For Putin successor, yoga the best pill
Yoga is set to get a huge push in Russia, where the Indian art was banned and lessons were passed on secretly during the Soviet era.
Dmitri Medvedev, who will take over as Russia's new president next month, is a known yoga man and is expected to do what his predecessor Vladimir Putin did to judo.
"Little by little, I'm mastering yoga," Medvedev, who takes pride in his ability to perform shirshasana, a headstand pose, recently told the weekly news magazine Itogi. "The responsibility (of my job) is huge. To prevent headaches, I needed to practice yoga more intensively than before."
Yoga was banned in the Soviet era as the art, with its Hindu spiritual underpinnings, was seen as against the prevailing philosophy of MarxismLeninism. Today, it sweeps through Russia's physical culture studios, which until recently were dominated by body building and martial arts.
"Ten years ago there were only three yoga schools in all of Moscow, now there are several hundreds," said Inna Assekritova, a Moscow business executive who got hooked to yoga 30 years ago, when it was strictly banned. "In Soviet times, it was almost impossible to find a teacher; and all information about it had to be secretly passed from hand to hand," she said.
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To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com
Dmitri Medvedev, who will take over as Russia's new president next month, is a known yoga man and is expected to do what his predecessor Vladimir Putin did to judo.
"Little by little, I'm mastering yoga," Medvedev, who takes pride in his ability to perform shirshasana, a headstand pose, recently told the weekly news magazine Itogi. "The responsibility (of my job) is huge. To prevent headaches, I needed to practice yoga more intensively than before."
Yoga was banned in the Soviet era as the art, with its Hindu spiritual underpinnings, was seen as against the prevailing philosophy of MarxismLeninism. Today, it sweeps through Russia's physical culture studios, which until recently were dominated by body building and martial arts.
"Ten years ago there were only three yoga schools in all of Moscow, now there are several hundreds," said Inna Assekritova, a Moscow business executive who got hooked to yoga 30 years ago, when it was strictly banned. "In Soviet times, it was almost impossible to find a teacher; and all information about it had to be secretly passed from hand to hand," she said.
To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com
Labels: India, Indian art, Russia, Russia's new president, Soviet era, Vladimir Putin, Yoga
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10:34 AM
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