5 Lessons from a Yoga Ashram in Rishikesh

Coder and yoga practitioner, Claire Byrne writes about how yogis and coders have a lot in common, mainly in the pursuit of understanding how the world works. Here’s an excerpt from an article where Claire talks about how yoga eased the physical ailments (inactive spine, tight joints and muscles) and mental ailments (stress, distorted breathing patterns) caused by life in front of a computer screen.

Last year, I spent a month in a yoga ashram in the North of India. The bell went off every morning at 5 a.m. Half an hour of meditation in the bitter cold was followed by two hours of yoga and then breakfast, which was consumed in silence looking out at the mountains. Yoga students spent six days a week in classes on philosophy, anatomy, and teaching methodology, did homework in the evenings and were asleep by 9:30 p.m. No alcohol, no meat, no caffeine, no screen time, no chairs. I’ve rarely been happier.

Read more about Claire’s adventures in Rishikesh, India and on how coders and travelers can benefit from yoga.

In case you’re curious about the Rishikesh ashram Claire studied at, here’s the link: Anand Praka’s Yoga Ashram.

Photo credit: Gaiam

From Tyler Cowen:

I can think of three reasons.

First, there is a placebo effect.  For the Westerner/outsider, eating with your fingers seems exotic.  For (many, not all) South Asians, eating with your fingers brings back memories of family and comfort foods.

Second, your fingers are highly versatile and they are often the best implements for consuming these foods and blending together spices, condiments, and foodstuffs themselves.  There is a reason why humans evolved fingers rather than forks.

Third, and how shall I put this?  A lot of South Indian food is vegetarian and eating with your fingers adds flavors of…meat.  The fleshy sort.

Eating a dosa with fork and knife is a very different experience, for Tamil food on the palm leaf all the more so.

From the Comments:

Being a South Indian myself I add my two cents

1. South Indian food (The Lunch/Dinner) is essentially rice with a liquid (Sambar + Variations, Rasam, Curd) (No breads) The spices in the sambar need to mix with the rice and the mixture is not fully solid, A spoon might work but the fork is a disaster as spices do not stay on the fork. Also an important ingredient is the vegetable which generally is dry or with a thick gravy. The mix makes the taste heavenly, Also coconut being an important ingredient mixes well when the fingers are used.

2. Idli Dosas and the likes are snacks which again is eaten with coconut chutney and sambar (which is a liquid) The taste of the Dosa intensifies when it is soaked in Sambar/ Chutney and the taste is intensified when the fingers are used as the fingers allow the dosa to take the shape and absorb the spices better

3.Indians prefer using the finger!!!! We are bought up that way

-Vijay

Via Marginal Revolution

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/06/india-fact-of-the-day-3.html

“One statistic above all explains the excitement India kindles: just 18 people in every 1,000 own a car. In China the figure is 58, according to the World Bank, while in most European countries it is more than 500. “India’s level of car ownership per capita is even lower than in Sudan, or Afghanistan,” says Tomas Ernberg, head of Volvo in India. “So in the long term there is bound to be growth, enormous growth.”

The market is also strikingly new. Barely 20 years ago India’s “Licence Raj” restricted aspirant motorists to two basic choices: the grand Hindustan Ambassador, an imitation of the venerable British Morris Oxford; and the boxy Maruti-Suzuki 800 hatchback, the country’s first (and then only) people’s car.”

Pune is in East India only 75 miles from the financial center of Mumbai, and, unusually for India, it has great transportation and nothing like the traffic problems of other Indian cities. It feels new, fresh and almost Californian in its energy and, unlike 99% of Indian roads, the Mumbai Pune Expressway is a joy to drive down.

“A small city compared to other Indian metro cities, Pune has historically been a center for education and research. Today, it is also one of the top manufacturing hubs in India,” says Amit Paranjape, co-founder of PuneTech.com, the city’s leading online tech community.

Thanks to Monty Munford of Mashable.com

http://mashable.com/2013/05/29/pune-tech-hub/

Plus:

Culture/Demographics: One of the city’s cuisine specialties is a thick milkshake w/ dried fruit. Population is ~5,000,000. Pune has become a hub for colleges and universities including Symbiosis Institute of International Buisiness which is one of the top management schools in India.