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Rina Chandran

As the fad for yoga grows in the West, it generates newer versions... Disco Yoga is one of them.

It was a cool evening in early May; three friends and I were sitting in a Starbucks café in Manhattan's Upper East Side, after a visit to a museum. One girl, a German, said that she had skipped her yoga class to go to the museum; her friend, a Brazilian, said she meant to take up yoga in the summer. The other girl, an American, said she needed to get a new outfit for her yoga class. "So what are good yoga clothes, Rina?" she asked.

I had been sipping my tea contentedly, only half listening to them. I looked up: all eyes were turned towards me. I put my cup down slowly, smiled weakly and said, "Umm... actually I'm into running and aerobics myself." My three friends shot me withering glances and turned back to resume their conversation, completely ignoring me.

I was obviously out of it. According to a survey last year by the American trade group Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, an estimated 9.7 million Americans practice yoga/tai chi, up from 5.7 million in 1998. In Manhattan, yoga studios are a dime a dozen, ranging from the authentic — with incense and `Om' soundtracks-to the you've-got-to-be-kidding kind.

Unlike 10 years ago, when only the rich and famous or the weird and the wild took to it, today yoga is much more mainstream as aging Americans discover its many benefits. It received another star endorsement a couple of years back with Madonna's yoga teacher character in The Next Best Thing. (The Material Girl practises Ashtanga Yoga, we learned.) Even men are swearing by its benefits, such as greater flexibility and strength in the lower body, besides the added bonus of meeting women. (Classes still have a majority of women.)

At the Crunch, a chain of fitness centres, there are classes in Vinyasa yoga, Kundalini yoga, Laughing Lotus yoga and Power yoga. In tinsel town, the latest fad is Heated Room, or Bikram Yoga. But if you'd rather sweat it out to the sounds of the Bee Gees, there's Disco Yoga, described as a `groovy flowing' yoga that combines the "timeless sounds of disco with the timeless practise of yoga". Perhaps Disco Mithun can become a franchisee here.

Malini Srinivasan, who learned yoga at Chennai's Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, combines another timeless dance form, Bharatnatyam, with yoga, at her Dancing Yogi studio in Saratoga, California.

But if you think yoga is too tame, check out Bhangra Aerobics. Created by Sarina Jain, who is actually from Rajasthan, this vigorous exercise form has a whole lot of shaking going on. Jain, who founded Masala Dance and Fitness, in Los Angeles and New York, even has a trademarked Masala Dance Workout.

Any takers for dappankuthu (Tamil folk dance) - kick boxing? Now that might impress my friends ...

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