Gokarna

The weekend has finally brought some rest, and a little time to write.

5 days at breakneck speed and intense work at times flew by, at times dragged like never before.

We start our days at quarter to 5 -- AM! Its dark and starry on the beach and the moon, which came to fullness last night, is just setting behind the hill to the beach's north end. I sing/chant a bit and then we sit in meditation 15-45min. An hour or so of Pranayama - yogic breathing exercises - transitions to 1-2hrs of more Asana, more physically intense yoga postures and other physically active work, often including acrobatic balance practice. Most people do SunSalutations but i have more remedial things to focus on, just trying to stretch my back and legs. Then an hour of Dance with Riccardo, learning his choreography and related exercises.

Around 9:30/10am, we break, I take a swim (I'm getting into it more, swimming more strongly!), shower, breakfast, and then start moving towards the afternoon. We eat usually 1130 or 12, and start music at 1pm. Sometimes at 1030 we walk for an hour to work on a rooftop platform (1story) at the far end of the beach in town. Otherwise, I have a bit of down time here on Kudlee (KOOT-lee) Beach, the tourist area, separated from Gokarna Main Beach and town by a big hill, where there's a small temple to Rama with a fountain of potable water, where we refill 5-liter jugs.

A normal afternoon has music 1-4pm, 1hr theory, 1-2hrs playing and improvising; 2hrs theater exercises, which recently have been mostly movement and found puppetry; 6pm sunset seminars on yogic philosophy (from Alessandro) or culture/history/politics/religion/LIFE in India from a North Indian friend of Alessandro's named Pramode. Darkness by 730 leaves us free to eat dinner and go to sleep. 6hrs later, I get up and start over.

So that's our schedule (with Sabbath rest) until the 20th when we leave. There will be some suprise adventure before we arrive in Hampi on the 22nd, where we'll have the western holidays, then on to Mysore for serious Yoga school on Jan 5th. A flight to Jaipur on the 21st takes us north (those who don't take the 44hr train!), then we'll venture into and out of the deserts of Rajasthan before finishing with a week in Varanasi. End date Feb 4th.

From there I might go North-west to the Taj Mahal and Delhi, or East with Alessandro to Kolkata, where a ParkSlopian has family I can stay with. Most of the crew won't stay into February with me. From there, its adventure. Would love to go to Tamil Nadu and Kerala before coming back to Mumbai. Speaking of which,pics from Mumbai are up on Picassa here up top is Gaia presenting a slice of life here on Kudlee beach in Gokarna.

love to y'all time for another swim.

Ory