The
seed of thought for writing this article is sown by my teacher Smt. ZarnaMohan. One evening after the class, she asked me whether I am writing anything
on the Ballari workshop. I said, I was busy and hadn't thought of it yet. I then
came back home and gone to bed after dinner. The thought ignited by her sparked
at mid night. I woke up at 2 Am and wasn't getting a sleep. So I observed my
mind keenly. I do this often to induce sleep. Till this time I had yet to think of writing on Ballari workshop. Madam has given an idea to write but then my
mind was working on to find a reason to write. I figured out the
reasons for which I started this blog. Then I realized, it is this blog that
inspired some students in Hyderabad to take up Iyengar yoga classes with Zarna
Madam. It is this blog that brought my friend Mohit Garg to Zarna Madam when he
was relocating from Pune to Hyderabad. He is now teaching beginners under her
guidance. It is this blog that Introduced my friend Virupaksha Dani to get the
feel of "Yoganusasanam" by Geeta Iyengar and there by introduced to
Zarna madam. It is this blog that introduced me to a good friend Sunil Kolhatkar
in Pune. He is now attending the classes of Prashant Iyengar at RIMYI in Pune.
I made many good friends far across the nation and even abroad through this
blog. This blog played a role in uniting people. Is this reason not enough to
write a blog? Thinking this, I fell a sleep. Next morning when I woke up, I
immediately put this thought on paper so that I don't forget. The seed is sown
and it sprouted as well. It's time to grow.
Iyengar yoga in
Ballari:
I would like to write few
things about my friend Virupaksha Dani before I progress and share my
experiences about the workshop. Inspired from my article on the "feel of
Yoganusasanam 2014" on this blog Viru wrote me up saying that he is
interested in attending the "Yoganusasanam 2015". I helped him up in
the process of registration for the event and finding his accommodation at
Balewadi in Pune. This is how we met and the friendship continued to Rita
Keller's workshop in Bellur and Zarna madam's workshop in Rishikesh. Both were
outstanding workshops in terms of exposure and learning yoga and yoga
philosophy. I began to understand him better after our trip to char-dham
immediately after Rishikesh workshop.
Viru is a dedicated practitioner and an Iyengar yoga teacher in a
small town of Ballari in Karnataka. He has been practicing yoga since his young
days but introduced to Iyengar yoga only 8 years ago in a RSS camp conducted by
Raghavendra Shenoy in Mangalore. Inspired by the session, he went on to learn
Iyengar Yoga from Sri. Raghavendra Shenoy at various camps and from Karunakaran
in Mangalore. Few years later he began to teach local people in Police Gymkhana
in Ballari. He gradually went on to establish an Iyengar yoga center called
'Yogasri' hiring a hall on rent at Bala Bharati School. With his dedication and
hard work he acquired good number of students now.
First
Iyengar yoga intensive at Yogasri:
The foundation for the possible
workshop is laid by Virupaksha in Rishikesh when he invited Zarna madam to Ballari
in the month of April 2017.
Couple of months after our return
from Chardham, he called me up and said 'Ram, I would like to invite Zarna
madam to Ballari for a workshop. Do you think she will agree?' I advised him to
write an email inviting her to Ballari. He wrote an email and even called her
inviting to Ballari. Subsequently, after seeking some information she gave her
nod for the workshop.
Viru was happy and so do I. He then
called me up and invited me and Tulsi to Ballari. Since we just arrived from an
expensive trip of char-dham and I still had some debts to repay; I said will
let him know later. He began to call me again and again insisting to come with
Tulsi.
I was not sure whether we could make
our trip to Ballari till the last 5 days before the schedule. It was again
because of Zarna madam and Parmeshji the Ballari trip happened. They assigned
me a job to take yoga sessions for the staff of L&T for six days and from
the proceeds I received, booked the tickets to Ballari 3 days before the event.
Tulsi and I reached Ballari two days
before the event as we wanted to make sure that arrangements were made properly
for the event. Rajesh Bagadi from Belgaum also joined us the same day.
Workshop
Experience:
Finally the day has come as our
teacher arrived Ballari on 2nd of September 2017. It was certainly a good experience for the
students of Ballari as that was their first exposure to a workshop with a
senior teacher like Zarna madam. We could see the enthusiasm and joy in their
faces. Madam won their accolades in a single session and touched their hearts by
the end of the workshop with her humility and the class of her teaching.
As far as we are concerned it was a
new kind of exposure for us. Though we have been associated with her for a long
time, she always offer something new to learn. Ballari intensive was a
different learning experience. This time we were not participating students but
were observing and helping the students. A day before the event I observed
Virupaksha's class. Looking at the students I realized that it would be really
difficult for our teacher to help and adjust all the students single handedly. So
I, Tulsi and Virupaksha took the role of volunteers helping and adjusting the
students during the session. I must appreciate the spirit and enthusiasm of
those students who let us adjust them freely without any hesitation as we were
completely new to them. Within a single session they become very friendly and
some even called us for assisting them into their pose.
