In my childhood, while in high-school, I hated the drills and the march-pasts conducted by our PT master. Mainly because most of these activities were carried out after the school timings, that is around 4 o' clock in the evening, and will end by five thirty or so. But, I wanted to be in home by four-ten or so, and watch TV immediately upon reaching home, for sometime, and then start with my studies. I rarely played outside, and just confined to myself in our home. Also, during most of the PT classes, I used to tell some reason to my PT master that I am not keeping well, and used to take rest under a tree with some of my classmates, instead of playing in the ground with my other classmates. In short, I kept myself away from sports, drills, march-pasts and exercises, since I felt that it will divert myself away from my studies, which I never wanted to happen. Also, in those days, I didn't know that it's the exercises that keeps us healthy and strong. Sadly, I also prevented my sisters too to skip the after school march pasts, while we were studying together. I don't know what they did after I left that school, after my final exams.
While in UG, I saw many people going to a nearby home - in fact a bungalow - where meditation was taught, for free. One day, I also decided to give it a try. It was a group of devotees of some Swamiji, where everyone wore white colored dress, women clad in white colored saree and men in white kurtas. The classes were on Tuesday evening, from 7:00 to 8:00. There it was one-to-one teaching. I was assigned a teacher, who worked in a nearby factory. They had a book and a syllabus, and he took me though the lessons. The lessons were more about a Swamiji, from North India who established this movement and the classes made a severe attempt to convert me to his devotee. I had to complete a seven week course, and only after completing the course, the meditation classes with start. Though I didn't like those classes, I did completed them, so that to learn meditation. After the classes, initial mediation classes were started, where I was asked to close my eyes, and visualize a bright light in-between my eye-brows and observe my breathing. This went on for a couple of days, until I was able to do this meditation in a correct way. Now I am about to graduate in the art of meditation. For this I had to do 2 sessions of meditation in a meditation room. Each session is about half an hour. I was also informed that a Mathaji will be my guide to take me to those meditation graduation session. After the graduation, I myself will become a teacher and I can teach others - both those lessons and meditation.
The next week I went for my graduation meditation classes. I was lead into the meditation room. It was a small room, partially dark, with only a light-blue colored lamp. Also there was a fragrance of rose and jasmine. A soft velvet cloth was spread on the floor and I was asked to sit down there. I was sitting alone there. After a few minutes the Mathaji came. I got scared to see her. She was very young, fair and good looking. She should be in her late twenties or early thirties at that time. She sat close to me and asked me to close my eyes and started giving instructions. She also played a different music in a tape-recorder, which is supposed to be a divine music. She spoke in low soft voice, as typically spoken by yoga and pranayama teachers. As she started doing the meditation with regulated breathing, I could feel her breaths. I became a bit nervous, never opened my eyes, and waitdd for the class to end. I neither did the meditation nor followed her instructions. It ended after 30 mts and the Mathaji said that we will be having the next class in the next week, after which I also become a teacher, and I can teach others. I never went there after that. Later I learnt that many Guys have stopped coming to college and have joined that group as full time devotees to that Swamiji. I escaped.
While in college, I came across a professor, lets call him Prof. G. He was around 62 years in those days, serving an extended period in college after his retirement. This professor was a different person, who tried to teach not only the syllabus, but also beyond them. On Dec 31st of that year, he said that he is not going to teach the subject, but going to teach something else. He is a person known for taking classes using OHP sheets on a Over Head Projector, and no chalk-and-talk. On that day too he had a couple of OHP sheets,
He started placing them one by one on the Over Head Projector and started speaking about the benefits of doing exercises regularly. I have to admit that he was the first person in my life to speak about the benefits of doing exercises. The slides spoke about the various exercises, the order in which they have to be followed and a simple technique of following them regularly. He said "Sincerity, Punctuality, Regularity, Killer Instinct". We understood the first 3 words, and he explained the last one - "Killer Instinct"- if a person has decided to kill someone, then all the time his mind be around that thought and he will not stop until the job is done. The last slide spoke about the benefits of doing exercises. There were about 20 points in that slide, of which the 19th point was "Better sex life" and that is the only point I remember from the slide after these many years. He said that with increased and regulated blood flow, one will have a better sex life. He also added the disci "This is only for married people." Wondering if he will use that disci now.
When he read that line, we all saw each other, as the word "sex" in those days was normally not uttered, at least in a public place like the classroom. When developing designing and building professional software systems became my profession, I was hesitant to use the word "sex" in my computer programs. I always used the word "Gender" internally in my code and mapped it to the word "sex" in the user-interface layer, for displaying to the user. Eventually I changed, and now it looks funny when I think of those days. I was motivated enough, and on the next day morning I went to the ground. That was probably the first time in my life I was going to a ground for exercising. I was in a T-shirt, bermudas and sports shoes. I spotted Prof. G, already in the ground, jogging. He smiled upon seeing me. We exchanged pleasantries and I started jogging. Suddenly I could hear someone shouting my name. From a distance I found one of my hostel mate, smiling or rather laughing on seeing me in the ground.
