{"id":260,"date":"2016-03-23T01:22:38","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T01:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=260"},"modified":"2016-03-23T01:22:38","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T01:22:38","slug":"asanas-for-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=260","title":{"rendered":"Asanas for Auction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

O<\/span><\/p><\/div>

ver the past year, yoga has become one of our country\u2019s coolest exports. It\u2019s been accepted by the hip kids over at Madison Square Garden and infiltrated more conservative Muslim countries like Qatar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently joked in his speech to the US Congress that more people bend over for yoga than to throw a curve ball. And well, can\u2019t blame our prime minister for using something so popular, and so Indian, to improve the image of India abroad.\n\nWorld Yoga Day was a big success in India too with a host of think-pieces, trending hashtags, yoga drives, and other astounding decibles of noise. Corporates have breathed in the benefits of yoga, and are using it to sell products with \u201cspiritual\u201d themes. Take for instance the Times of India-sponsored \u201cYoga by the Bay\u201d on Marine Drive in Mumbai. Some company decided it would be a good idea to vend its free pisswater to all the people offering Surya Namaskars. The result was a thousand cans of some \u201crelaxation drink\u201d called Tran Quini discarded all over the promenade. Very yogic, all this littering.\n\n\u201cIndia\u2019s leading holistic wellness ambassador\u201d Mickey Mehta also used the event to the max, installing standees urging people to take \u201cWellfies\u201d with his cutout, so as to get \u201cMickeymized\u201d after their Surya Namaskars. This megalomaniac is so full of shit, he has a \u201cMickeypedia\u201d on his website where he offers gems like: \u201cBe someone\u2019s partner in karma, that will also fulfill your own dharma\u201d. I\u2019d have said this is where verse goes to die, but it is actually just a very Indian way of saying, \u201cWatch me laugh as I make money off ya bitches.\u201d\n\nApart from these amazing experiences, yoga also took a backseat to , because nothing sells in this city without a celebrity apparently. Someone named Tara Sharma and the other other<\/em> Khan, Arbaaz, rubbed shoulders with regular South Mumbai plebs to show their love for yoga. Later, over a hundred police officers gathered to take post-yoga selfies with Arbaaz, just like Iyengar would have wanted it.\n

Meanwhile, in the midst of a raging debate over appropriation of yoga abroad, beheading-threat aficionado, Baba Ramdev, has used yoga to create a consumer product empire worth \u20b93,000 crore.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThere\u2019s no denying it: Everyone wants a piece of the yoga pie. Modi might have stopped short of claiming intellectual property rights over yoga during his address, but several members of his own party, and other right-leaning outfits, have jumped to claim yoga as validation of India\u2019s glorious contribution<\/a> to mankind, a concept that is partially based in history and mainly in myth. As BJP and its right-wing allies try to change India from a secular nation into a Hindu country, yoga has also been shoved down our throats. There are plans to make it compulsory practice in all schools, universities, and government departments across the country despite the fact that they\u2019ve moved to drop all religious symbols from yoga.\n\nMeanwhile, in the midst of a raging debate over appropriation of yoga abroad, beheading-threat aficionado, Baba Ramdev, has used yoga to create a consumer product empire worth \u20b93,000 crore, humbly turn down a cabinet position in Haryana, and claim to cure homosexuality. Which doesn\u2019t exactly sound like the kind of yoga that the Vedas spoke of. At the Gateway of India, where the National Port Trust was celebrating International Yoga Day this morning, Baba Ramdev\u2019s Patanjali had a stall to sell insta-noodles.\n\nWhen we speak of Baba Ramdev, can that other spiritual stretching guy, Sri Sri, be far behind? The much-maligned cultural festival organised on the banks of the Yamuna, was to promote the benefits of yoga. Now, admittedly, I don\u2019t personally know much about Sri Sri, but that event didn\u2019t leave the best impression. He held what can only be called a gala on the banks of one of our most polluted rivers, featuring yoga and meditation sessions, peace prayers, and a VIP audience in attendance. Sri Sri was given prompt clearances to host the jamboree by the National Green Tribunal, despite the latter noting in its report that the floodplains had been \u201cdrastically tampered with\u201d.\n\nSo in the midst of all this appropriation why should we care about our intellectual property, or worry that attractive foreigners put on yoga pants, drink chia-seed juice, get \u201cOm\u201d tattooed backwards, and interpret yoga in their own way. We already have boxing yoga, naked yoga, rave yoga, hot yoga, doga, and voga that combines yoga with vogue\u2026 whatever that means.\n\nSo go ahead, appropriate away, everyone\u2019s doing it anyway.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World Yoga Day was a big success with a host of think-pieces, trending hashtags, and yoga drives. We just stopped short of putting an IPR over it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[456,62,63,64,65,66,67,457,458,71,72,322],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-appropriation","tag-arre","tag-arre-digital-platform","tag-arre-originals","tag-arre-reads","tag-arre-text-articles","tag-arre-website","tag-asana","tag-auction","tag-web-series","tag-web-shows","tag-yoga"],"yoast_head":"\nAsanas for Auction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"World Yoga Day was a big success with a host of think-pieces, trending hashtags, and yoga drives. 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