Rajpur

Hello dear friends and family.  We are starting our second week in Rajpur a little village in the foothills of the Himalayas in Northern India.  The weather is perfect, air is clean, gardens are lush and the yoga instruction is excellent. We are also learning a lot about Ayurveda and are living and eating a very clean life.  Life is good here and we are thoroughly enjoying our morning, afternoon and evening walks, lectures, reading and oil therapies. 

There are 200 Tibetan families living in this village and they bring wonderful smiles and greetings to the walks.  Below are some pictures of the streets of Rajpur, many little shops line the streets selling fruits, veggies, clothes, hardware.  The streets are narrow and hilly, but not too crowded. 

There is a photo of the studio YogGanga and a male monkey walking along a street ledge.  As you can see he has a bright red bum and one of them has thus far stolen a full bag of bananas and another from Bill’s bag as he was walking.

 There are some photos of school children on their way to school dressed in their uniforms, and a sweet dog that comes to visit us frequently at the coffee shop where we go after class. 

A young lady is stamping fabric to be sold at the women’s handicraft shop.

 And today we had lunch at the yoga center with the Ayurvedic doctor and our class.  There we met a good friend of our friends in Madurai.  J. Nath, one of his paintings is below.  We’ve seen his work in a number of homes in Southern India.  What a small world! 

We leave for Delhi and then home 2 weeks from tomorrow and arrive the same day we leave due to crossing the dateline.  We send you all our love.  Do drop a line and let us know what is happening back home.  We miss you all and look forward to seeing you soon.  With love , gratitude and blessings, Susy and Bill

Streets of Madurai and nearby village

Village home where the extended family may live together.

 A very proud turkey

 Across the street from the guest house there is a field where this ferris wheel comes every so often, part by part, on top of a bicycle or cart.  The cost is 5 rupees ($.10) for 3 turns of the wheel.

 The cows wander freely through the streets, nibbling garbage, trees, and bushes.  They meander back home when it's time for milking.

 Or they are led

 A fresh lime drink vendor with his colorful sugar cane press waits for some business.

 A mother with child-the dark mark on the baby is to ward off the evil eye.

 Goats also roam freely through the streets.

 The hospital is only a block from the guest house.  This blue building which is mostly covered by trees is the free hospital, where 2/3 of the patients are treated for free.

 Across the street is the new out patient building for paying patients, behind that is the research building, and behind that is the building that trains people around the world how to follow the Aravind model.

 This is the original hospital built 30 years ago.  Each floor was added as they could gather enough money to pay for it.  Now it is the largest eye hospital in the world.

 Although India's economy is booming and the Aravind model is world class in efficiency, technology, research, the art of medicine, compassion, and business-there is still much that is needed to be done in India.  These sewer pipes line many streets, we have seen no work being done to install them and even then there is no waste water treatment plant here.  There are more cell phones in India than toilets.

Festivals: Deepavali and Harvest

 Harvest festival was a few weeks ago but I'm just getting to it.  All the gods and demigods are assembled in figurines and the harvest is honored.  The villagers performed with dancing, stilt walking and drumming.  At the end we had a beautiful meal.

 Today is Deepavali known as the festival of lights.  The festival involves lighting diyas or small clay lamps to dispel darkness.  It also refers to the light of knowledge that dispels ignorance.  Deepavali is a time for family togetherness.  New clothes are worn, pujas are performed and the celebration is topped with food-especially homemade sweets.  Firecrackers have been going off for three days and nonstop for the past day except from 10pm-5am.  Below is seeval, made of chickpea and rice flour, made into a paste, squeezed through a press into curly ribbons, then fried in hot oil.  Delicious.

 The yellow balls are laddho, made of chickpeas and jaggery, the dark balls are made of toasted sesame seeds and jaggery and there is fresh organic papya.

 Making of the seeval in the out house kitchen.  These are given as gifts to friends.

 Fireworks everywhere!

Jain Cave

The cave below was inhabited thousands of years ago by followers of Mahavira (599-529 BC) who renounced the world at age 30 to become a wandering thinker and ascetic.  He was the 24th great philosopher of Jainism and his image was chiseled above the cave 1,000 years ago.  Jainism, like Buddhism, is an offshoot of Hinduism and perhaps a more disciplined reaction to some of the excesses of the earlier religion.

 Tamarind tree.  The pod is soaked and pulverized as a major ingredient in Indian cuisine.

 At the base of the cave are lotus and lily pond where people wash clothes, bathe and do their kitchen clean up.

 This Hindu temple is next to the ponds at the base of the cave.  This is a typical entrance.

 Next to the temple we climbed these stairs to overlook the rice fields and tiny villages and find more sculptures with the early Jain thinkers' images.

 Inside the Shivite temple this priest has his ritual ash and is wearing a dhoti.  We took off our shoes, rang the bell, received the ash to our foreheads, made a prayer, received prasand (rice balls blessed by the gods) on a banana leaf.

Yoga in India

Hello everyone.  We're having a wonderful time seeing our friends, facilitating workshops and now teaching yoga.  My classes begin at 5 am and continue until 7:30 with 50 young trainees (18-22) who work in various positions around the hospital, research center, and Aurolab.  They often work over microscopes, sit in front of computers, do various repetitive jobs and have neck and back pain commonly.  We are working on self-care and changing bad habits, mostly with posture and breathing.  Today there were 70 in the morning class!  I see 700 of them only once and an older administrative batch of 50 I see 8 times in 2 1 and a half hour classes.  A smaller group with more severe back issues will come next week.  These girls are from rural villages and are selected based on there willingness to contribute to the vision of Aravind and their compassion and character.  It is great fun to work with them.  We stay in Madurai until the 29th and leave for Northern India for 3 weeks of yoga and Ayurveda.  Please let me know if you are reading this!  Namaste, Susy  Also if you would like to read Bill's address at the Inauguaration let me know and I'll send it along.  It's also on Youtube.

 Urdhva Hastasana in Tadasana

 Malasana

 Urdhva Hastasana in Swastikasana (girls from the first class came to assist in 2nd class)

 Aurolab chest opening

 Rope hang with the window grill

 Chair twist

 Malasana in chair

 Legs up