All about yoga

The teacher training is over but it still seems like yoga is all I'm writing about. I had my third lesson as a teacher today at work, and seems like I'm starting to have a "regular" group forming. Some people have come once and it hasn't been their thing (probably) but these guys want to come back so I guess I'm doing something right (though they are still complaining that 30 minutes is not enough). I guess I could go on for longer, but I'm having trouble coming up with poses that you can do 1) in normal clothes (i.e. jeans) 2) without sweating too much and 3) standing up or sitting on a chair... most yoga I do is ashtanga so I'm kind of in an unfamiliar territory here.

Today I finished off with a guided relaxation that I learned from Bernie last week. In it people visualize warm honey being poured on them one body part at a time, and they relax as they are covered in the warm, heavy, sticky liquid. This was a first time I've used a more guided meditation - and they really liked it. Overall, the atmosphere has lightened and people have started smiling a bit - it's great, it makes me feel much better too.

Dragon and the ink

These news would be hilarious if it wasn't such staggeringly bad news for millions of Zimbabweans.

"Reserve Bank officials told IRIN that plans to print about Zim$60 trillion (about US$592.9 million) were briefly delayed after the government failed to secure foreign currency to buy ink and special paper for printing money.

Inflation has shot to 1,042 percent and is still climbing as the economic meltdown continues, putting Zimbabwe's rapidly dwindling working class in an ever more precarious position."

When your country is too poor to print money the game is up. Resign, Mugabe!

Sponsor me for Yogathon!

And I can't believe it's that time of the year again - annual Yogathon in Vancouver is here again next weekend. I'm once again part of our studio's team - last year we did 108 sun salutations and this year we'll be doing 108 minutes of yoga. The money raised will go to Camp Moomba, a summer camp for kids with AIDS. Last year we raised $60,000 which allowed 112 kids to go to camp and this year our goal is to raise $100,000 - so please give generously. My personal fundraising goal for this year - $200 - is double from last year.

If you'd like to kindly donate, every little helps. You can support me and Camp Moomba here.

Teacher Training - over for now

I can't believe ten days of teacher training is behind me once again. It's been really amazing, emotionally and physically, and I'm 100% sure this is the right thing to do for me. On the last day we practiced some pranayama with Bernie which was really interesting - so many things we've learned so far have only scraped the surface and I can just see glimpses of all the possibilities. Then we did a last practice teaching session where one person was teaching and rest were taking the class. After last level I was still quite uncertain about if I would really be able to teach some day - I felt nervous and anxious and all those things. But after these past ten days, and all the simulated class environment practice we've done it doesn't seem that impossible anymore... Every time I stand up to teach it gets a little bit better and little bit easier. It's a shame we didn't have more time by the end of today's class, I would have loved to get some feedback - but maybe I can ask that tomorrow.

It's also been great to study with the great people on the course. Most of them were familiar faces from last level in November, but some new ones had joined us from latest level 1 and they were all really fantastic people. I feel so lucky and privileged with this whole experience.

TT: Chanting and meditation

I wish I had the energy to write my thoughts down every day. Or maybe it's not about energy but that I also need to digest what I've learned and experienced.

Yesterday was particularly beautiful - Bernie was back talking about meditation. He held some guided meditation for us using different techniques, including chanting, and he just blows me away with his compassionate way of teaching. I feel more and more that I should really get back to meditation, and that it would do me good if I had a regular meditation practice. And it's like I'm waiting for something to happen before I can do that - I started meditation about a year ago and it was really special for me then... but then I got a job and after that spiritual priorities have been elsewhere. I should really just do it - I wake up early enough as it is nowadays, and instead of watching TV or reading emails or blogs, I could just meditate for 10 minutes every morning... the other things will wait and can be done later on.

TT: Getting easier

Today Bernie was back to talk about meditation and Jesse was back to teach us some practical yoga pose anatomy, all very interesting. I just love Bernie's compassion and wisdom - I could listen to him talk for days with his stories about ancient mythologies and their relevant meanings in our everyday lives. Luckily for us he's going to be back to continue teaching pranyama and more meditation.

We also continued teaching in little groups - about ten people in each group where everyone got to teach three poses while others were "the class". It's interesting - I wasn't really nervous at all, in fact in many ways the teaching was the best I've done so far. I'm not sure what has changed, or if it's just experience, but it's finally starting to feel like I just might be able to do it. Strangely enough it's easier to teach many people instead of just one... there's clearly a lot of things I don't understand. But one thing is for sure, I absolutely believe I'm doing what I enjoy.

