Ludhiana IT officials set record by performing yoga for 24 hours

LUDHIANA: A new kind of record was set here by Income Tax department, Ludhiana after the officials, staff and families of department performed yoga for 24 hours continuously.
As the clock struck 12.00 AM on Friday the entire audience present at the income tax office, Rishi Nagar broke into huge cheer and started congratulating each other after their 24 hours long activity "Yogathon" which was started at 12 AM on Wednesday concluded.

More than 50 volunteers were present on the occasion when this unique kind of yoga activity ended on Friday. Sukhjit Singh Garcha, spouse of an IT employee, was the volunteer instructor of this activity, while Sukhwinder Kaur, an IT inspector, contributed as co instructor.

“Yogathon” which was organized by the IT Department on the occasion of the 4th International Yoga Day on 21st June, 2018, has proved to be a mutliple record creating event for IT Department and Ludhiana city as well. For one it was the first 24 hour “Yogathon”, performed entirely by volunteers who are non-expert Yoga enthusiast government employees and their families. Secondly, this was the first time a government department has continuously performed yoga for 24 hours on International Yoga Day. Thirdly, this was the first continuous performance of Surya Namaskaar for over 24 hours in any government office anywhere in the world.

All this has been made possible because of the overwhelming enthusiasm of the Income Tax Employees at Ludhiana, right from multi-tasking staff to the senior most officers and their families, said Binay K Jha, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (CCIT) Ludhiana.

"The morning sun on 21st June, brought a flood of enthusiasm with a large number of volunteers wanting to join the “Yogathon”. Volunteers competed with each other on the number of Surya Namaskaar repetitions performed. The number of women employees who bettered a century of Surya Namaskaar repetitions almost matched the number of men who performed over 100 cycles of the Yoga" Jha added

He also informed that tax payers and tax practitioners also joined the programme. The yoga instruction “volunteers” who were actually family members of the employees not only helped the employees learn the Surya Namaskaar over several days, but also conducted yoga exercises for the visitors who thronged the venue through the day, while the Surya Namaskaar “Yogathon” proceeded uninterrupted at one end of the venue.

The CCIT Ludhiana said that he was overwhelmed by the willingness of the Team-IT to take up new challenges, by the response the programme received from all the stake-holders and the fact that the Surya Namaskaar which essentially combines 12 aasanas in a composite exercise was accepted by a large number of people. This would go a long way towards improving the work-life balance and well being of those who had adopted it with such enthusiasm.