A related photograph.
New Delhi, July 3, 2015: Mutashobya Mushumbusi, a 31 year old systems analyst at the Bank of Tanzania, was sent to India by his organization to upgrade his IT skills. Little did he know while packing his bags for the ‘IT land’ that he will return back a changed man, with much more than IT training.
His three week stay in India, did not just equip him to take greater professional challenges but also trained him to live life to the best of his potential – by leveraging the knowledge and power of yoga.
Mutashobya is just one among a number of such men and women from foreign lands who come to India for professional or educational reasons but end up discovering India’s most famous cultural export.
Koenig Solutions, a leading IT training providing company which trains thousands of people every year in multiple IT skills and courses runs a complementary program for yoga education for all its students. Its purpose is to make all students aware of the benefits of healthy body and happy mind for greater productivity and peaceful living.
“When I got the chance of travelling to India for IT training, I was looking forward to a good learning experience in upgrading my professional skills. But the unexpected gain has been in the spiritual and psychic domain. Like people across the world I too had heard about the ancient Indian practice of Yoga but never had the chance to know it closely. My stay in India introduced me to this practice and I would say it has had a tremendous positive impact on my mental and physical well-being. I return back an enriched person,” says Mutashobya who lives in Dar es Salaam.
Before they start their daily instructions in IT, students divide themselves in batches and turn to a professional trainer who helps them unlock the reserve potential inside their bodies and minds before they launch themselves into the daily grind.
The instructors at the IT training company say starting the day with yoga helps the students deal better with the entire day Boot Camp IT Training, which requires a lot of concentration and energy.
“Hundreds of foreign students come to our campus every year to enhance their IT skills. They look up to India as an land of IT. We try to make their stay in our country more productive and valuable than they could imagine. We are proud that a number of foreign students have benefitted from our program. It’s interesting that they return back with two precious Indian products – IT and Yoga,” says Mr Rohit Aggrawal, CEO, Koenig Solutions.
Nearly 10,000 foreign students (as of 2014-15) come to Koenig for IT training every year.
“Yoga is a 5000 year old ancient practice to achieve the complete well-being of body and mind. It is not only beneficial to the body but holds immense benefits on the human mind. It elevates the consciousness, helps achieve tranquility and raises productivity in the long run. The students themselves experience the benefits in their daily lives,” says Mr. Manoj Kumar, a professional Yoga trainer, who has been training Koenig students for the past nine years.
Yoga at Koenig is a daily practice, and the company provides free yoga sessions to its students, staff and society's underprivileged students. This is part of Koenig's Ethos and Koenig Culture to take care of your mind, body and soul.
Chidiogo Obinna Umezwne, another foreign student, who came to India from Nigeria to study an IT course at Koenig Solutions says he found the daily Yoga so useful that not only he plans to practice it all his life, but also introduce it to his friends back home.
“Yoga is not a widely known practice in Nigeria. There are neither instructors nor people who know anything about it. But I would like to spread word that it is a very useful exercise for the mind and body. It helped me cope better with the daily stress of life,” says 29-year-old Chidiogo, who works at Gigiware Limited, a software solutions provider in Lagos.