my almost first show

ahhh...this was my sort of second show. the very first event i had was at the aveda salon, strands, in sacramento...around last september.
it was a fun time...everyone pitched in, my dad, brother in law, etc. (for last year's first event) and aneil even made an apperance!
there was a lot of wind then so everything kept fallling down and it was only one day for a couple of hours.
this show though was a bit different...it was a two day shopping extravaganza for folks in santa monica.
i went with my friend jamila who has a fabulous line!
anyway, it was a good event, and veeeeeeeerrrrrrryyyyyyyyyy tiring!
took me a few days to recover.

Starting a Business...

can be a daunting task.

i remember my first foray into the mix.

i went to delhi for a trade show. uhhh....my FIRST trade show!

It was March 2006 and my sister and i flew into indira gandhi international airport in Delhi, India. For some reason the international flights seem to get into india around midnight and it is usually close to 2:00 a.m. by the time you get out of the airport...as if traveling to India for two days isn't enough excitement for you to handle, you now get to navigate the behemoth of a city called Delhi in the ambrosial hours.

It was our first trip to India without either my dad or brother with us so we had been given explicit instructions from both on how to navigate the system...mainly the taxi ride from the airport system...it's a whole different story from taking the back seat while traveling.

So passports stamped, luggage loaded and money exchanged...off we go to the green light and red light channels.

For those who have not had the pleasure of experiencing this system...there are two lights in the airport which appear as you start to exit the airport.

If for some reason, a customs officer, who is standing by the exit doors decides to stop you on a whim, on your way out, you get diverted to the red light channel, where you get to spend a few more hours in the airport.

So usually the drill is to assume a look of authority and walk with confidence as if you own the airport, heck like you own Delhi, and start marching out of there, secretly holding your breath, going oh god, let me just reach the double doors with my buggy, leading me away from the customs officers and the flourescent lights of the airport and into....the sweet, fume scented night of Delhi...

So out we go with no diversions and now it's time to get our taxi. Our brother had given us explicit instructions to not stop anywhere in the first few stands that were still within the airport or else we would be paying an arm and a leg for a taxi ride, and instead head outside into the night in search of a taxi as the stands outside the airport would be more reasonable.

We thought, gee, how bad can it be, let's just check with one of the inside stands first.

First stop,
"yes, we'd like a taxi into the city center"
taxi stand:
'ok, that will be 900 rupees (approx $24.00)'
us:
'scoffing, huffing and puffing, yea right, no thank you, we can do much better elsewhere thank you very much.'

so up the ramp we go, following the advice we receive to "Go Outside Only to Get a Taxi."

Ok, up the ramp and to the final exit door, which will REALLY put is onto Indian Soil.
No turning back at this point.
We will be leaving the safe confines of this airport lobby.

So we linger by the door, feet still inside but eyes searching anxiously outside for aforementioned taxi stands.

'do you see any stands out there'
no
what if they're closed?
what if they charge as much?
they won't let us back into the lobby once we leave.
god, what to do; what to do.

it was a one way door out of the lobby; no re-entry privileges and we had no idea on what waited on the other side.

Better to go with a known devil than an unknown one.

After much hand wrangling and consulting, we decide we need to schlep back down the ramp to the inside stands, lest we lose out on ANY taxi ride at all...

to be continued...

Me and Kundalini Yoga

I started doing Kundalini Yoga off and on a few years ago.
I remember my first transformative experience of it...it must have been 2004'ish or so.
I went to Siri Gian Singh in Sacramento...at his house on T and 20 something street.
It was a lovely old Victorian and inside it was very minimalistic. There were candles, rugs, pictures of gurus, flowers and music playing in a room that had stained glass windows.

I sat down to the class, glad to be in such a peaceful environment.
I have always viewed the 'white' Sikh community with a mixture of awe, respect and deep curiosity. What an interesting group of people. What made them come to this path? Why did the convert?
They have chosen a path that i was born into. I think there is something unique in choosing a spiritual path that you are not born into, because you have come to it on your own accord, b/c you truly desire it and not because you have inherited it. You absolutely must want to be on it...i'm sure questions still arise..but you get the point.

