Suryanamaskars at sunrise.
Just took my first yoga class on a rooftop in Salunke Vihar, a neighborhood in Pune. I feel great.
Last week, Grandpa took me to his old apartment complex, where is he is such a hit. Everyone stopped to say hi to him and they really seemed to respect him. We went to his friends place, Madav uncle, who teaches yoga every morning Monday-Friday on his roof. We just knocked on the door and his wife let us in. It was 8 am and he was still in the shower but she was so excited to have us. She wouldn’t stop holding my hand and she kept telling me stories in Hindi at a rapid pace which I didn’t really understand, but she was so cute that I just had to smile and laugh when I thought it was appropriate, haha.
So today, Monday, at 6:30 AM, 7 of us stood on the rooftop at dawn, welcoming the morning sun with suryanamaskars, chants, and aums. We did some basic poses and a lot of breath work which I enjoyed. Although the poses were slow, I feel that work was done in my body.
Madav uncle made me lay my carpet (what people seem to use as mats in India) right next to his and then led us with short commands in Hindi. Such a sweet man. He even brought me the name of a good studio I should go check out.
The rest of the class was filled with my grandparents previous neighbors and friends – one of them even remembered me from when I visited at age 8. Crazy.
While the poses are the same, something about the yoga is different here – cant put my finger on it just yet. Something about it holds such a reverence of spirituality and ritual. It’s almost as if you are doing yoga not for your own self benefit, but for some higher purpose. More on this later.
And after not practicing in a week, it feels incredible to move.
Okay time for breakfast of tea, biscuits, and eggs with the cousins. Yum.
More later and much love <3
SONIA