TT: More poses

I'm getting behind on these journal entries because I'm really getting exhausted. It's fine as long as I'm in the training and I'm doing things - but as soon as I get home I just collapse and can't do anything about it anymore. Pretty much every single waking moment I'm thinking of nothing else but the teacher training: poses, classes, teaching... I'm even dreaming about it.

And having said that, I'm totally loving every second. I just don't understand how people more normally do a one month teacher training - that must just be extremely, well, intensive. Yesterday we were learning to teach new poses, some hip openers, backbends and twists. I was teaching with Al (who was very gracious and funny) and with Nicole (who is fast becoming a wonderful teacher). Most of these poses I love - high and low crescent lunges, threading the needle, swan (awake, sleeping, full), Gomukhasana, Salabasanas, Ardha Matsyendrasana, Dhanurasana, Ustrasana, Bharadvajasana and of course Savasana. But teaching-wise they are very verbal and don't have as nearly as many occasions for adjusting as some standing or sitting poses.

Pretty much the same rules apply to most adjustable poses anyway: keep the back straight, shoulders open and relaxed but arms active and neck straight... these are all pretty much maintained with bandhas, so if you get that right all else will follow.

TT: Anatomy

Today was time for the first of our two anatomy lectures by Jesse. It started out with a short test - I absolutely hated it as tests tend to make me very competitive and stressed, but I did ok in the end... and now I've already forgotten half of the stuff I memorized for it. In any case, we went through a lot of material in a very short time - there's only so much stuff you can go through in six hours. It was interesting... really dense, but interesting and I'd love to learn more.

TT: Adjustment, adjustments, adjustments

In the photo on the right I'm demonstrating Janu Sirasana A and Jada and Jason are discussing the benefits of the "top of the head" -method. I feel that just touching the top of the head is not a very useful adjustments alone, but it might worth with verbal cues, and definitely with another hand on the back.

Today would have been much easier, had we not come home from Laura's home-warming party at 3am last night. Life got a lot easier though after a large mug of organic Earl Gray, and we were full into adjustments and teaching. It was really nice to be able to swap partners a lot and adjust and get adjustments from lot of different people. Yesterday I partnered with Helena, and today with Annalies (who has a fabulous firm and purposeful touch), Rhoda, Pui-Lung and Meghan (who was very different to Annalies - her touch was very gentle but still very meaningful).

What I love most about adjusting is the effect touch has on people. We are not learning Mysore adjustments (should only be practiced between student and a teacher who know each other), but "two finger" adjustments that are almost just suggestions. But the difference they make - for example opening up shoulders in down-dog by just gently stroking the shoulders down is gotta be one of my favourites.

It was a good, albeit really exhausting day. Tomorrow we have anatomy which is going to be really interesting. Now I'm really off to bed.

TT: Spiritual drishti

TT stands for Teacher Training, but I'm feeling lazy so TT it is.

It was great to be back, and even greater to see all my friends from last level. It was really like six months hadn't happened at all and we were back chatting and joking from the first minute - I know this is going to absolutely fantastic. We started out by introducing ourselves (heh, I got points for quoting Patanjali) and then starting on reviewing the series we were learning to teach last time. This was done by going through all the poses with someone doing the asana in the middle and each one of us teaching pose by pose. I did the Prasarita Padottanasana and taught the Paschimottanasana A - I was nervous beforehand but when I was teaching it all came out very naturally, and Paschimottanasana is a beautiful pose, one of my favourites.

The title of the this post comes from something Al said - we were talking about the drishti in Utthita Parsvakonasana which can be difficult on the neck, and Al said that for him the spiritual drishti that was just as important. What he meant was that even though the neck might not bend to see the drishti - but if that's the focus of your spiritual inner drishti then you're achieving the pose just as you should. And if you look at David Swanson in Utthita - his neck is actually very straight and only his gaze is to his fingers... not like the guy in that link who is really cranking his neck which is what most people do.

Other things I learned - teach the pose by four basic elements: feel, touch, drishti and bandhas. And, well, breathing of course. What should the pose feel like, what's the touch contact with the mat i.e. how are you rooted down, where is your gaze and the internal locks you should be engaging. Good guide, worth remembering - and I'm trying this time to write down all those insights I find useful.

