Yoga capital of world? London, not Rishikesh!

By Rohit Mahajan

Manchester, June 26

Well, that’s the claim, made last week by an event management company called Eventbrite, on the basis of the yoga-related events registered on their website.

London hosted over 2,000 yoga-related events registered on the company’s website in 2018, well clear of 1,100 in New York and 700 in Los Angeles.

Critics could blame Eventbrite for capitalist cultural appropriation, for Rishikesh could claim to host yoga events at the rate of one per day. But it’s clear that UK is going for yoga in a big way, with 6,000 yoga events registered last year with Eventbrite, a 200 percent rise over 2016.

Yoga pays

And yoga pays you back in good physical and mental health, plus good money if you hit jackpot. Yoga pays. Here’s a good story to illustrate this point.

Mr Hazeldean met yoga teacher Ms Brushett in London. Sparks flew. Sadly, love didn’t happen. Both were knocked out unconscious -because they’d met at the speed of several miles an hour. Just when Robert Hazeldean was rocketing along on his bicycle, Gemma Brushett was phone-gazing and zombie-walking at a busy junction in London Bridge area.

The meeting was not pleasant, and both had to be taken to hospital. Gemma sued, and a Central London county court awarded her £4,161.79, and also ruled that Hazeldean must foot most of the bill for the two-day court case, claimed to be around £100,000. The court accepted that Hazeldean is a “calm and reasonable road user”, and that Gemma was equally to blame for the accident. Why wasn’t Gemma held culpable by the court? Well, she possibly was looking up a new yoga aasana to teach.

Pre-teen Yogi

We heard of a young yogi of Indian origin, Ishwar Sharma, who’s wowing the UK with his performances and wise words, such as this: “Yoga teaches about nature and harmony.” Good stuff for a nine-year-old.

He was given the British Indian of the year award last year, and performed in various places as the Yoga Day was celebrated on June 21.

He was invited to the House of Commons on June 20, and the next day performed in front of the Parliament in London.

“I play football, rugby and cricket in school, but my main interest is yoga,” says the super-wise pre-teen who is undoubtedly the most famous pre-teen Yogi in the UK.