I have been doing Yoga ever since I was 17 years old. Of course in those days it was not cool to do Yoga especially as a teenager for only hippies and old ladies did it. But I did Yoga in my mother’s hope that I would grow tall. My mother is one of those optimists who believes that mango trees can yield coconuts if you believe hard enough. Unfortunately, I didn’t grow tall but actually embarked on a life long weight gaining program having set in motion  the pattern of Start & Stop exercising which yields momentary weight loss and permanent weight gain thanks to its sporadic occurrence.

The past few years though, I’ve been pretty consistent with the the Yoga  at Home Villa and then with Sri across the road. The effects of Yoga at Home Villa were visible in my slim waist but I had to abandon this class for sheer logisitical reasons (it took 10 minutes to get down by lift, fifteen minutes to walk there, add to that arriving ten minutes before class to get a firm bolster and mat, plus half an hour before and after class getting things organised).

So when Kay put in a word for me at Sri’s class I was thrilled to find a place closer to home. It also helped that the pace of Yoga was slower and gentler – how slow and gentle I found out only yesterday when Kay talked me into going to a free Yoga Vinyasa class.

Kay is one of those Yogaholics who even dreams about the asanas and has the enviable body of  a teenager despite being a golden oldie. Unlike us who moan and groan through five Suryanamaskars, she does them effortlessly and as for body twisters like Marichasana – her bones just seem to melt! So in the hope of getting even half way there, I thought it would be worthwhile going for the Vinyasa class especially when it was for free.

At 10.30, Kay picked me up and we went on to Churchgate to attend the session at Well N Trim Class which we had to access from the side entrance. After filling a form we went inside the studio which had mats laid out in readiness for the class. An instructor who reminded me of the PTIs who used to hang out at the Naval Pool, first made us ” Stand on mat” just as we got comfortable after the initial chanting of OM,  and unexpectedly barked out ” Run three times” , a command which suddenly had us stomping clockwise round the room. Just when we thought it was over he made us run three more rounds the other way. Before we could even stop the wobble in the knees, he told us to do a Suryanamaskar to a count which was double of what I was used to……….and the one became two and ended up as twenty!

With an accent that was distinctly rustic it was hard to follow his directions as he didn’t name any asanas but just made us go into them with breathe, stres hand over head, on toes, knees ninety degrees and other such confusing directions. Surprisingly, the only thing he said correctly was ‘ Put your hand near your butt!” Before the half hour was over, I was seriously dripping sweat and panting so hard that I just gave up before my heart did. I was amazed to see the other ladies plodding on even though one of them felt “nauseatic”.

I waited outside getting my breath back when the others came out for a toilet break. I was told that the next half was more relaxing with flowing movements so I joined back only to find that the movements did flow albeit at a faster pace than what I was expecting. By this time I didn’t care anymore about my performance which was flagging when chance glance at the mirrored wall showed me what a saggy bag I really was.

Though Kay coped with the class, we both vowed that this Vinyasa class was not for us and thanked God for Sri and her old fashioned Yoga class!!!

Photo credit :  GO INTERACTIVE WELLNESS