On Friday, Ameera had the grand re-opening of her antique furniture store (Camelot. If you don’t know…you need to! Read about it on my last post), so she and Aditi had all of their friends over to the store that evening for a party. So much champagne (Chandon to be exact), appetizers, booze and lots of cupcakes! We hung there until around midnight and then Aditi and her friends and I went out to this night club – ended up taking TOO many jager bombs and dancing our asses off. We ended the night at another bar/club until it closed around 3am. Then got pizza!! My first time having pizza since I have been in India and it was damn good. It was super spicy pizza though, go figure –everything is spicy in India!
That night at the store party, Pallavi (one of Aditi’s friends) told me about this 3 day meditation and pranayama course that I had been interested in taking. She said it was starting the next day right down the road. The course is called The Art of Happiness and it is mandatory to take this course in order to attend a silent retreat at the Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ashram in Bangalore (a very well-known ashram in India). I had been wanting to do both of these things and had inquired about it many times since being in India, but I kind of just let it go because I wasn’t able to figure it out with my schedule. When Pallavi told me that the course was happening that weekend close by, and it fit perfectly into my schedule, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity. I signed up and the next evening, I attended the first night of the course. The kriyas (pranayama exercises) that you learn are really specific and are meant to “reset” your mind/body. I went to the class feeling very emotional that night (maybe from the hangover!) and I left feeling extremely balanced. The next morning, Sunday morning, I went to class and again, the same thing happened – I felt so calm and my mind so light and peaceful when I left. I got a ride back to the house from the teacher / facilitator. We had a great conversation and he gave me some really good “life” advice. Great experience overall. Here in India, things have a magical way of working themselves out –you meet the right people at the right places at the right times and things seem to effortlessly fall into place. This is one of the things I love most about traveling in general, but India has its own special vibration. After the class on Sunday morning, I came home and Aditi had a few of her friends over for brunch at the house – we sat around and ate appetizers, chatted, ate a huge Indian brunch, and then painted our nails – such a relaxing, chill girls day. Great weekend!
India Vibrations 