60 day challenge: If you can, you must!

Over the last two months a lot has happened but in the midst of all the other things that kept me busy, Jan and Feb saw me do something very difficult.

My 20th attempt at the 60 day hot yoga challenge at Bikram Yoga San Jose.

It does not matter how many times one does this before. Every challenge is “a challenge”.

This year, I was really looking forward to a conference in Arizona towards the end of Feb / Early march and some business travel. So I did do a bunch of doubles early on to finish the challenge a week ahead of the 60 days. My finishing class was jointly celebrated with my teacher Sarah. (but we were not the first to finish this year. one guy had us beat by a week as he was also traveling).

When the challenge was done, realized that this years Challenge party was going to be right on the day the challenge ended. Missed the party for th first time because of a prior commitment to volunteer all day for two back to back music concerts. One cannot be in two places at once, at least not with my level of yogic practice.

Wrote my note of thanks and had San read it at the party. Really proud of my girl as she also finished her 3rd challenge two days later. There is no pic of me collecting a T-shirt this time. Here is my celebratory photo with Michele who still has the same glow around her since the day we met, while I age gracefully over 20 challenges?!

San talking for both of us at the challenge party!

Life is funny. So glad to have finished the challenge a week early. Flew back home after a biz trip right after finishing the challenge and was having a post dinner snack of ribbon pakodas. There was a stone in my mouth which I thought was from the pakoda packet. Turns out that an ancient filling from 1993 had come off with a quarter of my pre-molar. To top things off the gum on my front tooth detached and got infected. Had to go on antibiotics and visit the dentist repeatedly till they could fix it albeit temporarily.

They say “physically, mentally, spiritually”.. it should be changed to “medically, dentally, mentally and spiritually”! Dental is definitely unrelated to rest of the body. Guess that is why dentistry is not covered in the “medical plans”!

Had to pull out of the conference last minute and deal with lots of pain. Still recovering over the last two weeks. The added lesson is that if we get a chance to finish things off, you should do that. Never know what life throws at you!

A heartfelt thanks to my BYSJ family for everything!

A lucky escape from falling in a waterfall - Sahasralinga or 1000 linga falls Cambodia

The previous post in this series on the Thanksgiving 2025 trip is here..

After finishing the walk along the 1000 linga river to its source and back, we got in the car to go down to the 1000 linga waterfalls (Sahasralinga falls is the name). It was a short drive and we managed to find parking. The parking lot was getting full as by now a lot more visitors had shown up. It was almost noon. We ate some fruits and started walking towards the falls.

We walked past a bunch of shops that sold herbal remedies and trinkets. There were also a lot of cute dress shops. My attempts to encourage San to buy some failed. Eventually we did buy clothes at the night market the next evening. We were blown away by the width of the falls and the amount of water. Saruk took some nice photos. I showed him the trick of walking towards us steadily and pushing the iPhone between our heads to show the falls. He was impressed. Told him the credit for that doesn’t go to me but our guide in Giza plateau who showed us that. Now Saruk has this in his trick shot list!

Was about to walk back when he said “this is just the upper falls. we have to walk down narrow steps to go to the actual falls!”.. we were thrilled. After walking down narrow steps (which were also wet and slippery and reminded us of the waterfalls in Costa Rica), we were treated to an amaziing view of the 1000 linga falls. Thundering water and a mist that created a fantastic effect with the sunlight going through it.

Did not know that I was going to get in water. My BYSJ shorts was tucked away in the suitcase in the hotel room. But there is a guy making a quick buck here at the falls renting shorts and a changing cabin for a dollar and 50 cents. Rented the shorts and got in the cold water. Was doing yoga poses close to the edge (it was 4 feet deep). Then decided to swim a bit to the rock in the middle of the water and do yoga pose there. Apparently San was not okay with it but in the din of the falls, could not hear her protesting. Saruk was camera ready. That is all I could see. After bobbing up and down to the rock stood up on it and started doing tree pose. It was slippery. That is when the crowd started cheering for me.. or so I thought.

Apparently the wind had changed direction and the mist that was going right to left behind me was coming towards the crowd. That meant a wall of water was going to slap me from behind. Luckily I just finished doing the pose and had both feet on the rock when it hit me with so much force! Had to sit down to brace myself. It almost threw me off the rock.

Got back down safely but as I was trying to climb back up to San, slipped on a rock and scratched my leg. Just decided to let it go and find ointment later in the hotel. Changed back, took some more photos and hiked back up the narrow steps.

Here is the must watch video highlights reel..

We were hungry but our driver said “just hold on for another 45 minutes or so. Will take you to a beautiful spot where you can have lunch”. So off we went to our next stop..

Summer 2025 Bikram Yoga 60 day challenge

After the India trip and father’s day, had still not gone to the Yoga studio for a few days. I really did not want to face the string of condolence hugs. Then came International day of yoga.

We went there to smiling faces. Bikram Yoga San Jose has been home for me for 15 years now. Was not going to miss this. Got to pose with my poster to everyone’s amusement.

Then came July 1st. Was sitting there before class and was reminded that the challenge started. In spite of San giving me the look, signed up. There were conditions. No skipping hikes or other duties. No complaining of any kind as far as time constraints go.

Started on 1st and finished the challenge 5 days early. Felt good to be back in the hot room regularly. It was the best therapy I could ask for. Wanted to do all the 60 classes in my usual corner spot. Managed to do almost 90% of the classes in that spot. Everyone asks me why I pick that spot. There is a back story. BYSJ’s first manager was a wonderful man named Chris Cannavero. He left us too young. He always used to goad me into doing things with his sarcastic wit. When BYSJ moved into the new studio in 2012, he set up thermometers in different parts of the hot room and asked a few of us to keep watching the temperature through the class and report the temperature range. I was in the corner spot and it went to 112 F and for the most part stayed at 108 F. He claimed after that exercise that the corner spot was the hottest.

A few days later I went back a few spots and he called me a wuss for chickening out of being in the hottest spot. After he passed away, I just go to that spot in hopes he is giving me energy when I am about to collapse in a heap or when my brain tells my body to sit down. It may be my imagination, but my % of sitting out poses has become negligible over the years. Just will myself to do it. Now I can add my dad to the list of folks giving me energy every time I put my palms out facing the ceiling.

Every challenge is different, every class is different, every set is different, every side is different. Yoga is something that works on me at glacial pace. It works though!

There was a lot of clutter in my head and yoga helped me still my monkey mind, at least 90 minutes at a time.

A video clip..

A heartfelt thanks to Michelle and all my teachers, fellow students, friends and family for continuing to support me on this yoga journey!