Ready

Well, my vacation has officially started now and for the next ten days I'll be doing the next level of my yoga teacher training. I've had a pedicure (with flowers on my toes - hey, I'll be staring at them for the next ten days), bought a bag for all my folders and clothes that I'll be lugging along, and I've started a strict vegetarian diet (which worked for me really well last time). It's going to be intensive and there's probably not going to be much else in the blog for that time, but it's gonna be so good.

Second lesson

Today I held my second class, and I had ten people show up from last week's six - and five people that came last time wanted to come this time too so I must be doing something right. When I told Kelly about my new teaching gig her advise was "not to get attached" - people will come and go to your classes and if they decide not to come one shouldn't take it personally.

Very good advice - I find it extremely difficult to not to go and harass people after class asking for their opinions (and, let's face it, praise). Praise is wonderful to hear, but practicing non-attachment becomes very important when people don't like it for one reason or another. And I'm perfectly willing to understand and accept that yoga isn't for everyone, even though for me it's the heaven on earth. And I guess if the only complaint I get is that the class is too short, I could have it worse.

But one thing I have found surprising about teaching is how little feedback I get from the people during the class. There's very little interaction - I tell them what to do and they do it, sometimes they smile, sometimes they don't, very difficult to know what they are thinking. Just one of those challenges in teaching, I guess.

First Meetings by Orson Scott Card

First Meetings is a collection of short stories around Orson Scott Card's Enderverse. First two are about Ender's parents, third is about Ender meeting Jane for the first time, and the last one is the original Ender's Game short story.

Short and sweet, I greatly enjoy Card's writing. The short stories are not brilliant on their own, but they do tell some interesting background stories of Ender. The original Ender's Game must have the most curiosity value - it plays with the main themes of the final novel but is much more crude and straightforward. The evolution to the classic book is interesting, for sure - the added background story of Ender's childhood and the younger children are especially good evolutions.

So recommended for Ender fans only who are looking for their fix.

Nothing happened today

Well, I had a nice chat with Henri on Yahoo! and felt moderately useful at work where I'm now the resident TestComplete expert. Only few more days working before the teacher training starts again, so of course things are heating up at work. Unfortunately my boss Gino is going to be on holiday exactly at the same time, so that leaves only one person in automation team... so I need to show him the ropes in case he needs to do some of my duties - which few days ago weren't my duties either.

I'm thinking about yoga a lot. On Wednesday I'm holding my second class at work so I'm thinking about the poses I want to teach, and panic moderately... funny that I had full confidence with the first class, but the second seems to be a like an unconquerable mountain. Still, I managed to script together the poses... and let's face it, if I can do something it's planning ahead. As long as I have a little cheat sheet next to me in the class I can't fail (and I know this... still).

And on Saturday I picked up Yoga - A Yoga Journal Book for $20 from Chapters, an amazingly good looking book weighing about four kilos and with an original price over hundred dollars. Beautiful - and it's so big I don't have a coffee table where it would fit.

Sunday

Another Sunday gone past, this one perfectly peaceful. So I'll just share with you one of my favourite photos of this week.

Quest for spicy fries

When I first moved to Nottingham, England back in, oh, -97, we often used to have lunch in a little hole-in-the-wall pub in the city centre called Gatehouse. They served magnificent thick "door-stopper" sandwiches and best of all, they served these spicy fries that were to die for. Unfortunately there was at some point a change of management, and they refurbished the pub into a trendy bar sort, but worst of all they refurbished the menu: sandwiches were smaller and the spicy fries were gone altogether. They must have gotten requests, as the spicy fries appeared back in the menu at some point - but they must have changed cooks too and they just weren't the same anymore. Soon after that we stopped going there - it wasn't the cozy little pub with good food anymore so what would have been the point.

Ever since then Dragon has been searching for those perfect spicy fries. Pretty much anywhere we go, if there are spicy fries on the menu, he will order them just in case they would match up to those Gatehouse originals. And they never do. Most often they are not very spicy, or not salty enough, or are just missing that one magic ingredient that makes them lacking. They are not crunchy enough, or not soft enough. They are to thick or too skinny. If I knew what the magic formula was, I'd be making them myself - but alas, the mystery recipe has not been found and the quest continues.

Until today. Hallelujah, we have found fries that match the Gatehouse originals! After a very successful shopping trip with Clay this afternoon, we were dying of hunger so we parked the car at Clay's and walked to Denman and picked the closest restaurant available which happened to be Central Bistro. And when Dragon saw the spicy fries on the menu, he ordered them - I think after almost ten years of searching he's almost given up hope but can't shake the habit, but this time we hit the jackpot.

