Morning practice on the mats beside the health centre at Muluk.
01
The sport
From practice to performance.
On the mat at Muluk, Yogasana was repetition, control, and precision. Beside the health centre, the association team led from the front. The postures prepared a performance. The performance itself waited for the hall.
02
From district competition to the state.
Competitive Yogasana is that work performed in public. Artistic Yogasana was the form contested at this meet. An athlete is judged on what the body holds: the line of the posture, the time it is kept, and the balance. The portrait before the championship banner is an athlete of this gathering. The evening mat, under the lights, is the same sport after the morning practice.
Abhay Barman of Paschim Bardhaman spoke on camera as a competitor at this 7th State championship, held by the All Bengal Yogasana Sports Association. He said that when he began, the journey was only health: yoga was something one did to keep the body well. He said he now also sees a career in it, and he spoke of government work as something that can follow the sport. He named vacancies he said were open in the CRPF, the CISF and the BSF. That is his account of a route. It is not a promise made by this championship, and it is not a result of these four days.
He said he had won gold at a world Yogasana meet in Ahmedabad, and gold at an Asian championship before that, and that he holds medals at national level as well. He said a cash award had followed the Asian gold, and another at national level. Those medals and awards are his own telling. They are not the medal ceremony of this meet.
He asked the children who play for the association to come and compete, so that a person who stays with the sport can find out how far a life can go. He set the order as he sees it: play for the district, then the state, then the national level, and let a first or a second there be the basis of any later application. He said there are many federations, and he was not telling anyone to stop playing elsewhere. His point was that if the sport is to become a life, it has to be played on the route he trusts. He thanked the association’s workers, and Shyamal Ta, whom he called Shyamal sir. He also thanked the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister, saying they had carried yoga a long way. That thanks is his.
A standing balance during the evening session.
03
Judged as a sport.
Equanimity is Yoga
समत्वं योग उच्यते
Shyamal Ta, in the interview recorded at Muluk, described the route as he runs it: district championships, then this state meet, then selection onward to the National Games and Khelo India. That is his account of the ladder. It is not a promise of a place, an award, or employment.
In the same interview he spoke of money and of people by name. He said the registration fee was ₹50, and he set that against stay charges of ₹1,500 to ₹2,000. He named Ritu Mondal as someone who had entered the police and received cash awards, and Oliva of Hooghly as someone who had received a government post. He spoke of railway and central posts, of three further national gold medalists still waiting for joining letters, and of awards at Nabanna on 28 August: three of ₹3 lakh and one of ₹5 lakh. This site has not checked those names, sums, or appointments. They remain his account. Entering this championship is not a guarantee of a job or an award.