If the second fortnight of September was special for the Army jawans along the LoC in J&K’s Kupwara, it was more so for the army veteran’s wife and yoga expert from Nagpur.
Over 1,600 soldiers at 11 forward posts got lessons in yoga and pranayam from Padmini, who has been conducting free camps for decades. But the September 17-28 Kupwara sessions were rife with nostalgia: her late husband Col Pratap Jog had fought the 1965 and 1971 wars in the region.
“It was one of my life goals,” said Padmini. “I could travel through the hills, conduct camps almost daily, that too at 12,300ft,” she added.
Trained at Nagpur’s Janardanswami Yogabhyasi Mandal in the 1980s, the Jogs took advanced training from yoga guru Ramdev at Haridwar in 2005. Later, they started free camps for army schools, associations and societies.
Before Col. Jog’s demise in 2014, the couple had together organised 562 such camps. “I decided to carry on. The camps have now crossed 950. But my dream was to visit the forward posts and train our jawans,” Padmini said.
Travelling through hills and mountains for six to seven hours a day, spending nights in forward bases and conducting camps early in the morning was her schedule for almost a fortnight.
“In one module, I teach seven types of pranayam, seven micro-exercises, seven yogasanas, yoganidra and medication. The jawans, who stay away from their families and work in challenging weather conditions, benefit a lot from this module,” Padmini said.
