The many degrees of "relaxation"

Today was a very special yoga day. Bikram Yoga San Jose had a special class at 10AM with Rajashree Choudhury teaching the class.

We have heard so much about her teaching style and how special her class is from the teachers. So it was a not to miss experience. A lot of times I end up missing classes taught by visiting teachers because of the travel schedule. Was fortunate to be in town to attend this class.

The dialogue in every Bikram yoga class is the same. The time for every class is the same 90 minutes but the teachers are a broad spectrum. On one side we have the high energy fire breathing dragon drill seargents and on the other side we have the hypnotic horse whisperers. Then there are varying mixes of the two combinations. The end result after the class is more or less the same. You are completely drained of thought and you are happy to go out into the world, all zoned out! 

Once in a while you get someone on either extreme who can make you feel more zoned out than you think was possible. Not talking about doing a pose deeper or more correct to the form during class here...

It is about a certain silence in your head that is just quieter than the usual. We should have a scale to quantify silence, that is exponential like the Decibel scale or the Richter scale.

Maybe "silence" is the wrong word here as this is not the opposite of noise. It is more than just the absence of sound. It the absence of any sensory data going into your brain to disturb you. 

We had a great class today where Rajashree took us through the usual 90 minute routine with some tidbits of information thrown in. Most of them were about why we do what we do in class and encouraging us to persevere.  

Then when the poses and final breathing was over and we were all stretched out on the mats, she started talking softly, telling us how to relax. There are one or two teachers who try this by saying "relax your neck, your shoulders, your hips... " and they make you consciously relax your body head to toe. What we heard today was different. It was advice, technique and hypnotism at work. 

After a few minutes of listening to her talk, I had no idea what she was even saying! It was almost a whisper. It was like being submerged in a tank of water or what the astronauts decribe as part of their space walk experience. You know there is a tether connecting you to the world but it seems to be getting more and more distant as time passes.

Got a tingling sensation in the left side of my head after a few minutes into this "whispering shavasana". Usually tingles in the hot room means that blood is flowing to that part of your body for the first time in a long time. Within a few minutes there were tingling sensations all over my brain and at that point the whisper became very faint.

Then everyone clapped for some reason and was back to staring at the light on the ceiling. It was like coming back out of anesthesia after a surgery and staring at the lights or that is the closest I can explain what happened after being "so far out there".

Had been in shavasana for more than 15 minutes. For a person who runs out at the end of 90 minutes on any given day because of a conference call to attend or a kid to pick up from some class on the way home, the extra 15 minutes is a luxury. Today it was a real lesson. Now I know why the teachers say "missing the 2 minute shavasana at the end of class is like working very hard, then forgetting to collect your paycheck". 

Going to stay on the mat after class for longer times, at least on weekend classes or Friday evenings going forward. 

Todays class was like a power surge that forcibly reset the hardware in my head. Now the trick is to relive this experience after every yoga class!

After class we got to talk to Rajashree for a few minutes.  Jr. had come to BYSJ so she could see what this was all about and also clicked a picture.

Wanted to tell her so many things. Wanted to show her how my broken hand is now normal again. How Bikram Yoga has given me a second chance and made me believe in the concept of second chances, but before I said anything she mentions her son wears a Janau and asks me if I do Sandhya Vandhanam every day. Told her that I do it most days but only once a day.

My Bikram Yoga attendance is better than my Sandhya Vandhanam frequency. She says "do that as well! it is good for you"

Jr. was all smiles when she said "your daughter is beautiful". Today Jr. saw almost a 100 people come out all smiling after class and line up to talk to Rajashree. It is my sincere hope she does yoga again soon. Given how busy she is with 8th grade, she could really use it. 

It was truly a "special experience" like the teachers at BYSJ told us over the last few days.

Hats off.. we should really say "Mats off" to Rajashree Choudhury, the "horse whisperer extraordinaire"!

Fall is finally here

It has been a hot and extentended summer this year in Cupertino with temperatures going above 100F in September. 

This morning started off the same but the difference was noticeable by noon.

All the leaves on the big tree practically came down within a few hours. So nice and breezy outside. 

Got the feeling that the trees are accelerating the schedule for Fall and going ready to winter mode!

It was a great morning for many reasons. The weather change could not have come at a more perfect time. 

Taking off with your body and mind..

In a sense, we are all airplanes in different shapes, sizes and colors. We are all more or less trying to use the equipment we have, to do the best we can, before the equipment (body and mind) need some major upgrades or outright fail. 

Flying airplanes needs a license. Flying your "self" doesn't.

Those piloting licenses have varying degrees of difficulty and requirements. 

Anything from 20 hours of solo flying and 15 hours of flying with a certified instructor for a small Cessna to 1500 hours of solo flying and more hours with experienced pilots to fly a Jumbo jet.

Where am I going with all this comparison?

When I started doing yoga, we were not sure if I will survive the first dozen classes. That was 100 minutes of Yoga. 

That went by fast.

The next milestone was ~ 1000 minutes of yoga or ~ 112 classes.. that also went by fast within four months. 

The next one is longer. 10,000 minutes of yoga, lets approximate to a 1000 classes. As a person who meticulously does graphs and charts and keeps track of things to get a nerds eye view of yoga, there is another 85 classes to go for the 1000'th Yoga class and a little more to go after that for 10,000 minutes in the hot room. At the rate at which I am attending, before year end, that milestone will come and go.

