Double Double

Over the last many 60 day challenges, have done many doubles. Usually it is a class in the morning and another one in the evening over the weekend to make up for classes missed during travel.

A few times have done doubles with back to back classes.. but it is usually rare and the classes were taught by different teachers. 

One exception was back to back classes taught by Ashley.. gave it my 110% in both classes. 

also got an idea to take a picture after each class and merge them.

Double class, teacher, student..

Actually feel pretty good after doing back to back classes!

the trick is to trust your teacher to watch out for you. They always do!

The challenge continues.. 

Jet lag Yoga

We made it back from Belize on New Years eve'ning. One adventure always leads to another .. so came home to four loads of laundry. At the end of the day we are a fiscally conservative family. We take in fresh clothes to a resort and come back with all the clothes in a large garbage bag. 

Started doing laundry right away after coming back. In fact I had quarantined all the clothes and shoes in the entryway and put deet into the suitcases, in the event any Belizian mosquitos or biting flies and assorted insects made it accidentally into the suitcase. I think every insect in that rain forest had some part of the Narayanan family for some meal. 

The washer broke down after the first load! Spent a good hour and a half trying to remove the soaking wet clothes out and drain out the water. Fortunately we have good friends and neighbors. After letting the wet clothes drain overnight, got them done this morning. With help from my neighbor we started troubleshooting the washer. We have now narrowed it down to a faulty drain pump. Given there is no way to go buy one today and most service guys are off today being New Years, the thing is now opened up and waiting for life tomorrow. 

Given this washer lasted almost 15 years, we were thinking of buying a new one. Sometimes old is gold. This one has no fancy electronics. Possibly a simple microcontroller at the most.. it doesn't even have a belt. It is one of those old direct drive motors. No digital displays of any kind.. no fancy algo's to figure out the size of the load etc. etc.. thinking of getting it fixed tomorrow..

In all this hoopla, got no chance to do Yoga this morning. Jet lag is jet lag. It doesn't care if you got it after a week in Asia for a biz trip, or a week in Belize with family. Last night I could not stay up till midnight. Just hit the bed at 10. Especially after being one of few participants in the blood drive to support the insects in Belieze, was feeling a little tired.  

There was one last chance to catch Yoga at 4:30 PM and yet again, New Years is a popular day for folks to try something new. We had a full house at BYSJ and a great class. I got a deja vu because almost the same people were in the front row on New Years class and this is the fourth time for this experience.. 

Finally feeling back to normal. Think we can reasonably conclude that Yoga has had an addictive influence on me...

The perfect aftershave..

Yes..

Yours truly.. Dudeji Beardybaba, as I was affectionately called by friends and family alike over the last few months have had a setback of sorts in prepping for my next career move. 

To put it simply, the beard is gone. It just got to that point where letting it go, became an appeling option.

The beard survived for 7+ weeks and it was no longer patchy. It was an "official" beard that could enter into a beard competition.. it made it to Asia through multiple airport securities without being the cause for "random" security screening as was expected by the rest of the face.

It made it through multiple meetings.. it made it through rides in the Shanghai metro where it was the only beard on the entire damn train.. well I was the only Indian on the entire damn train, but the beard stuck out to the point where kids were staring at me non stop and their parents were politely teaching the kids "not to stare". The beard become a social education tool for Chinese parents.. it had value!

Having finished work in Asia, gave up on biz upgrade chances and flew back early on "premier economy", just to beat jet lag by sleeping in my own bed. The beard became "itchy and scratchy" during the return trip while attempting to sit and sleep by leaning on the plane window!  

It got completely messed up.Could have taught homeless hobos, how to look like legit homeless hobos after getting out of SFO. My Uber driver was not sure if I was the passenger or some guy trying to get a free ride, and was checking twice. Even that believe it or not, was not the last straw.

My lovely wife of almost 20 years, always greets me with an unreserved hug when I come back from Asia.. she is glad to see me because she knows the next pickups and drop offs from classes for kids,  will all be on me at least for a few days post my return.. Today she gave me a hug that said "yes, I would like to hug you, but without getting anywhere close to your face".. it was a hug that one gives their boxing match opponent or a hug your nurse gives you at the time of discharge when you are the huggy type and she too is the huggy type based on her other patients, but you are being discharged, after being treated for rashes.. 

That was it..a line was drawn and I decided to shave. It turns out that shaving a 7 week old beard is not easy. Having had no such prior experience, it was tricky. First you have to use a trimmer to cut it down and then shave, or you can cut yourself pretty badly. (note, if you need additional tips, will be glad to give you some).. 

After 15-20 minutes, the beard was gone.. but it is not easy to get used to its absence. Did not realize that I got used to the beard.. it kind of grew on me!

After coming home, had a severe migraine and stomach pain and did the only thing I could think of under such circumstances.. Go do Bikram Yoga. 

Went to the first class that was available after coming home and the class was awesome. Somehow my symptoms after shaving off a 7 week beard was similar to what folks describe after getting their limb amputated. It was weird. Standing in front of the mirror and breathing made my nose all hot. It was like running an airconditioner without the filter.. 

Then halfway down the class, while doing leg stretching head to knee pose, a few gallons of sweat just went straight into my nose. The whiskers and beard would not have allowed that.. It took me a few minutes to recover from the stinging in my nose and sinuses before rejoining the class. 

There is one good thing about having a clean face. I can actually see myself smile better in the mirror and it makes for great positive reinforcement. 

Also the yoga class did me a world of wonders. When you sweat like crazy, that skin smoothes itself out and all the itching and scratching is gone! 

San took before and after photos..the little one hasn't seen me yet and will possibly be thrilled that the beard is gone. She was not a fan..

Same smile, but one gets trapped in the beard. Now when the teacher in Yoga class says "with your happy smiling face..." there is a visible happy smiling face!!!

The beard did have the best run this time..who knows when it will come back?!!