At 12, Burma Tarun says his dream is to bring gold medals for India if yoga is introduced in the Olympics. “I think Yoga should be introduced in the Olympics as it has gained recognition globally. Everybody is practising it all over. There are many championships for Yoga at both Asia and world levels. Why not in the Olympics?”
While his friends were busy playing cricket, football or basketball, 12-year-old Burma Tarun preferred practising yogasanas. And all his hard work finally paid off. He was declared as the world yoga champion under the 8-12 year category at the recently concluded 24th World Yoga Championship from November 24 to 26, 2012 at Moscow, Russia. He was awarded with one gold medal for asanas, one bronze for artistic yoga and one bronze for rhythmic yoga.
Evidently happy after winning the championship, Tarun says, “I am very happy to win this. It was very tough, but I had fun.” About 800 to 900 athletes participated at the Yoga Championship held in Russia, of which India stood first, Iran came second and third place went to Russia. “I had to perform four yogasanas in the final round, including Parsvakonasana Padahastasana. The competition was really close, but it was a really nice experience.”
A class eight student of DRS International School, Tarun has been practising four hours of yoga everyday for the past two years. Ask him why he chose yoga over cricket, he replies, “Everybody plays cricket or football. I wanted to be different and special from the others. So, I chose yoga. I started learning at school, where my instructor Manohar Kumar Jala taught me.”
His favourite asana he says is Kandasana. “It is my favourite because it is very hard to learn.”
Born to Burma Chakrapani, an advocate and Burma Vidya, Tarun says his hobbies are gymnastics, western dance and skating. In the year 2010-2011, he participated in the 35th Inter District Yoga Championship held in Nellore and was selected for the 35th National Yoga Championship which was held in Goa. After which he stood sixth in the 36th Inter District Yoga Championship held in Visakhapatnam in the year 2011-2012. He has also participated in the International Yogasana and Title Championship 2012 held at Bengaluru from February 6 to 10, organized by the S.G.S International Yoga Foundation Collage in Collaboration with Dept of Youth Services Govt of Karnataka.
He recently entered the India Book of Records which was held in the city in the Basheerbagh Press Club for performing 84 Asanas in 11 minutes 20 seconds.