Rishikesh - Part 2

Looking over to Laxman Jula in Rishikesh

We stayed in Rishikesh for just over a month, and I am so pleased we had the chance to change our plans to fit this in- one of the benefits of not having a fixed plan or anything booked! I have completed my 200 hour yoga teacher training course, which technically means I can now teach yoga. I wouldn't say it has been enough for me to start my own studio straight away, but it has given me an understanding of the basics and with some practice on some (hopefully) willing friends and family I think I would be able to teach it. Not that I have decided in exactly which way I will use it in the future. I might try teaching an evening class locally, or might just use it as another one of my skills in my Occupational Therapy practice- relaxation, meditation, mindfulness and gentle stretching would benefit some of my patients I am sure! The biggest benefit to the course so far is how I have developed in my own practice and a deeper understanding of what yoga is. In the west, yoga is something you do a few times a week, you attend a class, do a sequence of postures, get a good feeling from your body being stretched and then continue your daily life as usual. In India, yoga is something you are. It is a mindset, a way of life in which you are trying to achieve a union with the higher consciousness and a feeling of being one with the universe. This happens through meditation, and all other practices in yoga are to perfect your meditation. So the postures or ‘asanas’ are to enable your body to stay in one position for a long period of time while you meditate, the breathing techniques are to help your body to use oxygen in the most efficient way so you can make your breathing slow down in meditation, the cleansing techniques or ‘kriyas’ are so your body is healthy enough to meditate. The ultimate goal is to reach what is called Samadhi, in which a person has prepared their mind and body so that they don’t need to eat any more and can just live off sunlight, and can stop their breathing for hours while they are in meditation. Of the two camps, the western and Indian ways, I have not quite decided which one I belong to. I am far too sceptical to believe that a person can actually live off sunlight and not breathe for that long, or that as one teacher claimed, if you practice a breathing technique every day, you will be cured of all diseases including cancer. I also personally do not want to meditate for ten hours every day as some yogis do, I would miss the outside world too much. But I do believe in the peaceful lifestyle that yoga promotes- shanti, shanti (peace). I do think that you need to develop an awareness of yourself and take some time to calm your mind (which I find the hardest thing to do). So I guess I am somewhere in the middle.

So the course itself was at AYM Yoga school- www.indianyogaassociation.com It was over a four week period, six days a week and including breaks, eleven and a half hours a day. It was pretty intense. There were 28 of us students which initially I thought it would be too much, but actually I really loved having so many people to talk to and share ideas with. We started the day with a meditation class, then an Ashtanga yoga session which is an energetic, dynamic yoga. Then we had lectures which later became teaching practice, then more lectures- on yoga philosophy and anatomy. Then we would finish the day with Hatha yoga which is more about holding postures for a longer period of time, and we also analysed the postures, including alignment and correction for students. By the end of the day I was generally pretty worn out, and had just enough energy to go and meet Jonno for dinner and then walk back to our guest house before going to sleep ready to do it all again the next day.  We had five different teachers- some were amazing and inspiring, and some had no clue what we were actually supposed to be learning and couldn’t really care less anyway. And I definitely had some interesting experiences. We had to practice two of the kriyas (cleansing techniques) during the course. One was called neti which was clearing out the nasal passage. This is done using warm salt water and a small pot with a spout. The spout is put in one nostril and then you pour the water into your nostril until it comes out of your other nostril. I can’t say it was a nice experience but my nose did feel pretty clean afterwards. It was also pretty entertaining doing while hanging over the rooftop so it didn’t pour onto your feet, but also trying not to pour your nosewater onto the children on the road that were walking to school. Some of the other people tried another version of neti where you stick a piece of string up your nose and down towards your throat, catch the other side and pull it out of your mouth and give it a good old flossing- nice! For some strange reason this did not appeal to me to try. One of the other kriyas was called shank prakshalana which is where you flush out your whole digestive system by drinking as much warm salt water as you possibly can (I think I managed nearly 5 litres), doing a series of exercises and then continuing this until you have induced diarrhoea and it comes out as clear water. And yes I was equally as horrified at the idea. But we all did it, and while it was really not what I would choose to do for fun, doing it as a group was a strange type of group bonding exercise and once it was finished there was a weird sense of achievement. And whilst I would definitely recommend it for anyone who has constipation, I don’t think I will be doing it again in a hurry. Some of the other kriyas which we did not try were going into a river and sucking up water through your rectum and shooting it out again, and eating a long piece of cloth until it reaches into your stomach then pulling it out again. It takes all  sorts…

