Lovely Swati

As you may have guessed, life continues bring new joys every day here in Rishikesh.
Whoa! I didn't blog yesterday! Lots to say...
Let's start with the title, Lovely Swati. I was in a stationary shop picking out a new notebook (for my many, many, class notes) and some beautiful hand-made cards. Got to chatting with the owner (Amit), told him I was interested in learning Hindi (thank you Meera for getting me off to a good start before I left!) and asked him if he had any recommendations. Turns out his wife used to teach foreigners, but that there hasn't been much demand lately. He told me to stop by after evening yoga, and that he'd talk to her in the meantime. When I went back that evening, he hopped on his motorbike to go pick her up, as she was walking home from work. They both arrived a few minutes later, Swati said she would be pleased to teach me, and we made an appointment for 11 the next day. I went to Amit's store around ten to 11, and he walked me to their home (a couple minutes away) and Swati offered me tea and noodle crisps to bring up to their rooftop where I had my first lesson in the sun. She is beautiful, kind, spunky, and those two first hours on the roof, were, I'm certain, the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Swati is about my age, married with a 4-year-old boy. The three story modest home houses the three of them, plus Amit's brother and parents. They are a tight-knit family who always look out for each other. I learned an immeasurable amount in those two hours, not only about the Hindi language, but also about plenty of cultural questions I've had since arriving in Rishikesh. Amit works at the stationary shop all day, and Swati teaches in the evening (5:30-7:30) at the only English school (well, class) in this area. It was founded by Truike, a woman from Amsterdam who lives and works in New York. It opened last summer, and Truike hired Swati (one-year contract) to teach there while she went back to New York. She will return this July and August, when has time off. The school is called Children of Ganges (www.childrenoftheganges.com - Truike is the blond, Swati is the one in the beautiful red sari) and is a free school for street children. Swati invited me to come to the school, but I will only be able to go when my course ends, as the times are in conflict.
Next topic, toilets and showers. I've finally readjusted to bucket-flush toilets (like in Thailand), but had my first bucket shower the other day (at my previous guesthouse). There was a shower head and two waist level running taps below it. Hot water only comes out of the tap, and since the weather is cold, I was not interested in only cold water from the showerhead. So I filled the two large red buckets (the showers are never in baths here, with water just coming down onto the bathroom floor) with warm water, and proceeded to bathe in a new and interesting way. I was delighted when I found out that my new guesthouse has hot water that comes from the showerhead, but I'm going have to learn to take very quick and efficient showers: the hot water (which I have to turn on a switch to heat 10 minutes before showering), runs out after about 3 minutes. I wasn't ready for this the first time, so when the water went cold and I still had shampoo in my hair, I turned the tap off, crouched down, hugged my shivering body, and waited 5 minutes as the water reheated little, then quickly rinsed with the two minutes of warm water the wait provided. I'll get the hang of it soon enough. As I was crouched down, my eyes were level with... a toilet flush handle! It hadn't even occurred to me to check if there was one, as the bucket flush toilets (with paper in the wastebins since the buckets don't provide enough pressure to flush it down) are so common here. Ah, the small joys of life! Another small joy: as I was settling in for my first sleep at Sudesh, I noticed there were no blankets on the bed, only sheets. Discouraged, I stared intently at my sleeping bag, trying to send it some warmth energy for my night's sleep (kidding, kidding!). Just then, there was a knock at my door (around 10:30pm), and when I opened it, Raj (the guesthouse boy) was standing there with two thick blankets, offering them to me and wishing me goodnight.
This morning, at yoga, Ananta removed his shirt to visually demonstrate an abdomen suction exercise we were learning today. Wawaweewaa! Healthy inside and out ;)  Last night, we had our regular practice and lecture, followed by a Friday night movie in the yoga hall :) Movie was "What Dreams May Come", a beautiful, albeit glamorized, exploration of life after death. Actually, Angela said they had picked up the wrong movie, and that the planned one was much less Hollywoodized. Very pleasant night nonetheless. I won't go into too much detail about the lecture Angela gave before the movie, because many of you will think this is totally nuts, but long story short, my morning routine might soon consist of the following: rinsing out my nasal passages with a netti pot, scrapping my tongue with a stainless steel horse-shoe-shaped utensil (not bad so far, both things I was already doing at home), rinsing out my eyes by holding a small cup of water upside down over each one, drinking my urine, washing my face with my urine, and finally, here's the kicker (you thought the kicker was the urine drinking huh?) chugging a liter of warm water while squatting down, then quickly standing up, jumping around a bit to shake the water, then bending forward at a 90 degree angle, sticking two fingers down my throat, and bringing the water back up and out of my body. Yup. And Angela says the whole package can be done in under 7 minutes once you get really good at it! (Caution, do not try this on your own without understanding the exact whys and hows. It is very important to do the vomiting part on an empty stomach, as doing it with food - as we are more familiar with - can be dangerous and damage the digestive system.) This technique is used as an internal cleanse of mucus and toxic accumulation. Oh, and I will also be fasting once a week, on Fridays.
Well, I've gotten through about a third the items I had on my list for this post, but I've been sitting here long enough. The rest tomorrow.
Shanti, shanti, shanti.