Day 6 - Yoga Studies Tour 2014

A day of rest after a night's travelling so it has been more like a typical holiday today - 3 meals, reading round the pool and a 30-minute session to set up the yoga days that follow.

Breakfast was on the terrace overlooking the river, accompanied by the jackdaws in the trees ready to pounce if you leave your food unattended, and the kingfishers and egrets flying across the water. Someone said they could hear a parrot but they couldn't see it and neither could I.

I watched the chef make my breakfast dosa before my very eyes, alongside my neighbour's omelette. I chose a flat one rather than a pyramid, with potato masala, a vada (see previous blog), tomato chutney and sweet onion chutney. Oh my, wonderful stuff!

 

The staff at the resort cannot do enough to help - they are amazing. The flower displays are colourful - these petals are floating in a dish of water.

Tom from Australia Skyped me when I was picking up email. I could see and hear him but he couldn't hear me so we had an interesting Type/Skype session about the Victorian mountains, my holiday schedule and the success of the global economy depending on people buying stuff they don't need. If we hadn't got arthritis in our fingers I think we might have cracked it!

Before and after a light lunch of vegetable samosas, toasted tomato/cucumber sandwiches and fresh green chillis (hot hot hot), I sunbathed round the pool and modelled the swimming cap I bought specially for the trip but was apparently only compulsory for the pool at Chennai, which I did not use . . .

Having invested £3.50 in the little b***er I was going to show it off and was given a cool new nickname - SV - which will not make sense till you see the photo, and maybe not then - it will be a small test for you. When I get it I will share it :-)

 

At our short yoga meeting Wendy (tour organiser and the yoga teacher for the remainder of the trip) explained our schedule for the next few days - more of that tomorrow!

After the evening buffet meal and traditional Indian music - too many dishes to mention I 'm afraid - and after an interesting and nearly-heated discussion about purusha and prakriti with a retired football referee and Tottenham fan, it was time to download the camera and write this blog!

PS My recent post  (Day 3, 2nd post) using the words 'h*m*cidal m*niac' was blocked by at least two network filters that I know of, in York Public Library and the UK Government - sorry about that!

If Cameron gets his way we won't be able to read anything on the Internet :-(

 

Namaste!
 

Day 5-6 - Yoga Studies Tour 2014

A day of contrasts, starting in the churn of Chennai traffic and ending in the palatial and relaxing grounds of the Ideal River Resort in Thanjavur, via our final day at the KYM, receiving our certificates of attendance and the excitement of Indian railways.

 

Our train left Chennai Egmore at 10 p.m. and we all settled into our bunk beds, which were surprisingly comfortable.

There was nothing to see in the darkness outside so I had 4 hours sleep before arriving at Thanjavur at 4.35 a.m., right on time.

Minibuses and porters were waiting to take us the 15 minute drive to the resort and we were garlanded and given tea.

This view over the river is about 50 metres away. We are here nearly a week so watch out for more pictures!

 

Namaste!

 

 

Day 4 - Food - Yoga Studies Group 2014

Thursday's meal was especially extravagant (in gastronomic terms) so here goes . . . .

The tuk tuks took us to The Cream Centre - the Veg Edge, a modern fusion restaurant, spacious, light and airy.

 

Unbeknown to the virgin visitor, every dish, including the 'starters', were larger than a main course for two so we all over-ordered but that meant we got to taste a lot of dishes - and the staff no doubt ate what we didn't!

The people around me (there were 18 of us so I don't know what they had at the other end of the table) started with some cold dishes:

• Sev Batata Puri
• Delhi Papdi Chaat,
• Delhi (or Dahi) Batata Puri

This was the Delhi Papdi Chaat

And this was the Sev Batata Puri - I think that's the right way round!

 

 

Then we had Crispy Aloo Tikka Sizzler - delicious - this was in the starter section of the menu - a huge dish with rice, curry sauce with cauliflower, green beans and miscellaneous vegetables, plus chips inserted at right angles into the rice! This is obviously their own creation because I am struggling to find it on the web - here is what ours looked like.

 Our main courses were:

• Teekha Subz Handi 
• Vegetable Makhani 

Served with:

Jeera Rice
Bhatura - which looks better than it tastes - we reckoned 9/10 for presentation and 5/10 for taste:

 Here's a picture of the Tandoori Paneer Shashlick:

And I must mention the Bambaiya Ragda because we meant to order it but forgot - the picture on the menu looked nice!

I would have liked to take the menu away with me but it's the size of a catalogue so I had to write all these names down. The previous evening I took photos of each page of the menu but I did get a dirty look from the waiters - I think they thought I was a competitor!

Namaste!
 

Day 4 - Yoga Studies Tour 2014

Today's blog is dedicated to the late Doreen Perkins, one of the kindest souls you could ever meet, who recently lost her battle with cancer. She was buried today in Aldershot, Hampshire and although I was not at the funeral my thoughts are with her and her family.

Street walking and yoga, that's what today was all about . . . . .

The yoga was largely a continuation of the themes set yesterday:

• more insight on selected slokas (verses)  from Krishnamacharya's Yoganjalisaram
• a practice to lengthen kumbhaka (exhalation) in pranayama 
• some vinyasa practices which will be very useful for my home practice
• more chanting of the Gurvastakam (see previous post)
• meditation on the meaning of the word 'guru' combined with chanting 'Sri Gurubhyo namaha' first loudly, then softly, then silently

I also walked the streets a fair bit because in addition to the return walk to KYM (see previous post) at lunchtime I walked to Krishnamurthi's house and back, to visit the bookshop and the gardens.

The day finished with a spectacular meal and it deserves a blog post to itself so watch this space!

Tomorrow evening (Friday) we're moving to Thanjavur on an overnight train so I'm not sure when the next blog post will be.