Just right spiciness, saltiness, thickness - and crunchy on the outside and slightly soft on the inside, served with a perfect home-made mayo. We just looked at each other and knew. And rest of the food was good too, so we'll be coming back to Central for sure. They have an extensive brunch menu too, so we have to come back with the gang one Saturday.

More Holga

I put some more of my Holga photos up for the world to see, and dropped off the next two films to be picked up tomorrow. Shooting with film is something completely different to digital - the whole mindset changes. This whole waiting business is killing me - I'm still in the habit of after I've taken a photo to look at the back of the camera, as waiting for the photo to appear there like it does on digital. I'm not quite sure yet what's coming out of this whole thing, but I'm for sure having fun with it - and I'd appreciate comments on the photos.

The instructor pointed out that best of my photos are the ones that concentrate on a single subject - immediately when there's clutter I don't know how to find the focus and the photo just scatters. Sounds so obvious when someone else says it, but it's true - my simple photos just work the best. Maybe that's why I'm so in love with the Lensbaby macro kit too.

First class!

So yesterday I taught my first yoga class.

As you might remember, my colleagues at work asked me to start teaching yoga to them at lunch time - after making sure that they weren't joking I asked around how many people would be interested and managed to book us a meeting room, I finally got down to it yesterday. First of all, people were actually exited about it! For several days beforehand they came up to me and told me how much they were looking forward to the class! The put some pressure on - I had planned out the class weeks in advance so I was relatively calm about it (that must be the first - me, relatively calm about something I'm doing for the first time!), but that being said I did get some butterflies in the stomach beforehand.

We don't have a proper room to practice with mats or anything like that, so what I wanted to teach was some gentle stretches to the upper body and back people can do while sitting or standing up, and some quieting down and breathing. Patanjali is ever my inspiration, and he defined yoga as "the cessation of mental fluctuations" - asanas are important because it's impossible to quiet your mind if your body is screaming. So we did some neck rolls, elbow pulls, open chest stretches, torso circling and a standing rag doll pose, finishing with few minutes meditation - total of 25 minutes.

So first impressions about teaching: when talking, I totally lost the sense of time. When I'm doing poses I can pretty accurately estimate the same time for both sides, and especially what is a good amount of time to do a stretch - not so when teaching. I was still doing the poses, but I had no idea. I was also scared that people wouldn't feel the poses or would be hurt - I talked in the beginning about the difference between pain and discomfort, but I was still struck by the whole responsibility for these total beginners.

By the end of it, they looked happy. At least some of them did - the Chinese are so polite it's sometimes difficult to tell, but I overall I think it went well. Vlad pointed out afterwords that it might be useful to show them how to do the poses first, then let them do themselves as they are beginners with no previous experience - that was a very good point and I'll do that next time. I guess the real proving point is to see how many people are coming back next week!

It was good though, I enjoyed the experience. I think it's a really good way to practice teaching and reassess some of the basics for me, and I feel I'm doing something very useful for people who spend far too much time in front of a computer.

Pom poko pom pom

It's been a hard day at work - it's very hard to watch incompetence even if it doesn't involve me directly. That - and a member of my team resigned today making me the second senior member in the team. This guy is really knowledgeable and I've learned so much from him - for us that are left in the team it's going to get harder before it gets any easier.

At least the wonderfully Japanese Pom Poko lifted my spirits a bit.

Miss Holga

It's far too late once again, but I just want to share some quick thoughts about the toy camera workshop I just did. The course came with a Holga 120N, and I shot altogether nine rolls of 120mm film which is about hundred photos with it. Of those photos I was happy with maybe 25, satisfied with about 15 and I'll probably scan all of those at some point "When I Have Time ™". I wasn't ecstatic with any of them, but now I know much better what the camera can do and little bit of what works and what doesn't. But to start with, here are two of the better shots: our model Xenia and an old dog with his man. Both are black and white, and generally I was much happier with the b&w shots. So I'm still courting Miss Holga. I'll keep her in my handbag for few weeks and shoot couple of rolls to see if our relationship could grow to a more meaningful one.

Whereas my Lensbaby and me are getting very comfortable with each other. Foreplay is over and we're now getting down to the business - pardon my language, but I can't help myself after these shots of some pretty erotic flowers.

