Priyanka Kothari, who has barely recovered from the injury that she had suffered during the outdoor shooting schedule of ‘Agyaat’, was recently left gasping for breath, courtesy some innovative format of ‘Yoga’ that she indulged in. On suggestion of a friend, she opted for ‘Hot Yoga’ classes, a new concept in India. However, after attending just one class, she swore off it and promised herself that she would never be going back anywhere close to the venue.
“Can you believe it, they put you into a room, lock the doors and set the temperature to 50 degrees? And then it is expected that you would get into some full on intense ‘Yoga’. Come on, there are far better ways of maintaining your body and in my list, this unique form of ‘Yoga’ would come last”, says an exasperated Priyanka as she remembers the torturous grill that she had to go through.
“One fine day I got a call from someone from my gym who suggested that I attend these ‘Hot Yoga’ classes. Since I was recovering from injury and was willing to experiment with things that could help me get back to shape sooner, I was game for it. Those one and a half hours that I spent in the closed room would easily count as some of my most tiring moments ever. I tried following all the instructions but once I came out of the class, I was already half dead”, Priyanka narrates her plight.
No wonder, she decided there and then that she was back to her good old gym rather than an experimental trip like this.
“Bombay mein already itni garmi toh phir uske upar aise garmi waale mahaul mein exercise karne ki kya zaroorat hai (When Bombay is already so hot, I don’t see any reason why one should get into a cauldron like this and work out)”, smiles Priyanka who would soon be back on sets to shoot for ‘Agyaat’.
She has another reason for not really being charmed by ‘Hot Yoga’.
“Tell me, isn’t one of the major most criteria for benefiting from ‘Yoga’ is to breath well”, she questions, “This is why worldwide it is practised in open air. No wonder I found the entire concept of doing it in a closed room quite funny. It was claustrophobic.”
She doesn’t mince any words when it comes to the trainers of ‘Hot Yoga’.
“These were some firangs who were in charge of this entire activity. Come on, the entire world is following ‘Yoga’ which is practiced by us Indians and here we had some outsiders trying to tell us what to do”, she says in a humorous tone, “I would rather rely on my own folks who have been doing this so very successfully for thousands of years rather than some newbie who is just so willing to change the very format of this beautiful way of keeping your body healthy.”
