Irony

Every year, around this time, the thread ceremony is performed. This year, I was in airports and planes on the two designated days. 

Called my mom to tell her that work just trumped "Aaavaniavittam" and she told me to do it Sunday morning instead. 

So this morning I got up (never slept thanks to Jet lag is more like it), changed the thread, chanted the Gayathri mantra a 1008 times.

Funny thing is that when you sit in the same spot for an hour and you still think you are 25 years old.. one forgets that the lower half of your body is numb from lack of blood flow.

Tried to stretch my legs and get up and just fell down in one swoop. It was like I had no legs.. took me some time to realize what had just happened. Eventually the circulation returned and wrapped things up. Don't know that this is telling me other than "you need to do this more often so that you can recover from sitting cross legged for an hour and a half, sooner" 

Amma, this one is for you!

Given my mom is "worried" about my hair loss, this angle perfectly avoids the bald spot.. so going forward, going to make this the default angle! 

Now why Irony? Well, as part of the thread changing ceremony we use rice and sesame seeds in water as an offering.

 

Given my allergy to sesame seeds, playing with that water is like playing with fire for me. Maybe there is a hidden lesson for me in that as well. 

All said and done, there is a new thread and I look forward to explaining this to folks who ask about it over the next few weeks, from new yoga buddies to TSA agents!

While searching for previous links on the thread changing cermony, found this one.. someday the little one is giong to see what she puts her daddy through!

Another year.. still learning.. still searching for answers!

A symbolic victory?

It has been a rocky three weeks. Lots of ups and downs.. both literally and figuratively. Figuratively because we made a trip to the east coast with family for four days and visited Pittsburgh and had a really great time with family. 

Kids got a detailed education on the family tree from the fathers side during this trip. We did three road trips in three days and visited Heritage sites, national/ state parks, the temple, not to mention Niagra falls. That was the up. The down was that I had multiple international trips and was sick for the most part and flying, even with a biz class upgrade was not a pleasant experience when your ear and entire face hurts at every takeoff and landing. 

The literal part of course was the number of flights in a 20 day period. Have not had a crazier travel schedule in the last two years. 

This intense schedule has made my yoga attendance near zero. Have gone to yoga class twice in 15 days. Many times I have wanted to drag my butt to the hot room inspite of multiple systems failing but decided against it. Today was different. Decided to go and give it a shot anyways. 

You see, this is not new. Most of my friends think that I am crazy to go do Hot Yoga when I have a sinus infection, sore throat or a 101 fever. Let me tell you something though. It actually works! As long as you are confident that you won't pass out in the room and are hydrated enough before class, you come out in better shape than you went in! 

This morning I was pitting multicolored phlegm, couldn't talk above a whisper and the place behind my cheekbones felt numb after repeated attempts to clear my sinus. My ears were hurting as well since the last flight and would pop on and off for no reason. 

While I got a few weird looks from the fellow yogis in the room for repeated coughing during the initial breathing exercise, the rest of the class got better and better. In sequence :

First your lungs clear during the breathing exercise. 

Second, your sinuses drain on to your mat (which is kind of gross but totally relieving) when you do hands to feet pose and get out of the pose. 

Third and this is the best part.. you break into a sweat by the time you are doing the third pose (Eagle pose). Now this is the best part because I think (cannot prove it) that the virus or bacteria that are fighting the body kind of give up when the body breaks into a sweat. Kind of like war time where one party hoists their flag up the fort and the other guys see that as an indication and just give up. Given the body goes into a sweat when it wins the fight against intruding bacteria or virus, this is probably a fake move.. but I will take it! 

The minute you break into a sweat and shiver a little bit in a hot room, magically you feel alright! (Not sure if others have observed this, but I have at least five times so far). 

By the time you do the stretching pose with your head to the floor, anything else left in my sinus is gone! I can breathe again and for a few seconds my body tries to grapple with what just happened. In another 10-15 minutes we are on the floor and I ace this part of the class and come out of the room practically feeling like every other class! 

I have managed to yell at Jr. once for not coming to eat lunch with us and the little one for picking up silly fights with her sister. They are both happy that daddy is getting back to normal and is yelling at them as usual. That also means that daddy is now responding when they try to push my buttons as opposed to "I don't care anymore as I am sick". Girls can be cruel that way. They cannot handle it when  you leave them alone. 

Anyways, now that I am getting my voice back and my breathing is back, going to start working again and process the hundreds of photographs still to be downloaded! 

One has to be blessed to be able to go do Yoga.. for those of you who have the luxury of a fixed time job with no travel, you have no idea how much I envy you! 