I had done my own experimenting with different religious and spiritual paths around 19. I was taking a compartive lit as well as world religions class and found through my writings, how many of my thoughts were inherited from my parents. Not only did i inherit their thoughts, but i also inherited a 500 year old spiritual path...not sure how far back Sikhism goes in my own family, but the last 4 generations have been accounted for and they were all Sikh, so I think a fairly long time.
So I went about trying on different religions for size...to see how they fit. The western religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, all related and born from one another, left me wanting more. Then I toyed with the idea of, "is there really a higher spiritual power" could I be an atheist...do i really believe in a higher power or no....this thought continued to make apperances in my life even after i had found my spiritual path.
So the western ones...ok, but no bells were ringing for me. So I found myself heading back toward the east (I think we may have covered Native American spirituality/religion, and shamanism, and although the energy work and respect for nature the community had resonated with me...I wasn't exactly running toward it)....so where was I...ah yes, looking east.

So there i was attracted back to the eastern philosophies, buddhism, hinduism and yes, sikhism. I guess it truly was a chicken/egg question, was I simply attracted to these philosophies because they were familiar to me, and thus made sense, or was I truly attracted to them for the ideas they espoused? At this point it didn't make a difference anymore...I just knew my belief in re-incarnation was too great to not be acknowledged...so here I was and home to Sikhism I came...and I felt like I now owned being on my spiritual path...because I chose it...(that and my parents would have been very upset otherwise!)

Ok, that was a long aside from the tranformative Kundalini Yoga class I had set out to talk about from 2004'ish or so.

So Siri Gian Singh, Sacramento, dim lights..back at the house.
SGS comes in and he is a slightly older than middle age man, with a white turban, almost white beard and all white clothes. It is always so hard to tell how old the Goray (punjabi word for white) sikhs are because of all the deep breathing they have done with Kundalini Yoga.

Start Disclaimer Here:
Now I know there are also many individuals who have come to Sikhism who are not white and there are many african and brazilian sikhs, but because while growing up I did not see any of these individuals, i will refer mostly to the goray sikhs, b/c they are my reference community and the ones I saw a lot of while growing up in Vancouver and California.
There is no disrespect intended for any other Sikhs...pink, brown, black, bronze et al.

So SGS starts the class, and I find that he is speaking directly to all of the issues I am experiencing in my life at the time. Lackluster feeling about my work....finding our own path and going there, following our heart, appreciating what we have who we are...these are the only ones coming to mind right now, but I know there was so much more than this.

The class was a mixture of yoga poses, deep breathing, meditation and relaxation.
During the relaxation time he put on a CD of Sikh Kirtan in which I was familiar with the words. I remember feeling so much gratitude at that point. So much gratitude for my family, for my parents and for being born into a Sikh Family. (Yes, Family...mine is a proper noun!) I was so thankful that I was a part of this beautiful community and I had no desire to be a part of anything else. not any other spiritual community, not another family, not another set of parents...nothing, I was thankful for it all.
As the tears streamed down my cheeks and into my ears (!) i lay there in corpse pose, taking it all in...the gurmukhi kirtan, which i understood for aforementioned reasons, the smell of incense the beautifully candle lit room.

Once the class ended, and we had some time to talk, I approached Siri Gian Singh and with folded hands, said Sat Siri Akal. He replied in same.
We started to speak and I asked him why he had become a Sikh. And as he began his story he started to cry! As he was crying and telling me the story, he also mentioned how he normally never shares this story with anyone and how if he does happen to, he doesn't cry while telling it! I started to laugh and say, yes it's interesting I just finished crying, so maybe you are picking up on that from me!
Anyway, we had a wonderful bonding moment and I was forever turned onto Kundalini Yoga.