Enjoying Dark Chocolate With Caramel At the Starbucks After a Great Iyengar Yoga Class

One of the rewards of the long weekend (and a messy rainy one). Just wanted to sit down and enjoy a chocolate after my grueling (level 2) Iyengar Yoga class (went to Lra Brunn's class - very good, though a bit advanced for me).

Bought a Dark Chocolate with Caramel made by Starbucks itself. Felt really good though the chocolate itself was not the best i have had. But for $1.50 it did work to provide some contentment. Now back to work ...

Some pictures of a walk in the city after a snow blast

Some pictures as i went walking one morning along the Hudson River as it curves along battery park after the major snow storm 2 weeks ago - it was incredible and more so to see people out and about with the same enthusiasm as a regular Sunday morning - salute to the energy or New York City and New Yorkers (and to the tourists who flock to this park)

The pictures are tiny (the samsung cell phone setting probably got whacky)





Even the Birds are out and About



Along the Pier ..

Awesome dance on the NYC A line Subway Train

One of the great things about the NYC subway is that you can get to see some great dancers and musicians perform both on the platforms and some times in the moving trains. The A line subway train is particularly good for spotting such random performances as it runs non stop between 59th street and 125th street giving the performers a good chunk of time to show their act.

Just a day or two ago i saw this bunch of young kids do some amazing stuff --- pretty cool - the pictures from a very basic samsung camera dont really do much justice but i hope you get the vibe and feel of the energy!

The Lincoln Center Website Sucks! Slow, Error prone and frustrating

I happened to read about the 12-hr long play that will be staged in July (to be directed by Peter Stein and to be staged in a warehouse in Governors Island) and is being organized by the Lincoln center. I decided i might as well buy the ticket now because the play (the demons) is going to be SOLD OUT!

But the Lincoln Center website SUCKS. I had to struggle with it - here is how

1. I found the page that describes the details of the play, 'The Demons'. On that page is a Link to 'Buy Tickets'. You click and the site croaks with this message (and mind you it took like 3-4 minutes to load this page and that too at like 12.45 am).




2. Okay, so i thought maybe i need to sign in and then it may allow me to buy the ticket. SO i did the mistake of registering. This is what happens - Upon clicking 'submit' the site goes caput ... some internal server error




3. So i try again - this time i told that a user with my email address has already been registered! And i thought step two had failed

4. Okay, so what was to be a 5 min thing has now stretched to 25-30 mins of frustration. Anyways, i move on and login using my email and password.
Great. i am able to do so.

5. So i go back to page about 'The Demons'. Cool. Works. And in excitement that finally i would be able to get the ticket i once again press the 'Buy tickets' link. And .... damn it - its still that same error



I give up - perhaps the center doesnt want these tickets to be sold till very late. And mind you the minimum price for a ticket is $175 (yes, $175 for the 12 hr play with lunch, dinner and a ferry ride to Governors Island). Now i am willing to pay that much i EXPECT better online experience.

Why cant these organizations get it. World class and world famous to performing arts but a website that SUCKS... big time. So much so that i am blogging about it at 3.41 am !!

Anyways, as for the play - its based on the book 'The Demons' by Dystoyvesky (i am sure that is not spelled correctly!)

Pictures of Indian sweets, snacks and other food items from my recent India Trip

Returned a few days back from a quick 8 day trip to india (specifically Delhi). Was there to attend a childhood friend's lavish wedding (more than that soon). As always when back in India, when gets to really catch up on the awesome food, particularly the sweets and snacks . Here are some pictures to give you a sense of what we miss here in the USA (you can get these items here but its not the same in many cases).

Sizzling Kebabs @barbecue nation, Gurgaon

Paan flavored Halwa

Ladoos


Shelf Load of indian sweets

Awesome Puffed up Bhatures with Chole

Haldiram's Sweets (kaju Potli, Kaju barfi, Kachauris and much more)

Shocking pictures of the Chilean Earthquake and impending Tsunami

Here are some pics of the catastrophic earthquake that struck Chile Today.
The questions that arises is why do most earthquakes occur around early morning. This one struck at 3.22 Am local Chile Time. The massive earthquake in kashmir in 2005 also occurred in the wee hours of the morning. Some big earthquakes in CA also happened in the morning . Go figure

Some pics (these have been taken from NYTIMES.com, Huffpo and others)

From the NYTIMES.com (see more here )






From Huffpo




And of the impending tsunami in Hawaii (the empty beaches by twitter user @rickawho)



Watch tsunami hit live on ustram - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/waikiki-beach-surf

So is a cool chick hot or a hot chick cool ?? whats your take

i came across this great line in a song for a promo video for a game show in India (the indian version of who wants to be a millionaire). As the song was themed , 'a question that may change your life (for the better)' (ek sawal jo zindagi badal de in hindi).

