Yoga on the cards

While these few weeks of social distancing may have actually come as a surprise break for us adults, it can get difficult for kids - used to school, friends and the outdoors - to channel all their energy during house arrest. If you're having trouble thinking up innovative ways to engage the tots, then there's a new, healthy option to explore. Imagine yoga, rhymes and colourful Gond, Madhubani and Warli art all coming together. This is what Prabhadevi-based yoga instructor Rashmi Ramesh's Yoga Guppy flashcards are all about."

Rashmi, who has been teaching yoga for 11 years, says, "Every time I looked for content to make asanas fun, I realised most of the good stuff was from the West. I wanted to make yoga cool for kids so I started ideating on the flashcards two years ago," she says. Illustrated by her friend, Debjani Bhattacharya, each card displays an asana with its name in English and Sanskrit on one side, and a small poem on the other side. "Apart from giving a sense of the postures, the poems are aimed at positive self-affirmation."

The 33-year-old instructor adds that this is the right time to delve into yoga, and that adults can also play games with these cards. "I play this guessing game where I read out the poem on a card, and kids have to guess the pose. One can also build stories with them," she says, adding that she is posting some games one can play with the cards on her Youtube channel Yogalates with Rashmi. Why are the cards called guppy though, we ask. "Guppies are little rainbow-coloured fish. I used to call my niece, who I'm very fond of, Guppu. So I thought of calling the cards guppy, as they adapt to wherever they are. And it's yoga which helps us adapt," she signs off.

The kids are all right

With the flu season looming over us, author and yoga teacher Ira Trivedi says, "Simple stretches that stimulate the lymphatic system can be practised by kids, like heart and belly breath and trikonasana. Asanas with gentle twists increase the blood flow to the spleen, which helps fight infection."

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Cost Rs 950 (for a pack of 40)

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