Yogini

I am almost halfway through my exchange, and finally I have started the practice of yoga. The yoga school insisted that I start at the very beginning, which was a sun salutation called Surya Namaskar, and the cobra pose. From what I can tell, there's not much difference between this class and O2, except it is 10x cheaper in Coimbatore, and starts pretty slow. My teacher is a tiny man, age about fifty, and thankfully refrains from wearing a lungi to class. (For those of you who don't know, a lungi is a long piece of cloth that men tie around their waists instead of pants. Sometimes they wear it floor-length, but most of the time it is folded halfway, short enough to be in danger although no Tamilian men seem too concerned.) My guru walks around sometimes and is always repeating this phrase: "pradeeeeeeeeep jaroo". I thought that was "inhale" and "exhale" in Tamil, but my host Auntie right now just explained that he was probably saying "breathe deeeeeeeeeeeep, breathe out". I will have to pay closer attention tomorrow.