Kazakhstan comes to Shivaji Park

A slice of Kazakhstan was in Dadar on Thursday April 14 A 12member team from the Central Asian country was at Shivaji Park the headquarters of the sport of mallakhamb in Mumbai The Kazakhs spent the greater part of the day training on the rope mallakhamb They are now travelling North for indepth yoga learning The mallakhamb session means yoga on a rope or pole was a followup to an introduction to mallakhambFrom April 1 for a week a threeperson yoga team from Samarth Vyayam Mandir Shivaji Park chief coach Uday Deshpande and champions Tamanna Sanghavi and Rajat Kavade from the city travelled to Kazakhstan to conduct mallakhamb workshopsDeshpande who is also director of Vishwa Mallakhamb Federation said ldquoWe conducted workshops in Almaty and NurSultan formerly Astana facilitated by Sandeep V Jadhav director Pradnya Institute of Yoga in Almaty and Sanjay Vedi of the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre Embassy of IndiardquoExperienceDeshpande stated that participants in both places were roughly between the ages 15 to 30 years ldquoThey were yoga students it was relatively easy for them to pick up mallakhamb on a rope We had nearly 200 participants collectively and the interest and enthusiasm was high With this the Kazakhs wanting to promote the sport are also thinking about importing a mallakhamb pole from here They are also interested in a fulltime coach from IndiardquoMallakhamb is practised on both rope and pole in Kazakhstan though only a rope was used Deshpande added ldquoAs yoga practitioners the participants had a good base the flexibility and strength were already there It was a question of finetuning and adapting to the rope mallakhambrdquoGlobetrottingDeshpande added that mallakhamb is on a world tour ldquoWe have been promoting the sport in Malaysia Japan Germany USA UK the French Reunion Island and so many more The Kazakhstan workshops were very important as we broke new ground It also helped mallakhamb get a foot in the door there We now hope to kindle interest and take mallakhamb to countries like Uzbekistan Kyrgyzstan and othersrdquo he said of the indigenous sportrsquos rapidly expanding footprintVaranasiJust how serious the Kazakhs are about mallakhamb was evident when just after the Indians left the team was here in Shivaji Park imbibing more mallakhamb lessons on desi turf ldquoThey were en route to Varanasi for yoga studiesrdquo said Deshpande who stated ldquoWe hope to have a Kazakh team participate in the second World Mallakhamb Championships most probably to be held in Bhutan later this year The first was held preCOVID in Mumbai where we had 15 countries We aim to have 50 nations this timerdquoCultureThe Indians said Kazakhstan was a ldquofascinating experience The scenic landscape language and culture were riveting We were also struck by the fantastic organization our hosts ensured Indian food in Kazakhstan and the robust responserdquo explained Rajat Kavade ldquoIn factrdquo Kavade added ldquoIt was so heartening to see the enthusiasm and energy We were actually invited back again to conduct more workshopsrdquo he stated adding that the warmth was evident in Kazakh outreach That warmth was in contrast to the cold weather ldquocertainly a change from the mercury in Mumbairdquo chuckled Kavade while Deshpande recalled with a laugh ldquowe had several snowball fights at a mountain range that brought out the child in all of usrdquo he ended at his Shivaji Park office already buzzing for forthcoming events