Starting 50 with a memorable day

Started the 50th year this week! My family and friends made it special with their wishes and blessings!

Got to do yoga in the morning with my teachers pushing me as usual. When you are in a Bikrram yoga class, you actually expect that your teachers to be tougher on your birthday and my teacher didn't disappoint! It was also awesome to have my guru in the front row with me! Always makes me give it everything I got.

My wife made me some potato roast with paruppu sadam (that is all I wanted) and it was yummmmy!

We had already gone to the temple earlier and celebrated Karthigai deepam.

My Tamil birthstar is Rohini and this year there was a lunar eclipse which was specifically related to Rohini. So I was advised to stay put at home and eat light.. which I did.. in anticipation of all the good eats that were coming!

Now that I am part of a music family, which is a large family, they made my day extra special. Got some special wishes from the music group and got to show some progress in the singing. Still writing what seems to be a never ending post on my recent singing experience. Hope I get to post it during the thanksgiving break!

The best part of this birthday was my baby showed up for thanksgiving break. Having her at home after 4 months made me so happy!

We went to LED lights this year for Kaarthigai.. simply because it is rainy and windy out here. We respect the folks who can still pull off lighting oil lamps in Cupetino!

My not so little girl baked an amazing cake. She has a gift. Hope she keeps up her baking.  I asked Jr. to blow a candle with me given she spent her birthday last week without us!

A rare photograph of the four of us. It is going to get more and more difficult to get these photos as years go by..

A day that was made very special by all my family and friends! I am lucky to have all this love! Lucky to be healthy and happy! Thank you for all the wishes!

A special 60 day yoga challenge

Folks who read this blog and know me or even randomly see me on the street (pretty much all of Cupertino) know:

- There is a Bikram Yoga San Jose

- There is something called a 60 day challenge at BYSJ

- and "I did it!"

They might also have concluded that I have only one shirt in my entire wardrobe and wear it all the time, possibly due to some psychological disorder where I have to wear the same shirt.

A more astute observer might have noticed that the blue T-shirt has different levels of fading due to repeated washing over years and therefore, cannot be the same shirt.

This fact has been reinforced over last year, now that there are two additional colors added to the collection. 

Why do I keep wearing this shirt? 

1. It was a T-shirt not bought, but hard earned by doing 60 hot yoga classes in 60 days (miss one and you do two on another day to compensate). A 90 minute yoga class is just that, no matter how many times you have done it before (2390 to date for me, given I have a tracker) and every class is different. You go in with a different levels of physical and emotional baggage and you hopefully come out without it after the class, if you give it your all.

2. It is a really nice shirt. Great fabric. Absorbs sweat after yoga class so the car seat doesn't get the sweat and it fits me nicely. 

3. Navy blue is my favorite color. Most of my clothes are blue!

Over the years, have done 10 of these 60 day challenges. The first few years, BYSJ used to give out little Oscar like trophies. So as of now, have 4 tropies and 6 T-shirts. Have requested the Yoga studio for an exchange program so we can turn in the old trophies for T-shirts, given it is practically the only thing I wear all the time and it is good publicity for the studio and Yoga!

This was my 11th Challenge and it was very very special. My wife signed up for it!!! Why? She was trying to heal her ankle injury and was trying all kinds of things. So I told her to try to do yoga with me as it is a definitely good thing. She came for a few days, saw an improvement and decided to sign up for the 60 day challenge. She was okay with me signing up as well. We were going through a lot of stuff at home and doing any activity with my wife on a regular basis usually ends up being challenging. So I was hesitant at first.

Then I got used to doing Yoga with my wife. Initially I would always try to look back at her in the second row to see if she is overdoing some poses or she is messing up Vajrasana which is great for ankles but only if done right. Then my teachers would all go help her do it right in the first 10 days. We would also plan and try to schedule classes together and it ended up being fun.

