Ninie Ahmad: Off her yoga mat.

MSN Life & Style speaks to Ninie Ahmad, yoga ambassador for adidas Malaysia.

Life is a perfect balance for Ninie Ahmad. Together with Azmi Samdjaga, Asia’s most renowned Ashtangi, they’ve opened BEYOGA, a new studio in Damansara Perdana. With more than 200 yoga and Pilates classes on offer monthly, many taught by Ninie herself, she still finds time for a chat with us.

Tell us a little known fact about yourself.

People find it hard to believe that I was not at all flexible until I started yoga 10 years ago. I had always been an athlete and hockey player in school, so I was a pretty strong girl, but I had completely neglected the importance of flexibility. Strength and flexibility are on two very different ends of the health spectrum. To be physically fit, you need both. Yoga makes being both strong and flexible, inside and out – possible.

What made you get into yoga?

I developed asthma when I was 13 years old and it got so serious that I was being hospitalised twice a week until I turned 17. People believe that if you’re born with asthma, you’ll grow out of it as a teenager. But, if like myself, you develop it later in life, it will only get worse. Eventually, my respiratory problem restricted me from furthering my sporting activities, so someone suggested yoga.

I thought it was going to be easy, if not boring, for a sporty girl like me. I was literally dragged to my first class in 1999… IT WAS THE HARDEST WORKOUT I’D HAD IN MY LIFE! I was completely hooked. I started going for classes almost everyday and began to see the huge improvements in my flexibility. Within 6 months, my asthma had actually disappeared and it hasn’t returned to this day. On top of that, I stopped suffering menstrual cramps and found myself much slower to anger.

What fitness and health benefits can a newbie expect to achieve?

Personally, my asthma, gastric problems and migraines subsided after 6 months of regular practice. I had a student who had been trying to conceive for 12 years. Within 3 months of yoga, she was pregnant. Jessica Alba used a breathing technique called Kapalabhati to aid her child birth, instead of using an epidural. The founder of Bikram yoga had been paralysed at 18, but yoga actually helped him walk again! The physical poses and breathing discipline of yoga make us use our own body, mind and breath as a powerful healing machine. It’s so much more effective than expensive medicines and drugs, which aren’t organic to our system.

From a fitness perspective, yoga is the only discipline that incorporates ALL fitness aspects in one workout: strength, endurance, flexibility, cardio, balance and resistance, plus it also offers focus, optimal breath control and lifetime sustainability. Yoga also makes any man a better sportsman as it’s famous for its de-stressing effects and helping you stay focused.

What has been your biggest achievement so far in life, and how has yoga influenced that?

When I was 24, I published Malaysia’s first yoga magazine and was appointed Yoga Ambassador for adidas Malaysia. This year, I launched my dream yoga studio. Today (at only 27-years-old) I can proudly say I have been practicing yoga for 10 years and teaching professionally for the past 8 years.

Beyond these material achievements, I feel that my biggest achievements are being able to say: I am physically and spiritually happy and I continue helping change people’s lives and improved people’s health. Nothing makes me happier than hearing my students say they no longer suffer back pains, seeing them smile at the end of my class and witnessing my students succeed their first unsupported headstand.

What’s next for you?

BEYOGA will be expanding to two include to more branches in KL . I just want every Malaysian to have a taste of good yoga.

How do you deal with difficult people or personalities, or situations?

I live life according to this mantra: whatever you find useful on the yoga mat, apply it to life. I always say the poses are painful and challenging, but whatever doesn’t make you bleed or break bones, only makes you stronger. Difficult people and situations are like a challenging yoga class, it will pass and we will learn something from the experience.

Sell us to BEYOGA.

BEYOGA is run and owned by teachers whose core value is to inspire the public. We want you to know that it’s not just scary postures and intimidating breathing. It is essentially about the comprehension of love, compassion, knowledge and respecting your body. All BEYOGA teachers are Malaysia’s highest accredited teachers from world-renowned yoga schools of Iyengar, Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Anusara and other disciplines of yoga including Pilates.

Who are the inspirational figures in your life?

I admire highly successful personalities and business moguls that are still funny, humble, friendly and honour their own values.  Good leaders attract good energy and good people. I hear Tony Fernandez of Air Asia remembers all his employees’ names and birthdays.

In the yoga industry, I have lots of respect for yoga teachers who do not have to perform scary and out-of-this-world poses just to inspire or gain recognition. Without trying, they shine yogi qualities simply by saying kind words, respecting their own body and everything around them and practicing what they preach.

If it wasn’t for yoga, where do you think you’d be today?

