Jess, one of our teachers, left for Pune at the beginning of October for a month of study with the Iyengar family. We asked her to look out for a statue of Patanjali for us while she was there.
Jess and Melroy outside the Institute in Pune
Jess and Melroy (a Yogawest student) found a lovely statue and emailed us a photo of him. The astonishing thing was that he was made of stone, weighed 28kgs and would cost £200 to send here. There the adventure began…
By chance, Andrea, a friend of ours who works for BA, was to be in Bombay for 18 hours on a trip 2 days later, and it seemed too good an opportunity to pass up. There started an extraordinary relay race against time. I rang Suveer, a friend I’d met in India last year who I thought lived in Pune, but in fact had moved back to Bombay. He assured me he’d arrange it all. He rang Huzefa, a pal in Pune, and set things in motion.
Yogawest's Patanjali
Jess and Melroy bought the statue on Monday afternoon, and had it packed and ready for a long journey. Huzefa went to pick it up later in the day, and hotfooted it with the rather large box to the bus to Bombay. A long bus journey later, he arrived in Bombay to be met by our man Suveer. What possessed Huzefa to be so wonderfully helpful to us, we don’t know, but we are incredibly grateful! We are still awaiting a photo of him to add to this story.
In the morning, Suveer jumped in a Rickshaw and went as fast as Bombay traffic would allow to the ITC Maratha hotel and deposited Patanjali with the Bellboy there ready for Andrea’s arrival. Andrea took safe delivery (having luckily brought an extra large bag with her) and after a few hours shut-eye, made her way to the airport for her return trip to Heathrow. As you might imagine, emails were flying merrily between all interested parties at this stage and there was a certain amount of anxiety generated at the Bristol end: could this possibly work?
Andrea in a Rickshaw
And yes: it could and it did! Andrea arrived back the following morning, and took the precious package back to her house in West London. By another fortuitous chance, Mike was driving back from London to Bristol that afternoon, and collected Patanjali on his way past.
Patanjali emerges from the box
Patanjali in his new place
So… by 10 O’Clock that evening, a mere 47 hours after he left Pune, Patanjali was safely sitting on his new shelf in Studio 1 at Yogawest in Bristol. Phew!
A huge thanks to the whole team: we owe you (more than) one. And if you haven’t yet met him, do pop in to Studio 1 and pay your respects soon.
