It’s Gone…

Bicycle Thief This is the note I saw from someone whose bicycle was stolen last week in Vancouver. I did not know a simple sketch like this could convey so much emotion. The eyes were quivering and so much tears. Yes, losing a bicycle is painful. It is part of city life where people just steal.  Stealing seems to be  such an easy thing to do. Once you put away the moral aspect of it, I guess people can do this. It happens all over the world.

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Canadiano

What is Canadiano? It is like Americano, but way better. This is what the barista told me with a wink.

Breakup

I am not sure what it is. Is it my vagabonding through India to study Yoga or is it Vancouver or is it my injured knee? Western “vinyasa” does not make sense at all to my body. This is the style I have practiced for so many years until I went to India. My teachers at my teacher training in San Francisco were primarily trained in this style, for they were direct disciples of the California Yoga queen Shiva Rea. I used to enjoy this style a lot. Not anymore. I am trying to figure out what happened.

I was at a “vinyasa” class last week. Music was Jazz. Sade and others were taking turns to provide the vocals.  The instructor told us to press on the golden egg between the root chakra and the genitals. Some more chakra talk continued. My golden rule of thumb had always been to avoid a class where the teacher talks about chakras. I normally draw the line at bandhas. Most instructors understand bandhas. Chakra talk is so DC (Deepak Chopra) and is what I classify as saccharine sweet. It is mostly mumbo jumbo to me. I understand chakras in the real yogic sense, but not in a yoga class where the instructor is trying to sound cool.

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Its raining…gold!

What a performance, Team Canada! The theme of downtown’s party was that the USA got pucked : ) Gold Canada, Gold!

Olympic Kumbh Mela

Olympics and the Cauldron remind me of going to a Hindu temple during a major festival. Lines everywhere and you see a glimpse of the sacred. Same thing here. The Olympic cauldron has been fenced off. Last week there was a thick cloth covering the fence. It was kept quite secretive. This week there is a slightly better view, but still there is a huge fence.

The design of the cauldron is beautiful. In the night, it has the icy blue feel to it and it is so Vancouver, transparent glass. I love it!

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Spirit of the Games

100_5709 This is the Canadian Beer Company, Molson. It is in my neighborhood and this poster was under construction for months. It is made up of photographs of athletes taking part in the Olympics. If you click on the picture and zoom in, you can notice that. I think this is very creative.

Check out the blue skies! It should be called Spring Olympics.

I See Red

Olympic Fever At last, the day that I had heard about for months is here.  Vancouver 2010 is upon us. The Olympic torch relay went through my neighborhood last night. This really was a first for me. It was amazing to see so many people on the streets. I was so thrilled to know I was not the only Olympics fan around. It is just that I had not met these people before who were for the games.  Here’s Boston’s The Big Picture.

Go Canada!

Shiva, the destroyer

Shiva Keshavan

Best Place on Earth

Vancouver Public Library This is what I would call “Best place on Earth”.  This is the Vancouver Public Library. What an amazing design! It looks quite new, but I read on wikipedia that it was built in 1995.

Just like a lot of buildings in Vancouver, it uses a lot of glass. I guess it is because of the constant grayness of the winter. It has six levels filled with tons of books.  It is so spacious and designed so well. Even if someone is on the phone, it does  not feel very loud.

Just like any other library in the west, it is home to homeless people, the unemployed, the old, students, immigrants and the book worms.

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United States of Fat

True story. I was at the Mail boxes etc, a few days back faxing my yoga certificates to apply for insurance to teach. There were two men at the shop, both of them worked for the shop. One of the men was saying that he just got back from south, meaning the US. He said that he could not believe how fat people were at the airport in the US. He said, “You must have seen them. So fat, all of them, the entire family. And, not just that family, almost the entire airport. Yikes.”.

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