We both finished the challenge on the same day and put stickers up. Given my OCD, my teachers saved me a stash of purple stickers in the last week, so I could have the joy of putting up stickers. My teachers and the Karma Yoga helpers at BYSJ keep laughing at me for my sticker anxiety. I had 6 stickers left to place and they were running out of purple stickers. So I went and told them, "this is like doing a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle to find out that you are missing the last piece".  They understood. Next year I have been asked to change colors for stickers every 5 classes or so, try to be in different spots in the yoga room, etc.. in other words, break the routine. That might be the real challenge. As you can clearly tell, wife seems to have no such issues. Puts whatever color is available. We are very different creatures.

It has been 3 1/2 years since I stopped drinking water during class. So the 60 days of doing yoga, in studio with the heat and humidity, without water and with a mask on was interesting, but totally doable. So if any of you reading this are thinking about trying to get back into the hot room, you can do it with the mask. No problem. You will get used to it in two days.(you are allowed to drink water.. I just do this as an additional challenge and it helps me suck in my stomach more during poses)

San and me did yoga together on most days. Sometimes we had to juggle doctor appointments for the kid and would go at different times. Once San's ankle started healing and she started on baby hikes again, we still did yoga after the hikes.

There is something to be said about sweating it out and breathing with single minded focus. My job has not been a cake walk for the last three months. It is more me than the job. Going from being in startups for 15 years to a big company takes some adjusting to. Things that take hours takes weeks, things that take weeks take quarters. All that fire and drive from startup life, hits a concrete wall of layered bureaucracy and quicksand like interactions. It takes some time to recalibrate oneself to the new normal, but I have learned to take enough deep breaths and have fun in the new enviorns. The 60 day challenge definitely helped in this process.

This was taken after finishing 60. Really happy for San as she finished this! For once she gets to talk about the challenge at the 60 day challenge party while I get to cheer her!

My teachers are amazing! They push me, correct me, know exactly when I am about to give up and give me that look that says "how dare you?" at just the right time to keep me going. Forever grateful to them for making me a better person on a daily basis. 

My MIL has wanted to do this challenge with me for 10 years, but never found the time on her travel schedule. Very happy that my wife did yoga with me for a couple of months and thrilled to see her do a 60 day challenge. Hopefully she starts doing Yoga more regularly and comes with me at least a few times a week. It is also my hope that my MIL will also get to finish this challenge in the coming years. 

A very happy Teachers day to all my yoga teachers and all my teachers!! 

BYSJ is a very very special place. It is truly a home away from home. It is a place where you can go in with a lot of issues and come out feeling a lot better than you went in. No other place of exercise, no hospital or temple has beat that for me yet! Watching my wife or kids smile is a close second. A long trip or hike in nature or watching the sunset over the pacifica, is a distant third!

Looking forward to getting a new T-shirt to add to the collection. Now I have one for every day of the week!

A very different Yoga challenge

If you know me or read this blog, one fixture every year is the 60 day Yoga challenge that runs between Jan to March. Every year I have been doing the 60 Yoga classes in 60 days at Bikram Yoga San Jose.

This year it was as challenging as it was in the hot room. We had to do it mostly on Zoom and sometimes go for a parking lot class on weekends. Started on Jan 1st but as usual there were some challenges. Had a double bone graft gum surgery which took me out for 5 days. Had to do doubles on five other days to catch up. 

Even when I came back to doing Yoga, it was not easy to rest my cheeks on the floor for a few days. It is all well and healed now. Think this Zoom yoga class is here to stay. With new variants showing up, it might be some time before the studio opens to capacity. 

My daughter took this picture of me with the new T-shirt (which is our trophy of sorts from BYSJ when finishing the challenge). This time there was a cat as part of the design. I see so many of my yoga buddies try to do yoga at home with me and no matter where they try to hide their pets always find them and come disturb them in the most interesting ways while they are trying to do the poses! It is hilarious to watch. 

Yesterday we were hiking in Mount Tamalpais and after having attended the 60 day challenge party on Zoom the previous night, Yoga was still very much on my mind.. so when we went down to the falls, my wife gave me the idea to do yoga poses in front of the falls. 

at first I tried to do this on the log behind the rock and promptly fell in the water. Luckily only one leg was in the water. walked with a wet leg and shoes for a good 5 miles. So learned my lesson.. check the stability of logs for one leg instead of two before trying such poses.

