imitate that south indian village girl

Recently, I had attended the basic course by Art Of Living (AOL). As part of the course we were asked to do some basic exercise to loosen up our otherwise rusted joints. The instructed came up with an extremely simple solution to this - 'Let us imitate an Indian village girl. Lets follow her & copy what she does'. I think, this was the simplest & easiest warm up I have come across, especially for couch potatoes like me.

If you are wondering, what great deed does an Indian village girl do to make us follow & imitate her? Well, stop wondering & start imitating her ... :) If you are not familiar with her routine, this is what she does ....

* Sweeps the floor - you are to imitate her. So, walk around the room & sweep it clean.
* Mops the floor - you need bend further than sweeping to achieve this. Remember shes a village girl, she doesn't have fancy mops to aid her in this.
* Crouching down she draws kolam in her front yard - alternate your legs.
* Draws water for the day from the well - try doing it in squatting position & alternate your hands to draw that water using the pulley.
* Washes the clothes - again in squatting position. She starts off with lighter clothes which can be handled by each our hands. Then moves on that heavy clothes using both her hands.
* Makes rice flour using the traditional mortar ... hey, keep swinging your arms. Haven't you see how she does it? Start with both hands like auntie demonstrates. Then use single hand, let that pestle move from one arm to the other while grinding that rice.
* Sits down to make dosa batter using ground stone.
* Sitting down, she makes chutney - sitting down & moving forward & back is not as easy as watching someone do it.
* Makes dough for chappathi - just the kneading part with both your hands. Imagine you making 100 chappathis :)
* Puts the baby to sleep - swing those arms nicely.

Sounds simple, eh? Try doing it & let me know.

Picture Courtesy : shreshar.blogspot.in