I along with 3 of my friends were in a tribal village Khadki to celebrate the first World Yoga day on June 21, 2015. Yesterday i.e. 20th June 2015 was quite eventful.
Bike breakdown, sent back from Purushwadi, welcomed by an unknown host and night walk in the jungle by the river was much more interesting than what we had expected.
I remember Bhangre Ji saying yesterday, government teachers will come to teach Yoga to the tribal kids in Shiva temple tomorrow morning. It was a good opportunity to contribute to the International Yoga Day and make this day memorable.
Our tent was pitched in the temple. Rajkumar and I woke up at 6:30 AM and left the place for morning activities. We took a tour of the village to witness the grace and simplicity.
Some photos from the morning tour around the village
Getting ready for school
Shyish smile
Village colors
Khadki village
River flowing by the village
Morning chat
Children started gathering in the temple by 7 AM. Chatais and Chadars were being spread. By the time we lazy city folks completed our morning routine, the session had started.
I came back and moved closer to the soft rhythmic chorus coming from the village temple. The sound became louder as I went closer, but it was soft on ears and pleasing on the heart.
Around 50 kids in the Shiva temple were repeating the trained voice of their teacher. I was amazed at the lyrics the government machinery selected for the IYD Prarthana. I could not remember the exact words of the Marathi prayer. The first line was something like below;
‘Hey ishvar tum Mujhe aise dharm par chalana jis se pure vishwa ka kalyan ho!’
Wonderful! They were learning something which is very very important.
When the world has become a bowl full of hatred and people are ready to kill someone just because they don’t like them, I am sure this simple-looking thing is much BIGGER in many aspects.
Bells hanging in the village temple of Lord Shiva
Village children and their Yoga instructor
Little sisters tuning their mind and body through Yoga
Yoga for mind and body
Later my other friends joined in. The session was very perfectly designed to include Pranayama, Asan and Prarthna.
Probably it was the first time for these kids and this was the reason they shared laughs with each other during Aasan and Pranayams. 3 government teachers apart from the trainer were correcting the mistakes. The raw minds were getting it quickly and some very performed very neatly.
We were enjoying too. The session ended with a humble Prarthna to the almighty.
That’s me in the background
Rajkumar practicing Bhujangansan along with Teacher and kids
Sachin Joshi filling his lungs with the fresh air of the hills
Saurabh Shetye preserving the memories
The trainer thanked us for getting involved and we thanked him for letting us join.
We accomplished what we were here. What better it could be for us to do asan and pranayama and sing Prarthna in chorus with little underprivileged kids in the open hills of the Sahyadris.
Packed up and left the place. Before leaving, we contributed an amount to the Welfare Fund of the tribal village. Shri Bhangre Ji whose kutchha house we had used refused to take money, we thanked him and left the village.
My return journey was painful as the bike kept misfiring and losing power right from the beginning. Two mechanics to which we showed our bike couldn’t help much. Riding at no more than 40kmph reached home at 9:30 PM.
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Seems like a good trip for you. The picture quality is brilliant!
The Solitary Writer
Thanks The Solitary Writer !!
Nice photos !!
~ The Solitary Writer