Bhubaneswar, June 21: Public parks, hospitals, educational campuses, banks, hotels, auditoriums and office spaces wore a special look today with the young and old coming together to celebrate International Yoga Day.
A large number of people gathered at the mega yoga camp organised by the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sanghatan at Janata Maidan here today.
More than 5,000 youth clubs, NCC, Bharat Scouts and Guides, members of the civil society and dignitaries took part in the event. Petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan joined the camp and encouraged more youths to commemorate the day and make it a grand success.
"Everybody should make it a practice to get up early in the morning and practice yoga regularly to keep themselves fit both in body and mind," said Pradhan.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rightly pointed out that yoga has nothing to do with next birth. Yoga keeps body and mind fit in this birth only," he said.
The Nehru Yuva Kendra Sanghatan, under the Union ministry of youth affairs and sports, also organised these camps in Puri, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Mayurbhanj, Sambalpur, Dhenkanal, Angul, Nuapada, Jajpur and Khurda districts.
As many as 25,120 youth in 314 blocks of Odisha were trained by the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sanghatan to take up the programme in these districts, said the organisation's Odisha zone director, R.P.S. Thakur.
At a huge turnout at the Kalinga Stadium, mayor Ananta Narayan Jena was seen performing yoga. He said: "Yoga helps to keep our spirit uplifted and to keep our energy levels high. It is a holistic development."
A large number of people, including sportspersons, schoolchildren, celebrities and politicians, performed yoga and other exercises under the supervision experts.
While Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram did his yoga regime at Rajgangpur in Sundargarh district, in Puri sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik and Manas Sahoo created "surya namaskar" on sand.
Ina unique effort, special yoga sessions were held for transgenders as well as people with disabilities. The Art of Living Foundation partnered with the state government to celebrate the day. The foundation conducted one-day yoga sessions across the state and at all training institutes of Odisha Police Academy.
Major city hospitals also observed the day. To mark the occasion, Sunshine Hospital organised an exclusive yoga session for people with arthritis free of cost.
An independent short film on yoga titled, Life 70mm - The only way out is in, was screened at Inox.
"The hour-long film is a short story of young people seeking to know about yoga. One of the aspects of the film is how yoga could be used for personal transformation. It will focus on the importance of yoga in our day-to-day lives and engage audiences through a 15-minute interactive capsule of "upa-yoga" within the film," said Rajeev Chakrabarti, chief marketing officer, Inox Leisure.
All major institutes including the XIMB, Siksha O Anusadhan University and KIIT celebrated the day. Students and faculty members took a break from their daily routine and took part in the workshop, in which they were taught "asanas" as well as meditation to achieve unity of body and mind.