There was no one around when we started taking pictures and we thought we had the place to our group. Just as I start to try and grab my leg with my hand, a dog comes out of nowhere and starts jumping on me and playing with me! Eventually the owners caught up to the dog and were laughing at how the dog was trying to distract me from doing yoga! The pets are getting really good at it, everywhere!

This was my 10th challenge. I am still a beginner. When talking about Yoga, one has to talk in Yoda timescales.. I am still a beginner with only 10 years of Yoga experience. Long ways to go! Learning new things every day. 

No graphs and charts this year.. doing yoga alone at home has been a humbling experience in its own way and I got to examine some of the asanas with a completely different mindset. 

if you have not yet tried hot yoga, try it at least once in your life. It might be the game changer! Thanks to BYSJ for all the push and a great T-shirt! 

Difference between hearing and listening

The yoga practice has continued at home for the most part over the last two weeks, even though the studio is open again with limited capacity. 

The first few days I was simply not fast enough to get on the waitlist and then given my zen place, decided to do yoga alone at home to recorded classes. 

The last few zoom classes my teacher has been trying to give me very precise instructions on one pose. 

The balancing stick pose (Tuladandasana) which is a short and sweet pose. . . no I am kidding. We are talking Bikram hot yoga. There is nothing sweet about it. It is a time lapse trip to hell and back in 10 seconds, and that is my PG version. 

The idea is to stand on one leg and stretch the hands and legs like you are the rope in a tug of war competition. The number one thing that puts anyone on guard in a hot yoga class is "lock the knee" which sometimes is also refered to as "lock the damn knee" etc. So whenever the teacher mentions locking the knee, or using your inner thighs etc. the brain automatically thinks "standing leg" or the "balancing leg" that is usually unlocked. 

Turns out my teacher was talking about the stretching leg. She even told me in two classes back to back "use the inner thighs on the left leg and lift it". I heard it and processed it as "Sarah has got the legs mixed up again. I am standing on my right leg and lifting up my thighs all I can but nothing is moving!" 

Then in an act of coincidence, when I was in zombie autopilot mode for a fraction of a second, I let the brain process what had just been heard and accidentally realized that she was indeed talking about my left leg! 

She had practically given me a "paint by numbers" type instruction and I had still managed to $#% it up two days in a row!

Funny thing is that the correction made me balance easier and I was not killing my ankles and feet trying to lift from the bottom part of the leg. 

The fact that she literally has to beat it into me, on zoom, three days in a row is a testament to the perseverence of the teachers! 

Today I was part of a livestream class where you watch the people in the hot room and join the class. The teacher cannot see me on video as they are in the room. Sarah knew I was in the zoom version of the class and she gave me the exact same correction, even though she couldn't see me! This time I was ready and doing it right. Had even practiced it a few times yesterday. 

Here is a video showing a before and after.

Normally you take the step everytime you go down but I planted my front foot down in the video for a reason. That way I can superimpose the two versions in photoshop easily..

The other interesting thing is that this concept works well in two of the four poses in the spine strengthening series where you have to lift your leg and push it towards the back!

Some of you might be thinking "hasn't this guy been doing this 2000+ times over 10 years? he must be the worlds dumbest student". Well, I think that sometimes too but then realize that it has nothing to do with the effort or dedication or what type of intelligence you have.

It all has to do with registering certain things. Watching someone end up in a pose just tells you the end result. Which muscles they used to get there is not obvious. They might explain the body mechanics and practially give you very specific instructions but we are inherently biased. We put filters between what we hear and what we actually process in our heads!

I am happy to have realized this. This is not the first time there has been a lightbulb moment and this surely won't be the last. 

Just cannot wait for going into the studio and embrace the heat and humidity! 

When I am teaching something to my kids, by the third time my voice or body language shows my frustration as a teacher and my kids pick up on it! 

A big thanks to my teacher for being soo persistent and patient, even when she could see that I simply was not getting it, days at a time! 

Allergies in COVID times

The last four months were really good for my lungs. Stayed at home. Was very careful everytime I went to the Sunnyvale Costco, the Cupertino Trader Jo's / Target or the local Trinethra. Always wear a mask, use hand sanitizer very liberally, shower after I come home (not just wash hands, go straight to shower!)

