TRIVANDRUM
Wednesday November 29, 2006 12:19 IST

Yoga Maverick

Prenatal yoga, reverse ageing yoga, Kundalini yoga, combat yoga, prana yoag - Thanks to Master Kamal, people in Hong Kong, Thailand and China now know about all the different types of yoga.

Srinivas Suresh Kamal is finding new dimensions to a 5000-years-old Indian physical art form - Yoga. He has given a fresh perspective to Yoga with a fusion of classical dance forms like Cosmic Dance and Fusion Dance.

Yoga no longer remain just a spiritual tool in the hands of Kamal as he has transformed it into Kryoga - Kamal’s Rhythmic Yoga - which has become a rage in East Asia. It’s an art of mindful living designed by incorporating different fields of yoga like Hatha yoga and Ashtanga yoga.

The new-age yoga has now different versions - Hot yoga, Prenatal yoga, Reverse Ageing yoga, Kundalini yoga, Combat yoga, Power of Prana yoga - the list is long. With this, Kamal who is popularly known as Master Kamal is spreading the importance of yoga in attaining better physical and mental well-being in countries like Hong Kong, Thailand and China.

But he cannot just be termed as a yoga teacher. He is trying to give a new lease of life to those Indian traditions, which are on the road to extinction. “I am trying to protect and preserve yoga which has wide acceptance in East Asia,” says Master Kamal who runs a chain of yoga studios in Hong Kong.

Not just yoga, his studio at Hong Kong even runs courses for Kathakali and Kuchipudi for which dance experts from India give training.

But the irony is the fact that among the 5000 odd students who train under him there are only a few Indians.

“We are not realising the importance of this beautiful art form. For a country like Hong Kong which has a very stressful lifestyle, yoga has given a fresh lease of life to them. It has wide acceptance which we even won’t find it in India. We have yoga studios which run round the clock a day. Even we have students coming at 10 in the night,” says Kamal.

Indians have not given much seriousness in propagating the importance of yoga in life. “The yoga here has no life. I present myself energy which is intended to rejuvenate and charisma to transform your life,” says Kamal who is in the city for a short visit.

Master Kamal has reached Thiruvananthapuram with 20 students from Hong Kong to learn more about Ayurveda. “The students and people in Hong Kong have seen Auyrveda just in pictures and CDs. I wanted to give them a first hand experience. Now they are learning what rejuvenation therapy is and also about the various facets of Ayurvedic treatment,” says Master Kamal who is an expert in martial arts and holds the 4th degree black belt in Dan Karate and Kick Boxing. He is also planning to propagate yoga with Ayurveda in East Asian countries.

Master Kamal, who hails from Vizag has been trained in various martial arts since the age of five. He brought laurels to Vizag when Kamal’s student, 10-year-old M.S. Sailaja, rolled her way into the Guinness Book of World Records with her feat in Limbo Roller Skating in 1990.

Now he has another dream. “I am trying to blend Kalaripayattu with Yoga. I am a great admirer of Kalari and I believe that most of the foreign martial arts have been derived from Kalari,” says Kamal who is now training the sportsmen for the forthcoming Olympics in China.

Does he have any plans in India? “It will take minimum two more years for Yoga to get the same mileage which it gets in European countries and East Asia, in India. Definitely I will have some major plans then,” said Kamal.

Source: http://www.newindpress.com