Week 3 in India

Hello from India! I'm in my 3rd week of training and I have 6 days of classes left and 6 final exams to prepare for. I'm a little bit worn out from all the studying, but I'm so excited about everything I'm learning.

Yesterday I was interviewed by a Tamil-language TV station about my experience at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. They wanted to know why a foreigner would come all the way to India to learn about yoga. It's a good question. The answer is that I want to learn directly from the source - KYM is known the world over as the oldest modern yoga school. I feel really blessed to be able to learn from senior teachers who were the direct students of Krishnamacharya and his son, T.K.V. Desikachar.

In my classes I've learned a lot about Indian culture and history. I've learned about The Vedas, a work of knowledge that was compiled around 4,500 BCE, give or take a millennia, which is the oldest known Sanskrit text and which contains information about the teachings of yoga. Isn't it incredible to know that yoga is more than 6,500 years old?

I'm learning the Yoga Sutras (the most important text on yoga) from Mr. Sridharan, who is the seniormost teacher at KYM, a direct student of Krishnamacharya, and a student of Desikachar's for 3 decades. I love the Yoga Sutras - I've been studying them for 10 years. I feel really lucky to have a foundation of knowledge to better understand Mr. Sridharan's teachings.

He is very kind, and funny too. He's a walking anachronism - he wears traditional Indian clothes, sits on a chair with his legs folded up under him, and makes a dense text like the Yoga Sutras come to life with funny examples like how his wireless mouse didn't want to communicate with its receiver (maybe you had to be there). After class this morning he asked me, "Are you happy (with what you learned today)?" I love learning from him. 

I've also learned 48 classical asanas so far. We have a few left to go. You might think, Hey Zelinda, don't you already know a lot of asanas? The answer is yes, of course, BUT. In the Krishnamacharya tradition asanas are taught differently for the purpose of maximizing physical and mental benefit. There's a specific way to get into and out of every classical posture, and that is what I'm learning. It's very interesting to understand the reasoning behind these specific sequences.

You can probably tell I'm having a great time learning all this stuff. It really is fascinating and I can't wait to starting bringing this back to The Yoga Room.

And speaking of, please note that our 2017 200-hour Teacher Training program begins next Friday, January 27th! Last call to apply for this year's training, the next round won't begin until January 2018.

One of the great things about our training is that because of the small student-teacher ratio, you effectively get mentored throughout Teacher Training. The faculty (Emily, the director of TT, and I) really get to know our students so that we can help guide you through, identify your strengths, and your areas of opportunity, and guide you onto the right path for you.

And the other thing that I think is really great, is that between Emily and me, we have a very broad background and can instruct our students in a wide range of topics including different styles of yoga, yoga philosophy, anatomy, the business aspects of yoga, and more.

So if you've been thinking about Teacher Training for a while, now might be the right time. And if you know you want to take a Teacher Training, but you're a little bit nervous, I encourage you to go for it. It's life changing, in a very good way. Deepening your practice and deepening your knowledge of yoga opens up a whole new part of you that you may not even realize exists. You can still get into the 2017 training before the first class starts next Friday. Here's the link to the Teacher Training page - you can find the application at the Apply Now button toward the bottom.

Hit reply (or message me if you're reading this on Facebook) and let me know if you have any questions.

XO,
Zelinda

Meet the Rangoli Family

Meet the Rangoli family. Ok, that's not their real name. 😀

On my first week of school at KYM, I noticed that every day I walked by a driveway where someone drew beautiful rangolis. If you've been following my posts, you know that a rangoli is a type of yajña, or offering, drawn for blessings for everyone in the home or neighborhood. This driveway is on a busy street, and every day I saw a lady sitting on a chair out by the rangolis, so in my mind I started calling her the Rangoli Lady.

Seeing the artwork brings me such joy that one day I brought the Rangoli Lady a garland of jasmine flowers for her hair and she seemed really pleased. Since we don't speak the same language, I was going by observation, facial expressions, and body language, to try to understand her story.

I started bringing her a little gift every other day or so - oranges one day, candy canes another - just little things, and she'd smile a big smile. I'd call out, "Hi, Lady!" and she'd come over and I'd pass the gift over the gate.

Occasionally other people were around the driveway with her. A pair of girls, a man, a tall boy. I assumed she/they worked there. It's a common job to be a gate keeper or "watchman" (security person), so I figured her job was to mind the gate and screen visitors for whoever lived at the end of the driveway.

Over the past few days I've been hatching a plan. I've felt so blessed to see this beautiful artwork every day, and been so wrapped up in the story I'd made up in my mind about the Rangoli Lady. I bought a set of pastels and a notebook of art paper. I wanted to gift them to the Rangoli Lady and propose that if she wanted to, she draw some rangolis on the paper for me to take home to Texas and frame and sell for her. I'd bring her all the proceeds when I come back to India in October.

A couple of issues though. I didn't know how well my plan would be received and I didn't have a way to communicate with her.

Today my friend Mukesh, the manager of the apartment where I'm staying, agreed to go with me to translate. Mukesh himself is from north India, so neither the language of this state, Tamil, nor English, are his native language. Even still, he did a great job. We discussed on the way what we wanted to say to the Lady. We wanted to be careful not to overpromise, and of course wanted to leave the option for her to say no.

When we arrived, the gate was locked. Uh oh. It *is* a holiday, so I should not have been surprised. But we could see a tall boy way down the driveway and we were able to get his attention after a couple of minutes. He sent a man down the driveway who I'd seen before. The man had seen me talking to Lady before, so he called her and they both came to meet us. A couple of girls followed.

Mukesh began a short discussion with them and in very short time we learned that the artist was in fact the older of the two girls, who turned out to be Lady and the man's daughters. The tall boy is their son.

Mukesh made what seemed to be a very formal presentation and offered the girl the gift of pastels and notebook, and I of course did not know exactly what they were saying, but I could see that they looked kind of surprised and pretty happy.

After a little more discussion they seemed very honored and pleased with the idea. They said they make the rangolis because it brings them joy, they don't expect any pay, but it was clear they would be very happy to earn some extra money.

So get ready, friends, I'll be coming home with some beautiful rangoli artwork at the end of the month. Please let me know if you're interested in purchasing one in support of this sweet family.

Their names are Dad - Selvam, Mom - Vempu, Older Daugher/Rangoli Artist: Kaviya, Younger Daughter: Gayatri, and Son (not pictured) Karthik.

I'm looking forward to getting to know them a little better over the next couple of weeks. 💜