Lucknowites have been working hard since months to celebrate the 4th International Yoga Day, today. In fact, a majority of them have literally pulled up their sleeves and have geared themselves to take an active part in celebrating the day either in their groups or in public activities being organized across the city on the occasion. Fitness and yoga instructors in the city say that requests for training in yoga from people in the city had started coming to them from as early as April this year. INCREASE IN YOGA ENTHUSIASTSDr Sandhya Pandey, a yoga instructor in Aliganj, says that the footfall at her fitness centre increased ahead of International Yoga Day. "People are really enthusiastic to participate in Yoga Day celebrations. Since last year, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated the day in Lucknow, the number of trainees at my centre has increased. And since last week, the number went up further," says Sandhya, adding, "For the youngsters, it is more of a fitness challenge but for the elderly, it’s for overall well-being."SOCIAL MEDIA ADDING TO THE TRENDMohit Singh conducting a yoga session at his fitness centre (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)With social media being a big deal, it’s not surprising that a lot of people have taken to the practice to be able to post pictures on Facebook and Instagram. Mohit Singh, owner of a prominent yoga institute in Mahanagar and an instructor at the ongoing Happy Streets, tells us that the number of people practicing yoga has definitely increased ahead of International Yoga Day. "All thanks to social media, I have been getting entries from nearly a month before International Yoga Day celebrations. People say that they want to join the initiative so that they can post pictures on social media. This year the awareness level regarding yoga has gone up and people want to show an active participation in the celebrations," says Mohit.Ankhiyan (L) and Devika performing Pranaayam (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)YOUNGSTERS INCLINED TOWARDS YOGAAccording to Manish Teaotia, owner of a fitness studio in Mahanagar, there has been a marked increase in the number of young yoga students at his centre. "Since last year, awareness regarding yoga has increased in Lucknowites. But what is surprising is that more youngsters have started practicing yoga. Now I get youngsters coming every day wanting to do yoga, who were once obsessed with gymming. Their sole demand is that they want to gear up for the International Yoga Day so that they can participate in various activities planned in their group or be part of a public one."Manish Teaotia performs a difficult aasan (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)FULL HOUSE FOR YOGA INSTRUCTORSAnd more people practising yoga means more instructors and classes and that’s what Reena Agarwal, an instructor at a yoga institute in Aliganj, claims; that ahead of Yoga Day, the demand among people to learn yoga had increased so much that she has had to increase the number of classes she was taking everyday. "Now I run five batches where we are a group of three trainers teaching yoga to people of all age groups," says Reena.Reena Agarwal (L) has had to increase the number of batches to fit in all those wanting to learn yoga (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)LONE BUT NOT ALONEAnd while most are taking the help of instructor’s to train in Yoga, there are some who believe in self-help. Like Sangeeta Gupta, a homemaker, who is the founder of a ladies fitness group which practices yoga on their own. "We are a group of 50 ladies where we start practicing yoga a few months ahead of the Yoga Day. Every year we do it at different locations in the city and this year we have chosen Lohia Park in Gomti Nagar. Instead of training under a person, we try and experiment different aasans and try to learn new things ourselves," says Sangeeta, who will be performing yoga with her group at Lohia Park today to mark Yoga Day.People practicing yoga at Manish Teotia’s fitness studio (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)COUPLED WITH FUNSakshi Arora, a homemaker in Gomti Nagar, has been making the most of the Yoga Day celebrations by doing yoga with her husband at Lohia Park. "We have been practising basic yoga exercises for the past one month so that we can participate in the International Yoga Day celebrations in the city. Also, last year, a lot of my friends had posted pictures on Facebook of them practising yoga on this day with their hubbies, so this time I too will have a picture to post on this big day," she says.— Prachi Arya

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