“The Goal of Yoga (Union)
is Yoga (Union)”
– Anonymous
Out of bed on a Sunday morning, I headed straight to balcony of my house to breathe in some fresh cool air. I looked into the sky preparing myself for a new day and then turned to look towards the park (just next to my house) for the usual sight of some regular mid-50s women, performing yoga. My house is so close to the park that if need be I can easily repeat what they perform and talk. However, I never had such intentions, I preferred my morning run or cycling. For me it was some kind of new gymnastics developed while attempting to imitate what Baba Ramdev demonstrated on television.
It was not yoga that they performed for sure. The ladies some 10 in nos. formed a semi-circle around their leader. The leader looked in her mid-50s with brown hair (dyed with henna) and a heavy bottom that seemed immovable. Her upper body tried hard to move freely while performing the aasanas. Most them wore salwar suits or a saree, forget track pants and performed resting their heavy bottoms on the make-shift mat made out of an old blanket. All others followed the exercise being performed by their leader. Throughout their regime, they made rigorous movements of hands either attempting to stretch them over the head in a circular fashion or touching their feet. Not, even one of them, as seen by me for last 3 years, managed to even ‘touch’ their feet without bending their knees. A couple of them in the group- may be in 40s- performed with no intent, as evident from their movements. With their heads always covered with a dupatta, I sense they were forced out of house to accompany their mother-in-laws to the park. I rather believe they would have exercised themselves more in a morning session of love with their husbands while kids slept and in-laws out attempting to regain their fast deteriorating health.
The Kapaalbhaati, is an aasan performed while being seated in an upright position with back kept straight and legs folded. Keeping the stomach in a relaxed position, it is to be slightly tucked in and then breathing from nose in small jerk like movement of stomach. Here, when I saw the women seated, they had their belies bulging out so much that most of them could not even fold their legs completely. With such large bellies the jerk seemed to be occurring on their upper body with their bust shaken-up with the jerks. Thank God! that the bra committed to spend its life for the upliftment of the downtrodden (breasts) did not tear around its already stretched straps inside the kurtaas.
In one of the last exercise for the session they assumed a posture of a lion and made a loud roar. The sound of 10 such heavy lions must be enough to wake the neighborhood from sleep and warn their counterparts performing yoga in privacy of their homes. Finally, the session ended with three loud laughter akin to a session at a laughter club.
What are they upto? OHM!……OHM!
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