And one of the questions was ' Is a cool chick hot or a hot chick cool???' Hmmm ... so what do you folks think. Maybe you want to ask your 'chick' friends ...

The downward dog and all its myriad subtleties

Image Courtesy - SweetTater.com

Note: Now I am not a yoga guru... at-least not as yet (I mean it may be a decade or perhaps a life time in the making). So I will caution you that this isn’t a masterpiece on that yoga pose called the downward dog (adho mukho asana)!

Now to the meat of things. I just got out of my Iyengar Yoga class today. I am sort of a regular yoga practitioner now, with two 90-min weekly classes, one on Wednesday at 7.30 pm with Tori Milner (will likely be Tuesday evening when I start level two classes with her) and the other on saturday evenings with Adam Vitolo (see Yoga Classes at the Iyengar Studio in NYC.) And it so happened that Adam Vitolo was on leave today and the replacement teacher was Jean Marie (who has returned to the center after 10 glorious years of sunshine in the Carribbean, as she said. She is happy to be back, despite the 5 degree chill out today). There is no doubt about one thing, and this occasion, confirms it, that the teachers at Iyengar Yoga Center are excellent and awesome. And that they all have their own subtle differences in styles. Jean Marie included. Just like the poses have their own little subtleties that keeps one exploring them for a lifetime. Jean Marie who actually even started the practice with us seated in Vajra Asana and not the usual cross legged pose (by the way I don’t know what the most elementary and routine yoga pose is called, having practiced for two years.)

Jean Marie decided that today she would really make us focus on a few things of which one was the downward dog pose. Now that is one pose that I find to be difficult and something I haven’t really “got it” . Its not that one can ever really ”get a pose”. Downward dog is not difficult in the sense that its not doable, but the correctness of the pose has eluded me. And today the pose got a whole lot going on to it.

The thing with the downward dog is that, its really not just about pushing your legs back and pointing your butt out and up, all the time opening up your back of the thighs. That’s just the basics. The pose is about creating an intense stretch/straightening of the spine/back while ensuring that the front ribs “melt away” pushing deep down into the pelvis with the front ribs remaining in the same plane as the two bony protuberances of the pelvic bone in the front. And at the same time, ensuring that the shoulder bone melts away into the back ribs creating a complete flatness. And while all this is happening, your quadriceps “hug your” thighs and pull your knee caps up, pulling the inner heel arch up. And to stabilize it all the palms remain cemented on the floor, with all the fingers stretched out and the base of the thumb as deeply imprinted on the floor as the base of the pinky finger. And while all this is happening, your big tow and the small toe mounds, bore through the ground, as nails piercing the earth to hold a flapping tent (see image below).


The various axis of stretch in the Downward Dog
Image source" YogaArtAndScience.com

Now as you can imagine, that is a lot of minor details and points to get right. And that’s why this pose is intense. And i dont mean “intense for the body” only. The intensity required is of the mind that it can focus its attention to every point of the pose till it corrects itself. And that is the difficult part. For instance, if you are focusing on the palms, you may lose the pull of your thighs. If you focus on the thighs, you may realize that the front ribs have shot themselves out of the plane from the pelvic front. If the ribs are keeping you occupied, you may notice that you really haven’t “externally" rotated your upper arm so that the shoulder blade curves into the back ribs. If you were too occupied with pushing your buttock bones (the ischial tuberosity of the pelvic bone) into a 45% plane into the back and beyond, then you may notice that your breath has become drawn and heavy and aggressive and the lips pursed.

And that to me is why yoga is not JUST exercise. Its not a workout. And why I have been working at it, slowly and steadily as the drop of water works on the hard rock, till it finally makes its way (hopefully).

Every time I do these poses they make you realize parts of your body a little differently, a bit more deeply. As my teacher said in the very first class, “its like peeling an onion, one layer at a time till you get to your core”. So hail downward dog!

Till Some more Yoga Talk!

p.s - looking to find yoga classes, just say Hey Kiki!

The essentials Roti, Kapda Aur Makan Come First

President Obama, the essentials come first. And they are Roti, Kapda Aur Makan.
Having said that, now lets get to the meat of it.

As the democrats and particularly the President recover, regroup and re-strategize from the devastating (but a great eye opener, we all hope) loss in the MA senate race, there is wide speculation as to what the president should do. Questions linger, what is the message of the voters, what should be the priority of the administration?

The answers to such questions remain uncertain and will only emerge over the course of weeks and months. However, we do know that the administartion has been completely wrapped up in getting the healthcare reform bill passed. The President has often said that healthcare reform lies at the root of our economical and other crises and fixing healthcare (first) will solve a lot many things.

