Packing for Pune

Well, in honor of it being exactly four weeks until departure, I decided to start packing. Two good friends up in Dallas, Michelle Mock and Marj Rash, sent me their lists of things to take. So far, I have seven pairs of yoga bloomers, well actually six, because I told Marie I would give her my hot pink pair when she said she would actually wear shorts to class if I could find them in a festive color. I culled my massive yoga tshirt collection to ten shirts of appropriate length (they need to stay tucked in) and shoulder/neckline style (no string tank tops, adequate coverage) Modesty issues are, by all accounts quite different there. Marj says she was leered at on the street for even wearing capris. PJs and a couple pairs of light linen pants. that's it so far.

In terms of other preparations, I've been reading some novels about India. My former student and excellent email correspondent, Kristi Culpepper, recommended Jhumpa Lahiri to me years ago and I finally got around to reading The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies this spring. I loved them both. I also read the sort of expose on the Iyengar Institute, First There Is A Mountain. and two nights ago, I started reading this absolutely enchanting novel by Gregory Roberts about India, Shantaram. It is hugely long and was tempted to keep it to read for the plane ride over, but Christina said I should read it to get in the mood. I read three pages and was completely mesmerized. Here is the first paragraph.

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realised, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, than even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you've got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life."

Isn't that just beautiful???