Rivers, crows, and monkeys.

I hoped that Rishikesh would be calmer than the India I know, but I did not realize how calm it truly is where we do our studies. During meditation in the yoga hall, all you can hear is the the river rushing down the mountain, full of energy and force from the monsoon season. Its our very own nature soundtrack to help calm the chatter in our minds. This is a holy city, no doubt, you can feel the energy of the sun as it peeks over the mountains, and the breath of the wind as it brushes through the streets during dusk.

There are a few things that make Rishikesh still a part of that stimulating India most know. There is one particular crow who comes during every class, pecks on the window, flaps his wings and caws with gusto. He has a vengence for something in that meditation hall, and I don’t intend to open the window to find out. I’ll skip the breeze and sweat.

While the Alfred Hitchcock crow is distracting, there are some other little fellows who I have now vowed to avoid at all costs--monkeys. They are cute, fuzzy, and downright mean. To one downtown chillin on the steps, I said, “sup?!” and he launched forward with an open mouth and scowl, and startled the curry out of me that I jumped back and squealed. Moments later I watched a monkey dart across the pathway to a woman with a large bag full of snacks, snatch a bag of chips (tearing the larger bag) and ninjaing up to a railing to chow down. A day later, two classmates and I were eating our between practice snack with the windows open. A monkey appeared on the building across the way ready to leap through the window to snag our food. Had one of us not noticed and raced to shut the window, we may have had a studio monkey on our hands...and no more snacks. Needless to say, I’m not messing with the hangry monkeys.

On a side note: I knew it would be difficult to keep up with blogging, but didn’t know it would be this challenging. The days are filled with class and activity, and after practice, connection, and personal journaling, I’m pretty pooped come 9pm and zonk out to wake up at 5am.