Docked with the mother ship - India

I landed in Mumbai very early this morning. Getting out of the Mumbai airport was a breeze and a pleasant surprise to see a lot of the outside of the international airport reconstructed.. I could smell the musty air - monsoon is in full swing but the rain gods have not been too generous leading to a drought. "Mumbai only as 200 days of drinking water in reserve" says the driver of the car who picked me up. Hundreds of people are walking the streets barefoot at 2 am in the morning. Its Ganesh Chatruthi on Monday - the celebration of Lord Ganesh and thousands will walk to the Sidhi Vinayak Temple mid town Mumbai barefoot, a walk that may take them an entire day. I will seek spiritual blessings from a distance, as I will be recovering from jet lag. Thousands of colorful effigies of Lord Ganesh will be immersed in the Arabias sea and rivers all over. Its symbolic... but with scarce drinking water and pollution I wonder the logic behind it in the present time.

My yoga has been scarce. I had two yoga sessions with Nuvana. All to work on my sciatica and back ache, which she has helped dissipate. I tried to get into a class in Bandra with Jawahar tomorrow, but its to early in the AM. I will have to wait till I get to Pune next week. In the meanwhile the Swine Flu scare hype has really been blown over the top. The airport had a whole horde of masked medical examiners sitting at a desk, just collecting a form which we were required to fill out on the plane. We were warned of a 5 min medical check when we landed to see if we had symptoms of swine flu and could be quarantined for 5 days. The list of suspect countries included USA. You had to mention if you were coming from a country experiencing Swine Flu epidemic. Guess what everyone answered that as!!!! I wondered what the logic was - India is one of them now.

So I hope that the swine flu hoop la will subside soon. I plan to reconnect with my yoga practice, detach from the stresses of life in America and have a productive trip. There will be lots to write about, so hopefully I will have more frequent posts. I expect to connect with interesting people and have a challenging task of getting my Pune work force out of the Swine Flu fear and back to productive work. There are milestones to be met thanks to the Obama Health Care Technology Incentives.

Namaste

Another day another _________________

The last few weeks have been hectic and full of travels and trips. I call them escapist trips, but incredible time with my children. I was in Hawaii last week for work and attend a coworkers wedding on the beach. I also had a chance to practice yoga at the Hatha Iyengar Yoga center of Honolulu. My sciatica had returned (the biking I think) and Ray Madigan was amazing in his instructions to help with it. It was a fun class. I wish I was there longer to take more. I learned a few new tricks in addition to what Nuvana had taught me on how to take care of it.

Then the nightmare began. I flew to Maui and took a class on the beach (a wet uneven grassy yard) organized by my coworker. The teacher was of a different style, one of those fusions of Iyengar and others. One student collapsed by the heat. I twisted my back and the showers of pain came from all directions. I have been in pain since. I had resisted going to this class, as I know I cannot handle Vinyasa, but fell to temptation. So I deserved this pain.

So here I am back to square one. Another reset. But tomorrow is my session with Nuvana and I expect some relief. My battles with pain and stress begin, especially since Pune is now the epicenter of Swine Flu in India and I have tickets to travel on the 21st.

Namaste