So, more about Trika. Well, let's start with this past weekend. On Saturday night we had the final ceremony to receive our certificates of achievement. I still have a week of classes left, but I still got my certificate... here's how it works. It's a 24-day course, given over 4 weeks, and you can join on any day. After the last day of Level 1, the course starts again the following Monday, so if you started late, you just pick up what you missed at the end. I started on the Tuesday of week 2, so I have 7 days left. But technically, you only have to complete 75% of the course to receive your certificate, so when came time for the ceremony and Angela saw that I was only missing one day to complete the 75%, she wanted to be able to award me my certificate with the students I took the course with. So I promised to take the extra day (and am of course also eager to go to the week I missed even if I don't technically need to do it), and was able to participate in the beautiful ceremony. The hall was nicely decorated, a consecration was done at the beginning, and 5 of us received our certificate, a big hug, a gorgeous orange and yellow flower garland and a prasat (Indian sweet, not sure how to spell it, kind of fudge-like). Then, we each went up one by one to share a bit about our experience at Trika and present something (song, reading, game...). I got quite emotional as I shared what I had gained from Trika, and ended with two passages I found in an issue of Adbusters I had brought with me to India, which fit perfectly with the course. I wanted to share those passages on the blog, but forgot the magazine in my room, so you'll get them next time. Then we were purified with a specially made small fire, and the ceremony ended with a meditation and a great big group hug :)
Sunday night we had another celebration, this time for Angela's birthday. Adrienne, Scott and I (who have become good friends) bought a chocolate cake and decorated the top with sliced bananas, pomegranate seeds and red flowers. It looked amazing! We thought about going into business here. Angela loved it. We chatted, ate cake, and danced.
About the teachers: Angelic Angela from Spain, who runs the Rishikesh Trika center at the moment; Fascinating Ananta from Polland, who has been having out of body experiences since he was a child; Incredible Irati from Spain (but who grew up in Scotland... most unique accent I've ever heard!) who naturally cured herself of cancer (big focus on macrobiotics); Lovely Indian Sapna, who was born in Malawi but grew up in London; Handsome Kristof from Austria, who sounds like - but does not look like! - Arnold Schwarzeneger; Laura from New York, who looks just like Alanis Morissette; Celine from France, who just arrived from Thailand a few days ago; and Katarina from Switzerland, who we only had once for a lecture on vegetarianism. The teachers are unpaid (Karma Yoga - doing a good action without needing anything in return), and work on a rotational basis. Our main ones have been Angela, Ananta, Sapna and Irati. I found out more today about where our fees go, since we don't pay their salary: of course, there's renting the hall, paying for electricity, and contributing to publicity posters, but there's also the monthly "bribe" they pay to local police. Here's the story. The founding Swami of Trika is a Romanian, who set up his school in Rishikesh. His philosophy and teachings appealed to many, and soon, his school was packed with people while others were looking for customers. He employed several foreign trained teachers to expand the school. The Indian "mafia-like" system here didn't like that his school was attracting so many people compared to others, and also didn't like that money was going towards a mostly foreign-run yoga school. So, they did everything they could to find problems or loop-holes in Swami's legal documents, and managed to eventually ban him from re-entering India. He then moved the main center of his school to Kho Pagnan in Thailand. Ever since, Rishikesh Trika has been paying monthly bribes to stay open. This morning, on Day 1 one of the course for many, Sapna arrived looking quite frazzled and said we may have to cancel class. A cop had stopped her on her way to the hall and said sternly: "No class today!" Apparently, this month's fees haven't been paid on time, and the cops threatened to come in and check the teachers' legal working visas (which some have, but others don't, since technically they aren't being paid for their work). So Sapna called Angela, who said to proceed with the class anyway. We did, and no cops showed up... maybe they'll drop in this afternoon.
Now, the equally eclectic group of Trika students I did week 2, 3 and 4 of the course with: Beautiful Anastasia from Russia, who was only there for a few days, before switching to the Kho Pagnan school (Another very interesting aspect of Trika is that you can split your course between different places - main centers are in Rishikesh, Thailand, and Mexico, with smaller branches elsewhere around the world - and that once you pay for a full course, you can repeat it at any center as many times as you want for free. They encourage repeating to really let the info sink in and get lectures from the perspective of different teachers.) Then there's sweet Adrienne from Pensylvania, who, like me, taught for a few years, got frustrated with the regular North American education system, and ran off to India. Scott, the scruffy, tattooed tree planter from North Bay, Ontario; Holgar, the tall German who knows about so many fascinating topics; Peppino, the serious but passionate and kind wine-maker from Italy; Julian from Switzerland, our Bhajan singer and guitar player (accompanied by his German girlfriend, Tonya, not in Trika); friendly Alice from Belgium; high strung yet soft and timid Blanca from Czech Republic; Emma and Tom, young couple from England; kind, smoker Tom from Scotland; and Mick, the friendly DJ from England. Most are my age, around 30, except Tom and Mick who are probably in their 50s. Class size, depending on the day and drop-ins, varied between 6 and 12. But today, back to Day 1 of the course, there were about 25! It feels quite different, and I'm glad I arrived earlier to have a small, cozy group. Tourist season is approaching, and Rishikesh is getting increasingly packed. Though there are still more Indian visitors than Western one. Another thing that is finally arriving... heat! I'm sure I'll be complaining about it very soon, but for now it feels great! Only one layer of sleeves yesterday and today :)
Well, I didn't get to much detail about the course itself, but it's already time to head to afternoon class, so Trika part 2 next time, along with the quote I read at the ceremony.
