4 boys ride to a tribal village Khadki for World Yoga Day celebration

I along with 3 of my friends was in a tribal village Khadki to celebrate the first World Yoga day on June 21 2015. Yesterday i.e. 20thJune 2015 was quite eventful.  Bike breakdown, sent back from Purushwadi, welcomed by 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. I and Rajkumar 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 round 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. Sound became louder as I went closer but it was soft on ears and pleasing on heart.

Around 50 kids in the Shiva temple were repeating the trained voice of their teacher. I was amazed with the lyrics the government machinery selected for the IYD Prarthana. I could not remember the exact words of the Marathi prayer. 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 Pranayams, Asans 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.

Me

Rajkumar practicing Bhujangansan along with Teacher and kids 

Sachin Joshi filling his lungs with 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 for what we were here. What better it could be for us to do asan and pranayams and sing Prarthna in chorus with little under privileged 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 mis-firing 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. 

Email me your comments or suggestions at budgetyatri[at]gmail.com or use the comment box below. I will be more than happy to listen your words.

Thanks.
Niraj Yadav.

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