Ashanti Nirvana

I have this habit. It developed at a very young age out of my love of music. It was a way I could sing along to a favorite song and enjoy the tune when I didn't quite understand what the artist was saying. This habit helped my brain make nonsense out of all things sensible; kind of fun, quirky, and cute actually. Dr. Seuss made a fine living doing such things. But as I've grown into adulthood, I've realized that I revert (or regress) back to this habit out of disinterest, ignorance, or just pure laziness. A bit concerning I concede.

Basically, the habit is that if I don't know the words to a song or how to pronounce something, I'll make up what I think is a suitable substitute in place of such unpronounceable or unknown words.

The other day, my friend Patria and I were at Foodland. We just left our yoga class and began discussing Ashanti Nirvana.

Ashanti Nirvana is the name of a system of yoga, you see. Strange? Well, that's because I'm the only one that knows the system by this name. Forgetting that Patria was not aware of this, I referred to it as Ashanti and stopped short realizing that I had just outed my habit to her. Because I said it in context, she knew exactly what I meant. I'm sure I had an expression of complete shame because that's what I was feeling in that moment. After all, I had just aired my absolute ignorant practice of not taking the time to learn words or phrases that are different from the dominant imperialistic familiarity of my first language! Oh and also, factor in the laziness and the disinterested in learning piece and you've got the concerning habit rearing its ugly head. BUT like the true pal she is, she sensed my shame and said, "That's awesome."

So the "real" (isn't real relative anyway? . . . and wasn't that last question a complete contradiction of the rant I just completed? ) name of the system is

Ashtanga Vinyasa

Fabulous, isn't it?


The following are lines of songs I used to sing before I knew what the artist was really saying. Can you guess any of them?

1. "Pukana pi na"

2. "You can mima pe hel hel, mima pel"

3. "You've got to rin a wild hunt"


Answers:
1. "Who Can It Be Now?" by Men At Work

2. "You Can Ring My Bell" by 70's one hit wonder Anita Ward ("You can ring my be e el, ring my bell")

3. "You get the limo out front" first line of the Hannah Montana show tune


Now that's awesome.