Then there is one more possible milestone to go, in this lifetime. 

100,000 minutes of yoga. Let's call it 10,000 classes. That should take another 37 years judging by current extrapolation, give or take. 

There are folks we know who have been doing yoga twice a day, almost every day for a decade. For them, seeing that milestone is almost a given. For the rest of us who are happy to do yoga once a day, at every chance we get, a 40 year timeframe to get there sounds about right. 

Not sure if there will be a lot of counting after a 1000 classes. Maybe there will be some lifestyle change at some point? Maybe there will be more yoga? Maybe age will catch up and there will be less? There is no predicting. 

One thing that keeps me going is that somehow, somewhere deep within, there is a realization that doing yoga is going to help me get there and the more yoga I do, the higher the chances of getting through those 37 years!

We can check back in 20 years and see a progress report. 

A thousand moons

Last week was eventful for the family. My in-laws visited us. San's uncle from Australia also visited us. The big event?

My MIL's dad's brother crossed a 1000 moons! It is a big deal in South India and there is a grand celebration

- when a person crosses a 1000 full moons

- is still married to the same person 

The couple get to perform a prayer that is a mix of "thank you god for the 1000 moons and the happy married life" and a wish "for many more moons". Once they finish the ceremony, they get some kind of rock star status and everyone gets their blessings. In Chennai (Madras) where I grew up, this function is so auspicious that once the couple finish the prayer, folks who were not invited to the function just show up in a long line to fall at the couples feet to get their blessings. 

Used to see a few of these ceremonies as a kid. They are rare events in a place where life expectancy for men was 62 and women was 64 twenty years ago. A thousand moons is approximately 29,501 days .. and happens close to the persons 80th birthday. 

Given most of the folks who are in their 80's got married very young (some of it was child marriage), the ladies who survive this ceremony should actually be the rock stars.. at least that is my humble opinion. Putting up with any guy for those kind of periods deserves a lifetime achievement award. 

In recent memory, I have attended three of these ceremonies. 

First in 2005 (San was pregnant with the little one then and Jr. was a toddler) we attended my maternal grandpa-grandmas function. Still have great memories from that one.

Then in 2007 when the little one was 14 months old, we went for San's paternal grand parents ceremony. Was mostly inside a dark and dingy room in the marriage hall taking care of the little one, who was very cranky and almost missed most of the happenings. (have only a few photos from that event on my camera rolls!). It was a great party of sorts again with a large family.

Then there was last weekend. San's maternal grand-uncle celebrated it. Given he is local, they celebrated it here instead of in India. How they managed to get enough folks well versed in the Vedas to do the recitation and prayers was in itself impressive, not to mention them going through a long ceremony with a smile.

They reminded me a lot of my own grandparents. When a guy who is 80 can make his lady smile for his jokes and make her blush at times, after being married to her for what appears to be a jillion years, it is more than an example for the younger generation.

You get a glimpse of what it takes to have a long and happy married life.

I realized there is a lot of work to do on my joke list!

The next generation (my parents, in-laws, uncles and aunts on both my side and Sangeetha's side of the family) are all getting around the 70 year mark.

Our sincere hope that a lot of them make it to a 1000 moons and we get to see more such ceremonies in this lifetime.

We also got to see Jr. dress up in her half saree for this occasion. She is the same height as her mother now and has declared herself a teen, even though she has a few months to go before her 13th birthday.

Now the in-laws and Uncle have gone back, the house feels empty, save for the occasional fighting between Jr. and the little one.

San and me have only another 36+ years to go.. just typing that out made me want to go to the bathroom.

I plan to interview these people in detail and find out more about their winning strategies. 

Google, you can do better..

Last week, I was trying to look up old posts to link to something I was writing.

Three for three, the Google ads on the right sidebar were something like this.. 

My first thought was "hey, don't I know the woman in the top picture? have seen her somewhere before!"

Then realized that it is exactly the same ad where I had seen her before. the mind is a funny thing. It makes these associations.

Yes. I agree. There IS a "sweet Asian Woman I should be with" and she has a name already.. Sangeetha! 

If Google was smart enough, it would have figured it out. 

On the bright side, they have figured out the right demographic based on my travel habits.  For a good six months they were showing ads for the "sweet Russian woman I should be with". Sooner or later they will zero in on "Indian woman I should be with", then figure out I am already with a sweet woman and finally pitch me something else. Or so one hopes.. 

For crying out loud, there are very few things that are interesting to me right now Google. My life is an open blog!

Work, Home and Bikram Yoga

If it is work, pitch me things that will make travel a breeze (doesn't have to be sweet Asian women.. that is taking it to an extreme)

If it is home, it has to be "back to school" related.. pitch me something that I will be tempted to buy for the kids or for myself, which is restricted to food and photography (don't bother with the Nikon ads either. You should have figured out that I am too deeply invested in Canon to move now after 25 years). As for buying things for the "sweet girl", she would rather buy it herself. So you have to work a little harder and pitch me those things based on what she is checking out online. A little help there would be nice!

If it is Yoga, then you know what you can pitch.

It IS really that simple!