By Express News Service CHENNAI: The New Indian Express conducted an awareness programme at Sri Krishnammal Matriculation School on Tuesday, ahead of World Yoga Day on June 21. The programme is the first among the series of events that will be held at various locations in the city. Around 50 students, who have been practising yoga over the last few years demonstrated nine different asanas on Tuesday. “When we teach yoga to children, they tend to concentrate better on academics,” said Mani Sekaran, principal of the school. He said that children who practice yoga in his school are healthier. “Through this programme, we want to encourage more students to sign up for our after-school yoga classes,” he said. Students from classes 5-9 can participate in these sessions. Similar awareness programmes will be held at eight more schools and a college on Friday where over 500 students will participate. Express also has surprise events planned across the city, in addition to several more planned across the country. Express had taken this initiative following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision that every person in the country should know the benefits of yoga. Modi who has brought Yoga Day to the forefront, paving the way for United Nations to officially recognise it on June 21, tweeted videos, which showed his animated self, performing yogasanas to inspire people into taking up the healthy practice. The theme for World Yoga Day 2019 is ‘Yoga for heart’. June 21 is the day of the summer solstice when the tilt of the Earth’s axis in the northern hemisphere is most inclined toward the star that it orbits — in our case, the earth and the sun. It is considered the longest day of the year with the sun rising early and setting late for the northern hemisphere. The summer solstice is an important day in Indian mythology as it marks an event that could be considered the start of yogic science.

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