I am used to people asking me about India and the Modi government when I travel outside the country. It is no secret that I am an unabashed fan of Shri. Narendra Modi – as a determined administrator, a visionary, as prime minister, and as a brand ambassador for India. I also applaud his initiative to take yoga to an international platform, and give it the recognition it duly deserves.
So do I practice yoga? No. Though I am surrounded by women who do it (my mother, my wife and my dog – she does DOGA!), I still have not had the inclination to take up the practice.
It is not for lack of trying though. In December of 2014, my wife and I spent 5 days at a yoga vacation camp at the Sivananda Ashram in Neyyar Dam, near Thiruvanathapuram. We also went back for another 4 days the following year. A typical day during the yoga vacation camp at the ashram has four hours of yoga, three hours of meditation, 1 hour of theory class, and 1 hour of service. They feed you only twice a day. And as you read this, my wife is back at the ashram for five days to celebrate Yoga day.
While I loved being in the ashram and went diligently to every class, I have to admit that once I came back home, I quickly went back to my routine fitness sessions at the gym. I turned a deaf ear to my wife’s insistence that I get back to yoga. All that changed when I got a new gym trainer two months ago.
In the first session he pooh-poohed the muscles I had built up, or my ability to bench press. My squats and lunges meant nothing. The first thing he wanted to do was to test my flexibility. And the session went downhill from there.
Over the next month, he ignored the weights and the machines, and started building up my flexibility. He pulled, pushed, stretched……..I started devising new excuses not to go to the gym. (I think it will rain tomorrow, so let’s cancel as I have to walk nearly 100 meters in the rain to come to the club house). Luckily I had to leave for a month-long visit to the US before I reached my yoga tolerance limit.
Jokes apart, I know how important yoga is. I know the routine I followed at the ashram was one of the most amazing I have ever experienced. I felt lighter, ate only twice a day, and experienced a greater sense of well-being. It was not just at the camp though. Whenever I practiced the asanas, the pranayama and the meditation, the day certainly seemed to flow with more energy and less stress.
So yes, I know what yoga is, how it can benefit me, and why I need to practice it. And I sincerely want to try and make it part of my fitness routine. Maybe by the time the International Yoga Day rolls around in 2018, I would have a better update for Modi ji.
FULL DISCLAIMER: The link to the blog on Sivananda Ashram is written by my wife, Revathi.
