You can easily mistake Falun Gong followers for elegant ballet dancers. With their knees slightly bent and with the precision and poise of a ballerina, they move their arms gracefully around their body, as if weaving an enormous invisible net around themselves.
And with oriental Chinese music playing in the background, the resemblance is too striking for anyone to miss.
But that’s where the similarity between the two begins – and ends.
“It is a way to cultivate the body and mind, an effort to return to one’s true self, away from this materialistic world,” said Chitra Devnani, one of the first in Bangalore to be introduced to Falun Gong. “You have to live amongst everyday people, yet rise above them and your surroundings.”
“Ever since I started practising, there has been a remarkable improvement in my health. I no longer have an explosive temper like before. I am more calm and composed,” she added with a beaming smile, as her son nodded in agreement.
