City schools warm up for first yoga day

KOLKATA: Yoga mania has hit schools in the city. That yoga international day is a Sunday has not dampened spirits as several schools have decided to either hold yoga sessions a day earlier or a day later. Some schools though, have enthusiastically decided to celebrate the first yoga day and have urged students to come for a while on Sunday morning.
South Point, the school that has the largest number of students on its rolls, will hold a yoga session between 7 and 7.35 on Sunday morning.Around 100 students from different classes will demonstrate various yoga postures while others will follow them. “We decided to follow the circular for international yoga day,” said South Point School vice-principal Joydeb Ghosh.
The two Apeejay Group schools have also asked students to report to school early on Sunday morning. “We have a yoga club in both schools. Other students will also join to listen to the special guest Rajesh Raj from Bengal Yoga association speak on the its importance after the yoga session along with music,” said Apeejay School Rita principal Chatterjee.
The students t Apeejay are quite excited about the celebrations. “ We have been parcticing yoga for a week and tommorow when our parents come down to watch us, it will be proud moment for all of us, “ said Jishnu Datta, class eight student at Apeejay Saltlake.
Heritage School has decided to advance the yoga session by a day as it does not want to disturb its school routine. “Yoga is a part of our curriculum and special classes are earmarked for it. But on Saturday, we will hold a yoga session at the morning assembly for the primary school,” said school vice-principal Meenkashi Atal.
The school is also organizing a audio visual of Narendra Modi speaking on the importance of the ancient Indian practice that has been adopted the world over. Heritage will also have a yoga session on Monday for the middle school followed by an inter-house yoga competition. Everyone will also do pranayam.
Birla High Boys will be also celebrate yoga day on Monday. “Sunday being the day off, we have scheduled the event on Monday,” explained school principal Mukha Naina. As part of the proceedings, a yoga instructor will address students and explain its importance. Yoga is a compulsory subject till class X for students at Birla High and option for XI and XII.
St James, that has class tests on Monday, has squeezed in 15 minutes in the morning for a yoga display by students, followed by a talk on the benefits of yoga by seniors. Many others though have decided to give the event a skip. La Martiniere and Al Ameen are among them.

Roopkatha Sarkar, the principal of La Martiniere for Girls, said the school did not have time to prepare for the event as it had just reopened after the summer holidays. Al Ameen Mission that runs several schools won’t celebrate it either and cited Ramzan for the difficulty in incorporating it into its routine.