Monthly Archives: August 2013

100 Surya Namaskars, Anyone?

Posted by maansi

Jan_11_surya_asanas_002_-_Urdhva_Vrikshasana_Straight I mean, anyone? Because it won’t be me. 😦

Ah, but the time for gloating is over. It ended when I left India and returned home on Christmas day. It should not have. But it did.

For that, I only blame myself.

However, I will say that I was spoiled while living in India and I never quite got over it.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 am and every Sunday at 8 am – on the dot – meant only one thing:

Yoga.

The spoiling came because precisely at those times, my doorbell would ring announcing the arrival of my yoga instructor.

Today, at 6 am on those days, the only ringtone I hear is from my alarm clock, prodding me awake to face a new day. 😦

Yoga for me became closely associated with the arrival of my yoga instructor and the hour plus of yoga that followed. So, ever since I returned home, I have been unable to practice it alone, all by my lonesome.

All I do is talk (and write) about beginning the regimen. Tomorrow.

When did I become such a procrastinator?

Give me strength. Give me wisdom. Give me the will so I can get started again on the wonderful journey that I began in India. The one that came to a full stop once I entered the shores of the United States.

Once I left Mumbai eight months ago, I kept in touch with my instructor and he has been telling me over these months that after my departure, he rarely practiced our Sunday norm of 100 Surya Namaskars at one go . [So I’m not the only one who needs company].

Then, this week, I got his Whatsapp message to let me know that he had just completed 100 Surya Namaskars in 60 minutes. It sounded like he was getting back into the groove with what used to be our regular weekly session.

My reply to him was short and simple – “I’m jealous”.

I’ve got to get with the program again. I’ve simply got to!

Give me strength. Give me wisdom. Give me the will to just do it. Dammit.

Photo credit: By Ursula [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Posted in india, yoga

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Tags: surya namaskar, yoga, yoga teacher

Mumbai Monsoon Redux

Aug 4

Posted by maansi

“Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.”

― Bob Marley

A week after my trip to New York, I found myself back in Mumbai for a short business visit. It brought back memories of the previous two monsoon seasons that I had spent there.

I never waste a visit. So while the business side of the visit was intense, that did not mean that I could not manage to spend a few hours catching up with favorite friends, favorite haunts and the weather, frizzy hair and all. 🙂

As in previous monsoons, the vegetation had taken a bath and looked exceedingly clean, green and fresh. Beautiful!

The roads had had a nice body wash too, so although the potholes were profuse, at least the roads looked relatively cleansed.

But the unique smell of Bombay had not gone anywhere. If anything, it had acquired new powers. 🙂

I don’t know what it is, but there is certainly something about Mumbai and the monsoon. They seem to have a mutual admiration thing going on.

It makes me want to say, ‘nice to be here’. But (just to be clear), only for a very short and sweet visit!

Typical of the season, I received a warm and ultra-sultry welcome to the city when I arrived.

This was accompanied by a wet, wet, wet, rain-drenched monsoon goodbye just a few days later at the packed (I mean packed!) international airport. It was the icing on the cake, so to speak, that made the entire seasonal experience hard to forget. Good, bad and ugly coexisting without a blink – that’s the incomparable Mumbai for you. Indeed.

The short visit helped me capture just enough Mumbai monsoon snaps for the memory bank.

[Click on one to see a slideshow].