Engineered to heal
Jangveer Singh meets Manas Maral, a software professional who has made yoga popular among techies in Bangalore

When I started yoga I was not confident but after one and a half months of practice, my sugar level went down tremendously. I am grateful to you and I don’t know how I am going to repay you for what you have done for me."

So goes a letter written by Kannan K, a senior software engineer working at Tavant Technologies in Bangalore, to a fellow colleague. The colleague is also a software engineer who practises yoga and teaches it free of cost to working professionals in the IT capital of the country.

For 34-year-old Manas Maral, his journey from software to pranayama, acupressure healing and now even the opening of a six-bedded care centre has been one of self-discovery. He discovered yoga and pranayama when his wife was severely ill for a few months three years ago and he did not get any relief through conventional medicine. When he realised the benefits of yoga, he attended several camps held by Swami Ramdev and encouraged his extended family to find a cure for their ailments.

Manas has been conducting free yoga camps in Bangalore. — Photo by Shailendra Bhojak

"After the benefit my family received from yoga, my attention was drawn to my co-workers in Tavant," says Manas. "Many were complaining of back and shoulder pains besides feeling stressed out because they were putting in long hours and developing odd eating habits".

Manas first held regular yoga classes at Tavant. After some time when more than 250 persons had started doing yoga in the company on a regular basis, he reached out to other IT firms. Manas started taking classes at other IT firms of Lucent, HP and Mu–sigma and recently also at the Indian Space Research Organisaton (ISRO) and the Karnataka Reserve Police Force — all free of cost.

"My greatest achievement is starting yoga culture among working professionals in the city," the Varanasi-born engineer says, adding that professionals trained by him had started practising yoga at various places in the city. "I alternately visit different yoga classes to keep the tempo going besides holding camps at regular intervals. "These camps, which have been attended by hundreds, are also special," says Manas, while advocating a package of pranayama, acupressure and various simple asanas besides diet change to get the required results. "I also teach acupressure techniques so that people can practise it at home themselves rather than being dependent on any practitioner for acupressure treatment."

Recently, Manas opened a care centre in the city for people who cannot do the asanas by themselves at home and need expert guidance as well as monitoring. "We are following a holistic approach," says his wife Shalini, who is a partner in the movement started by her husband. "We get tests conducted on patients and then try to treat them through yoga and ayurvedic medicine," she says, adding that the care centre was getting encouraging results even for patients with serious maladies like thyroid, diabetes, tuberculosis and cancer. The couple charge for the food and medicines at the care centre but not for their services.

Subrata Nath, a cancer patient, said that he took to yoga after he had gone through several chemotherapy sessions. His health had taken a turn for the worse and he had even started vomiting blood in August last year. "I was, however, able to stage a quick recovery through pranayama and acupressure techniques advised by Manas." B Ananta Rao says his high triglyceride levels became normal after six months of yoga and pranayama.

Manas dreams his care centre will one day give rise to a hospital which would be run on modern lines to identify diseases and where the cure would be based on yoga and ayurveda. He also wants to provide healthy and balanced food on a large scale to working professionals, who, he feels, eat food which is unsuitable for their sedentary lifestyle.