I think I expected India to have a soundtrack of exotic music!

Yesterday, after we posted on our blogs, Christina and I ventured back down FC road. (I think she is writing about this as I type), so I won't say much about it other than we happened to hit FC road just as a religious procession/ pilgrimage was going on. A couple of oxen were pulling a cart with some sort of deity in it and there were banners and various booths and music playing and I thought, "wow, I really feel like I'm in India now." The nice thing about the festival is that there were police barricades up, so it did make walking a good bit easier.

Forward bending week started yesterday. Geeta's class was the best yet. My hips and groins have never felt more open. A glimmer of what openness really would feel like!! . I felt so energized after class that it was almost like I'd done a backward bending class! We did the sequence again this morning in practice and worked on all the subtle work about keeping space even around the sacrum and other things of that sort. Any single one of the classes has been worth the trip in and of itself. I am really starting to see why all the senior teachers and just regular Iyengar yogis and yoginis come back year after year. The Pune is still not what I would call a destination location, it has gotten marginally easier to navigate. that the monsoon seems to have passed is a big help!!

The feeling of being at the Institute is very different than I imagined it would be. I did not imagine it with a soundtrack, but I did imagine a larger room and a more "Intense" environment. I think I was expecting something like a Manouso workshop times three... But really, I am consistently struck by the serenity of the place. Not that there is any sort of lack of intensity, but the word authentic keeps coming to mind. Maybe it is just having the direct experience of the Iyengars in their own setting after ten years of hearing about what they are like through all the various filters.

well, that's what's on my mind at the moment.
more tomorrow.