[gallery size="medium" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="All about getting fit" ids="153749,153743,153744,153764,153765,153766"] By Irfan Mohammed Saudi Gazette HUNDREDS of health-conscious people including Saudis, Indians and other nationals turned up at the Indian International School in Jeddah Wednesday evening to commemorate the third International Yoga Day. Yoga enthusiasts of different levels of skills, age and ethnic backgrounds gathered at the school auditorium and practiced various exercises known as "the asanas". The Indian Consulate General organized the event with the collaboration of the Arab Yoga Foundation and the General Authority of Sports. In spite of the Ramadan fasting, more than 1,000 men and women of various age groups attended the event with fervor, given its growing popularity around the globe including the Gulf countries. Haifa Alsabbab, chief of staff and managing director of Saudi Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Sports, was the guest of honor. She conveyed good wishes from Princess Reema Bint Bandar, vice president of the authority. Alsabbab expressed her joy in seeing the overwhelming response and the huge participation at the event by yoga enthusiasts from Saudi Arabia. Addressing the participants, Indian Consul Ceneral Md. Noor Rahman Sheikh urged the community to adopt yoga as a part of life to maintain a healthy body and soul. He said the practicing of yoga could make a person feel relaxed in today's hectic life. It could also prevent many illnesses, he added. Sheikh revealed that he was practicing various protocols of yoga for the last 25 years and if he missed one day, he felt very uncomfortable and "One can find peace of mind and a perfect status of the body by adopting yoga in life," the consul general said. There are different yoga protocols suitable for different age groups, Sheikh said, adding that it is good for the humanity as a whole because yoga is a holistic way of living life that unites body, mind and soul. Sheikh hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving the utmost importance to yoga. In addition to stress-release, yoga has also contributes for international solidarity, he added. Sheikh acknowledged the services of yoga guru Nouf Al-Marwaai, a Saudi national, through the Arab Yoga Foundation. Messages of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj were screened during the event. Moin Akhtar, consul for community welfare, said one should make yoga an integral part of life to keep fit and healthy. Al-Marwaai, the keynote speaker of the event, revealed her enthusiasm and admiration for yoga. She told the audience that when her joint pains and other health issues became acute, she had decided to travel to Australia for treatment but someone suggested to her to try yoga, for which she visited Kerala in India. She said this was visit was the turning point in her life and she was able to train many women in Jeddah to practice yoga. The Arab Yoga Foundation is offering 200 to 500 hours of yoga courses in the Kingdom, according to Marwaai, who is the chairman of the foundation. She said her institution received overwhelming response from across all sections of people in Saudi Arabia. The yoga trainer explained how yoga could be helpful during pregnancy and labor, as well as in other health issues. The consulate held a quiz competition upon yoga where Shahad Nasreen and Afshin Siddiqui bagged the first and second prizes respectively. In Riyadh, the Indian Embassy organized a similar event where Ambassador Ahmad Javed along with senior diplomats participated by practicing various asanas and postures. The United Nations proclaimed June 21 as International Day of Yoga in 2014 after Indian Prime Minister Modi, himself a yogi, made an appeal. India's initiative had the support of 176 countries and yoga, which is an ancient practice that originated in India more than 5,000 years ago, has now become a worldwide phenomenon.
