easily included. I just happened to have great shots of these few!

Daniel (London) -- My first conversation with Daniel was much like the one I had with Lucy where it made my eyes bulge I wanted to write a book about them! But Daniel is taking care of that himself in his autobiography soon to be published next year. He started his career in journalism with Reuters (funny enough, it's the company that replaced the division I worked for when Thomson bought them four years ago!) After a few years at the age of 27, he scored big as a foreign corespondent for the NY Times but could only withstand the hypocrisy and abhorring manipulations of the media conglomerate for less than a year. This lead him to lead a peace concert in Serbia where he got entangled with gangsters, mafias and what not (find out in his book!) Daniel has been trying to fight for political justice since while working on his own rejuvenation if not reconstruction through Iyengar yoga the last 7-8 years. These days, he also takes respite in writing about yoga. See his article on my comments below!

Carmen (Peru) -- Carmen currently lives in Japan...well, right now she's here in Rishikesh where we're both enrolled in Usha's intensive course. This is about her 4th trip to India. She comes here for months at a time, first taking classes in Rajpur with the Chanchani's and then here with Usha. Carmen has lived and travelled all over the world, at one time assisting her husband researching for forestry companies. She has lived in East Malaysia, where I've never even been! Interestingly, the woman I chatted with yesterday, Claudia from Austria, also carries a very close story line with Carmen in that she's lived/travelled all over and has seen more of Malaysia than I have! Claudia will be heading back to Abu Dhabi to spend Christmas with her husband and two sons. She's lived in several "oil rigging" countries where her husband has been posted, Pakistan being her favorite.

Hari Krishna (Hyderabad, India) -- We were so lucky to be taking yoga classes with Hari Krishna! How many can say they've done that?! Hari's name is too long of a story to expound here, but I'll just say it's a good name for him! He was a photojournalist who left his job two years, travelling around India and practising yoga since.

Pia (Australia) -- She and Hari are striking the Baba pose in the picture below following a funny lecture by Rajiv about a sadhu whose arm has become permanently locked in this position when Rajiv met him at Kumbha Mela some time ago. Pia is currently undergoing her Iyengar teacher training and is on her 4th trip to India, never having been to Taj Mahal, or any other touristy spots for that matter! Leaving her seemingly perfect life in Australia (a flexible job at an art gallery and house sitting for a friend in a beautiful house,) Pia felt she needed to delve more into making yoga the main focus of her life.

Tatyana (Russia) -- was my housemate in Rajpur and has the most strikingly unexpected sense of humor, akin to the cold steel mafia kind, as Hari described it. She's been practicing Iyengar yoga for over a decade and started teaching a year ago. Tatyana carries the poise of a yogi-be (yogi-wannabe, as that's all we can really strive for!) with the patience and non-judgementalism that so often knocks many of us off kilter. She grew up in Kazhakstan (excuse my misspelling if so!) when it was part of Russia and now lives in Dallas. She has worked on this poise for years while striving to make her own life better, bringing peace for herself and also her husband and son at home, even here in Rajpur and I imagine all her students back in Dallas!

Sophie (France) and Else (Holland) -- These are the gals from Rudra's class. Sophie wears many hats working with a boutique consulting company back in Paris and intends on leaving her job to pursue yoga/travel next summer. Else is a university student in Amsterdam and is new to yoga. She figured might as well start in the land where it was born and brought much enthusiasm and delight to Rudra's classes.

Kyra (London) -- Is on her countless trip to India, which started about 24 years ago. Kyra is an Iyengar teacher back in London and spends months at a time in India. She has been studying with the Chanchani's before they moved to their current location in Rajpur about 12 years ago and thus is a wealth of knowledge, not only about yoga but everything India which she shares very gladly. Her sense of humor continues to crack me up, and I imagine her students as well!

Brigitte (Belgium) -- Dr. B is actually pictured in the potluck photo, standing in front of Tatyana. Unfortunately, I don't have a better photo as Brigitte tends to close her eyes every time the camera flash goes off! Brigitte just spent a year in Fiji and prior to that was working with W.H.O. in Africa where she lived with her husband and two kids for a decade.

Silvie (London) -- was my housemate back in Rajpur as well and teaches yoga part time. Having just left her corporate job a few months ago, Silvie returned to Rajpur to continue her yoga studies after having been to India many times before. She will be back late next year when she's enrolled at the Ramanani Iyengar Institute in Pune. Silvie is also looking for a new chapter of her life!

In the bottom left picture, Hari, Pia, Kyra and I are huddled in the front corner of the crammed bus where we were standing on the steps for the first part of the trip. It was amazing we got to sit together eventually! Actually, it was more amazing how we got on to the already 2-cans-in-1 sardined packed bus...

May all these yogi-be's continue their wonderful work in the world, with themselves, ourselves and everyone else!

Namaste!
x, ~m.

