Hardest 60 day challenge to date

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you would know that I used to do the 60 day challenge every winter and some years, given travel schedules, sign up to do the summer challenge as well at Bikram Yoga San Jose.

The challenge is to do 60 classes in 60 days. If you miss a day, you do a double on another day. That is two classes in one day to make up for it. It is called a challenge as your body and mind tell you to give up after day 40 or so.

This is the post about my 21st attempt at this challenge over the years and my 19th time finishing successfully!

In late June, I went on a biz trip and came home with a kidney infection. Was hospitalized and was allowed to do normal things only on 7th July. Even then I was not fully back to my old self. Had lost 11 lbs during this ordeal and was still hitting the restroom every two hours to pee.

My wife knew that I measured my “being normal” with my being able to do yoga on any given day. If I could do yoga, was good for the next 22 hours. If not, something is off and needs to be fixed. That has been the benchmark for a long time. She signed me up for the 60 day challenge this time. I was planning to skip it. We can sign up any day between 1st and 14th of July and finish 60 days from our start date. Usually don’t sign up if I don’t see a possibility of finishing. However, my name was on the board. So I started going to class with her on the 11th and kept going. The Yoga and the hot room always heal and this time was. no different. Within a week I was better physically and mentally. Then came the hike to Mt. Dana. I missed three days. Managed to do doubles the following weekend to make up for it and all was well.

Then out of nowhere, my right knee started swelling. Had to go to the hospital. Fluid was drained, a steroid shot was given, not much specifics on identifying the root cause. Was asked to go do usual stuff like rest, ice, elevate compress, alternate heat and cold etc.. Based on the detailed tests it was a meniscus tear that did not need surgery. Sat at home for 4 more days with the ice water circulating machine.

Hot yoga room heats you all over, not just the knee. Given I was 3/4th of the way to finishing the challenge, went and did what I could without having any lateral knee movement. I was still going to office, driving (which made it worse), avoid staircases(except for a fire drill at work that made things much worse) and the hot room actually helped me deal with things mentally and physically to keep going.

There is a saying in Tamil “Saaga pozhudhu irundhaalum vega pozhudhu illai!” which translates to “even if you find the time to die, you don’t time to burn in the cremation pyre”. A thing that says you are “that busy”! It felt like that for the last 12 days of the challenge. Fortunately there was the labor day weekend to wrap things up and rest. The challenge was done!

There is a lot to learn about yourself (body and mind) in every challenge. This was no different. You can see the end of the video for what is possible.

At one point San told me to stop the challenge by saying “I asked you to start it. I am asking you to stop it!”. Did not have the heart to tell her that she has just become like my mom. Reminded me of my mom saying “I asked you to go to the US. Now I am asking you to come back!” . This after being married, having two kids and a job and set life here. 50+ days into a challenge you just can’t wind it down and call it quits. Used to be the poster boy for BYSJ, recently the posters changed and the new ones are awesome.! The baton has been passed to some of my Yoga peeps. Folks were making jokes that “maybe it is a sign from above to stop the challenge”. Every tool in the emotional toolkit was tried to make me stop this, but I finished. Have been on a break from yoga for 10 days now and things only got worse now.

Will see if something is actually damaged and follow up on how to heal. San treated me to a “challenge finish lunch” at Bhimas. Usually it is Aaloo paratha at Chaat House right after the challenge party. This time, it was a lunch treat!

San is my biggest supporter and she is always right. It takes me time to realize that sometimes. Eventually I come around. Her theory is that I have something torn or broken and it is not diagnosed yet. So till I get it understood, I should be very careful. That I am taking to heart. This challenge is all her!

Have told her that 20 is a round number. Maybe after the next challenge, I will not sign up every year.

Here are some pictures..

San made it look like I am eating a 2 foot poori.. it is a small poori!

This banner has been replaced by new really good ones which show the community. There used to be a sense of added responsibility when this was there. I would never sit down during triangle pose. Still don’t. Now I give the new poster boys a hard time telling them “they should not skip the poses they are doing on the wall”.

here is the video of the speech

Have said this before and will say it again.

In today’s world keeping your immune system and having the ability to heal yourself after any injury or ailment is important, given the cost and quaiity of medical care. We have to give our doctors also something to work with and that comes from within.

Yoga helps you do that.

Hot yoga is even better. The heat and humidity make it safer to stretch.

Doing yoga regularly is good.

Having a continuous practice where you come day after day is even better for a lot of reasons (you can read all those old 60 day challenge posts over the years in this blog alone).

