The build up to my arrival at the Sivananda Ashram started long before I actually arrived at the front gates. It actually started before I even arrived in India! A combination of minor frets and waves of excitement came upon me whenever I tried to think of what my experience would be throughout the month I was there.
The thought of being back in the class room didn't really concern me. Nor did waking up at 5am. Silence during meal times - not a problem. The yoga, studying philosophy, studying full stop, staying in a dorm of 20 women, potentially cleaning loos (karma yoga), not being able to do exactly what I wanted, when I wanted AND wearing a uniform (bring it on). Nope. None of that worried me. I had just two concerns before I actually arrived at the ashram; the thickness of the mattress I'd be sleeping on and bed bugs.
Now I had every reason to be concerned - after stint on a four day silent meditation retreat and lying on effectively hard plastic bed I had good reason to be worried about the mattress situation ie there not being one. But I wasn't about to let a small issue like a mattress ruin my beauty sleep. Having discussed the 'mattress-gate' situation with various friends I decided to run a potential solution past my most hippy-ish friend in the UK, Sophie.
'I know' I announced as we munched on raw tofu and brown rice at Mildreds our fav veggie restaurant, 'I'll bring my own.' A perfectly reasonable idea I thought especially seeing as Blacks have portable, roll up thingys. She nearly spat her tofu and brown rice out of her mouth in utter horror. 'You cannot arrive at the ashram with a mattress, it's social suicide.' 'Bollocks' I said defiantly 'if it's a toss up between a good nights sleep or giving up the opportunity to be a social butterfly then so be it - anyway I like a challenge. A mattress it is.' Sophie was horrified. So much so that it drove her to send me an email with her concerns and a few concerned 'riiiights' when I told her I was sticking to my plan in various phone conversations following.
So I was all set on the mattress idea until I realised the damn thing would take up half of my backpack. I had to be strong. I had to detach from material things. I had a choice: Marc Jacobs Daisy Perfume (my signature scent ;-)),bottles of Lancaster sun cream and all manor of other beauty must-haves or the lightweight mattress. So I detached. I ditched the mattress idea and reasoned avoiding skin cancer was far more important than a good nights sleep.
I'll be honest though, every time I applied sun cream or dabbed Marky on my wrists I did shudder at the thought of sleeping on a bed of steel for a month. In fact it's all I talked about when I arrived in Varkala, a month prior to my 'time' in the ashram or 'Shram' as I like to call it. cue LOL. In fact I think I bored my Varkala friends Nina, Joanne, Deirdre, Liz, Catherine and Meadhbh about my obsession. I deliberated over buying a mattress before I arrived at the shram or completely embracing detachment by leaving it to chance and arriving bare as it were. So there I was thinking it one way it was good I had only one thing to really fret about in a sort of reassuring way. That was until I met Leonard. He'd just spent two weeks at the shram on a detox course and horror of horrors...he had bed bug bites. Not just one or two. Hundreds of bites all over the backs of his legs. I recoiled in utter horror as he showed me the evidence AND also talked of seeing others with similar bites.
And so began my new obsession - how to avoid the bed bugs.....
I asked everyone I could - I even emailed the ashram to say 'I hear you have beg bugs, please can you ensure I don't get a bed with bugs in it'. I'm serious. I did that. They didn't respond. I was besides my self with worry. Until I met Cat.
I have Deidre, Nina and Liz to thank for introducing me to Cat and alleviating my worries about the bed bug-gate and also putting a spring in my step about the shram in general. The girls brought me a massage with Cat (Bengali masseuse - one of two in the world don't you know!) as a thank-you for the Reiki treatments I'd given them. After expressing my concerns to Cat, who had been to the shram, she assured me a bottle of Lavender Oil on the mattress would see off any bugs. And then she told me some even better news....life at the shram isn't as pure as is they would lead you to believe. Nope. You see people actually cop off left, right and centre -. there's even a place near the lake opposite the shram where lovers go for some privacy. What fantastic news. There I was thinking I was about to live the life of a nun for four weeks when actually it was a potential hunting ground. Things were looking up. With this new information I repacked my rucksack accordingly and began smiling at the thought of bagging a hot man AND becoming a yoga teacher at the same time!
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