In my previous blog, I briefly tried to explain the vision of Guruji on Bellur and the developments that are taking place to fulfill his vision. You have seen what kind of buildings have come up in Bellur to help the people of Bellur. Construction of buildings, I think is not a big deal. The real challenge for the trust is to create infrastructure for the students and people of Bellur to avail the services without levying any kind of fees.
The entire Iyengar yoga community is actively working to make Guruji's vision a reality. Most prominently the International Iyengar Yoga Community is playing a crucial role in mobilizing students and funds to aid the Trust to meet the huge expenditure involved in running the activities of BKSSNT.
Guruji found that the girl child of Bellur is not getting proper education after grade 7 as there is no high school in the village. The parents were not willing to send their girl child to the neighboring village schools. After establishing a school by Guruji many girls are now studying in high school. You can look at the pictures below, equal number of girls are studying in the high school and the college. What a relief would it be to the soul of Guruji!
I must talk about this lady in black coat and red saree, Chaitra. She was the first student to have enrolled in the high School and a pass out of the first batch to have completed schooling. She did her Bachelors in Education and Masters in commerce thereafter and came back to the college to teach B.com students. What a humble way to pay gratitude to Guruji for what he has done to her life. I learnt that she left the college this year as she got married and moved out of Bellur.
Another important factor is the development of confidence among the young generation of Bellur. As Rita Keller mentioned during her interview, youth of Bellur were shy and hiding in the beginning and now they are coming forward with lot of confidence. When you walk down to the village, you will find some of these young kids communicating to the visitors in a fluent English. They sometimes act as guide to them.
What would have been more heartening to Guruji was the fact that Bellur students are excelling in his favorite subject of Yoga; winning awards from different yoga competitions at State level.
The talent of students is being identified and groomed from the early stage. You can see some real child prodigies coming out from Bellur in Yoga. You can see from the image below what these kids can do.
I have been watching this boy for the last two years and he is really excelling in his practice. He is the boy to watch out for in future.
The fantastic four of Bellur, Gajendra, Prashant, Sunita and sorry I don't remember the fourth.
I first saw them when they were kids performing fantastic asanas on stage during Guruji's 94th birthday. They are now been groomed as yoga teachers who have already began teaching the school kids and people of Bellur and surrounding villages. They are now participating and learning yoga from reputed teachers of the World that come to conduct workshops in Bellur. Apart from this they are sent to Pune from time to time to upgrade their skills in learning and teaching yoga.
Not only studies and Yoga, the boys and girls are excelling in different skills. The boy seen in the picture below is Prashant, a very talented dancer and choreographer. We got an opportunity to see his talent as a dancer and composer couple of times during our visit to Bellur. If he is nurtured, he may even start his career in choreography.
The boy third from left is Venkat. He is an excellent Artist. He surprised one and all with his skill by drawing the image of Patanjali in less than a minute. If he is groomed again, he might pursue his career in Art.
I think this is the real development that would please the heart of Guruji more than any thing. I must salute to the spirit of Guruji and devotion of these students and all those who are working relentlessly to live the dream of Guruji.
That is it for today, keep watching the space for more updates.
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