Friendly advice

Members of Friend's Yoga help people stay fit

There is a common link between the Deira Park near taxi stand, the Bur Dubai Creekside Park and Al Ittihad Park as well as the Corniche in Sharjah. All are regular haunts for people who love to do yoga.

It all started 12 years ago, when B.K. Rai, a retired principal, came to Dubai and found that many people here suffered from strain and stress, the two major causes of many diseases. Being a yoga exponent, Rai took it upon himself to help people by giving free yoga sessions in Deira Park.

Many people benefitted and the trend spread like wildfire. So much so, that after learning from Rai, his students, intending to continue the good deed, also started teaching in different places. As the group grew in size, it started being aptly recognised as Friend's Yoga.

Today, members of this association are teaching not only in Dubai and Sharjah, but also in other countries like Muscat, Mauritius and the U.S. They do not like to call themselves an organisation, rather a family, with Rai as the over-all head and K.B. Madhavan, one of his oldest students, heading operations in Dubai.

T. John Behanon and Shekar Moily of Friend's Yoga have been teaching in Bur Dubai since several years. "Yoga is all about having a healthy body and mind," asserts Behanon, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Indian army. Besides yoga, meditation and accupressure on palms and feet are also included during these sessions.

"My husband and I both had a persistent backache for more than a year, leading to many sleepless nights," says young Rupali Sangodkar, who has been attending yoga sessions with her husband regularly since a year and a half.

She had tried many therapies but nothing seemed to help. "Ever since we joined yoga, the pain has disappeared magically. I also believe that the open-air environment really supports the yoga sessions by giving additional energy to the whole exercise," adds Sangodkar.

"Yoga consists of three parts - physical, spiritual and mental," says Moily, an auditor by profession. He explains that most students claim to experience a peaceful and calm full-night's sleep after just a couple of sessions. Amongst the many problems that leads people to yoga, the most common are insomnia, blood pressure, overweight, backache and stress.

There is no monetary gain for any of the teachers. "A number of people have benefitted from these sessions. This cycle of people coming and going, each one cured and happy, gives us a lot of happiness and a sense of achievement," says Behanon.

On Wednesday evenings, after the session is over, everyone gets together to share snacks over some friendly chat. Behanon and Moily have a solution for almost all kinds of problems and are always happy to add to their 'family of friends'. They also have a number of tried and tested herbal remedies for certain ailments, which they love to share.

Sessions are held regularly everyday except Friday in all of the above-mentioned places from 5.30 to 6.30am except in Bur Dubai where they are held in the evenings from 7.30 to 8.30pm.