Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday, hundreds of Canberrans joined the Indian high commissioner and the Indian community on the lawns of Old Parliament House to salute the sun and to downward dog as part of the International Yoga Day, which was celebrated and commemorated right throughout the world. This initiative came about a number of years ago as a result of a call from the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to celebrate the 5,000 years of yoga. This is the first year that we have celebrated and commemorated it right throughout the world.

The week before, I celebrated International Yoga Day with the Indian community here in Canberra at the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin at the Hindu temple over in Florey. They had a yoga-thon—a whole day of yoga happening—and I joined them in the morning. I did not partake of yoga, because I am a Pilates girl now—a former yoga devotee but now a Pilates devotee. But it was a wonderful day; it was a wonderful morning. I joined with the ACT member for Ginninderra Dr Chris Bourke to listen to a number of members of the community talk about the benefits of yoga and the stillness that you get from yoga. It was a wonderful morning. I do commemorate and congratulate everyone, particularly Rakesh Malhotra, Anil Gupta, Ramesh Malik, Ashok Jain and Rakesh Jain.

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