Yoga - Off the Mat!

While nobody is unaware of the goodness of Yoga and the Yogic routine, somehow this International Yoga day made me wonder about No Yoga. I stepped out of my Yoga mat and started searching something other than Yoga.

Have you ever thought what does Yoga mean? Well don’t strain too much - it simply means union. Union – when alphabets unite, a word is formed; when words unite, a sentence is formed. So, this blog is nothing but a Yoga of alphabets and words!

I am trying to find a single thing or phenomenon in this universe which is devoid of Yoga. I definitely need help from my “Not Yoga Person” friends to find the answer!

The water we drink is union of Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms. The air we breathe is composed of numerous gases. Sound is nothing but yoga of waves. Light is made of photons. The computer language is union of bits and bytes. Family is yoga of bride and groom. Food we eat is nothing but union of fruits, veggies, grains. A building, a bridge, a road all are union of bricks and mortar. A company is made of employees. Forest is made of trees. And humans are made of?

From centuries, sages are saying all is one. While that realization may take time to dawn in, we can see that everything in this universe is made up of some things. And this universe is a dance of union and dissolution. We collect our food and eat it; the digestion fire dissolves it and produces energy. I am putting words together and writing it; you are reading and your mind is transforming words into meaning. Would that mean all is one and one is all!

It is fascinating to see the dance of universe and even amazing is to realize that fusion is more powerful that fission. Joy is in uniting. Celebration automatically happens where people are united, thoughts and emotions are united. Each one of the 7 billion people in this planet has his/her own frequency of thoughts. The bombardment of chain of thoughts, seems to be a dissemination of multiple worlds. But Yoga – I mean the Yoga asanas and the Yogic practices can unite these separated small minds into a big happy mind.

Whom did I marry!

It’s been more than 6 years of courtship followed by 8 years of marriage, still wondering who is this guy whom I married!! I married a gross hefty man weighing almost 100kgs and after 8 years I have a handsome tall and lean man by my side. Do you know the recipe? Hmmm... Exercise, Diet, Lifestyle, Running, Yoga blah blah blah. While, I can’t deny any of these but none of the recipes is complete without salt. And salt here is the dedication! And that’s exactly what I am going to talk about today. Dedication brings unbelievable transformations.

While he may not be a stranger to the running community in Bangalore, I will introduce my husband, Vivek Malhotra, to the people out of the Running world. Vivek started running in 2010 to reduce weight. But slowly it became his passion and now in 2017, he has already run around 15 full marathons, along with many half marathons and 10ks - http://www.teammilesahead.com/runners/vivek/. To say a couple of his accomplishments - He finished IDBI Delhi full marathon in a terrific 3:26 hrs. He had a podium finish in the 12hour stadium run where he ran more than 100kms at a stretch. Imagine all this from a person who could not sit upright to finish even a half an hour TV serial, who could not imagine sitting his legs crossed, for whom touching his own feet was a farfetched dream. He would eat like anything and still complaint why there weren’t enough snacks at home. During my early years of marriage, my mother used to wonder would this four jumbo sized Aloo parantha suffice only to be taken aback by surprising answer of No. And today there is always war at home when his mother tries to feed him even single oil-less Aloo parantha.

Sometimes I wonder are we just hard piece of muscles and bones or are we fluid mix of emotions and thoughts. While we can keep pondering to find the right answer, one thing I can say for sure is that the emotions and thoughts are lot more powerful than the physical and muscular strength. Is it only physical endurance which is important when he runs like 30kms, 50kms or 100kms? The pain and discomfort do not peak while running the last mile. Running long distance is not body game, its mind game! While I am wishing hard to have Vivek as a Working Class Hero, he has already crossed the boundaries of working class to be a Hero in the realm of his passion and determination. What wakes him up at 4 am when he sleeps only at 11pm after a hard day at work followed by wife’s mundane requests and 2 year old daughter’s thousands tantrums.

Many of us have physical limitations which stop us from achieving our goals in life. I would like to say to all these talented people that the real limitation is not physical, it’s mental. The thought that you have a limitation, is the real issue.

While Vivek is a big inspiration to many out there, as his wife I may have wished many times his availability at home rather than his terrific finish time. But still as he already knows, I would like to re-iterate on the beautiful occasion of his 34th birthday – Vivek, I am proud of you and I am blessed to have you as my better half and off course a very happy birthday to you :)