How quickly the days have peeled away! Last night I had dinner with Nina, Karen A., Karin B. and Kathy at the Ambience Hotel. Nina and K.A. leave this afternoon to start the long journey home. Vivien and so many others leave tomorrow.
Traditionally week four at the Institute is Pranayama which for the most part we have done. Thursday was a double header- Pranayama with Prashant in the morning and Pranayama with him in the evening and what different classes they were! In the morning I struggled to comprehend what he was saying and at best understood ten percent. In the evening he was in rare form- as though performing stand-up at a comedy club, cracking joke after joke as he dispersed guidance on how we should approach our pranayama practice. There was something he said that moved me profoundly but I can no longer remember (I purchased a recording of that class so I can re-listen). At about ten minutes to six, rain started to fall from the sky with high volume and velocity that it created a blanket over any sound that was not rain. While chanting the invocation thunder clapped and the rain fell even harder and faster. The experience was profound and soothing.
Earlier in the afternoon I was agitated by a trip to the Chetak. I needed a change of scene and so I went over there to use wi-fi and have a pot of tea. I stayed until the battery in my laptop was almost completely drained and when I went to settle up the bill there was no one behind the desk. After a minute or two I found one of the employees and no sooner had he sat down than a young man ran up to the desk to ask for change for a one hundred rupee note. When the clerk had none, he asked if I had any. ”No change”, I replied and we all laughed. He left and as I pulled out a note to settle my bill he was already back saying something in Hindi or Marathi. This is common and expected – there is no sense of cue and westerners often interpret this behavior as rude and interruptive. I thought about all of the Indian women I have seen deal with situations like this and I turned to him and asked in a probably too stern voice for him to patiently wait until I had finished settling my account. He stared at me and then turned to the hotel clerk who told him to wait minute.
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