Yes!+ Diary .... Pune: Hinjewadi November...

Behind the scenes
It's not very often, that you reach a venue where an event is to begin in lets

say 2 hours, and you find absolutely no chaos! Well, it was new to me at least... when I reached the Yoga Hall in the Symbiosis Infotech Campus in Hinjewadi IT Park at 4:00 PM... and realized that we have the sound system, the white board, the stationary, the placards, the water arrangements, the decorations material... all in place! We are in total control... Hoo! I suddenly remembered 29th January 2008 - when we had organized the first ever course here, the course was to being at 6:00, and when the clock hit 6:00 - I was at a red light signal, somewhere in Aundh, about 11 Kms away... with all the stuff mentioned above piled up behind me in Amber's car!

What really made the difference this time was the super chaos that enthralled us the week before... and left us with a resolve to turn things around by 180 degrees!

The dynamic Harshad Patravali was to teach this course, with myself and Himanshu assisting him. Now, he had never been to this part of the town... and panicked at the very name of Hinjewadi! He looked remarkably happy though, when he reached the venue... he had discovered its not as far as it sounds! I wonder what in the letters H, i, n, j, e, w, a, d, i... makes it sound like its faaaaar!!

Himanshu chanted Guru Pooja and we were all ready to set the ball rolling....

Day One

The course started dot at 6:00. The participants echoed the same discipline... the total fine collected from late comers for this course is a big ZERO! Yup, everyone was on time... everyday!! Another new for me!

This was a sincere batch, Harshad was quick and nimble... as he ran them through the rules and the various processes! And in no time it was over... :-)

Day Two, Three

One more time, we witnessed the grace shower on us!

Sudarshan Kriya.

"The Sudarshan Kriya was very soothing, it relaxed the mind & body completely..."

"In folk stories, I read about Sadhu's floating in the air! I myself had the same experience during my first Sudarshan Kriya..."

"The gifts which i got here like sudarshan kriyan all is the best gift in my life thanks to Art Of Living for giving me such a wonderful experience!"

Day Four and Five

We learned about ourselves...

and a lot of other cool stuff...
we sang and we danced incessantly...
we played...
we cooked...

yes, we even walked the Ramp!!

... and, somewhere... in all that... something changed...

"Learnt time management & actually have more of free time..."

"It has made me feel a lot more focussed, disciplined, committed & sure about myself. A much more chilled out person than before. "

"...have quit smoking, drinking, drugs in 5 days of this course."

" Got a strength to face the problems which infact were not problems."

"Learned to be myself..."

"I've learnt how to handle our day-to-day stress, tensions, botherations.."

"It made me proud of my great culture..."

"I Love my parents.... i had never said 'I Love You' to my parents but now I am closer to them....."

"The biggest achievement I got here is ........ that I overcome the communication gap that I had with my parents."

"Because of this course I again got my best smile, which I have been trying to find from last 3 years."

"Now I m again enjoying my life & the environment where I spend most part of my day.

"This course makes me feel very good about myself! Energizes me till the last moment"

"Wonderful experience, cannot express it in words. It gave me my

purpose of life & how to get about to achieve it."

"I have done this course before, but the course did not cease to amaze me..."

"It is truly amazing to meet life with such great energies. I have gained more in confidence and I am enlightened in knowledge and spiritually."

"The 5 days that I've spent with my group is just UNFORGETTABLE!! "

"Another important thing i want to tell everyone was it was not a boring just yoga kriya course but lot of fun, games, laughter.... before this I rarely played games, enjoyed and laughed so much...."

The Beginning
The Sunday and the course were coming to an end... (yes, one more hour and the sunday would have become monday). It wasn't really an end though... it was a beginning by all means!

It's amazing how much love and fondness you can have in your heart for a bunch of 23 strangers you meet less than a week ag0! I had 23 new friends... and it was time to part! We parted, with love and gratitude in our hearts and with the promise of meeting again for the first Upgrade!! :-)

"Thanks to AOL organisation and all the wonderful people who belong to this. Love you all!"