Since the workshop was for
beginners, madam tried to teach the basic principles of alignment, precision
and sequencing. Among these, one thing got registered in my mind with some
impact was about sequencing. She taught, not only there is a sequencing of
asanas in Iyengar system but also there is sequence in every asana. She must
have taught it before but it got registered here during this workshop with some
impact.
When you are dealing with someone
new, it takes time for the students and even the teacher to catch up things.
Since it was a short workshop of only two days, neither the students nor the
teacher had time to understand one another. Instead of asking them to go into
their poses straight away, she had a short interactive session asking simple
questions and replying to their queries. Within a very short time she brought
ease in the students which helped them perform their asanas smoothly. But that
doesn't mean the sessions were not intense. She made it clear that she means business
and made sure that everyone gets his/her money's worth.
She always used to tell us, teaching a beginner is not easy unless you know the basics right. She used to emphasize on learning the basics right. During this workshop, we learned how a beginner understands the same instruction differently and how one should deal with them as a teacher. When I was teaching the beginners in the class, she used to tell me, Ram! You should restrain yourself and come down to the level of a beginner while teaching them. I still remember the first instruction when she assigned me the job to teach. She said, you should remember the state of your body and mind when you started yoga while teaching them. She reminded me again and again that don't teach them what you know but teach them what they can understand and do. Even after this I used to get carried away at times as restraining is not that easy. Sometimes, you feel that you are restrained but the fact will be otherwise. She then taught me to watch their eyes to know whether they are tired and see whether their faces are relaxed. Here in this workshop I learned how one has to be restrained. In-spite of all her experience and practice, at no moment she got carried away. A delight to watch her teaching.
I have got the opportunity to learn
from different teachers and each one of them have some unique features. Zarna
madam has one such unique feature of demonstrating the asana before instructing
them to do as the visual presentation has greater impact on students than the audio. She demonstrates couple of times and will repeat again very patiently if any student asks her to do so.
A strange observation came to my mind. I was understanding the teachings with clarity as an observer than a participant. Most of her teachings from the workshop are afresh in my mind. I did not try to remember them but they are coming to my notice when I am practicing at home.
I remember when I was learning
intermediate level 1 classes at RIMYI in Pune, I used to observe the
intermediate level 2 classes in my leisure time. One day, observing the class
from the stairs I found that my feet were tight and my hands were tensed and so
are my eyes and the head. Though I was sitting and watching, the mind was doing
the action along with others and as a result of that my nerves were tensed and
the body got tight. Now I realized, that kind of anxiety to do has lessened in
me to a great extent.
There was a therapy session also as
a part of the workshop for people with different ailments. For the last one
year I have been working with her in therapy classes at Hyderabad. I have seen
so many people getting cured of serious ailments with her healing hands and
expertise in the field of therapy. One such magical moment occurred with a 7 to
8 year old boy. The boy is suffering from Cerebral Palsy. On asking, she said
that he has a neurological disorder caused by non-progressive brain injury or
malformation that occurs while child's brain is under development. As a result
of it body movement, muscle control, muscle coordination, muscle tone, reflex,
posture and balance is affected.
Though the boy was able to walk but
was walking on toes with heels lifted high and fumbling. Due to weakness in his
muscles he was running rather walking due to the fear of falling. There was
tremendous improvement in those two days. He could actually rest the heels and
walk slowly when madam insisted him to press the heel on the floor while
walking. The boy also worked with lot of understanding and intelligence. He was
moving the exact muscles which she asked to move. With proper guidance and
training he will surely recover soon. She explained us how she worked at him.
She made him use the muscles that are working to mobilize the muscles that are
not functioning.
Ballari people loved the way she conducted the therapy sessions. They were really happy the way she touched people. A lady got so impressed that she invited her for the lunch. She was rather insistent to take her to lunch and if not dinner. But due to time constrain she couldn't make it.
Organization
of the Event:
Within no time the end has come.
Since it was a short two day workshop; it ended quickly. Initially, I thought
the workshop is too short but then at the end I felt it was apt for the level
of beginners as the students were not used to this kind of extended sessions
through out the day.
I must appreciate Virupaksha and all
the students who participated in organizing the event smoothly as it is not a one
man job.
The event was perfectly started with
lightening ceremony by Zarna madam paying respects to Guruji and Patanjali. And
ended equally on well note by felicitating her by Virupaksha and the students of Yogasri,
Ballari.
We
returned from Ballari with lots of love and affection. On behalf of Zarna
madam, I would like to thank Virupaksha and all the students for their love and
regards. Special thanks to Mrs. Madhavi, Mrs. Lata and their entire family for
the hospitality and love shown towards us.