Namaste!
 

Day 3 (2nd post) - Yoga Studies Tour 2014

The 10-minute walk to the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM) took us past hundreds of Cennai's self-employed, entrepreneurs, and small retailers, not forgetting an assortment of dogs, chickens and cattle.

 We had four lessons/teachings at KYM:

1. The life story of Krishnamacharya and his beliefs, from Sri Sridharan, a retired senior teacher who returned to his village many years ago to get back to his own practice and provide a sort-of doctor-cum-yoga health service. He came back just for this week for Wendy, our UK yoga teacher and tour organiser.

2. Asana practice - the physical stuff  - was a gentle but effective lesson in some basic asanas from Sunita Nair focused on flexibility. I never cease to be amazed by the healing power of (what seems at the time) delicate stretching.

Lunch was sandwiched (sorry!) between two rides in an automatic rickshaw, or tuk tuk. Think of a moped pulling a bright yellow trailer with room for 3 passengers - and maybe one more in the front - driven by a homicidal maniac who assumes that everything else on the road - animate and inanimate - will move out of the way. I wouldn't want to meet one of these drivers on the dodgems at the fair because they are expert at not getting hit in the tightest of spaces and I would guess they would have the determination to hunt you down!

Lunch itself was Chilli Cheese Toast - cheese on toast with a liberal sprinkling of raw green chillis, plus  a refreshing drink of watermelon juice.

3. Shobana taught us the Vedic chant which goes by the name 'Gurvastakam' by Shankaracharya which stresses that whatever you do in your practice, connection with your teacher is an essential requirement which must not be neglected!

4. Padmini talked to us about the benefits of meditation and led us through a Sun Meditation Practice which I will continue when I get home!

Many more photos were taken on the return walk to the hotel and three of us gave pens to three young children which they used to write their names in Gayle's journal. Sweet - ah!

Dinner was taken at the Vrindavan Restaurant at the New Woodlands Hotel, a hotel in Chennai owned by a Brahmin family - hence the lack of alcohol and the strict vegetarian menu. Speaking for myself I think I sampled about 25 dishes if you include starters, main course, breads, side dishes plus desserts and all were extremely tasty. When the bill arrived we were shocked to find that even if we included a generous tip the cost was a mere £5 each. I wonder if they do takeaway?

Night night!

Day 3 - Yoga Studies Tour 2014

Waiting outside the hotel this morning for the group to gather so we could walk to the yoga centre, at about 9.20, I was observing the traffic and a stray dog (there are hundreds of them here) crossed the road.

The traffic was busy but it was moving quite quickly and I held my breath as he headed for the roundabout containing a small fountain. He didn't stop there - he was heading for the third exit, on very weak looking legs. As he stopped and started, waiting for the tuk tuks and the mopeds to go by, I tried to send some Reiki to offer any small protection it might provide.

He crossed safely and the thought struck me that within my vision, there were maybe hundreds of people who could probably do with some healing and compassion but it was the dog that got all the attention. I was just starting to offer some generalised compassion out to the inhabitants of Chennai out and about outside the hotel that morning when I was interrupted again and they never did receive anything!

A small, thin elderly man tentatively crossed the road - well, I say elderly but he may well have been younger than me. He had long, shaggy and unkempt grey hair and a long grey beard down to his waist. He was wearing a short, dirty sleeved orange coloured shirt and half a sack folded into a nappy shape on his lower half. 

After successfully negotiating the route to the roundabout he looked around him several times - either he didn't notice me or he didn't care - I was only about 25 metres away - then he dropped the sack to reveal his naked buttocks. He climbed over the railing revealing the rest of his nether regions and washed himself discreetly in the water from the fountain, ducking down so people in buses might not see him. After a couple of minutes he climbed out, picked up his sack and walked off, folding it in front of him as he walked, no-one else on the street turning a hair. After another couple of minutes he was dressed again and he strode back in the direction he came from.

It struck me that this tiny episode encapsulated much of the duality and contradiction present in India - just when you think you have learned a tradition or a cultural trait, someone will do something that turns everything on its head again. It really looked like this man was trying to wash himself discreetly so as not to cause offense in a country where shorts are frowned upon as they reveal too much flesh. Unfortunately he was naked from the waist down at the time, and he had chosen a busy roundabout near the city centre - go figure, as my American friends say!

Days 1-2: Yoga Studies Tour 2014

I've only had a couple of hours sleep since Saturday night and it's been a long trip via . . .

• a minibus from Parkstone to Heathrow
• a Sri Lankan Airways flight to Colombo in Sri Lanka (good food and an amazing 'front camera' which showed the pilot's view of the take-off and landing) - one hour's sleep :-(

Xmas trees at Colombo Airport:

• a second Sri Lankan Airways flight to Chennai, during which I was given a $10 voucher because my seat number was randomly selected to take a survey
• a welcome garland from Wendy!

• a minibus trip from the airport to the Raj Palace Sundar Hotel which should have taken 30 minutes but probably took about an hour due to motorcycles, scooters, taxis, cars, lorries, and of course minibuses

• a late breakfast of chana dahl, puri, rice idli, and onion ring - terrific, and it gave me another hour's sleep
• a shower in my bedroom's wet room which also encompasses the toilet - the room itself has air conditioning but no windows so it's very dark and I have been promised a new room for tomorrow
• an hour failing to connect to the hotel Wi-Fi
• a minibus trip to the Kapaleeshwarar Temple during which I was blessed with Vibhuti by a Hindu tour guide-cum-fundraiser
• returning to find the Wi-Fi works if I park myself in one specific corner of Reception!

We're going out to dinner tonight, then I need some sleep because it's the first yoga sessions tomorrow!

Namaste!