My Association With Yoga

Yoga came into my life quite early. I did my schooling in a private school till my seventh grade and later moved to Kendriya Vidyalaya. My old school was popularly known as "Menon School". It was originally started by a Malayali couple. They lived a major part of their life in Bongaigaon, my hometown in Assam, before they returned to their native place in Kerala. The school was run by Mrs Menon. Everyone called her Head Madam; she was quite well known for her strictness and discipline. Yoga was preached seriously in Menon school, the credit definitely would go to our Praveer sir, the yoga teacher. He used to live a disciplined life, was prompt in helping others, always greeted people with his charming smile. Praveer sir also had his own yoga school and all his students showed him great respect.

I also remember those Sunday morning yoga classes, all thanks to the Mahila Samiti of that time, of which my mother was an active member. The all women organization took the initiative of starting Sunday morning Art and Yoga classes for enhancing extra curricular activities of children. It was quite annoying to wake up early morning even on Sundays. But we didn’t have a choice, particularly few of us whose mothers were the key members of the organization. After the Art school we rushed to our home, riding bicycles to watch the Mahabharata serial on TV, which used to come at 9 am.

When I joined Kendriya Vidyalaya, my association with yoga turned slightly different. Yoga was still a part of school curriculum. That was the time when we were little surprised at the school authorities, as they started encouraging our classmate girls to wear slightly longer skirts rather than knee-length/above knee-length ones. Also, Salwar Kameez was mandatory, part of school uniform for the girls on yoga days, which was weekly once or twice. But many of the girls often violated the not-so-strictly-followed rule. The boys enjoyed some eye candies during the yoga class, particularly while the law breakers performed Chakrasana. 

But soon these things turned embarrassing for us. I remember one incident; few of the senior girls were practicing long jump for the upcoming Annual sports. We were waiting for our school bus. Our friend Santosh was very interested to have a closer look at their practice session. One after another the seniors ran towards us with full speed, strength, and then jumped to leap as far as possible. We enjoyed every jump, particularly for those who were wearing skirts. We clapped on every occasion to cheer them up. Everything seemed to be fine but then all of a sudden a couple of girls approached us.

"Dudes, what are you guys doing here?" one of them asked.

"Nothing, our bus hasn’t come yet. We are simply watching your performance. You girls jump really well," we replied nervously.

"You boys can watch us, no problem with that, but just look at the position you guys are sitting at. You can watch us from a different place; common, you boys are no longer kids, you’re quite grownup now"

I think yoga was compulsory till our Eight or Ninth grade, I don’t remember exactly. In the later phase I often bunked the yoga classes along with few other friends. I couldn’t realize how yoga got disassociated from my life. The recent development is more about political yoga; I mean the kind of promotion, the kind of debates going on. Whatever the reason maybe, it’s nice to see yoga becoming a brand; nice to see yoga getting an international recognition. I think we should take it as an opportunity, it’s high time we start practicing yoga. After all, everyone knows the benefits of it, and our own health comes first before anything.

Wishing you all a very happy International Yoga Day, specially to all yoga teachers and the passionate yoga practitioners. 

Picture courtesy: Google Images


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