I have always loved writing and drawing. My father used to be the editor for a big newspaper and my mother is still an English lecturer, but they insisted that I studied something other than writing or design. They actually wanted me to go into engineering or medicine!

After highschool, I was torn deciding what to pursue next. Architecture had always been my childhood dream, but I was also being offered a scholarship to study Information Technology. With a heavy heart, I chose the latter for my parents.

As it turns out, I have been able to marry my passion, my tertiary education and what I have always been good at in what I am doing now. I get to work and workout at the same time, I am pretty Internet-savvy for a yoga teacher, I am the architect for my business and I actually design and copywrite almost everything you see in BEYOGA’s website, buntings, posters and press releases.

What does being an ambassador for a brand as prestigious as adidas mean to you?

Being appointed to represent yoga and Malaysia for the biggest sporting brand in the world means the world to me. Some people even see yoga teachers as the highest physical and mental state of human form, so I bear the responsibility of  being ‘the walking example of a yogi’ in everything I say, do and wear, and am living-proof of adidas’ motto that ‘Impossible Is Nothing’.

What is one magic mantra we can all incorporate in our daily life?

Yoga reminds us that, ‘I go forward by going back, go up by going down, go out by going in and get by giving out’ and it allows me to let go of who I have become to be who I really am.

(Source: MSN Life & Style)

Selamat Hari Raya to all practicing Muslims in the world and happy holiday to everyone else celebrating this long weekend.

Peace, love and victorious Aidilfitri light.

I meant to write another lenghty entry on my recent quest of becoming an Ashtangi but I was distracted by a lousy tribute show for the late Yasmin Ahmad on Astro Ria. I had to stop writing what I intended to write because the show (and other ‘tributes’ done by different channels) just did not do justice, not even close to what Yasmin had contributed to Malaysia and how she changed us all!

I, for one, chose not to blog nor Twit about her passing last month because everyone else was doing it (I thought I was playing Yasmin Ahmad’s faux-cool bit , read again post title).

But recently, especially tonight, especially now – I suddenly feel the urge to.

At first I thought I was furious at this pseudo-THS: Yasmin Ahmad show for using disappointing AF has-beens that do not live up to Yasmin’s contributions and for not being able to capture the ‘loss’ emotion and tragic sadness from the people they interviewed BUT then I realized:

I was mostly angry for it startled me – if Yasmin had directed this, I would have cried, teared up and most importantly, moved by now.

I am just angry for all of us wouldn’t be able to appreciate another simple yet most powerful masterpiece from an incredibly talented and from what I gathered, insanely humble human being we all knew as Yasmin Ahmad.

I have personally met Yasmin only once, during the media premiere of Mukhsin (2007) but we did communicate when Leo-Burnett (the ad agency whom she was their beloved Creative Director) contacted me to conduct yoga sessions at their firm and when I left a comment at her blog in which she took her time personally replying:

Ninie Ahmad commented…

Dearest Yasmin,

I love you.
And love is an understatement.

I admire you for making me not ashamed of having been going to the cinemas again to watch Malay movies (although I had to walk out on Senario The Movie and Jangan Pandang Belakang after 15 minutes. God knows, I tried).

I thank you for portraying Malaysia beautifully in your ads, for capturing beautiful Malay values in your movies, that I am not proud to say – most of the time more beautiful on silverscreen than what we know happening and for making lines from Malay movies memorable again.

I am a Malay Muslim (soon to be banned?) yoga teacher in KL that’s having the trial time of my life by MY own people that can’t seem to stop keeeeeeep telling me (in my blog) ways to ‘be a good Muslim’ by listening to our Muftis, to cover up, to not live with non-Muhrim when all I am trying to do is, to ‘be a good person’ with big dreams to make Malaysians look better and live longer.

(I am) On the brink of giving up ‘blogging’ (before I become the words they have been putting in my mouth), I thank you for lending me some strength from the meaningful quotes you often paste here, for your lovely words and wonderful insights and for many more inspirations you never know.

Thank you.
May God bless us all and forgive all cruelty we have done to each other.

Peace, love and light.

November 20, 2008 9:21 AM

Yasmin Ahmad replied…

gosh, ninie. i don’t know what to say. i wish i knew what rasulullah s.a.w would have to say about your yoga and my films. someone wrote on my blog that i had no right to utter the words “alhamdulillah” because i don’t wear the hijjab. i told them if i can’t say those words, than i can’t recite the fatihah, and if i can’t recite the fatihah, then i can’t do my solat, and if i can’t do my solat, i’d be very, very sad and lost.

why do they judge people so easily? do they think they will gain allah’s pleasure by condemning a fellow muslim like that? and why do they always comment anonymously?

oh well, allah knows best.

i read in al-baqarah that there will be many who will say they believe and worship allah, but in truth, they don’t. and they don’t even know that they don’t believe! na’uzubillah. was the koran referring to these people?

allah knows best.