We also tried a few different meditation exercises, one of which we had to close our eyes and shake our bodies and dance which was fun, and another called ‘gibberish meditation’ where we had to sit in a corner or facing a wall and basically babble like a baby for fifteen minutes. It was pretty weird actually doing it, but then afterwards when we sat silently I couldn’t actually think of anything as I could not think of any normal words so I guess it worked. We also learnt some mantras to chant in Sanskrit, an ancient language which Hindi is derived from, and some pranayama which are breathing techniques to focus your energy.

One of the biggest things I am going to miss about the yoga course is the people. We were a diverse group- from the USA, Spain, UK, Israel, Canada, Poland and more. We had all come to the course at different levels- from current yoga instructors to people fairly new to the practice, and all having had different experiences and perceptions of yoga and life in general. But there was no pretentiousness or hierarchy, everyone was valued the same. And despite the majority of us being female, there was no judging or bitchiness. I felt truly at ease with the group and I loved that we kept each other going when it got hard or stressful. And it was difficult not to bond when you are all self-inducing diarrhoea together!

Loitering around the local shop during breaktimes!

Everyone was also willing to share their talents and skills too, which made us closer as a group. One girl who is a yoga instructor at home offered to lead some sessions which were beautiful, and on the last night another girl lead an ecstatic dance workshop which was a great new experience, especially as we did it in the dark with a big thunderstorm going on around us, and to finish another girl brought her guitar and played some lovely relaxing music. So many others had great advice about other places we are planning on travelling to, and a few have offered us places to stay if we are in their country in the future. These are the people that I was looking forward to meeting when travelling, and I learnt so much from all of them!

Burning all sorts of things in the final ceremony

Getting my certificate

On the last Sunday of the course, seven of us decided to go on a hike up to a temple which we had been told was about two and a half hours each way. I did ask Jonno if he wanted to join, but at the mention of a 6am start time the disgust on his face said it all. So on our only day off in the week, aching from the previous six days of yoga, we set off bright and early so that we could get up and down before it got too hot. We were also accompanied by a 3-4 month puppy called Tango which one of the girls had adopted and had made arrangements to take back to the USA, and our ‘yoga dog’ who we named Bear/Doggie who insisted on following and protecting anybody at the yoga school. 

The dream team lead by Bear and Tango

The beginning of the walk was fine and the temperature was not too hot, with a nice breeze. After an hour or so it began to get pretty hard, but we carried on and encouraged each other. After two hours we arrived at a village in the mountains and were directed by the residents to go through cow sheds and living areas to carry on. After three and a half hours we finally arrived at the temple, only to discover we had to climb a few hundred steps further. Once we had hobbled up these, we collapsed under a tree in the temple and laid out our celebratory feast of brown bread, peanut butter and bananas, to the interest and amusement of some of the Indian temple goers. On our way out of the temple, a local man stopped us and pointed to the yoga dog, asking us if he came with us. He said that the dog belonged to someone he knew and he used to accompany them on treks a few times a week. This explained why he wanted to follow us whenever we went out walking! He seemed to have decided that we were more incompetent than his old friend at trekking, and continued to stay with us for the way back too.

Having a power nap before the descent

By the time we started our walk back down, the temperature had risen quite considerably and it was about 40 degrees Celsius. One of the girls was really affected by this and became exhausted, nauseous and dizzy, and between me and the guy that was with us we managed to guide her down. At a few points he even scooped her up in his arms and almost ran with her so that we could get down quicker. Tango the puppy was also struggling, and a few people took turns carrying him in his doggie bag (not the type you ask for in restaurants!) We finally made it most of the way back and were rewarded with a small waterfall and pool area which was so refreshing to sit in- as long as you didn’t disturb the cow poo at the bottom! The trek in total took us about eight hours, a lot longer than we expected but a great experience!

