Out on a limb

‘O-n-e, t-w-o, t-h-r-e-e,’ she says. The time lag between each count is sufficient for you to board a BMTC bus from Whitefield to Majestic and return in time for the next count. OK, that is a bit of a stretch, perhaps not as far as Majestic, but at least up to Domlur and back. Do you get the gist of what I’m saying? So we get into dandasana, the plank position, with your hands under your shoulders and your body parallel to the ground, your body weight resting on your soft palms, and she says, “Stay up to a count of 8.”

Thanks to her “speed” of counting, it is more like 25. I am talking about my yoga teacher.

By the time you come to Adho Mukha Svanasana, the downward dog position, you are whimpering. “I-n-h-a-l-e,” she says, “let your stomach touch your spine.” I do inhale—my stomach longingly looks at the spine and beseeches it to come forward. “E-x-h-a-l-e and bend. Let your nose touch your knees.” Like Ravi Shastri, in his inimitable cliché-ridden commentary, would say, “There is daylight between my nose and knees.”

“Today we will do sitting asanas,” she says. And then comes Navasana, the boat posture. Our boat sinks without a trace! Badhakonasana, the butterfly pose, sees us more like caterpillars, barely able to flap our wings/legs. All this makes us realise that sitting can also be challenging; it makes you want to ask, “Are there any sleeping asanas, please?”

Another day it would be standing asanas. Well, what can I say? Vrkshasana, the tree pose, sees us trees swaying as if lashed by storms; Virabhadrasana, the warrior pose, ends up with us looking like caricatures. Balancing, bending, stretching, and lifting your leg to heights to which it has never been and which give the poor leg vertigo make you want to go back to sitting asanas.

She does it along with us, a motley group of mostly senior citizens—gracefully and elegantly; lithe and powerful, with rubber-band flexibility. She makes everything look easy and very doable. Softly but persistently, she encourages us, pushes us into doing things we never knew we were capable of, chides us, and indulges us. We have been with her for a while now, and the experience has been wonderful. You finish every session with dopamine levels surging, feeling energised, invigorated, and at peace—Shanti, Shanti, Shantihi!

We are grateful to the yoga teacher who takes us through the various asanas with such gentle patience. But yes, we do wish she could count faster!