Capital bows and stretches for Yoga Day

NEW DELHI: Mette Ekeroth, who works at the Danish embassy, heard from her friends about their experience at the Yoga Day celebrations back home in Copenhagen. She

NEW DELHI: Mette Ekeroth, who works at the Danish embassy, heard from her friends about their experience at the Yoga Day celebrations back home in Copenhagen. She then decided to participate. On Tuesday, Ekeroth was among thousands who came out to learn yoga postures at Chanakyapuri’s Nehru Park for the first time.

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“It is great to be a part of an event that had received such support at the United Nations. Now that I am going to stay in India for four years, I will surely try and learn yoga,” said Ekeroth.

A sea of people, in white and blue T-shirts distributed by the organisers, thronged Nehru Park on Tuesday to participate in yoga sessions that was organised by the Art of Living Foundation in association with the New Delhi Municipal Council.

Like Ekeroth, a number of other diplomats from various other embassies too attended the grand event.

Lili, from Israel, was another first timer who took part in Tuesday’s event.

“I had never felt like this before. I have learnt the few postures of the beginner’s level,” said Lili, from Israel.

Pappu, a resident of Cheshire Home in Okhla — a home for the physically or mentally disabled — attended the event with five of his friends. “We have never been to such big yoga celebration so feels nice to be here,” said Papu.

But not everyone was new at this annual gathering. Buregeya Etienne, who works at the Burundi embassy, said she participated in last year’s event as well. “Last year I had gone to Rajpath, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also performed yoga,” said Etienne.

Not everyone, however, was as enthusiastic as Etienne, with many choosing to continue with their daily morning routine of walking, jogging and playing badminton/frisbee at Talkatora Garden instead of performing yoga.

“We walk here every day, do a little exercise and then play badminton. We did not want to break our routine to do yoga for just for one day,” said Amit Narula, a businessman who comes to the garden with a group of friends.

Narula’s friend, Atul Jain, added that he did not want to join in as he had difficulty in doing certain poses. “What is the use of doing something that I am notable to do properly?” he said.

People who perform yoga as groups at the garden, however, had no qualms in joining in the celebrations. “I have been coming here with my wife every day for morning walk and yoga for the last 7-8 years,” said RC Dubey, a participant.

Several others were motivated by the promise of a free t-shirts and yoga mats to take part in the event.

“There were two motivations for me. One, I have not woken up in the morning to exercise for a long time and this seemed like a good occasion to start. Two, I was told that we would be getting t-shirts and yoga mats,” said Ravi Shourie, who took part in the event with 25 colleagues from Diamond publications.

People from other organizations too, like Central Council for Research in Homeopathy and Syndicate Bank, took part in Tuesday’s event.