Some beautiful views

Trying to be a handbag dog

I also got the chance to achieve a personal goal during our stay in Rishikesh- to go to an Indian wedding. We had seen an area being set up near the yoga school and I was desperate to go and even though I had been told many westerners had just turned up at Indian weddings and been welcomed in, I was too scared to gate crash the wedding. When we got to our guest house that evening I started asking the girls who live there about it, fishing for an invite, and sure enough one of them said we could go along with them, the celebrations were the next evening, and to meet them at eight. Success! The next evening I hurried back from yoga so I had adequate time to put my saree on (I still need a few attempts at getting the right amount of folds and tucks and need a fair amount of safety pins to keep it in place) and we rushed downstairs at 8, not wanting them to go without us. We really needn’t have been so time conscious, as we were waiting until 9.30pm for the family to be ready. The teenage girls were all giggling and exclaiming ‘wooooww so beautiful!’ at the sight of a white girl in a saree, and Jonno got told that unfortunately the relationship had to be over because I now had Indian girlfriends. We entered the wedding celebration- kind of like an open air tent- and were lead to the lower level for the first part- dinner. There were tables all around the edge with a vast array of curries, rice, chowmein, breads and desserts. There was no seating area to eat, so we ate standing around, hoping that the little children who were running around and weaving in between us would not knock us over. After we had finished dinner, we were lead to the upper area where there were rows of chairs looking onto a sofa at the front, and a dancefloor. We looked around, and realized neither the bride nor groom were actually there. We sat there for a while, watching the little children dancing with some crazy amazing dance moves, and took in the atmosphere. All the women were dressed in beautiful colourful sarees and even though we initially felt very out of place as we were the only white people, a few of the girls from the yoga school had managed to get invited in at the entrance so we felt a bit more at ease sitting with them. 

So many colours!

Wedding crashers

At 10.30pm the groom finally appeared, with a procession of drums and being carried by male friends and family, which was very kind of them as he seemed to be missing his footwear and was only wearing white socks. He was taken to the sofa area at the front, and then the event carried on without much change, apart from being overseen by the groom who looked exhausted and like he would much rather be sleeping or at least tucked up in a duvet watching Netflix. Anyway, after this one of the girls suggested we go and dance, and I didn’t need much persuasion. I joined the group of girls from our guest house and a few other ladies in sarees and took to the dancefloor. The DJing was a bit strange, he would only play half of a song before skipping to the next song, but played the same songs numerous times. This was one particularly catchy one they played about 10 times which was popular- http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hos3z . At about 11.45pm the girls suggested we head back home, as they all had school in the morning and so did I. As we were leaving, we walked past the bride who was just arriving, she had probably got a message from her new husband saying that it wasn’t worth hurrying for and decided to have a cheeky nap before arriving. Apparently the party only carried on until about 12.30 so she didn’t have much time to appreciate it, although I am sure I would feel the same if my wedding carried on for a week.

The guest house where we stayed for the month was definitely a find that we were pleased with. It was about a twenty minute walk up into the mountains from the main road, which should have meant it was very quiet. However, with the Indian family also living there not having much awareness to the volume of their conversations, the air was often filled with the shrieking calls of ‘Honeeeeyyy!’ (the little boy) or ‘Dabuuuul! (the dog) at all hours. There was also another set of guests staying there who seemed to be studying massage and decided the corridor was the perfect place to practice on each other. So every time we went in and out of the room we would have to tiptoe around some intense massage session. Apart from that, the place was lovely, and we felt very at home there. The little boy who they called Honey was about 3 years old and seemed to enjoy following us around and blowing us kisses. There was one occasion we were walking into town and he decided to follow us, and his mum had to run after him to catch him. It was a better reception than the baby who turned up with his mother the week before we left who was petrified of us, not that I blame it really.

