Day one in the 'Big Brother' ashram

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The wake up bell sounded at 5.20am and as I lay there contemplating what I'd let myself in for, a creepy disembodied voice said 'Om. Time to get up'. The voice belonged to one of the teachers with plenty of sleep under my belt I was showered and ready for our silent walk to the lakeside for morning Satsang. The ashram visitors made their way to the lake in almost silence, snaking their way down the paths. We all meditated as the sun rose over the hill tops and it was glorious!

We returned to the ashram and had a very welcome cup of chi tea. I was surprised at my lack of grumpiness seeing as I hadn't been fed, but it seemed quite natural and normal not to have eaten. Next was the first yoga session of the day. It had been over a year since I last did any sort of yoga practice and the thought of two hours of it didn't fill me with joy. The time flew by and at 10am we had breakfast.

Contrary to popular belief, or perhaps just mine, you are allowed more food than is first put on your plate. I was glad of it as my karma yoga (selfless service task) was shifting firewood from one end of the ashram to the other by hand. An hour later, covered in crap and sweating my tits off we were done.

I skipped the coaching class and the lecture, the appeal of reading about Thailand and sleeping was too great. I did however make the second yoga class which wasn't as enjoyable as the first. It was exactly as Hugh had described it, a repeat of this mornings class...verbatim! The teacher was far too quick, hurrying through each pose as though it were a race. This combined with the lack of ventilation made for a grumpy Paddy.

Dinner was interesting. I should take this opportunity, before I go any further, to point out that the ashram advertises the meals as a 'traditional Kerala vegetarian diet, which is nourishing and balanced with carbohydrates (rice and wheat) proteins from legumes (Dhaka and beans) and milk products'. The vegetables served were raw crunchy and delicious. The main dish was vegetable dhal and things that looked like puttu from yesterday. The puttu was as bland as it was in Trivandrum and the dhal was more dhal than vegetable which is never good when eating with fingers. There was only one thing to do...go to the health hut! The three of us headed up and ordered milkshakes and nuts, we needed sustenance from somewhere!

We finished the day with the second Satsang. After thirty minutes of meditation we all started chanting which was great fun, as we were making up the words as we went. David, Hugh and I left early as the chants were getting a bit weird. So it was off to bed early again to see if tonight I could avoid being bitten to death!

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