THE evening silence of the spacious, brightly lit hall at Pasir Ris Elias Community Club is punctuated only by the sound of whirring fans and the voice of Mr C.V. Jagadish.
The chief executive of chipmaker Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Company turns yoga instructor twice a week, leading night classes of about 60 adults, many of whom are in their 40s and 50s.
Speaking into a microphone, he tells his students to perform the stretching exercises carefully.
'Lift your toes above your head, see if your toes can touch the floor,' he says, as seven other instructors provide help and demonstrate the moves.
All the instructors have gone through a year long training programme established in Singapore in 1997 by engineer and yoga enthusiast Atul Deshpande.
It is based on a model developed in Mumbai, India, about 50 years ago, under which future instructors are recruited through lessons that are provided to the community.
Indeed, when Mr Jagadish took up yoga in 1998 and was being trained as an instructor, Mr Atul and other volunteers were working hard to expand the programme to more locations in Singapore.
It was then that Mr Jagadish made a business proposal to Mr Atul, saying he could help turn the programme into a multi million dollar business.
He was astounded when Mr Atul told him that the central philosophy of the programme was to teach yoga to Singaporeans for free.
'It felt like someone slapped me on the face,' said Mr Jagadish. 'This was an opportunity to share with society, yet here I was just thinking about making money.'
By Cai Haoxiang
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
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