New Delhi: Early showers in the national capital could not deter Delhiites who gathered in large numbers at various parks and public squares across the city on Wednesday to mark the third International Yoga Day. The third edition of the celebrations were played out at several venues, from open plazas in Central Delhi to old municipal parks and sprawling gardens in other parts of the city.
Union ministers M.Venkaiah Naidu and Vijay Goel, Delhi lieutenant governor Anil Baijal and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also took part in the celebrations. NDA presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind and senior BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi also joined in.
“Yoga is neither political nor religious and it fosters brotherhood globally,” Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said. The streets of Connuaght Place’s Inner Circle, where vehicular movement was restricted, wore a festive look as old and young, dressed in colourful attires, pulled and stretched to perform various asanas.
Yoga practitioners participate in a mass session on International Yoga Day in front of the Red Fort in Old Delhi on Wednesday. (Photo: AFP)
Mats were also rolled out at the six radial roads of the famed market place, Lodhi Garden, Nehru Park, Talkatora Garden and Children’s Park at India Gate, under the aegis of the New Delhi Municipal Council. Though rains in the early hours had turned the mats soggy, the number of people joining the celebrations, continued to build up.
As the day progressed, the number of people participating in the celebrations, which also included mega yoga sessions at DDA parks, reached 10,000 across the city. Various yoga-themed murals were created at various places in the run- up to the celebrations, transforming drab metal sheets at building construction sites and dreary walls of municipal parks into bright canvases.
The latest artwork, the most ambitious one, which was completed on Tuesday, is an over 10,000-sq ft mural depicting the meditative asanas of Surya Namaskar in the backdrop of Delhi’s famed monuments.