Sunday night we had another celebration, this time for Angela's birthday. Adrienne, Scott and I (who have become good friends) bought a chocolate cake and decorated the top with sliced bananas, pomegranate seeds and red flowers. It looked amazing! We thought about going into business here. Angela loved it. We chatted, ate cake, and danced.
About the teachers: Angelic Angela from Spain, who runs the Rishikesh Trika center at the moment; Fascinating Ananta from Polland, who has been having out of body experiences since he was a child; Incredible Irati from Spain (but who grew up in Scotland... most unique accent I've ever heard!) who naturally cured herself of cancer (big focus on macrobiotics); Lovely Indian Sapna, who was born in Malawi but grew up in London; Handsome Kristof from Austria, who sounds like - but does not look like! - Arnold Schwarzeneger; Laura from New York, who looks just like Alanis Morissette; Celine from France, who just arrived from Thailand a few days ago; and Katarina from Switzerland, who we only had once for a lecture on vegetarianism. The teachers are unpaid (Karma Yoga - doing a good action without needing anything in return), and work on a rotational basis. Our main ones have been Angela, Ananta, Sapna and Irati. I found out more today about where our fees go, since we don't pay their salary: of course, there's renting the hall, paying for electricity, and contributing to publicity posters, but there's also the monthly "bribe" they pay to local police. Here's the story. The founding Swami of Trika is a Romanian, who set up his school in Rishikesh. His philosophy and teachings appealed to many, and soon, his school was packed with people while others were looking for customers. He employed several foreign trained teachers to expand the school. The Indian "mafia-like" system here didn't like that his school was attracting so many people compared to others, and also didn't like that money was going towards a mostly foreign-run yoga school. So, they did everything they could to find problems or loop-holes in Swami's legal documents, and managed to eventually ban him from re-entering India. He then moved the main center of his school to Kho Pagnan in Thailand. Ever since, Rishikesh Trika has been paying monthly bribes to stay open. This morning, on Day 1 one of the course for many, Sapna arrived looking quite frazzled and said we may have to cancel class. A cop had stopped her on her way to the hall and said sternly: "No class today!" Apparently, this month's fees haven't been paid on time, and the cops threatened to come in and check the teachers' legal working visas (which some have, but others don't, since technically they aren't being paid for their work). So Sapna called Angela, who said to proceed with the class anyway. We did, and no cops showed up... maybe they'll drop in this afternoon.
Now, the equally eclectic group of Trika students I did week 2, 3 and 4 of the course with: Beautiful Anastasia from Russia, who was only there for a few days, before switching to the Kho Pagnan school (Another very interesting aspect of Trika is that you can split your course between different places - main centers are in Rishikesh, Thailand, and Mexico, with smaller branches elsewhere around the world - and that once you pay for a full course, you can repeat it at any center as many times as you want for free. They encourage repeating to really let the info sink in and get lectures from the perspective of different teachers.) Then there's sweet Adrienne from Pensylvania, who, like me, taught for a few years, got frustrated with the regular North American education system, and ran off to India. Scott, the scruffy, tattooed tree planter from North Bay, Ontario; Holgar, the tall German who knows about so many fascinating topics; Peppino, the serious but passionate and kind wine-maker from Italy; Julian from Switzerland, our Bhajan singer and guitar player (accompanied by his German girlfriend, Tonya, not in Trika); friendly Alice from Belgium; high strung yet soft and timid Blanca from Czech Republic; Emma and Tom, young couple from England; kind, smoker Tom from Scotland; and Mick, the friendly DJ from England. Most are my age, around 30, except Tom and Mick who are probably in their 50s. Class size, depending on the day and drop-ins, varied between 6 and 12. But today, back to Day 1 of the course, there were about 25! It feels quite different, and I'm glad I arrived earlier to have a small, cozy group. Tourist season is approaching, and Rishikesh is getting increasingly packed. Though there are still more Indian visitors than Western one. Another thing that is finally arriving... heat! I'm sure I'll be complaining about it very soon, but for now it feels great! Only one layer of sleeves yesterday and today :)
Well, I didn't get to much detail about the course itself, but it's already time to head to afternoon class, so Trika part 2 next time, along with the quote I read at the ceremony.
Intéressant. Il y en a combien qui était dans ta classe et qui poursuive pour quelques jours ou semaines?
ReplyDeleteLes cinq qui on eu leur certificat on fait le mois au complet. Il y en a environ cinq autre qui on commences au milieu et qui continuent donc comme moi avec le nouveau groupe qui commence.
DeleteIn India corruption is everywhere. Even if you have right papers/ So if the papers are not up to date then .........
ReplyDeleteThe sweets you got was pera round in shape white in color and may be thumb imprint in the centre( Fudge like ) but if it was with a religious ritual it would be considered "Prasad" or in Sanskrit "Prasadam"
Once an Indian movie was nominated for OSCAR The name was "Lagaan"
which was based on this kind of money earning.
Only primary school can run without any paper work all others need paper work first then anything so...........
Thanks again for the info. The prasads were square-shaped...
DeleteThen I will say it was barfee. Made up of milk and sugar or made up of casein and sugar. With Ilaychee. So how much Hindi do you speak now? I am observing you have learnet lots of sanskrit terms of yoga postures.
DeleteKeep up the good work
As I use to observ you was quite peaceful more will be better. For a teacher being like that will be a great for herself.
because more we get irritated more we harm ourself.
Indeed, inner peace is very healthy :)
DeleteAs for the desserts, they were definitely called something like prasad, but did sort of have the taste and consistency of burfi.