
Morning walk through the park
Stayed up stupidly late last night for no particular reason so was tired and a bit droopy this morning. Headed over to Women’s class and as always there was a slight frission of expectation in the air – who would we get? The men’s enclave needed room for expansion so we were asked to move forward from a safe position in the second row, to pole position (at the teacher’s feet) in the front row. Jenny and I looked at each other and shrugged, an unspoken “Yes fine, we can handle it, nothing to worry about, whoever it is Abhi, Gulnaz, Rajalaxmi, even Geetaji we can handle, right?!”.
So in comes Sunita – a totally unknown quantity, with an air of slight antagonism and definitely NOT a friendly vibe. Sure enough within minutes she was in a state of annoyance with someone whose back was paining them. An uncomfortable silence in the room as we all hoped that things would not escalate. As the class developed however things improved – she and the student who had attracted her attention made peace and Sunita’s kinder side was apparent. The class was good! Her style and technique were very different to Abhi and Geetaji. The instructions and teaching points were not complex but salient and effective. The slight undercurrent of fear as I tried to suss her out, made me work hard on the points she taught – a very strong grip of the hips in parsvottonasana and that hip has to remain INSIDE as you turn for parivrtta trikonasana and parivrrta parsvakonasana. Et Voila my hip that never grips suddenly found the capacity to grip – the wonders of a little fear and definitely NOT wanting to attract negative attention from the teacher at whose feet you stand! Those first few poses were held for an alarmingly long duration until you could hear people all around beginning to pant and I was a little afraid of how I was going to get through a whole 2 hours. We went from the parivrtta standing poses to a comprehensive forward bend sequence including parivrtta paschimottonasana where we had to reach the kidneys to enliven and strengthen them. Then into the leg raises krounchasana, ubhyaya padangusthasana, UM paschimttonasana 1 and 2, culminating in kurmasana and yoga nidrasana.
Jenny went to collect her laundry from the dhobi – we have a washing machine in the apartment but the laundry from the dhobi comes back so beautifully washed, pressed and wrapped in newspaper, it’s a real treat!



Although we had worked very hard I felt well balanced after class and we headed over to the Mariott for a swim and a visit to the café. See below the picture from the roof top terrace with a fantastic vista of Pune all around.

Women’s Class – Sunita – February 10th
AMV into AMS into Uttanasana
Parsvottonasana
Parsvott into Pariv Trik
Parsvott into Pariv Parsvak
AMS and Uttanasana – rolled the sticky mat 1) For the abdomen – what happened? Back spread and navel released better downward, the sides of the navel didn’t shrink inward. 2) between the knees – what happened? Stabilised the knee – make sure you take it out from the back so you don’t undo the correct action of the knee.
Parsvott / Pariv Trik / Pariv Parsvak sequence x 2 each side – really emphasised the grip of the hip in parsvott to be maintained in pariv trik and pariv parsvak – keep the hip INSIDE
Janu Sirsasana X 2 each side – here she talked about when we move from the concave back action to going down over the leg, the leg has fear of the weight of the body going down on it, so it shrinks upward. Instead lengthen it away, lengthen the achilles, calf muscle.
Parivrrta Janu Sirsasana x 2
Parivrtta Pachimottonasana x 2 each side – first upright turn, then going forward in straight line, then sweeping around and catching inner edge foot. Top arm like trikonasana, then over.
Upavista Konasana – going forward, chest down chin up, armpit down chin up, the bottom back rib should remain completely inward
Krounchasana
Paschimottonasana
Ubhyaya Padangusthasana
Urdhva Muhka Paschimottonasana
Urdhva Mukha paschimottonasana 2 (NOT halasana feet to floor) then take legs wide UM upavista legs
Yoga Nidrasana
Paschimottonasana
SBKonasana no props
Sirsasana
Chatushpadasana and then setubandha first with legs bent then legs extended
Savasana
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