Great lady of India from America
Gosh these last few weeks have been a whirlwind of events! Let me tell you about it.
Family is in town!!! HEYO! This makes me a happy happy girl. I forgot how much I missed these people – my dad and older brother. They know me inside and out, and we can all connect on the same wavelength, which feels so nice. I can talk as fast, as loud, as soft as I want, or better yet I dont have to talk at all, and they get me. We really are so connected. Kunal and I got into a nice argument battle (he’s cranky when he’s hungry) and even that was fun ;).
I’ve been missing this confidence. It is interesting…when I could care less about judgement from others (like my family), I spend less time thinking and I am able to give so much more of my personality out to the world. When I do feel judgement, all my energy is wasted inside my little head, thinking what if I do this? what if I do that? I would like to stay in this “whatever” attitude about judgement as much as possible in my life. Makes things so much more fun.
P.S. Congrats to Kunal and his Turbinophone project!! Thank you all for your help and support! He is so thrilled and cannot wait to start building it :).
What else…We found me a new “pad” as my Granny keeps calling it. My grandparents didn’t know I would be staying for longer (neither did i) and their home and company is in high demand by the rest of my family. Really! It’s because my grandparents are such special caretakers. My parents and brothers and cousins and aunts and uncles are crashing in all throughout next year, so we thought it would be good to find more space. So May 1st, I have my own little crash pad, right between my grandparents house and my yoga teacher’s house. As much as I’ve enjoyed my princess life, I am also really excited for some real life survival skills in India. Like hunting for food and doing my own laundry and stuff. Ah, can’t wait to decorate!
OH I had my first yoga demonstration performance with Pallavi last Thursday! Super exciting, brand new avenue for me! The program was four hours late (of course), so we kept warming up and re-warming up and fighting off hunger and yawns. I was so incredibly nervous and unsure about performing yoga, as usually, my practice has been for myself. I kept thinking things like, why me? Is my yoga good enough to display on stage? Am I worthy enough to perform with this yoga champion? Weird annoying things like that. Pallavi and I had not even practiced together- there had been no time.
But you know, once I got up there, the movements were like butter. My body took the steering wheel and I just sat in the passenger seat. It was a pretty incredible feeling.
The whole experience was awesome, we had so much fun! Mr. Talwalker, who owns the biggest gym chain in India, had asked us to come in the first place and treated us like daughters. Such a sweet man. After the demo, he congratulated us on stage as teacher and student. Pallavi the master yogi guru, and Sonia from New York, her student. I really liked that.
Pallavi and I got stranded at the show the next morning. No taxis. Bus just wasn’t coming. Sleepy eyed, 6am, she told me to hop into a car with a man and woman sitting in the front. I thought it was funny that there were two taxi drivers but then I passed out and fell asleep. The two drivers stopped for bathroom, then for their tiffin breakfast. When I finally woke up, I realized that they were just two people who got lost and agreed to take us on their way home. So now I can say, I’ve hitchhiked, even I didn’t know I was hitchhiking until halfway through the journey!
Once these people found out we were yoga teachers, and that I was from America, we became their royal guests. They made an extra stop to buy us breakfast. They refused to take our money for the ride (but we made them anyways). They gave us every single pamphlet and business card they had on them. They even took photos with us to show to their family. Pallavi and I, exhausted and smelly and sweaty, just played along because they were so earnestly excited to have our company and we just wanted to get home as soon as possible. They kept calling me “My great lady of India in America and Great Yoga Teacher”. Unbelievable.
June 7th will be my six month marker in India, which means I have to take some legal action.
Huge fight in the Pune FRO office. Over my visa! The police officers were on my side, yelling at the little lady at the end of the counter who kept saying “NO!”. So much commotion. So much mis-information. So much time wasted running all around town filling out the C form and A form and X form, getting that verification, taking photos. Ay-ya-yaiyyyyy. What a headache. Get it together, India! Gosh. I was a bit shocked and frustrated after doing all of this work for nothing. Beauracracy is painful. Whatever.
So today I am in Mumbai with my dad and brothers. We made a few calls, got all my papers together, went with no expectations and extreme patience to the FRO office here. I had gotten a hold of the main man’s cell phone number, and he really took care of us. So papers are submitted for my OCI card, which gives me dual citizenship in India and USA. Woohoo!
About to become My great lady of India from America.
Much love,
More later,
SONIA
