Remember those childhood days when your father would lie down on bed, fold his legs and put you on the knees? He would then stretch and bend his legs in synchronisation giving you the feel of a swing. I remember it as jhoolam jhali , Zubin Atre recalls it was called jhoote maate in his Punjabi household but essentially it is an asana which he describes as part of partner yoga. In the last decade, the term has gained currency by different names. Some call it couple yoga, others call it acro yoga in metropolises but Zubin is trying to make it more universal and inclusive.
Cut to his Atre Yoga Studio in South Delhi where people of different age groups try to understand each other and the universe through asanas. “The idea of partner yoga always existed. Remember how our parents used to make us fly or how the new born crawls up to his/her mother’s chest. In fact, touch is the first sense that the foetus develops. Now it has taken a clearer form. I discovered when I teach yoga I have to adjust to the student your body also becomes a part and without you that asana is somehow not complete. If you see it from a distance you will feel two people are doing one asana on one mat. This is how it emerged. A bunch of yoga teachers when they hang out together this is what they do,” reflects Zubin, who, after a decade-long experience, has now put his thoughts and practice together in a revelatory book “It Takes Two To Yoga: Asanas for couples and partners” (Rupa).
Though, he mentions the physical aspect of couple yoga reflects in “Kamasutra” and paintings of Ajanta and Ellora, the goals of partner yoga are deeper and more universal. Zubin, who teaches with his Italian wife Sara Zennaro, suggests you can practise it with your spouse, parent, colleague and even a stranger. In a country where body is a taboo, Zubin says partner yoga is a fun way to understand each other. “The relation between two people together can be physical, emotional, mental and spiritual and now it is up to you how far you want to go with it. There is no cap on it. The book suggests asanas which you can practise with your colleague for better synergy and better work environment, you can do it with either of your parents, you can do it with a friend or even with a compete stranger. Sometimes when we do yoga sessions, lot of people don’t have partners. People are shy. I just tell them to close their eyes, start walking in the room and just grab the hand of the first person you bang into.” It is like creative theatre workshops, isn’t it? “Yes, the same dialogue is spoken differently by ten different people depending on the pitch and voice quality and throw of the person.”
Some feel that the two partners might be on an equal plane mentally but their bodies might be not. “You can actually see lot of partners laughing out in the sessions because the balance doesn’t always come naturally. And we start blaming each other that oh! she is heavy, oh! he is weak. We have to divide the weight in such a way that neither you feel my weight nor do I feel yours.” He agrees it is easier said than done but in the same vein underlines that yoga is about practice. “It might not look graceful. Does it matter? It doesn’t because it is not performance, it is practice. Rather than pushing the body into asana, we try to put asana into the body. The partners just need to have a small understanding that nobody is perfect.”
Can it be harmful? “The idea is we are not just thinking about ourselves, we are thinking about the other person too. It is very important to listen to each other. That this is the limit. When you are facing each other, if there is a slight discomfort on the partner’s face, you stop. However, the stretch you get, the flexibility challenge that you get is, most of the times, better than when you do it alone.”
Tradition tells us yoga is about union of body and mind and here Zubin is bringing two bodies and minds together. It could be explosive! “It is about connection of your body with you mind and synchronising your breath with your partner’s breath, which in turn, allows you connect with his or her mind and body.” This connection, he says, develops an unspoken bond which ensures economy of words in conveying your thoughts. “This helps in fostering healthy relationships. You often say a lot which you actually don’t mean. When you can watch a film together, dine out together, why can’t you practise yoga together.”
But then yoga is about restraint of thought and presence of partner can add to the thoughts that you have to pass through to become free of thoughts. Zubin, who got to know his brother better through partner yoga, agrees there is indeed a greyish area that you have to pass through but ultimately meditation is a state of mind and it is not about the subject. “It is like a watching two jet planes doing acrobatic exercise in the sky. From the ground you might find them in a high speed exercise but the relative velocity between the two partners is zero, as they are in sync.”
Zubin says he doesn’t claim that partner yoga can cure diseases. “It is for the general well being of the whole body. And we keep it simple and clean enough so that it can be applied to a person of any race, religion and sexual orientation.”
Getting the breathing right is one of the crucial goals of yoga and Zubin, whose clients include ace shooter Abhinav Bindra, says most people don’t know the value of breathing. “Despite the fact this is the first thing we do after coming out of the womb. They would know how many times the heart beats in a minute but they don’t know how many times we breathe in a minute. In most urban centres the quality of breathing is poor. From the ideal 12 breaths per minute it goes up to 20-22 breaths per minute. The air doesn’t reach the bottom of the lungs. It accelerates the aging process.”
Some of the asanas in the book look magical and gravity defying but Zubin, who is now going to Tokyo to study the relationship between yoga and biomechanics, insists that if you break them down into details there are no difficult to practice. “It is like using hoverboard. When my young nephew asked for it, I was surprised. I thought even I can’t handle it. When the Saradarji in the Khan Market grabbed my hand and put me on it and asked me to use my toes I was initially clueless but within minutes my body got it and then I didn’t want to come down,” he gushes. So, don’t underestimate your body.
