Local Loafer has been pretty much busy loafing around, the reason for a lapse in blogging.
Beginning 2014, I have only been extensively travelling around India.
And INDIA is beautiful. It is a huge country and is beautiful.
Well, so much gushing about India, is primarily because this time fortunately I got a chance to finally visit Rishikesh. I had been there once as a child but I have no distinct memory, so I was very happy given this chance to have gone there once again.
To not exaggerate, but I have fallen in love with this city. Well, Yet, Don't raise your expectations. I was just overwhelmed by the fact that India also has clean beaches and waters which look sterile to jump in.
To begin with, I went to Rishikesh for the International Yoga Festival, 2014 at the Parmath Ashram.
I completely enjoyed this experience. It was a one week long festival. We had a schedule of yoga exercises starting from 4 am everyday up till 5 p.m. All the yogics who have a keen inclination towards yoga, must definitely go for this festival. It gives you an introduction to all types of yoga, where you can choose which yoga class do you want to attend interspersed with spiritual discours and satsangs. And in the evening there was a ganga aarti at the ganga followed by a cultural festival or satsang.
India being the land of yoga, you would be surprised that most people who came for this festival were foreigners from more than 100 countries all across the world.
I will give you a brief detail on this festival:
1) Rooms were not superflously luxurious. They were basic but clean tidy and organized.
2) There was hot water. This is very important to me. I dislike cold showers.
3) Food was being served beginning from breakfast to lunch to evening snacks to dinner. You could never go hungry. Note, it was vegetarian food, but c'mon it is a yoga camp!
4)Laundry - Yes, laundry service was provided on payment basis.
5) Ayurvedic Massage - Yes, they did see to it to provide a massage unit to relax our sore body after yoga. To pay basis.
6)Service - Amazingly served. No complaints. They never said 'no' if you asked for anything. Baj Bihari, Subhash ji were indeed very helpful. And yes, of course Aditi.
Now,A little about the experience.
I am a novice when it comes to yoga, so I was thrilled to receive so much knowledge, meet so many people of who most were yoga professionals and interact with such wise teachers.
My favorite form of yoga is Iyengar Yoga which H.S. Arun was teaching us there. Another yoga form which I completely enjoyed was Kundalini yoga by Gurmukh Khalsa, which puts you in some sort of trance after it, but it was a very energising, thrilling fun adaptation of yoga. There were other teachers like Erica Kauffman who taught us Lila Yoga which were a series of sun salutations. Kia Miller and Matthew Sweeney were also amazing teachers.
Well honestly, you should see the schedule of IYF as there were lots and lots of forms of yoga to practice from which I tried one new one every day and enjoyed all.
Well, I cannot finish writing my story without mentioning Swami Yogananda. He is 106 years old. He can see, eat, hear, walk, write without having any artificial accessory to aid him. I was stunned. I loved sitting and spending time with him. He taught sukshma yoga and just made people laugh. I never made it for his class and when I did, he never made it to his class. So, I guess, giving me a reason to go back to the IYF.
All work no play makes everybody dull. Well, to make our stay more enjoyable, the famous percussionist Sivamani came and performed one night. He was BRILLIANT!!
In short, every day we had yoga exercises, entertainment, speeches by some prominent gurujis. In fact Shri Moolji was also there to share his knowledge. Yeah, even I didn't know of him till I went for this festival, but he is a really famous person.
My highlight was cleaning up the ganga and playing holi by the river. The enthusiasm showed by the foreign nationalities was super.
One more aspect of Rishikesh is that, given that there are so many ashrams, people who come and decide to spend the rest of the lives here come from many different backgrounds and come together in the common cause of doing 'seva' (helping, giving, doing work for others without any expectations). Maybe that is why you get the most pure and peaceful vibes.
My uncle and aunt have also moved to the Geeta Ashram in Rishikesh to do seva. In fact, that is how I was lucky to experience the real ashram life. They eat simple food, live in simple basic accommodation and lead simple lives and have dedicated their lives to seva.
Besides the yoga festival, we went and explored around Rishikesh. Things to see
1) Neelkanth temple
2) Ram Jhula
3) Laxman Jhula
Food - All types of food is available from italian to momos. Do visit the cafe ramblas, its adjoining an orphanage - beautiful and good food and the best best best cheesecake ever.
There is this german bakery - I found it very average.
Shopping - Its not big on shopping, but being a keen shopper, I picked up a couple of things.
People - Very kind and generous. I just loved the people from there. I was fortunate to have met really nice helpful people.
If you do want to stay in a luxurious ashram at Rishikesh, then there is this place called Vanprasth Ashram. You could book yourself there.
I love adventures. I live for the thrill and challenges. My incentive for going for the yoga festival was rafting at rishikesh. We stayed at this secluded but not so secluded beach camp at marine drive. Beautiful camping site. Beautiful would also be an understated word. The ganga water was pure, clean, pristine and the sands silver. We stayed there for 2 nights. We went rafting for 24 kms. We played a game of volley. Stayed right at the beach camp site. Meals were served three times and pretty good food for a campsite. We used to sit by the bonfire by the night and it was more like our own private camp. It was unreal.
There are a lot of adventure activities to do in Rishikesh now that Flying Fox is there. We were short on time but if you do get the chance, do make the most of it.
Make Rishikesh a priority city to visit. But don't be shocked with the number of animals you encounter while you are walking on the road. That is also an adventure in itself.
