New York

OK, it is day #3 in New York City. Where did the time go?

We reached New York surprisingly well, considering my non-existent sense of direction (mostly thanks to Tova and GPS). I brought 4 huge boxes of books to my son, so any other modes of transportation, other than a rental car, were out of the question for me. He lives now in a large studio apartment midtown east Manhattan, practically three blocks from his work. Awesome neighborhood - practically everything you need to survive is there within 4 block radius. Though food prices are atrocious.

Anyway, I was a little apprehensive the first day of the classes with Sharath. They were held in a huge gym in Chinatown YMCA. Lots of people, though Tova says that it was not quite as crowded as last time, when Guruji was there. I still thought it was an impressive crowd. The practice itself was not as scary as I imagined. Sharath counts very slowly, but he does it in all poses, hard and easy, so there was lots of time to recover. He does 5 sun salutations A and 3 sun salutations B. He also skips paschimottanasanas B and C, only does A and D. No dropbacks, just holding Urdhva Dhanurasana 3X forever (5 loong counts), then chackrasana, vinyasa and paschimottanasana D for 10 counts. No water for Garbha Pindasana. I had to sneak in a tiny bottle of water, otherwise the pose is inaccessible to me. No help in Supta Kurmasana - no wonder, because for the whole crowd he had only one helper - Eddy Stern. Sirsasana was a killer, though. 20 slow counts, and then the ardha variation for 10 very slow counts, back up again, and only then rest. His favorite form of torture - utpluthee. He counts - one..... and then in half an hour - two..., then smiles and starts counting at a normal pace.

So the primary was not scary. Apparently all the drama was happening in the intermediate section. Lots of people got "tapped at the shoulder", meaning that they were supposed to stop and move to the back. In some cases it was not in any was dictated by the quality of the practice, but by other motives. Today we were allowed to observe the intermediate practice and saw it happening. All the drama aside, it was such an inspiring sight! So many awesome yogis doing awesome practice in one place. Sharath even demonstrated karanda himself - amazing. He snaps into lotus with both legs simultaneously and really fast. And the lift seems to be effortless. Unfortunately no photography was allowed. Pity - my hands were itching to start snapping pictures.

Time for bed. It seems that the days fly so fast that I get a whiplash. In a good way.