I made an observation today. I think teacher training is one of the few places in life, where the person asking “How are you?” is genuinely interested in your well-being. I find myself posing that question to the same people several times a day. The factors which make a class either particularly difficult or particularly enjoyable are so arbitrary, that we are all interested in how others felt about the class.
Bikram is back from Japan where he has been for the past two weeks. I think he likes to scoot out of here while we’re learning anatomy so that he doesn’t have to deal with the logistics. A few people were caught cheating on last week’s anatomy exam, so they are taking some measures to make sure that it does not happen on this week’s. Sort of ironic, huh? Yogis cheating on an exam.
So, yesterday evening was our first yoga class with Bikram since his return. It was sort of great because he was picking on me for a while. He helped me to fully kick my leg into the air during the pose to the right. After I did what he told me to do, he was impressed. He said, “Look how much better! And chicken legs much harder to stretch than elephant legs: good work!” Later on, in the class, he referred to me again as Chicken Legs. I guess that’s my new nickname. Some people are called Mr. Glasses or Ms. Pink. I’m Chicken Legs.
The number of people who know my name is far superior to the number of people whose names I know. Does that make me a self-centered person?