I am no expert in these matters but perhaps it behooves well of the administration to consider and ponder on a well known adage that there are certain essentials that we humans care more deeply about when it comes to daily existence. And those are Roti, Kapka aur makan (there is even a classic Bollywood movie with that title)- translating from hindi, that is Food, Clothes and Shelter. And unfortunately, they can be very dependent. For instance, without a job all three are seriously in jeopardy. And to think of it, it was the crises in the housing market that created this meltdown. So out of homes, and out of jobs, millions of Americans worry about their basic survival, not healthcare.

Healthcare is something people can worry about after the above three are met. And that is what the administration needs to remember. With unemployment at 10.5%, people need jobs,first, not health insurance. In fact if we get them jobs, a lot many will get insurance. Second people need a place to live (and have the security and comfort of home). So the housing mess should have been close to fixing if not on way to being fixed. However, the administration, led by Geithner and Summers have come up with no concrete plan - every week there are speeches, there is speculation, but nothing much done.

Its the fundamentals - unless we fix these three things, any talk of fixing healthcare or getting our troops back and fixing the climate, will be too much to ask for the common man. When basic survival is in question, you fix the acute issue. And this is basic advice that any ER triage nurse would also be able to give - you dont worry about controlling Mr. Browns diabetes when he has a fractured rib.

So the priority should be getting people back on the track. Give them a clear plan on how they can get a job soon. Next come up with a plan that can help them negotiate something with the banks to keep their homes or get some grace period in which they are not asked to pay their mortgage till they get back on their feet.

People want to feel they are back in the game. But America will be back in the game only if we remember that Roti, Kapda aur Makan come first.

Awesome Chance Meeting with The Lost Girls at the Ace Hotel in NYC

Image Copyright: LostGirlsWorld.com

As it happens in life (and quite often in NYC), you get to meet great/interesting/intriguing people as you go about life. Just back from two great sunny weeks in Pasadena, CA and Los Angeles (more about that some time in the future), i was looking forward to going to a nice cafe and getting some thinking and writing done (one of my fav things to do on sat is to spend time in a nice cafe/cafe-like-place). And the lobby of the Ace Hotel had been on my mind for sometime.

And so it was, i landed up in the lobby around noon. And true to what i had heard and just glimpsed earlier in an in-and-out 5-min trip, this gotta be one of the best places to spend a weekend morning/afternoon sipping coffee , reading, writing, thinking and yes, even watching... The place is part lobby, part cafe, part library, part living room and all with a bar at the back. And if the setting wasnt good enough, i happened to meet 2 (Holly and Amanda)of the 3 original 'Lost Girls' (H, A and Jen). I was introduced to them by a writer of tremendous potential, who was busily revising her (potential best seller) to be submitted to the publishers on Monday!!

If you havent yet come across/heard about/read the 'Lost Girls', then just sample some of their fares. The three 20-something girls (as they call themselves) quit their media jobs and went traveling around the world for a year. And what can one say other than.. the 'rest is history'. The year-long trip became a famous award winning blog - LostGirlsWorld.com and a book that is being released in May by Harper Collins. But wait... there is more.. Warner Bros has bought the rights to make a film (or sthng like that).

Needless to say the girls write masterfully, peppering their blogs with wit('Om My God' takes the cake), keen observations, humor and good story-telling. They have traveled four continents and are now back in NYC and working on the launch of their book.

It will create a buzz (perhaps the 'Lost Girls' will fill the vacuum that the 4 women imagined by Candace Bushnell have left behind for countless women [even men] after the end of their series). And as we kept talking, more friends of the Lost Girls came and then very soon it was time for me to head for my Iyengar Yoga Klass (which rocks beyond, words by the way). The chance meeting captured what travels ultimately are about - being able to share stories, even when we meet as strangers.

Who knows where the 'Lost Girls' will find themselves next. Perhaps they are planning to visit some of the places we got to talk about today, like the breathtaking mountains of Leh/Ladakh, the relatively unexplored Zanskar Valley, the 30-day trek to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarover (the heavenly abode of Lord Shiva), the drive from Tijuana down into the cactus desert of Baja California via a gorgeous stretch of the highway kissing the pacific ocean(route 1/pacific coast highway pales in comparison), visiting the ruins of Nalanda University (the Worlds first university and which is 2 hrs from my hometown), cheering the Afghan horse riders in the game of Buzhkashi or organizing their book tour as they ride the California Zephyr across the rocky mountains on the Amtrak (you can get a whole 15/30 days pass to travel on the Amtrak for dirt cheap).

Go girls!! The World is to be discovered all over again and then some more....

From one globalwander to you and the many other lost and then perhaps, found souls.

Bon Voyage!

GlobalWanderer

P.S. - i havent said much but the writer mentioned here briefly but she has a mind blowing story being written in her upcoming book. I hope i can write about it when the time is right (and when its fine to tell what she is writing about).