MANGALURU: A measured early morning break taken by the Rain God was enough for this coastal district to keep its tryst with first ever International Day of Yoga on Sunday.
While most of the IDY programmes were arranged indoors keeping in mind the possibility of rain, 1,417 NCC students of all three wings took this rain break in their stride to perform yoga with astuteness in the open on the interlock paved premises of Canara Higher Primary School at Urwa.
Sanghaniketan, the regional headquarters of RSS, a short distance away from this venue, saw the young and the elderly go through the mandated asanas per the common yoga protocol mandated by the ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy. As many as nine different organisations pertaining to yoga were involved in ensuring that yoga aficionados went through their paces on all four floors of this sprawling complex at one go.
The top brass of the district administration in toto was in attendance at the official IDY celebration organized at the TMA Pai International Convention Centre. Minister for environment, forest and ecology B Ramanath Rai took all concerned by surprise arriving at the venue at 6.55am, ahead of the 8.30am start and going through a rigorous exercise regimen to keep him loose and fit for the IDY activities. Rai exercising with vigour ensured that the lensmen clicked away to glory.
International yoga referee Gopalkrishna Delampady who conducted the proceedings here involved all the top district officials and elected representatives getting them on board a specially erected stage and got them to do few asanas alongside him. If Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP showed his agility with padmasana and bhadda konasana, MLC Ganesh Karnik stretched supplely forward to do shashankasana. MLA J R Lobo vowed all with an adroit display of bhujangasana.
Courtesy: Times of India