On a side note, a friend asked "how come you do yoga so regularly and yet you fall sick?"

My response ? "Sure my immunity is better but I am constantly traveling and picking up germs. If I had a routine between work, yoga and home, I do much better!" and that is true. 

Have you ever tried to wipe the tray table, arm rest, window and monitor with a wet wipe before the flight takes off? It will become black! That is how much crap is there on planes and they don't clean them anymore. 

Enough with the rant. On with life. Photoshop and powerpoint beckon...as do the kids!

Superstar daa!

Yesterday, we got to watch the latest Rajni movie, Kabali. All I knew was that :

it had Rajni as a Don...  Nothing new there

Rajni plays an old man .. okay but there were scenes in the trailer where he is in flashback young Rajni mode

No typical Rajni movie soundtrack : okay.. that was a red flag but still..

Went to watch it and came out shaking my head. 

If you don't know what going to a Rajni movie is like..

Imagine you go to a James Bond movie. There is some hint of action for 30 seconds and then Bond comes and shoots once.. the camera iris closes.. blood drop flows down the screen and the Bond movie theme music soars!  

Then the scene moves to a monastery.. Daniel Craig is now a non-violent priest who is training students on tai-chi.. and they don't even show his face.. they show the side and back of his face.. you are to infer that this Bond is not the usual Bond you are used to seeing. Maybe that is a hint for us to get ready for more surprises.. 

The movie keeps going. You are waiting for some hot bombshell pin up girl to join the action... instead you see that Judy Dench is now mother superior and they are taking about starting an orphanage. You scratch your stubble and go "hmm.. ticket says Bond movie... are we sure this is the right theater. these two have acted in other roles in other movies and they are good.. and that tonsured dude does look like Daniel Craig!"  You give it the benefit of doubt and sit down quietly.

Another thirty minutes passes with Bond(if you can still call him that) going into details of Tai-Chi moves in slow motion with a few kids and there is a loud noise.. You are expecting some typical Bond movie style train to run through the monastery and are expecting Craig to remove that head piece to reveal his executive style hair underneath that fake tonsure, to pull off his robe to reveal a charcoal black tux and  to jump on the train to put the brakes on.. but the scene moves to Dench who has just dropped her box full of prayer beads. At this point you have had it.. 

Then Bond smiles at Dench from the corner of his lips and says some quirky one liner and you go "okay.. I think I saw a slight hint of Bond there.. should I jump up and clap because this is where it all begins? or am I going to be the only idiot clapping?". You look to the left and you look to the right and you see other folks in the dimly lit theater doing the same thing.. everyone is looking at everyone with that "what are we do make of this?" look.  You realize that most of the movie is done and your typical hero is nowhere to be seen. Your typical experience for this franchise is not coming.. 

and it dawns on you.. you have been had! After Rumble in the Bronx, this is the worst experience for tralier excitement : Movie reality that you have witnessed. Given you have never forgiven Jackie for tricking you by putting the best stunts in the two minute trailer and filling the rest of the runtime with crap, your blood pressure goes up. 

Right then, there is a scene. Bond does his usual wink and blink and there is a brief scuffle, but it is too little too late.  You come out a litlte confused. If it weren't for the Bond theme music and the single shot fired and the iris closing at the begining of the movie, there was nothing Bond about it! It could have as well been a Tai-Chi documentary. 

As a die hard Bond fan, you convince yourself that you saw glimpses of Bond in a few fleeting moments, but you get very very angry. You wanted the entire movie to be that!

That people was my way of explaining to the world what Kabali was as a Rajni movie. If we didnt have the opening credits showing SUPERSTAR RAJNI in StarWars font capital letters, this had nothing of the typical Superstar in it. It was a violent documentary of the Malaysian Tamil community and its struggle to gain equal rights with respect to opportunities, pay and representation in the government. 

I am not trying to diss that movement or the fact that it gets much needed attention in this movie. Would I go to watch a movie on that topic if it actually had some activists or soap opera actors playing lead roles? Maybe not. Then again they could have made a documentary and have Rajni do the voice like Morgan Freeman does to Penguin movies.. or they could have had him show his support to this movement or set the record straight with a few clips. There was no need to trick me into thinking it was a "Rajni movie" when it clearly was not.

Yes, Ranji was in it.. but that was it! 

Now I have to go watch some old Rajni movies to try and reset my head and expectations on what a superstar movie watching experience is really like!

ps. Used to write  funny posts on Rajni movies or even Kamal movies (by dragging Rajni into it).  Tried to put some frivolity into this post, but deep down I am pissed.