in which we celebrate an unbridled success

We hopped on a train from Delhi to Agra on Friday night, got to our hotel, ate a delicious dinner of chilli paneer and naan and vegetable fried rice and snuggled up into a queen-size bed by 11:30PM. Woke up at the crack of dawn, made the simple five-minute walk from the hotel to the West Gate of the Taj Mahal. By 6:15AM  we were inside the grounds of the monument, just in time to see the sun rise over the mausoleum. It was fantastic. It wasn't too hot. There weren't too many people there. By 9:00AM, we had finished our sightseeing. We grabbed breakfast at a rooftop restaurant then hopped on a bus back to Delhi by 11:00AM. There were some aggressive men around the Taj trying to sell us things or scam us or get us to eat at their restaurant, but we were there early enough that no one really bothered us. Bonus: By choosing a hotel within walking distance of the Taj Mahal, we didn't have to take a rickshaw and get scammed into going to the Taj Mall. It was all of the wins.

Here's a quick haiku to sum up our weekend:

To Agra, we went

The Taj Mahal, we did see

After, we just left.

Now if you excuse me, I have to bang out an eight-page paper and start studying for a Hindi final. I have a feeling I'm going to be camped out in Costa Coffee all day long. 

haute couture, indian style

I'm secretly not-so-secretly obsessed with high fashion. I purchase American Vogue every month and spend an hour or so flipping through the pages longingly, wishing I had legs like Karlie Kloss or an artistic vision like Grace Coddington.

I was inspired by my friend Kelsey to take this burning desire to be a part of the high fashion world and make it reality, Desi style. Labor is cheap in India, and tailors are on every corner. Fabric is also inexpensive, and this includes beautiful silk with intricate patterns embroidered in dazzling colors. Kelsey has grabbed this opportunity by the horns and run with it, to mix my metaphors. She had purchased fabric to make curtains, a duvet cover, a couple of silk ties for her boyfriend and her father, and a blazer.

Ever since this seed has been implanted in my mind, I've been dreaming of a beautiful camel-colored suit. I've always pined for an Yves Saint Laurent suit, but that's entirely unreasonable since they cost literally thousands of dollars. But imagine this design in camel; I dare you not to swoon --

You swooned, didn't you. I was stoked for Saturday, we all went to the Lajpat Nagar Central Market in search for fabric for blazers and suits. I was determined to find the fabric of my dreams on this shopping excursion, and I was not going to leave disappointed. We went to a small stall that had some fabric, and I picked up a light dove grey material for a looser blazer. I found the style that I want on the Topshop website, and you can see the vision below --

Unfortunately, that stall did not carry the beautiful caramel color that I could so clearly envision. But then I went next door, and among all of the dozens of bolts of fabric, I spotted it on the bottom shelp. A beautiful creamy color that wasn't too dark or too brown. It was a magical moment, and I exclaimed - with tears in my eyes and a grin on my face - "I think this is what it'll feel like when I find my wedding dress." What can I say? I was excited. Both bolts of fabric cost me a little less than 2000INR, or $40. Totally reasonable price for a full suit and a blazer.

But the problem is that I'm sort of obsessed with this now. I went to a silk store that Kelsey recommended and adeptly wrote about on her own blog, and I bought some more fabric. One is what the salesman called an "ethnic" print. It's brown with orange paisley embroidery; it looks sort of 1970's, but it's totally unique and was only 600INR for three yards. I also bought a simple navy cotton fabric.

After scouring the Barney's CO-OP website and Shopbop.com and J.Crew and Anthropologie, I decided what I wanted to do with the fabric. I found a tailor, showed him the designs of what I wanted, and he took my measurements and sent me on my way. He also had me e-mail him the pictures of the dresses so that he could reference them. Here's what I'm going to have tailored for a total of 2350INR --

For the 1970's print material, using a design from Barney's CO-OP.

For the navy cotton fabric, style courtesy of J.Crew.

Basically what I'm getting at here is that I'm going to have five beautiful custom-designed pieces created in the near future for not that much money, considering the quality of the material and the fact that they're tailored to fit my exact body size. These pieces would cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in the States. I'm going to be so fly in my custom-made pieces. I just want it to be April 4 so that I can pick up my dresses from Klassic Designs. (I picked the tailor based on the name, actually. There's this brand called Kwality and they sell ice cream, and it's actually delicious even though you think that a brand that misspells "quality" so atrociously would be totally janky. It was the same sort of thought process with this. "They spell 'classic' with a 'K?' Yeah, that's got to be really legitimate." No jokes.) The fashionista within me is swooning and wants to be wearing these beautiful garments! I just want to go back to America so that I can show off my legs again.

certified

I guess I'm officially certified in basic yoga and ayurveda after spending a week here? If you need some yoga lessons or want an ayurvedic massage or some oil dripped onto your forehead, just give me a call. Apparently I know something about these practices now, but maybe not enough to actually do treatments. We can always find out how much I remember or how good my notes are, though.