I neither could follow the simple words "Sincerity, Punctuality, Regularity" nor I had the "Killer instinct" and eventually my decision to do exercises stopped. But I did feel fresh and active on the whole day when I did those exercises.
When I went to do PG, I was distracted away from my studies and I wanted to bring my mind back into studies. In a casual talk, I mentioned this to one of my professor. Lets call him Prof. M. He is a perfectionist and one who did all his tasks in a beautiful and systematic way. He suggested to attend some exercise classes conducted by some devotees of some Swamiji in a nearby school. Also he forewarned not to get driven into the spiritual preaching of the devotees, but to focus on learning the exercises alone. I attended. The classes were on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 7:30 PM. So I went there. The initial days were good, where they spoke and taught the exercises. They were devotees of Maharishi of Aliyaar, popularly known as the "Vaalzha Valamudan" group, as they greet everyone with that phrase. But after a couple of classes, they started preaching heavily about the Swamiji and also they were coercing to buy a couple of books about the Swamiji and his experiments and asked Me to study them. I did buy those books initially, but after sometime I stopped going there.
Around the same time, I also attended some "Pranayama" free classes in an Iyyappan temple. Here
It was here that I properly learnt the simple breathing exercises, which is helping me even now. I made an attempt to teach these breathing exercises to many in my known circle. But it took many many years to understand that it is really difficult to make someone do exercises regularly. It has to come from within. But I have observed that most people wanted the benefits of the exercises, without doing any of them.
I also happened to go to the Gym for about 3 months. I went regularly for one and half months, and my weight reduced and I looked slim and young. But within a few days of stopping going to the Gym, my weight increased rapidly and came back to its original value. So I understood that while it is very easy to gain weight, it is very very difficult to loose it.
After these many years, now I realize the importance of doing regular exercises and its health benefits. I wished to do them regularly and I started with walking, then some simple exercises, then some strength exercises, then I also learnt and added simple yogasanas and the pranayama that I had learnt long back. I quickly started seeing the benefits of doing these exercises regularly. In an article in Aanandha Vikatan, Dr. Ku. Sivaraman also suggests a combination of the above exercises to be fit and healthy, though he never looks like one who practices them.
After a bit of trial and error, I identified the perfect combination of the above exercises that keeps me fit and active for the whole day. As a side effect, I also started loosing the extra kgs. But I never attempted to preach or teach anyone about this good habit. Because doing exercises regularly requires tremendous effort and discipline and many are not always ready to put those in. But after sometime, my friend too started doing simple Yogasanas and started seeing the merits of it. And the best thing is that my little friends too come and start doing the exercises, whenever I do them. This is exactly what I wanted to achieve through my comprehensive exercise program. Though my habit of doing exercises regularly, I wish to be a source of inspiration for many to do exercises regularly and be physically and mentally fit and healthy.
- spgr.
While in UG, I saw many people going to a nearby home - in fact a bungalow - where meditation was taught, for free. One day, I also decided to give it a try. It was a group of devotees of some Swamiji, where everyone wore white colored dress, women clad in white colored saree and men in white kurtas. The classes were on Tuesday evening, from 7:00 to 8:00. There it was one-to-one teaching. I was assigned a teacher, who worked in a nearby factory. They had a book and a syllabus, and he took me though the lessons. The lessons were more about a Swamiji, from North India who established this movement and the classes made a severe attempt to convert me to his devotee. I had to complete a seven week course, and only after completing the course, the meditation classes with start. Though I didn't like those classes, I did completed them, so that to learn meditation. After the classes, initial mediation classes were started, where I was asked to close my eyes, and visualize a bright light in-between my eye-brows and observe my breathing. This went on for a couple of days, until I was able to do this meditation in a correct way. Now I am about to graduate in the art of meditation. For this I had to do 2 sessions of meditation in a meditation room. Each session is about half an hour. I was also informed that a Mathaji will be my guide to take me to those meditation graduation session. After the graduation, I myself will become a teacher and I can teach others - both those lessons and meditation.
The next week I went for my graduation meditation classes. I was lead into the meditation room. It was a small room, partially dark, with only a light-blue colored lamp. Also there was a fragrance of rose and jasmine. A soft velvet cloth was spread on the floor and I was asked to sit down there. I was sitting alone there. After a few minutes the Mathaji came. I got scared to see her. She was very young, fair and good looking. She should be in her late twenties or early thirties at that time. She sat close to me and asked me to close my eyes and started giving instructions. She also played a different music in a tape-recorder, which is supposed to be a divine music. She spoke in low soft voice, as typically spoken by yoga and pranayama teachers. As she started doing the meditation with regulated breathing, I could feel her breaths. I became a bit nervous, never opened my eyes, and waitdd for the class to end. I neither did the meditation nor followed her instructions. It ended after 30 mts and the Mathaji said that we will be having the next class in the next week, after which I also become a teacher, and I can teach others. I never went there after that. Later I learnt that many Guys have stopped coming to college and have joined that group as full time devotees to that Swamiji. I escaped.