My Sunday

7:00 am Wake up, take a shower.
7:30 am Check the work email, debug why the script didn't run overnight. Re-start the script.
8:00 am Phone call and therapy session with my best friend.
9:30 am Run to catch a bus to go to the photography class.
10:00 am Photography class: shooting in studio, lunch and photo review.
5:30 pm Run to catch a bus to go home.
6:00 pm Host the Book Group's first meeting. It turns out to be a raving success. More later.
10:20 pm Guests leave and it's time to check work email, and check if the script run correctly.
10:35 pm Blog and sleep.

Oh well, there's always next weekend.

Another busy day

I've done the first day of the toy camera workshop today, and I'm now a proud owner of a 120N Holga camera. It is indeed as plasticy and flimsy as they claim, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the photos - I shot several films today and we'll be seeing to photos tomorrow.

It's quite exciting - Holga uses square medium format 120 mm film, well, it uses film which is a new thing for me. The whole process of putting the film in, winding it in - and remembering to do it after each photo is all very retro and fun.

On the course we took the morning going through some theory - not that there's much - and looking over some of the more common toy camera models. In the afternoon we made a little field trip to the close-by park in Yaletown with lots of funky curves and stones, and then to Granville Island. I have really no idea how the photos will turn out, but I guess there's only one way to find out. I was also taking some photos with my Lensbaby - the photo on the left is taken with the instantly gratifying digital baby.

After the exiting - but rainy and cold - field trip it was off to work for me. I wasn't expecting anyone else to be in the office anymore as others were coming in at nine in the morning - but whole gang was there. Turns out that the promise to have everything working at nine was hugely exaggerated - they could only start testing maybe an hour before I came in... I'm so glad it wasn't me. Frustrating.

Dragon and the Hydra

Here in North America, deafening roar can be heard by those who care to listen. It is a horrible, painful wail of despair, agony and pain. The noise is made by a monster created by men, and it is a Hydra with billions of heads: it is the poor driver who delivers pizzas and can no longer make his living because the gas prices eat away his salary. It is the housewife driving a monstrous SUV vehicle that is now eating away the household budget for groceries in its thirst for gas. It is the magazine articles on my daily paper where the people bemoan the high cost of gasoline. It is the witch hunt that has started in United States against oil companies. It is the great corporations whose profit margins are hit by the people’s disposable income being eaten away by the gasoline prices. It is the motorists now raiding the gas stations in US, stealing gas from the pumps, thus depriving livelihoods of the station owners. It is the poor freezing pensioner whose life savings can no longer pay of the skyrocketing heating costs. It is the driver who runs out of gas on purpose on the road to get free lift from emergency services. It is the veteran selling his watch in a pawnshop to get more money for gasoline. The Monster screams from the headlines of CNN where the US consumers are in militant mood, it jumps at me from my daily magazines where clueless politicians blather about replacing oil with hydrogen or coal.

It seems incredible that the people across the world are so surprised about the high oil and gasoline prices. But you must understand that the Monster is an addict of colossal proportions, whose vast appetite the current 84 million barrels of oil we now frantically pump every day cannot slake. Its whole existence is built on cheap, unlimited, everlasting oil. Nothing else will do.

The Monster screams and screams for more and more cheap oil. It will kill to get it. It already does in the Middle East, and it will kill more. It will kill anyone and anything standing on its way: humans, caribou of the ANWAR, it will even kill itself. In its terrible withdrawal pains it rends and tears its own flesh, not realizing that it is hurting itself. The time of cheap oil is over. The monster must give up its addiction, but it will not do so without a fight.

The thundering machines sputtered and stopped. Their leaders talked and talked and talked but nothing could stem the avalanche. For without fuel they were nothing. They had built a house of straw.

Bad day, ai-ya

Work-wise, it's looking worse and worse. All the time I was planning to put in tonight to avoid having to come to work on Saturday evening was voided when we got the call at 2 pm that we would have to start again, and that we would have the new environment available to us, wait for it, on Saturday morning 9 am.

So I came up with the "five stages of testing" based on Kubler-Ross' "five stages of dying":

1. Denial and isolation: "It's just a configuration issue."
2. Anger: "What the fuck am I doing here at 7 am if this piece of crap is not working!?!"
3. Bargaining: "If only I could log in..."
4. Depression: "Why bother, it won't work anyway."
5. Acceptance: "I'm going to work the weekend."

I started from number one yesterday, and slowly worked myself up to number five by the end of the evening. It truly sucks - I'm going to do my photography course from 10 am - 5 pm, and then go to work. Sucks, sucks, sucks.

Bad day, good day

It's almost summer today, I came home in my t-shirt and didn't get cold even in the shade.

