The yoga teacher was the one who actually ran the show. Ravi Kumar, the school’s own yoga instructor, coordinated the entire International Day of Yoga programme at PM SHRI Kendriya Vidyalaya in Zirakpur. Not the chief guest.
Not the principal. The man who teaches asanas every day.
That fact gets buried in most event coverage. The chief guest arrives, speaks, leaves. The principal does the welcome.
But the person who makes yoga happen in that school — who probably spent weeks planning which poses 700 students could safely do on a school ground — is Ravi Kumar. He shared the coordination duties with Ashok, a postgraduate teacher in physical education.
Two men who live this work daily. The numbers are worth sitting with. Seven hundred students and teachers.
That is not a small assembly. That is a crowd that requires real logistics — space, timing, mats or at least clean ground, instructors who can keep order while people breathe. The school pulled it off.
The programme opened with a green welcome for chief guest Ram Pratap, offered by Principal Pushpa Sharma. Then Pratap spoke.
The school described his message as inspiring, focused on yoga, healthy lifestyle, and mental well-being. Then came the actual yoga. Students and faculty members practiced asanas and pranayama.
Not a demonstration by a few. Mass participation.
The stated objective was straightforward: raise awareness about yoga and inspire students to lead healthy, balanced lives. Not complicated. Not vague.
Just get them doing it. Ram Pratap, the chief guest, has credentials that match the occasion. Postgraduate qualifications in yoga, Sanskrit, and philosophy.
Nearly two decades promoting yoga and public welfare. He currently works with the Brahmrishi Yoga Training Institute, an organization focused on yoga and Indian philosophy.
He was brought in to lend weight. But the real weight of the day rested on the school’s own staff. The vote of thanks came from Rajendra Kumar, a postgraduate teacher in Hindi.
He expressed gratitude to the chief guest and extended best wishes to all participants. Standard form.
But the thanks could have gone both ways — to the guest for coming, and to the school team for making 700 people move together. PM SHRI Kendriya Vidyalaya is part of a central government network that emphasizes holistic education. Physical education and wellness are not afterthoughts here.
They are built into the scheme. The International Day of Yoga, observed every June 21 since 2015, has become a fixture in Indian schools. This was not a first-time experiment.
This was a school doing what it does. The scale of participation — several hundred students and teachers — reflects that emphasis.
It is one thing to hold an assembly. It is another to have 700 people on the ground, breathing in unison, holding poses. That takes coordination.
That takes someone like Ravi Kumar, who probably does not get the headline but gets the job done.