My favourite 'take a break' 'holiday' city in the whole world ( by which I mean whatever of the world that I have seen till now). :)
Beginning 2014, I have only been extensively travelling around India.
And INDIA is beautiful. It is a huge country and is beautiful.
Well, so much gushing about India, is primarily because this time fortunately I got a chance to finally visit Rishikesh. I had been there once as a child but I have no distinct memory, so I was very happy given this chance to have gone there once again.
To not exaggerate, but I have fallen in love with this city. Well, Yet, Don't raise your expectations. I was just overwhelmed by the fact that India also has clean beaches and waters which look sterile to jump in.
To begin with, I went to Rishikesh for the International Yoga Festival, 2014 at the Parmath Ashram.
I completely enjoyed this experience. It was a one week long festival. We had a schedule of yoga exercises starting from 4 am everyday up till 5 p.m. All the yogics who have a keen inclination towards yoga, must definitely go for this festival. It gives you an introduction to all types of yoga, where you can choose which yoga class do you want to attend interspersed with spiritual discours and satsangs. And in the evening there was a ganga aarti at the ganga followed by a cultural festival or satsang.
India being the land of yoga, you would be surprised that most people who came for this festival were foreigners from more than 100 countries all across the world.
I will give you a brief detail on this festival:
1) Rooms were not superflously luxurious. They were basic but clean tidy and organized.
2) There was hot water. This is very important to me. I dislike cold showers.
3) Food was being served beginning from breakfast to lunch to evening snacks to dinner. You could never go hungry. Note, it was vegetarian food, but c'mon it is a yoga camp!
4)Laundry - Yes, laundry service was provided on payment basis.
5) Ayurvedic Massage - Yes, they did see to it to provide a massage unit to relax our sore body after yoga. To pay basis.
6)Service - Amazingly served. No complaints. They never said 'no' if you asked for anything. Baj Bihari, Subhash ji were indeed very helpful. And yes, of course Aditi.
Now,A little about the experience.
I am a novice when it comes to yoga, so I was thrilled to receive so much knowledge, meet so many people of who most were yoga professionals and interact with such wise teachers.
 |
| Swami Yogananda- You cannot miss meeting him. |
Well honestly, you should see the schedule of IYF as there were lots and lots of forms of yoga to practice from which I tried one new one every day and enjoyed all.
Well, I cannot finish writing my story without mentioning Swami Yogananda. He is 106 years old. He can see, eat, hear, walk, write without having any artificial accessory to aid him. I was stunned. I loved sitting and spending time with him. He taught sukshma yoga and just made people laugh. I never made it for his class and when I did, he never made it to his class. So, I guess, giving me a reason to go back to the IYF.
All work no play makes everybody dull. Well, to make our stay more enjoyable, the famous percussionist Sivamani came and performed one night. He was BRILLIANT!!
In short, every day we had yoga exercises, entertainment, speeches by some prominent gurujis. In fact Shri Moolji was also there to share his knowledge. Yeah, even I didn't know of him till I went for this festival, but he is a really famous person.
My highlight was cleaning up the ganga and playing holi by the river. The enthusiasm showed by the foreign nationalities was super.
One more aspect of Rishikesh is that, given that there are so many ashrams, people who come and decide to spend the rest of the lives here come from many different backgrounds and come together in the common cause of doing 'seva' (helping, giving, doing work for others without any expectations). Maybe that is why you get the most pure and peaceful vibes.
My uncle and aunt have also moved to the Geeta Ashram in Rishikesh to do seva. In fact, that is how I was lucky to experience the real ashram life. They eat simple food, live in simple basic accommodation and lead simple lives and have dedicated their lives to seva.
Besides the yoga festival, we went and explored around Rishikesh. Things to see
1) Neelkanth temple
2) Ram Jhula
3) Laxman Jhula
Food - All types of food is available from italian to momos. Do visit the cafe ramblas, its adjoining an orphanage - beautiful and good food and the best best best cheesecake ever.
 |
| Kids at the Ramblas ashram- Do give them a visit. They are cute naughty brats! |
There is this german bakery - I found it very average.
Shopping - Its not big on shopping, but being a keen shopper, I picked up a couple of things.
People - Very kind and generous. I just loved the people from there. I was fortunate to have met really nice helpful people.
If you do want to stay in a luxurious ashram at Rishikesh, then there is this place called Vanprasth Ashram. You could book yourself there.
I love adventures. I live for the thrill and challenges. My incentive for going for the yoga festival was rafting at rishikesh. We stayed at this secluded but not so secluded beach camp at marine drive. Beautiful camping site. Beautiful would also be an understated word. The ganga water was pure, clean, pristine and the sands silver. We stayed there for 2 nights. We went rafting for 24 kms. We played a game of volley. Stayed right at the beach camp site. Meals were served three times and pretty good food for a campsite. We used to sit by the bonfire by the night and it was more like our own private camp. It was unreal.
There are a lot of adventure activities to do in Rishikesh now that Flying Fox is there. We were short on time but if you do get the chance, do make the most of it.
Make Rishikesh a priority city to visit. But don't be shocked with the number of animals you encounter while you are walking on the road. That is also an adventure in itself.
My favourite 'take a break' 'holiday' city in the whole world ( by which I mean whatever of the world that I have seen till now). :)