Giving Thanks in Rishikesh

November 24, 2011

We're all on a journey of our own, yet we are one of the same universe. We all want the same thing in life - happiness. Contentment. Some can only see as far as material wealth, others are seeking beyond and sometimes too far. Some don't seek. They just are. The biggest lesson I've learned and am desperately trying to adopt in the last couple years of intensive yoga courses is that of gratitude. Eckart Tolle says, "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was , "Thank you", that would suffice." I found that quote in The Times of India, a local newspaper I happened to pick up at Mukhti cafe around Omkarananda ashram after a rigorous yoga practice with Usha Devi that saw me sweating going through just 5 poses in two hours. Being a long time jogger, I always thought I had pretty strong legs. This morning's yoya practice proved me wrong as I got slapped several times on my thighs for not being able to straighten and tighten my quads into the bones enough. How do I find thanks in that moment when from already fighting to recall that prayer with repeated one leg lifts in uttanasan, Usha tells us to lift both hands into Virabhadrasana III and my legs already feel like marshmellows?

After class, while having my oatmeal with fruits breakfast at Mukhti, an Indian couple from Bombay sits down across me and I can't help myself from asking them their purpose for being in Rishikesh. They are actually staying at Omkarananda largely here as tourists. Neither do yoga, something they agreed Indians take for granted as it's quite profusely in your face, especially here in Rishikesh. I suppose it's like the Microsoft syndrome in Seattle, so I've heard, where most locals don't own PC's. Or like the fact that I've never bothered visiting Alcatraz after having lived in San Francisco for nearly 12 years! The young Indian lady, amazingly, had also just left her job from disillusionment in the corporate world and mass media manipulations. She was in the public relations and advertising field. Interestingly, she worked for an organization that combatted the likes of Navdanya, an India-based organic seed bank outfit I just learned about from another yoga student in Rajpur who is currently attending its conference. To find some respite, the Bombay lady just completed a 10 day Vippasana meditation introductory course, and is thinking of teaching ethics at college preparatory programs as her future work.

After breakfast, I sat in a 1-hour lecture on Bhagavad Gita back at Omkarananda where the gentleman spoke of the first chapter on the yoga of depression and anxiety and how we all go through them. It is through these times of pain that urges us to seek and hopefully find spirituality in our lives. In that plight, I return to the studio early this evening for my self-practice, all jello-like. I am deeply thankful for being able to be here, in India, on my yogic journey. And most grateful for all the people who've helped make this possible! Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! x, ~magi.

A Conversation with Lucy

Nov. 14, 2011

A Conversation with Lucy

Lucy from London has been practising Iyengar yoga for about 15 years and finds her personal refuge on the mat above all else. Like me, this is her first time to India and we are relishing the yoga in this quaint town of Rajpur.

During our first conversation, I'd learned very quickly that Lucy has done some amazing work in her life that only a few fine souls have experienced or have the strength and courage to. It inspired me to ask her for an opportunity for another conversation so that I may share a bit of her story here.

Lucy found herself one day over a decade ago in front of a Congolese woman refugee at the hospital she worked at in the early days of her career as a nurse in London. She became friends with this woman in the weeks that Lucy cared for her, who had apparently been tortured in her homeland for helping a couple of men get out from the hospital in which she was a staff at herself. At the dismissal of the Congolese woman on a cold winter day of January from the hospital in London to some refugee agency without much regard, Lucy collected some of her own clothing for the woman who had only a light african shawl to keep her warm. My very watered down retelling of her story is how Lucy got started working with terrorized victims of gross human rights violations, the escapees. It inspired her to research, understand and work in the world of torture and other human rights violations, including human trafficking and violence against women. She spent some time working in war-torn northern Uganda at one point.

One of Lucy's most touching recollection of encounters with her patient was of a woman who had been trafficked into the sex industry. This woman, who had grown up in an abusive family setting, after many years of therapy, began to find hope for her own future, whilst also expressing a profound form of compassion, or sorrow, for many of those who had abused her throughout her life. Not that these abuses can be justified or forgiven, but in a process of personal and spiritual growth, this woman explained her sorrow that people had themselves been harmed so badly as to perpetrate the extreme abuse that she had endured. It is in debt and gratitude to many, many people like these two women that Lucy says she has grown and from whom she has learned from so much in life, the meaning of it and one's dis/position on this earth, no matter how brief. In her own words, Lucy maintains that one's true humanity cannot be destroyed and she has been repeatedly given the gift of hope from her clients as they re-engage in life, in relationships with people and consequently with their own humanity. Namaste x

Faces of India

> 11/3/11.

> I've been in northern India for about 5 weeks now. It's been quite a ride like no other. There's been endless occasions for me to test and put my yogic beliefs into practice! Beginning with the chaos that practically slapped and deafened me in New Delhi, where I constantly reminded myself to breathe, not only to practice pranayam, but to take in as little pollution as possible! In Srinagar, it was absolutely beguiling to distinguish between warm and kind attitudes from the under current bamboozling brewing in the air. Then having to keep my faith that the universe has this all in flux for some reason. In India, I have learned, sometimes the hard way, whatever goes! There are no hard rules to really go by, even in this little town of Rajpur, Dehradun where I'm writing from. I walk the small, dusty streets daily with the cows, dogs and motor vehicles. In Rishikesh, my tuk-tuk rides to the Yoga Study Center costs anywhere between 10 - 50 rupees, depending on what the driver feels like at the moment. Swati Chanchani, my yoga teacher this morning exclaimed how she thinks she lives in a different universe each time she returns from her visits to western countries, and I have to agree!
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> The one constant I've found is how fascinating and colorful the people are, and I hope I've managed to capture some of that in these pictures! More importantly, I hope they'll transfer through the wi-fi in Chaya cafe down the street!
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