Day was pretty annoying though. I went to see my ophthalmologist for a follow-up visit - I had the appointment at 1pm and I was on time, of course. Then I spent the next hour sitting in the waiting room - after which the Dr. called me in, asked if I had any problems with the eye (I said no), looked at it and said that it looked fine and told me to call him in case the condition came back. Two fucking minutes, and an hours wait!

Meanwhile there had been an emergency meeting at work - our next deliverable is late and not because of us (we've been waiting since Monday but nothing has been coming to us), so it now meant we will have to work the weekend to catch up. Only I can't - I've booked a place on a photography course for the whole weekend. So what the heck - I'll just skip yoga and work late today and tomorrow and I should be able to get everything done. Only the databases are still not up, and just when it looked like we could start testing we get an email from IT saying that to assist us they need to take the server all our databases are on down, immediately. Just the kind of assistance we've come to expect from them... So that's it for working late today - 5 pm and everyone had to stop everything and go home... sounds nice, but most people would rather work couple of evenings than sacrifice the whole weekend. So since I got to leave work early I thought I could go to yoga - yay! In the bus on our way to downtown we saw a cyclist getting hit by a car. And then I realized it was Thursday which meant the class started 5.15, not 6 pm - so I had missed it anyway.

On my way to Robson I decided that something had to be done to this incredibly crappy day.

So I went shopping. We're hosting a floor warming party with BBQ and beer tomorrow (so that's going to cut some hours off the day too), and I was in a mood to buy something summery and girly. This is what I got. A fair change from what I was wearing this morning - when Kathy saw me at the bus stop she laughed and said that I looked like a student on her way to UBC... If I look ten years younger than I am, I will definitely take that as a complement!

An hour on the phone with my mom, and I feel so much better now. I feel better than James Brown.

Anyone can practice yoga

Anyone can practice yoga. Young man can practice yoga. Old man can practice yoga. Very old man can practice yoga. Sick man can practice yoga. But lazy man - lazy man cannot practice yoga.

Dragon and the Art of War

During his recent visit to United States, Chinese leader Hu gave president Bush a copy of The Art of War, the timeless Chinese classic and the oldest military treatise in the world. I thought the gifet was a subtle mockery at Bush's ability as the commander-in-chief, and the incident inspired me to read the book once more.

Enthralled by the timeless wisdom of Sun Tzu, I thought to share some of finest quotes wih you. I picked the ones that I think mr. Bush really should pay attention to:

Sun Tzu said: There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.

Sun Tzu said: Raising a host of a hundred thousand men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a drain on the resources of the State.

The entire masterpiece of Sun Tzu can be found here.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Yann Martel's book Life of Pi won the Booker prize few years back, so it inspired me to give it as a Christmas present to my mom the same year. My mom liked it, I think, and asked me some time later if I'd read the book myself. Well, no, of course not - I don't generally read books like this although I know my mother enjoys them. That statement made me feel a bit guilty though, so after years and years of it, I finally got around to reading it (or listening to it, in this case).

It's a story about a boy called Pi who is on his way from India to Canada (it's never said explicitly - but to Vancouver as that's the only Canadian port on Pacific), in a cargo ship full of zoo animals when the boat suddenly sinks without an explanation. Pi is stranded on a life boat as the sole survivor - the sole human survivor, that is - as his companion on the life boat is a large Bengal Tiger.

First part of the book tells Pi's childhood story in Pondicherry, India, and concentrates a lot on psychology of zoo animals (Pi's father is a zoo keeper) and at times reads like a biology book. After the fateful sinking of the ship the next part starts that details Pi's adventures on the sea - at first fairly believably but then starting to resemble a Baron Munchausen story more and more. And the third part is Pi's alternative story of the events to the ship's Japanese owners who refuse to believe the story "with animals" that really makes you think the different layers in the story.

It's a very good book, no wonder it has gotten all the praise it has. It's also a very strange book, and at times very gruesome and bloody. The highlights for me where the total surprises out of nowhere - who is the mysterious Richard Parker, how long is Pi stranded on the sea, and the tiger's mystical French accent. In the end the reader is not sure what really happened, and to whom - how much of the story should be taken literally and how much allegorically.

I have to also mention Jeff Woodman's wonderful narration - he used such a convincing Canadian-Indian accent I was sure he had to be Indian himself, but turns out he's just very very talented. Wonderful voice that made the story really come alive.

I'm really glad I finally read this book.