yesterday was guruji’s 92nd birthday and about 200 people came to celebrate at the shala. in typical indian fashion, nobody was really sure when then party started. a group of us a the shala had been told to come at 11, others had been told around 11:30 and one friend was even told to come at noon. we went around 10:50 figuring it would be crowded and were the first ones there. we were also told that things “will start at 11:30, so come back in 15 minutes” …

when we finally did go in, the room seemed to fill in behind us really quickly. there were lots of yoga students, a full film crew and many local indians who came to pay respects. guruji seemed happy, but also really tired and skinny. there were a pooja, dance and music performances from yoga students and then an opportunity to pay respects to guruji. after that, we all went downstairs to eat and guruji probably went to bed. pictures are below …

last year the shala asked people to stop using photographs of guruji without permission, but my understanding is that it was mainly to limit commercial use of the photographs. blogs, being a news outlet, are exempted … i think?

ohh sherry left last night and brought 13 rolls of film back to bangkok to be processed for me. i should start posting by end of this week.