If you haven’t done a challenge try it. if you did and were not able to finish, sign up for the next one and finish. if you did do the challenge and finish, sign up again to learn something new about yourself!

This challenge is dedicated to San. She is my rock! Also a big thanks to BYSJ, all my teachers and fellow students for keeping this going!

A day in Mumbai and I move same time as Jupiter

The previous post in this series is here..

After coming back to Mumbai from Dehradun, we did a repack. Suitcases to and from US are 23kg, suitcases on domestic flights are 15kg. So my in-laws got our stuff to various points.

We reweighed stuff, went to the tailor for some “blouse stitching” for San. She was going to come here a week after I came back. Then we had a nice dinner with San’s uncle at an interesting place. The food was some kind of fusion food but I still had stuff to eat there. Mozarella sticks or an Indian equivalent.

Then we got some rest. The next morning we got up very early, went to Siddhi Vinayak, Mahalakshmi and then to Babul Nath temple. This was my first time visiting this temple. It was a wonderful experience. We ate a nice breakfast outside Siddhi Vinayak. We had lunch which my MIL made. Then we went shopping for tea and good quality jaggery to bring back. They fulfilled my last minute wish to eat at Sadhguru. So had an early dinner and got some sleep.

When I went to Mumbai airport in the morning, they told me my flight to Dubai had left. They had notified my cell but I did not turn on an international data plan. Emirates told me that I was not the only one who had this issue and all of us who thought we were on time but late were rebooked in the next flight to Dubai and will spend a day in Dubai. I almost cried. I had meetings to attend here Monday morning. Told them to get me on the last flight that day to Dubai to minimize my time there. It was not that far out. I just wanted to go hug San. So after some help from Emirates staff who had to check me out of the airport with the updated boarding pass, took an Uber and came back to Chembur. Just crashed. Then got to take a photo of MIL’s helper who always asks me nicely how I am doing on every trip. The smile on her face when I showed her the portrait, priceless! Ended up eating what was left and took a nap for a short time and returned to the airport.

Jupiter had moved I guess and he was taking me to a “new level”. Had left SFO with two suitcases and a carry on. When I came back to Emirates counter they said 2 suitcases and laptop bag was it. No carry on. Had to pay 85 $ to get the weight moved into the suitcases, stuff the laptop bag into the carry on to make it one piece in front of an audience. It was interesting.

Finally got to Dubai. They had no airport hotel, no chance to leave. They said lot of passengers stranded because of the flight timing changes. There were people sleeping at the gates. One nice lady said for 100 bucks I could rent a sleeping pod and sleep there with a blanket and pillow and use the restrooms and get water all included. So I rented the pod. It was nice but not quiet. The sound of 20 snorers was there. The looked at me and said “free earplugs”. Slept for a good 6 hours only to be woken by San who screamed “go to gate now. Just got a message saying your flight is boarding”. I pankicked. Not again!! So grabbed everything and ran to the gate. Lucikly Dubai was an hour ahead of Chennai. So I still had an hour. Missed using that restroom and water, tea etc. They obviously weren’t letting me back in as I checked out. Walked around the gate for an hour and finally realized why all these flight time changes.

There was war out there! The flight took the weirdest route to get to SFO. Not sure why they couldn’t have just gone via China to SFO. Went straight up and took a left and came all across the US to come down to SFO. it was a long long flight.

After coming home and unpacking felt a sigh of relief. Could get back to my normal routine at work. That tea and jaggery ended up being a lot more expensive than what I could have paid for at the local Indian store. A new lesson learned.

It was an interesting trip. I did get a chance to meet all four of my aunts in Chennai and my local cousins. Also got to meet my music teacher at his house and meet his family. Made a flying visit to Paadarivom Padipparivom and got to hug Nagubhai, the man who has made my life a lot better since COVID thanks to the music initiative he pioneered and kept running through really tough times.

Somehow after coming back, I lost my voice and motivation to sing. Just kept focusing on work. That helped. Now things are slowly changing. Jupiter is still playing tricks with my body and mind or maybe it is my dad doing funny stuff to my head behind the scenes. Won’t know. Have started singing again though!

Just wish things get back to how they were in March.

Here are the last few photos that make a cut for this post..

While I was on that long flight back, Kuwait airport got bombed and one died and 60+ were injured. In a way maybe things turned out good and I made it back home in one piece, sleeping in pods or not!

There is no travel in the near future given my health condition. Will be glad to write about music and hopefully sing more regularly. Need to get out of my current predicament with the knee and start squatting, walking, do yoga and get back to my old self! One can only pray for a quick recovery!

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!