Our little hilltop castle!

The lovely family who owned the guest house, with a petrified child

We also happened to be not too far from the earthquakes that happened in Nepal. In fact, I felt both of the big ones. The first one I was in a meditation class, laying on the floor and my whole body started shaking which at first confused me. I sat up and looked around, and the others in the class were doing the same. One of the teachers then received a call about the scale of the incident. The earthquake affected us quite a bit because of its close proximity and a lot of the staff working in the cafes in Rishikesh were from Nepal and had their family homes destroyed. I hope that there are no others to come and the people of Nepal manage to rebuild their lives soon.

We had a few days in Rishikesh after the yoga course finished, which we spent sorting through our luggage, posting some things back home and donating the rest of the things we didn’t need to one of the restaurants that was collecting items for the Nepal Earthquake. Also, as Rishikesh was made popular by the Beatles who spent time there, there was an abandoned Ashram where they went where we could visit. So we set off in the general direction that the map showed us, and  after taking some unknown paths through the woods, we arrived at a set of gates with no name on the but a few guards. After looking a bit confused for a few minutes the guards told us that this was the Beatles Ashram. Hoping that they were right and this was not some kind of foreigner trap, we entered the gated area and started to explore. At first all we could find was an overgrown pathway leading up to some bland derelict buildings, but when we carried on up the path we found some more ruins but these had been artistically graffitied  and had pictures and quotes from the Beatles, most of which had been done recently as a project. As we explored further in the many rooms that once was the accommodation of the ashram, each a bedroom with an ensuite, a local guy attached himself to us, loitering around us and occasionally pointing at bits of graffiti and telling us to take pictures of it. We did have some suspicion he would be after money in some way but tried to ignore him for a while. After about 45 minutes, he came up beside us and said ‘For guide…200 rupees’. After telling him that firstly we didn’t ask for a guide and secondly he didn’t even do a remotely good job at it anyway, he still would not leave us alone so we decided to take ourselves off and sit down, hoping he would go away. But no, he sat down next to us, staring at us. After 10 minutes of awkwardness, some other tourists came along and asked him a question so we took our chance, grabbed our bags and ran away. I don’t know if he tried to catch up with us but he failed, and we were free.

The Ashram accommodation

The overgrown Ashram

Sun and Moon- Ida and Pingla

Many people who I have spoken to have asked me the very important question of- But what did Jonno do for a whole month while you were intensively studying yoga? The answer is- what didn’t Jonno do! He got into a very leisurely routine of waking up at 10.30-11am, took a stroll down to the town, found a few cafes which had cold coffee, cake, wifi and plug sockets, and spent a few hours on a computer programming course and learning Spanish (this will be the most useful language for us when we get to South America). One café he frequented so regularly that his phone began telling him how long it would take to get to ‘work’! He also dedicated a large amount of time on the development of his facial hair, and I was met every evening after yoga by an increasingly hairy man shouting Spanish phrases at me.

Its the fuzz!

                                                                                                                                       

So that was it. We had our last fight to get across the very narrow bridge over the river to get into town (it was always full of families taking pictures of themselves, cows, monkeys and scooters), had our last chai at our favourite riverside café, and our last cheap meal at the restaurant that became our local. We got up early the next morning to get a rickshaw to the bus terminal for our journey to Delhi. As we were trudging down the hill towards the main road, the yoga dog comes bounding up behind us and walks us down to the rickshaw stand, cocking his leg at every corner in a very, well, cocky way, and making sure we get a good send off. He waits with us very patiently for a ride, and once we climb into the rickshaw he gives us one final check, turns around and trots away back up the mountain to go and see to his new group of yogis that have begun their 200hour course. There was something strangely emotional about a dog coming to ‘wave’ us goodbye, and we did get some pretty funny looks from the rickshaw driver. But we had a bus to catch, to make our way towards the end of our time in India.

Goodbye hugs with Bear

Yoga family!