The visual of a man in bed with his arms outstretched, and legs bent towards his right side might appear routine to many. But not when the man is 85-years old, a former Prime Minister and is performing yoga.
Visuals of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda performing yoga at his residence in Bengaluru on Thursday, to mark the 4th International Yoga Day, went viral on social media.
Deve Gowda put several youngsters to shame as he twisted and turned to perform several asanas in the presence of shutterbugs, who could not get enough of it.
Deve Gowda's show of skills came even as his son and Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy skipped the main event organised by the government to mark the 4th International Yoga Day at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru.
Deve Gowda's residence 'Amogha' in Padmanabhanagar, however, was filled with mediapersons. He also appeared to be derisive of the fitness challenge promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Many organisations had invited me for their Yoga Day events, but I preferred to do it at home. I've been doing it from many years,” he was quoted as saying by Times of India .
His performance was lauded on Twitter and it garnered widespread attention.
Forrmer Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah chose to highlight the occasion of International Yoga Day not by tweeting a picture of himself, but a picture of Deve Gowda's performance.
Happy #InternationalDayofYoga pic.twitter.com/H2n6Y0hRa9
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) June 21, 2018
Twitter users also reserved special mention for Deve Gowda's pose on his bed.
86 year old former #PrimeMinister #HDDevegowda does #Yoga watch video #InternationalYogaDay2018 #WorldYogaDay2018 #YogaDay @CMofKarnataka @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/JoXIUJypmw
— Darshan Devaiah B P (@DarshanDevaiahB) June 21, 2018
#Karnataka 85 year old former PM HD Devegowda practicing yoga at his residence on Thursday #InternationalYogaDay2018 @NewIndianXpress pic.twitter.com/RdKVxJeUI6
— Ashwini M Sripad (@AshwiniMS_TNIE) June 21, 2018
Deve Gowda was one of many politicians to hog the limelight with yoga poses on Thursday. Prime Minister Modi performed yoga in front of thousands of people in Dehradun while several other politicians across the country shared pictures and videos of them performing yoga. But it was Deve Gowda's performance that appeared to strike a chord with several social media users.
Why HD Deve Gowda is still fit to be the PM candidate for Third Front in 2019.
— Debdeep@ToI (@DebdeepMukherj9) June 21, 2018
#2019 #LokSabha #DeveGowda #Yoga #PM #InternationalYogaDay2018 pic.twitter.com/LF5FoPHNDO
Deve Gowda on #WorldYogaDay is a mood. pic.twitter.com/5cw74k1JKT
— ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (@karishmau) June 21, 2018