That was pretty much the list of stores visited over 4 months, sometimes once in 7 days or 14 days. 

Apart from that, have had my daily walk around the block either while calling into meetings where I am not front and center but have to be there for an entire hour (most of you know those meetings... where the one day you are not on call, they take your name in vain) or in the late evenings just when the sun starts to go down. 

Two weeks ago things became very difficult. Runny nose, sore throat, blocked nose, difficulty breathing through the nose during the night and end up waking up with a dry mouth, occasional nose bleeds because of too much sneezing which eventually turned into the usual sinus infection. Called the doctor and they promptly told me that I have nothing to worry as I can breathe very well through my mouth. My lungs are still good.. very good.. to the point that once I manage to do the first two breaths of pranayama as part of the daily yoga class, I can keep going. They didn't even bother to ask me to go get tested. 

There was also another thing I observed. The sneezing went into over drive when I shaved after a week. It looks like the cleft below my nose has become super sensitive and I can now shut down when detecting certain smells at much lower levels. 

If not for the daily walk and the 90 minute yoga class everyday, the rest of the day and night is practically spent sitting on one place. So it is not easy to give up the walk because of the allergies. 

The real question was, how can I get this allergies if I wear a mask thoughout the walking! Are pollen smaller than the virus? 

Apparently the Corona virus is 120nm and the size of Pollen is 15-200 um which is 15000 to 200,000 nm. The mask should have blocked the pollen from getting into my nose.Turns out the blooming Lilacs are to blame and when I am sitting in the backyard calling into meetings without a mask, the pollen got me. 

Muddled thorugh the that week and the earlier part of this week working with watery eyes and nose and sounding miserable. Maybe time to take a few days off just to take mind off things and sleep during the day. Staring at a monitor non stop from 8AM to 9PM is also not a good idea. Have decided to go and bring my external monitor from work and move it home. 

If BYSJ was open we would have been going through a summer 60 day challenge. After recovering from that ankle sprain made it 60 days in a row earlier this week.  This would have been my 10th 60 day challenge. In my mind it still is. 

We now have open air classes in the parking lot at the yoga studio. I got to be part of the first ever parking lot class. It was hot, it was not level ground and the sun was directly above us.. but think there were almost 20 of us and we did the class and enjoyed it simply because of the group experience. You have to learn to breathe hard through a mask though, and that was a curveball for me because my mask was not the right mask for this exercise. it was a mask that had already been used for a week and was too soft. A cloth mask or a more rigid mask with some structural strength would have been better.  I almost swallowed my mask during the final breathing exercise. 

There are more classes per week now and more folks are starting to show up. Have been staying put at home content with doing the classes on Zoom or alone to a recording because I was still sneezing like crazy. I have been told there is no chance this is COVID, but others don't. So didn't want to panic my fellow yogis!

My time to participate came again this morning. There is no more sneezing, no runny nose watery eyes etc.. the allergies have gone as of Friday! 

This time went well prepared for the sun and the asphalt in the parking lot. If you saw a guy among a group of yogis who looked like he had just gotten off his camel and looked like a displaced Moroccan, that was me. One beauty of having a lot more clothes during a yoga class is that you sweat more, which was a plus! Thoroughly enjoyed the class.

don't think many of my yoga buddies even recognized me.. they were probably wondering who is the crazy arab who is waving to them..

The allergies and sneezing though presented a very real challenge when trying to do anything outside the house or being able to show my face in video calls. I was not comfortable seeing my own face in that zoom window, so had to say no to a lot of facetime and zoom calls. People get scared even if you sneeze on zoom! that is how much we react or over react to things now. 

The good news is I am back to my usual self and the yoga continues. Now that I have mastered dressing up for parking lot yoga, will be a regular there. 

Wish this COVID blows over and we end up inside the hot room soon enough. A lot of my fellow yogis share the same sentiment. If we are six feet apart and are wearing masks throughout the class, why not just do this inside the hot room?! if anything the fan pushes everything down to the floor! 

Normally we would go to Chat house and celebrate the finishing of a 60 day challenge with some parathas and baturas.. we are in different times now! Hope things open up soon!