Taking off with your body and mind..

In a sense, we are all airplanes in different shapes, sizes and colors. We are all more or less trying to use the equipment we have, to do the best we can, before the equipment (body and mind) need some major upgrades or outright fail. 

Flying airplanes needs a license. Flying your "self" doesn't.

Those piloting licenses have varying degrees of difficulty and requirements. 

Anything from 20 hours of solo flying and 15 hours of flying with a certified instructor for a small Cessna to 1500 hours of solo flying and more hours with experienced pilots to fly a Jumbo jet.

Where am I going with all this comparison?

When I started doing yoga, we were not sure if I will survive the first dozen classes. That was 100 minutes of Yoga. 

That went by fast.

The next milestone was ~ 1000 minutes of yoga or ~ 112 classes.. that also went by fast within four months. 

The next one is longer. 10,000 minutes of yoga, lets approximate to a 1000 classes. As a person who meticulously does graphs and charts and keeps track of things to get a nerds eye view of yoga, there is another 85 classes to go for the 1000'th Yoga class and a little more to go after that for 10,000 minutes in the hot room. At the rate at which I am attending, before year end, that milestone will come and go.

Then there is one more possible milestone to go, in this lifetime. 

100,000 minutes of yoga. Let's call it 10,000 classes. That should take another 37 years judging by current extrapolation, give or take. 

There are folks we know who have been doing yoga twice a day, almost every day for a decade. For them, seeing that milestone is almost a given. For the rest of us who are happy to do yoga once a day, at every chance we get, a 40 year timeframe to get there sounds about right. 

Not sure if there will be a lot of counting after a 1000 classes. Maybe there will be some lifestyle change at some point? Maybe there will be more yoga? Maybe age will catch up and there will be less? There is no predicting. 

One thing that keeps me going is that somehow, somewhere deep within, there is a realization that doing yoga is going to help me get there and the more yoga I do, the higher the chances of getting through those 37 years!

We can check back in 20 years and see a progress report. 

A thousand moons

Last week was eventful for the family. My in-laws visited us. San's uncle from Australia also visited us. The big event?

My MIL's dad's brother crossed a 1000 moons! It is a big deal in South India and there is a grand celebration

- when a person crosses a 1000 full moons

- is still married to the same person 

The couple get to perform a prayer that is a mix of "thank you god for the 1000 moons and the happy married life" and a wish "for many more moons". Once they finish the ceremony, they get some kind of rock star status and everyone gets their blessings. In Chennai (Madras) where I grew up, this function is so auspicious that once the couple finish the prayer, folks who were not invited to the function just show up in a long line to fall at the couples feet to get their blessings. 

Used to see a few of these ceremonies as a kid. They are rare events in a place where life expectancy for men was 62 and women was 64 twenty years ago. A thousand moons is approximately 29,501 days .. and happens close to the persons 80th birthday. 

Given most of the folks who are in their 80's got married very young (some of it was child marriage), the ladies who survive this ceremony should actually be the rock stars.. at least that is my humble opinion. Putting up with any guy for those kind of periods deserves a lifetime achievement award. 

In recent memory, I have attended three of these ceremonies. 

First in 2005 (San was pregnant with the little one then and Jr. was a toddler) we attended my maternal grandpa-grandmas function. Still have great memories from that one.

Then in 2007 when the little one was 14 months old, we went for San's paternal grand parents ceremony. Was mostly inside a dark and dingy room in the marriage hall taking care of the little one, who was very cranky and almost missed most of the happenings. (have only a few photos from that event on my camera rolls!). It was a great party of sorts again with a large family.

Then there was last weekend. San's maternal grand-uncle celebrated it. Given he is local, they celebrated it here instead of in India. How they managed to get enough folks well versed in the Vedas to do the recitation and prayers was in itself impressive, not to mention them going through a long ceremony with a smile.

They reminded me a lot of my own grandparents. When a guy who is 80 can make his lady smile for his jokes and make her blush at times, after being married to her for what appears to be a jillion years, it is more than an example for the younger generation.

You get a glimpse of what it takes to have a long and happy married life.

I realized there is a lot of work to do on my joke list!

The next generation (my parents, in-laws, uncles and aunts on both my side and Sangeetha's side of the family) are all getting around the 70 year mark.

Our sincere hope that a lot of them make it to a 1000 moons and we get to see more such ceremonies in this lifetime.

We also got to see Jr. dress up in her half saree for this occasion. She is the same height as her mother now and has declared herself a teen, even though she has a few months to go before her 13th birthday.

Now the in-laws and Uncle have gone back, the house feels empty, save for the occasional fighting between Jr. and the little one.

San and me have only another 36+ years to go.. just typing that out made me want to go to the bathroom.

I plan to interview these people in detail and find out more about their winning strategies. 

Clicks

I have taken the camera out a countable number of times this year. 

My FIL bought a new camera and his first trial shot was of me and the kids. 

Happy smiles all around!