Passion Yoga at Moksh

The summer’s drained me of every remaining ounce of energy my pooped body can summon up. Fortunately, while I’m waiting for the Rain Gods to smile on me, I’ve found something that can add that much-needed spring in my step.

It’s Passion Yoga, newly introduced at Moksh. Now, before your mind races at the suggestive name, be warned not to expect steamy, gyrating sessions on bright mono-hued mats.

Yogi Shiv Kumar, who’s helped Shilpa Shetty stay svelte, gives traditional yoga a tangy twist. Gone are the slow stretches, lazy asanas, conscious meditation and conventional pranayama. Instead, bodies groove to peppy, instrumental numbers in a slightly heated room. Surya namaskars, integrated in quick succession, with at least 10 different asanas that I barely even recognise at that manic pace which doesn’t leave me time to breathe, let alone think.

As I sweat it out with nine others through veerbhadrasana, natraj asana, trikone asana, nauka asana and half a dozen more, I’m stretching muscles I seem to be getting introduced to for the first time. The circulating energy helps tone and flex my body and, I don’t know whether it’s thanks to Yogi Shiv’s words or the Passion Yoga itself, but I do feel my chakras getting energized too.

The class ends with the chanting of Om, and while leaving, I realise how, despite the slightly sore limbs, the hour-long session has undeniably lifted my spirits and refreshed my mind. On the way out, I ask Yogi Shiv why we didn’t meditate. Amused, he asks me what meditation is. I reply that it’s the closing of the mind to all thoughts. “And were you left with any time or energy to think at all?” he asks rhetorically, before packing off.

Enlightenment, here I come.

Passion Yoga at Moksh, The Wellness Place: 75 Bhulabhai Desai Road, Opposite the American Consulate, Mumbai; Tel 022-23676990, 022-23610221; Cost: Rs 562 for a one-hour session, Rs 2,247 for a month (classes thrice a week) and Rs 5,618 for three months (classes thrice a week).