November 20, 2008 9:46 AM

That very reply of hers lent me the strength to keep on fighting for my yoga when it faced the thoughtless tribulation late last year.

I am reminded and kept borrowing her last line of advice “Allah knows best” whenever I get asked, “How dare / come you are still doing yoga?”

For that, I am still here.

For her haunting & beautifully-written and love & kindness-laden movies, I am inspired to keep feeding my yoga classes with beautiful poses and love & kind words.

For her success of having proved (brilliant) Malaysian movies do not have to have Mat Rempits or Datuk’s second wives in them, I aspire to prove to the world that not all Malaysian Muslims do not exercise (BBC London reported ‘Malaysia bans exercise for Muslims’ on November 24, 2008).

Everytime I repeat reading her blog posts, I feel like quitting blogging altogether (in a good way!) for I will never be able to share and write as beautiful, as articulate, as honest and as humble as Yasmin did.

Everytime I repeat watching any of her movies, I immediately feel like I am already a better friend, a better family member, a better lover, a better Malaysian, a better Muslim and a better me.

For that, I will remember Yasmin Ahmad as a familiar stranger that has the biggest impact in my life  if not a cool big ‘sister’ (anak-anak Ahmad) I never have.

An excerpt from Muallaf (2008) that ‘Malaysia may never get to see’ and learn a lot from (I hardly get angry, but when Malaysians / Malays get generalized from some ignorant minority, my fuse blows):

“Did you forgive anyone that hurt your feeling today?”

LET’S DO THAT. Everyday.

LET’S SCAN AND FILTER OUR SYSTEM. Every night. So we would wake up the next morning feeling lighter and not hating the gift of living another day.

I am sure Yasmin meant that, for everyone to at least have thought of doing so – while she wrote the movie (I plead our government to uncensor Muallaf like how Yasmin would have preferred and begged for it to be shown in cinemas HERE).

‘It is in forgiving that we are forgiven’ ~ YASMIN AHMAD (1958 -2009)

Al-Fatihah.

Eversince I started this website last month, I have been more than comfortable expanding my little yoga experience and knowledge in my own words, here.

I will also share some yoga (beside other relevant) questions that some readers have emailed to me starting with this shortened (not revised) e-mail from Liyana.

Question:

Dear Ninie Ahmad,

I just moved to the US a few weeks ago, and I just had my first yoga class at my university this morning. I missed the first class held for the semester, so this morning I just followed whatever the instructor asked us to do. I am quite familiar with the poses as I have tried yoga previously, but only through a friend. Ok anyways, at the end of the yoga class, the instructor asked us to chant a mantra mentally when we’re sitting. The thing is I have no idea what the mantra was as it was taught at the first lesson, which I missed.

But whatever the mantra is, I feel quite uncomfortable of the fact that mantra is involved, being a Muslim. So my question is, are the mantras in yoga connected to any teachings of any religion? Do you yourself practice saying/concentrating any mantras when doing yoga?

Wait, one more thing is that whether mantras in yoga are related to any religion, or are solely for discipline /concentration, I think that personally I would not be comfortable practicing the mantras. So what do you suggest I do when the other students are concentrating on the mantras? Are there any other substitute for mantra?

I hope you can help me with this. And get well soon, I hope for your recovery from the shoulder/tricep injury. Thanks!

Yours truly,
Liyana

Suggestion:

Dear Liyana and everyone reading,

Thank you for writing / reading  and congratulations on accepting the gift of yoga.

According to Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (written 2000 years ago in Sanskrit but available in many translations including English and Arabic), there are eight limbs to the tree of yoga – with each limb being a phase / stage to self-realization. In tradition stemming from this ancient text, each limb of yoga is  given in a precise order through which (aspiring) yoga practitioners must progress starting from the very bottom yet the most important.

(Note: Words in italic are Sanskrit, the oldest language ever documented in the world)

1. Yama (Moral codes towards others)

• Yama indicates how individuals should respond and relate to other people, all living beings and to the environment – in order to achieve a peaceful and harmonious world.

2. Niyama (Self-purification and study)

• Niyama deals with contentment and physical cleansing / purifying of the body – both internally and externally to find some clarity of thoughts before the next stage of yoga – Asana.

