Mahendra Kumar (52), a resident of Chennai's rather iconic Mylapore area, reaches the Marina Beach at 5.30 am every day for his daily dose of yoga. It's a routine that he has followed rigorously for the past decade.
Ironically, his tryst with yoga all started with a crippling back pain. "I might have known a few asanas before but I came to know about yoga extensively only after I visited Baba Ramdev's centre in Nageshwara Rao Park on Luz Corner in Mylapore. I got to know how the asanas and pranayam help rejuvenate our body. The more I learned about yoga the more it attracted me," said Mahendra. He practices yoga every day for an hour. "Every asana has a purpose. It focuses on different aspects of your body and mind. But we should perform the asanas the correct way. That's why I would recommend to people to learn yoga first and then practice on their own. There is a lot to learn in this field. These are not just exercises. It's a way of life," he added.
Even though Mahendra belongs to a Jain family who had come to the city from Rajasthan 60 years ago, he is the quintessential Chennaiite. A businessman by profession, the quinquagenarian, is as fit as a fiddle. "Yoga has given me renewed energy. I feel more active than ever after I started doing yoga regularly," he said. Mahendra, a father of two, could not interest them into taking up the same passion as his. "They are more into badminton," he laughed. "I have never forced anyone to do yoga. It is up to them. I can only tell them why it is good," Mahendra added.