Headed back to Delhi in a couple of hours and I'm vaguely devastated to have to go back to the program center and the daily grind. I think I'm going to do some yoga and chant some "ohms" in the morning before I leave for class on Monday morning. Good thing I have the weekend to readjust.

in which my chakras (and spine) get totally realigned

When I left for India in January, my father was in the midst of reading Steve Jobs's biography. Jobs spent a period of time in India, apparently at an ashram or something, and he came back with all of these ideas about Eastern spirituality and yoga and vegetarianism and whatnot. And my father was terrified that I would come back with these same hokey ideas. Unfortunately for him, I might actually come back totally into yoga and a more intense vegetarian than when I left. (Sorry, Dad, but I'm not going to eat the deer that you shoot.)

It's all because of this week in Rishikesh. I'm totally digging this scene. I'm not really digging the whole "White man finding himself" type that exists in full force in this town, generally replete with dreadlocks and bad tribal tattoos on biceps and forearms. However, yoga is doing good things for me. Like really good things. I've done more physical activity in the past few days than I have in a while, and I feel pretty fit.

Part of this physical activity was a 10-km hike from our guest house to a waterfall. That's right. A waterfall. We didn't swim in the waterfall or jump off the waterfall. It was more of a low-risk wading situation, but it was still incredibly pleasant. After sitting in the water for a while, I lay on a huge boulder for even longer. It was simply wonderful.

We did yoga twice today. Once in the morning and again after the hike. My sun salutations are totally popping now, let me tell you. Our yoga teacher also cracked all of our backs, which was phenomenal because I've felt like there's been a metal rod in my back since I got here.

Oh, did I mention that we also learned how to give ayurvedic massages today? I'm awful, and I think I may have hurt our friend who willingly volunteered to be the massage "victim," but I sort of know what to do with the massage oils now.

What this week has been good for, if nothing else, has been the opportunity to take a break and relax. For the first time in months, I've had free time. Time to myself in which I can do what I want. I've been eating what I want to eat, not just what my host mother or the program center feeds me. Choices are great!

I'm also realizing more and more what I need to be happy, the things that I need to build into my schedule in order to be functional. I need to eat vegetables and fruits in abundance. I like yogurt with museli and honey for breakfast. I need to drink coffee in the morning. I need alone time so that I can decompress, without thinking about other people. I need to exercise regularly.

What's been hard about this program is that I've been on their schedule, and I've spent so much time trying to adapt that I've been ignoring my own basic needs. In our yoga lecture, we were talking about why yoga is so important. It seems to be really contradictory to focus on yourself so much in order to love the rest of the world. It ultimately comes off as really selfish, and it sort of is. But unless you are performing at your best, it'll be impossible to do anything else.

I'll leave you with a car metaphor, because who doesn't love a good car metaphor?

Your body is a car, and life is a highway. If you try to drive down that highway at a reasonable speed in a janky car that's rusting out at the bottom and that hasn't had an oil change in years and that doesn't shift gears properly, you're bound for disaster. You need a car that's well-maintained and cared for, that gets regular tune-ups, and that's when you can safely cruse on the Autobahn at full speed and then some. Yoga is those regular tune-ups.

At least, that's what the guy teaching me yoga in India says.

back to rishikesh

Guess I couldn't stay away from Ganga-ji, huh. Only a few short weeks after my first visit to this city, I came back to Rishikesh. This time with seven girls from my program and one of our teachers as part of our workshop.

We're doing a week-long yoga retreat on the banks of the Ganges River. We have an hour-long yoga class at 8AM, followed by a delicious Ayurvedic breakfast of fruit and lots of toast. At 11AM, we have  a lecture about yoga and philosophy with a guy with an iPhone, so he's really big on making ancient yoga theory accessible for the modern world. Then we've got a long break to explore and to do our own thing. For me, this involved a full-body Ayurvedic massage yesterday afternoon. Another lecture at 4PM followed by a delicious dinner and then it's bedtime by 9PM.

Our first day here, we saw a ceremony at sunset on the banks of the Ganges. It was absolutely beautiful. I took some pictures, but it was nice to just be there as this yogi sang and one of his students played a hand organ and other people sat around a fire. (Did I happen to mention that all of this was happening on the banks of the most sacred river in India? And we had a front row seat, and I totally dipped my feet in the river, hygiene be damned?) I'm so fortunate to be here and to be able to enjoy this time. It feels like a vacation, not an academic exercise, and that is exactly what I needed.

Sorry I can't write more, but I've got to learn about the theory of yoga in a bit. It's like our teacher said on our first day here: "What we're doing now is making our future."