Note: Most yoga practitioners and I practice Yama and Niyama to the literal translation to why we chose not to kill others living beings (Vegetarianism) as our source of food to survive as our contribution to world peace and preserving green environment (Yama) and generally cleansing ourselves with bath or shower and accepting our current state of body especially our injury and lack of-s (Niyama) before our Asana practice.

3. Asana (Poses / Postures)

• Asanas in yoga (depending what branch of yoga we each can relate to / practice the most) are scientific sequences that access every muscle in the body, stretching and toning them as well as nerves, organs, glands and energy channels.
• Asanas are not merely exercises, they are postures and transitions synchronized with Pranayama (breath) that regular and systematic Asana practice with help of tristana (union of Vinyasa), bandha (locks that protect the body) and drishti (looking point) – help open and clear the nadis (energy channels of subtle body) allowing access and harness to internal lifeforce (energy) known as Prana.

4. Pranayama (Breathing)

• For most of us, breathing is an involuntary reflex action. Yogis, however, appreciate the role breath has in focusing the mind and Pranayama is a method of using the power of breathing to control the mind. Most yoga Asanas require specific dynamics of breathing (inhale to creating space and to lengthen, exhale to twist and to be stronger) to achieve the pose easier / safer and to ensure benefits instead of injury.

Notes: The first four limbs are external disciplines that, when practiced regularly create the necessary physical and mental state from which the remaining four internal limbs can continuously sprout and unfold.

Founder of Ashtanga Yoga, the late Shri K Pattabhi Jois was often heard saying, “Practice the first four limbs of yoga FIRST, and the rest four will come without trying.” With that inspiration, I always say, “Forget the Headstands and Scorpions, simply respect others by not making noise in class and honour your body by not doing poses that you are not ready for FIRST and you would already be doing yoga” before I start my classes.

In my humble observation, the system and order work almost like (but NOT equivalent to) how puasa (fasting) works in Islam. If we understand where the Rukun (Pillar) lies in Islam, puasa falls in the third rank within Pillars of Islam hence it is almost impossible to attain blessed Puasa if we don’t perform our Solat (Prayers) while fasting and if we don’t refrain ourselves from pleasures the material world has to offer.

5. Pratyahara (Sense Control)

• Pratyahara in easiest translation is the full awareness. Our mind easily strays especially if we can’t let go of imminent social engagements or daily errands need to be done when practicing Asana that is why – rather than closing thoughts out, we learn NOT to become attached to them as they move through our mind.

6. Dhanara (Concentration)

• When practitioners achieve a high level of Pratyahara, the mind is undisturbed by stray thoughts, sounds and sensation (such as pain). In this state, it is possible to achieve a deep level of concentration and that is Dhanara (or Khusyu’ in Arabic). Within practice of Asana, Dhanara is achieved when the mind reaches a single focus by concentrating purely on inhalation, exhalation and the looking point (drishti).

7. Dhyana (Meditation)

• The combination of limbs five and six (Prathayara and Dharana) brings about a state of deep meditation where if achieved in Asanas, each posture is gracefully strung on a garland of asanas, becoming, in effect – a moving meditation.

8. Samadhi (Contemplation)

• To reach Samadhi is the culmination of all the eight limbs of yoga. It is the goal, the fruit of the yoga tree that creates the edible and ingestibly sweet tasting part of the tree for us to consume, and for us to be consumed from – within.

[ Reference from Ashtanga Yoga by John Scott ]

It is very important for me to have explained and listed in detail (but not complete) description of what makes a yoga practice fruitful – before I can answer what does Mantra (Chanting) have to do with yoga and is it at all, necessary.

Mantra is an opening or closing sequence for an Asana practice to set an affirmation our practice and to offer a dedication of our time spent on Self-Realization to any good cause (world peace, be a better person, lessen trouble and pain of others, et cetera).

My point is, unless we practice Asana regularly and attain all eight limbs of yoga (which is almost impossible for us in this selfish day and age and material world, really!), lupakan saja!

Most of the Mantras are in Sanskrit just because most of them sound more beautiful in its’ origin language (Sanskrit NOT Hindu). Just because we do not understand them, it does not mean that once delivered – we will be out of our body (or be able to levitate for that matter, ha haa!).

Just like (again, but NOT equivalent) to Al-Fatihah (the mother of all verses) in Qur’an, sad to say many non-Arab speaking Muslims in the world take the power of Al-Fatihah for granted because they do not make effort in comprehending and BELIEVING in the verse because they simply do not understand a language so foreign.

