I have a new found appreciation for Yoga. And it’s all due to marketing, here in the US. People do it, people take classes, and understand it as a means of achieving their physical fitness goals. You have Yoga aids, like the strap, the block. You can use a Yoga mat. You can wear “Yoga” pants – although I’m not sure there’s any difference between them and the regular old stretchy workout pants. There’s Yoga gear and wear accesories you can spend a whole bunch of money on.

My dad, in India, has done and still does Yoga, using an old blanket. No strap, no Yoga ball or block, no Yoga accesories really. But years of watching him do Yoga, twice a day, you think I took up Yoga too ? Nope, not a chance ! Yoga was somethig older people did, you know, to remain flexible. And Yoga was good for health etc. (as my Dad often told me). But how and why ? I never asked, I wasn’t ever interested.

That’s the general image of Yoga – uncool, done by older people. Plus, Yoga had to be done perfectly, no half-ways trying would do (or maybe that was just my Dad’s philosophy I absorbed here). No one (except for my Dad) suggested that youngsters should do Yoga, there was nothing on TV (those were Doordarshan days), and there was no general awareness.

But Yoga came to America. And Americans marketed it. Yoga was everywhere, everyone from athletes to gym-going regular people did it. There were DVD’s, audio aids, Yoga gear in super-markets. Yoga got on TV. Bikram Yoga got really popular. Yoga studios abound. Yoga is easy and accesible and for everyone. You don’t have to be a perfectionist or wanna-be-sadhu to do yoga. You can be a real, regular, normal person. And so the marketing goes. . .

But it’s efective, this marketing message. It takes yoga from being an esoteric practice to being an easily, accesible, readily available one. I believe that’s what makes it so popular. It takes this all-pervading marketing mania on Yoga, this pushing Yoga down my throat thing, for me to actually realise it’s worth. We had it in India all this while, and I paid no attention to it. It’s partly marketing me thinks, and the philosophy that unless it’s coming from the West, it can’t be too good. You know the “ghar ki daal” thing ?

Things have changed now. There are Yoga CDs, and DVD’s in the Indian market. I often watch “Yoga for life” on Z tv. It’s hosted by Sandeep Chaudhary and it’a a pretty good program. I also watch the other Yoga program which come right beore or after it, done by leotard clad women ( forget the name, “Yoga and You” ?). That one’s good too. Chaudhary and the women look normal, sane people. Regular people (albeit with an aura of calmness) who probably brushed their teeth and read the newspaper just like you and me. Now, let’s assume that an old, saffron clad sadhu replaces Chaudhary or the women in the programs. You think I’m still going to watch it ? Me thinks not. And if I did, I would really, really need to, want to do Yoga.

So, yeah, appearances matters, marketing matters, accesibility matters. If you make it hard, and tough nobody will want to do it. Market it right, sugar-coat it, get the person to identify with it, and it becomes hot property.

Categories : _miscellanous