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Asians - waiting to inhale

My daughter and I take walks in the park in the mornings if I can manage to convince my old tired body to do the needful.  The daughter being young and full of zest for life is banging the door down.

So we go.  Once I get going it feels relaxing and the body thanks me for a better nights sleep the following evening.  Now my entire exercise regimen is based on ensuring I get to walk couple miles a day - between work and home and points between,

That I have decided is kasrat (exercise) enough.  The readership might remember my surprise in an earlier blog when I saw a native of southern India running along the neighborhood streets bare foot along with an appa flock or whatever a  collection of  Andhra males can be called.  This to prepare for a marathon run, was the answer to my curiosity.

When they ran they also breathed in funny.   Sucking air in big gulps in a staccato manner. I am sure the lungs demand lot more of the O2 than if you had to walk.  Then again I would not walk an arbitrary distance like that - I mean what is the point? 26 miles from some random point to another?  Sometimes to cure cancer or some equally bizzare reason - I for one can never equate the two activities.    Run if you are desperate to but don't make it sound like a philanthropic Mumbo jumbo.

Now back to my walk in the park.  What was once a leisurely stroll in the morning quiet has been taken over by Chinese themed exercise music with an aging dude that shows up with accoutrements including a Straw mat and a tape player with the tai chi or whatever style string music that must disorient the local birds.  His whole posture changes with the notes of music and breathing follows some sort of inhalation pattern unique to tai chi.

Then next to him in a bench are few Indian grandma types doing something extraordinary with their nostrils and overall respiratory apparatus.  Apparently it is a version of pranayama, a yogic tradition all designed to aid in digestion and other things that ail the body at that age.

So a mere mortal like me finds himself asking - why do these characters have to exhibit and impose their portfolio of inhaling techniques on me - stop breathing near my face - let me just walk.

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