Liberating, Invigorating, Beautiful

We stayed in a hotel the first few nights in Jaipur to get somewhat accustomed to the city, if that’s even possible in two days. Early the next morning some of us went to a park next to our hotel and did some yoga. A group of older men who were walking around the park, stopped to chat with us. They saw Anne (a true yogi J) doing a handstand and wanted to see her do it again. Somewhat weirded out, Anne did as they wished. One of the men, resembling a mix of Elmer Fudd Indian style and a happy Buddha, wanted to ‘try’ the headstand. I could tell all of us were pretty skeptical since he had a total Chinese Buddha belly and do you think Elmer Fudd can do a headstand? So he placed his head down to the dewy grass and slowly but surely curled his legs so it looked as if he were in an upside-down fetal position. And by god he was doing a headstand! He was kicking his legs back and forth like it was nothing. He fooled us all. He had the meaning of balance down pat with no hesitation. As we chatted more and got to know these crazy, funny, and friendly men they invited us to meet them tomorrow morning. “You come tomorrow. We show you some exercises and you show us some exercises.” Deal.

The next morning arrived. 7a.m. was early but we did it. Asha, Anne and I stretched a bit hoping that we hadn’t been ‘stood up.’ But soon enough we saw our new friends. We went over to a different section of the park and about 12 other men joined us as we made a big circle. They all asked us our names and we began by following the ‘leader’ of the exercises. Hold the arms out in front, move the wrists, up, down, up, down, 16 times. Now head, up, down, up down, 16 times. “1, 2 cha cha cha. 1, 2 cha cha cha.” And so it went. Our ‘exercise group’ became quite the spectacle in the park. People definitely stared and I guess I didn’t blame them. I mean really… 7a.m., 3 western looking girls standing in a dilapidated circle with a bunch of middle-aged Indian men…some of who were for sure balding and who barely spoke English. The language barrier was very very apparent. I felt like a little kid participating in simon says where the 12 simons were totally making fun of us numerous times. But it was all in good fun and we all loved it. It was a bunch of silly movements with everyone grinning from ear to ear.

I was told to repeat something in Hindi to the leader of our exercise…well…ok…I guess I’ll do it. So I said whatever gibberish the sentence sounded like and all the men began laughing. Then he explained: “You said ‘you are beautiful’ to him,” as he pointed to the leader.

“HAHAHAHAHA!” O dear.

And all of a sudden us girls were surrounded with a chorus of, “Ho ho hahaha. Ho ho hahaha!” And they all began jumping in and out with their feet and clapping to the beat. “Ho ho hahaha, ho ho hahaha, ho ho haha!”

We had been introduced to our first session of laugh yoga. I guess I had the honor of starting it all out with the first ‘joke’ of the morning. It was liberating. It was invigorating. It was beautiful. We didn’t have to speak the same language to understand the meaning of a wonderful time. And sooner than we knew we were truly laughing while bouncing, clapping and grinning. And to end the session we raised our hands as in a triumphant ‘I just won the Olympics!” admired the blaring Indian sun with our heads tilted back and did a long-lasting laugh. I like laugh yoga. I like it a lot.