While in college, I came across a professor, lets call him Prof. G. He was around 62 years in those days, serving an extended period in college after his retirement. This professor was a different person, who tried to teach not only the syllabus, but also beyond them. On Dec 31st of that year, he said that he is not going to teach the subject, but going to teach something else. He is a person known for taking classes using OHP sheets on a Over Head Projector, and no chalk-and-talk. On that day too he had a couple of OHP sheets,
He started placing them one by one on the Over Head Projector and started speaking about the benefits of doing exercises regularly. I have to admit that he was the first person in my life to speak about the benefits of doing exercises. The slides spoke about the various exercises, the order in which they have to be followed and a simple technique of following them regularly. He said "Sincerity, Punctuality, Regularity, Killer Instinct". We understood the first 3 words, and he explained the last one - "Killer Instinct"- if a person has decided to kill someone, then all the time his mind be around that thought and he will not stop until the job is done. The last slide spoke about the benefits of doing exercises. There were about 20 points in that slide, of which the 19th point was "Better sex life" and that is the only point I remember from the slide after these many years. He said that with increased and regulated blood flow, one will have a better sex life. He also added the disci "This is only for married people." Wondering if he will use that disci now.
When he read that line, we all saw each other, as the word "sex" in those days was normally not uttered, at least in a public place like the classroom. When developing designing and building professional software systems became my profession, I was hesitant to use the word "sex" in my computer programs. I always used the word "Gender" internally in my code and mapped it to the word "sex" in the user-interface layer, for displaying to the user. Eventually I changed, and now it looks funny when I think of those days. I was motivated enough, and on the next day morning I went to the ground. That was probably the first time in my life I was going to a ground for exercising. I was in a T-shirt, bermudas and sports shoes. I spotted Prof. G, already in the ground, jogging. He smiled upon seeing me. We exchanged pleasantries and I started jogging. Suddenly I could hear someone shouting my name. From a distance I found one of my hostel mate, smiling or rather laughing on seeing me in the ground.
I neither could follow the simple words "Sincerity, Punctuality, Regularity" nor I had the "Killer instinct" and eventually my decision to do exercises stopped. But I did feel fresh and active on the whole day when I did those exercises.
When I went to do PG, I was distracted away from my studies and I wanted to bring my mind back into studies. In a casual talk, I mentioned this to one of my professor. Lets call him Prof. M. He is a perfectionist and one who did all his tasks in a beautiful and systematic way. He suggested to attend some exercise classes conducted by some devotees of some Swamiji in a nearby school. Also he forewarned not to get driven into the spiritual preaching of the devotees, but to focus on learning the exercises alone. I attended. The classes were on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 7:30 PM. So I went there. The initial days were good, where they spoke and taught the exercises. They were devotees of Maharishi of Aliyaar, popularly known as the "Vaalzha Valamudan" group, as they greet everyone with that phrase. But after a couple of classes, they started preaching heavily about the Swamiji and also they were coercing to buy a couple of books about the Swamiji and his experiments and asked Me to study them. I did buy those books initially, but after sometime I stopped going there.
Around the same time, I also attended some "Pranayama" free classes in an Iyyappan temple. Here
It was here that I properly learnt the simple breathing exercises, which is helping me even now. I made an attempt to teach these breathing exercises to many in my known circle. But it took many many years to understand that it is really difficult to make someone do exercises regularly. It has to come from within. But I have observed that most people wanted the benefits of the exercises, without doing any of them.
I also happened to go to the Gym for about 3 months. I went regularly for one and half months, and my weight reduced and I looked slim and young. But within a few days of stopping going to the Gym, my weight increased rapidly and came back to its original value. So I understood that while it is very easy to gain weight, it is very very difficult to loose it.
After these many years, now I realize the importance of doing regular exercises and its health benefits. I wished to do them regularly and I started with walking, then some simple exercises, then some strength exercises, then I also learnt and added simple yogasanas and the pranayama that I had learnt long back. I quickly started seeing the benefits of doing these exercises regularly. In an article in Aanandha Vikatan, Dr. Ku. Sivaraman also suggests a combination of the above exercises to be fit and healthy, though he never looks like one who practices them.
After a bit of trial and error, I identified the perfect combination of the above exercises that keeps me fit and active for the whole day. As a side effect, I also started loosing the extra kgs. But I never attempted to preach or teach anyone about this good habit. Because doing exercises regularly requires tremendous effort and discipline and many are not always ready to put those in. But after sometime, my friend too started doing simple Yogasanas and started seeing the merits of it. And the best thing is that my little friends too come and start doing the exercises, whenever I do them. This is exactly what I wanted to achieve through my comprehensive exercise program. Though my habit of doing exercises regularly, I wish to be a source of inspiration for many to do exercises regularly and be physically and mentally fit and healthy.
- spgr.
