As I have all month, I practiced my sanskrit on the train, This morning, I talked to an indian man, as he was interested to know why I was writing in hindi. He told me that in India everyone has to learn sanskrit for 3 years; sounded a bit like how they required latin here a long (long) time ago. I know people sometimes look to see what I am writing, as I often look to see what other people are reading. But, it being New York, not a lot of people will cross over from curiosity to conversation.
Learning sanskrit is a lot like learning ashtanga: you manage to do things well enough to make progress, and it feels good, but there is ever more to learn, especially in speaking it. English just doesn't have really good comparison in its phonetics.
Third home practice today. Managed everything ok on my own, and got supta K and exit all in one go. Even UHP went well: did both sides without a fall or needing second attempt (still have some dancing especially at the end of it, but hey). Not bad for not enough sleep (again) last night. It seems like if I my forward bend is deeper, maybe from within the hip socket, it is easier to bend forward over the leg, and to come up with more lightness and stability (the coming up part seems harder always). My torso seems to be more glued to my thigh, an odd image. On the first part, it still takes me an extra breath to fold over my leg, but that is a big improvement from before. On the last part, I bring the leg up a bit first then fold over it (this is as close as I get can get to that vinyasa count). Same with parshvottanasana, I am now more stable in both folding forward and in coming up. When I first attempted this posture in a vinyasa class, I could not bend forward without wanting to fall or lift my back foot. Such a different feeling now.
Still a complete mystery for me is how to come up from bhuja (I can go down about 2/3 of the way before the inevitable plop of my forehead hitting the floor..ok the plop is getting a bit softer these days). I know my weight is too far forward (hence the plop) but I can't seem to figure out how to move it back..and maybe my shoulders are still not strong enough to support my weight? So coming up feels like..stuck to the ground..stuck..stuck..ok, one foot..push..ok up now, what a lot of work THAT was. Well, there's always tomorrow.
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