Hence for some Mantras matter, it is suffice to say, unless you know what they mean, you do not have to follow (chanting) them out loud as it serves almost no purpose almost like saying an affirmation that we do not mean.

Below is the closing mantra for Ashtanga Yoga (my choice of personal Asana practice) and its beautiful translation.

Om
Swasthi-praja bhyah pari pala yantam
Nya-yena margena mahi-mahishaha
Go-bramanebhyaha-shubamastu-nityam
Lokaa-samastha sukhino-bhavantu
Om
Om shanti, shanti, shantihi

Translation:
Om
May prosperity be glorified
May administrators rule the world with law and justice
May all things that are sacred be protected
And may people of the world be happy and prosperous
Om
Om peace, peace, peace

‘MAY PEOPLE OF THE WORLD BE HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS.’

Subhanallah. Can any other offering be more selfless, honest and beautiful than this? I initially planned to post this entry on 9/11 notwithstanding, I chanted this as my offering to world peace this throughout the whole of last Friday.

As an alternative to Sanskrit mantra (if we are not familiar with Sanskrit at all), we can always say anything kind and affirmative in English, or in Malay for that matter (useful fact: 80% of Bahasa Malaysia derived / originated from Sanskrit). For my beginner to intermediate classes, I often chant this to my class, “If it is not now, then when. If it is not us, then who. We are the ones we have been waiting for” and I give an alternative of saying a loud, “NOW” to those who do not comfortable in pronouncing, “OM”.

While we are at it, ‘OM’ (pronounced A-U-M) is the most universal and powerful sound we can say in one breath. It means all, omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. OM has been described as the primordial sound, represented in all living matter. It is NOT a word – it is a sound. It is so powerful that when uttered in one breath and repeated many times, it opens and aligns all our chakras and the millions channels of nadis (energy channels) in our body.

Being a Muslim yoga practitioner and a perpetually curious learner (refusing to learn [new languages, new things about our body and others' cultures] is a direct act of being ignorant. We are not the only ones in the world), I came to realize that Al-Fatihah is so powerful an AFFIRMATION and prayer that – very similar if not more meaningful that the word ‘OM’, it is also the only verse in Qur’an and finishes with an ‘eem’ and ‘een’ throughout its’ whole seven lines. I also recall my first Qur’an teacher said, “Al-Fatihah is mostly more beneficial and blessed when recited in one breath.”

Below is the general translation of Al-Fatihah. Wallahualam.

Bismillaah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem
Al hamdu lillaahi rabbil ‘alameen
Ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Maaliki yaumid Deen
Iyyaaka na’abudu wa iyyaaka nasta’een
Ihdinas siraatal mustaqeem
Siraatal ladheena an ‘amta’ alaihim
Ghairil maghduubi’ alaihim waladaaleen
Aameen

Translation:
In the name of God, the infinitely Compassionate and Merciful.
Praise be to God, Lord of all the worlds.
The Compassionate, the Merciful, Ruler on the Day of Reckoning.
You alone do we worship, and You alone do we ask for help.
Guide us on the straight path,
the path of those who have received your grace;
not the path of those who have brought down wrath, nor of those who wander astray.
Amen.

I hope I have justified your question and given you comfortable alternative for Sanskrit mantra.

Let’s all begin this new week understanding, believing and living this saying (and my personal favourite mantra):

Watch our thoughts, for they become words.
Watch our words, for they become actions.
Watch our actions, for they become habits.
Watch our habits, for they become character.
Watch our character, for it becomes our destiny.

I personally will dedicate my yoga practice and teaching this new week to restoring a happy relationship with our neighbour country so we all have a chance of enjoying a blessed last week of Ramadhan ahead, with lessened hatred that does not make us blood brothers and sister any happier nor better in any way.

Namaste.
The light in me bows to the light in you.
Selamat sejahtera.
Peace be upon you.
Assalamualaikum.

(They all mean THE SAME although they sound very different, amazing isn’t it?)

I badly want to hug all my instructors from BE Yoga NOW for rocking this yoga in haute couture shoot!

I know it is very unbecoming of a yoga teacher but Atilia and I have planned to kidnap these RM276,000 timepieces we are parading

and I also refuse to return this Karen Millen dress I am wearing. It is breathtakingly too pretty!

Till I return to the ground and be down on earth again, take care you beautiful people!

In yoga class, injuries mostly happen because of wrongly set intentions.

Good yoga classes often start with the instructors checking if anybody has any injury or special request AND asking everyone to set good intentions, to dedicate their practice to someone (loved ones, someone in trouble) or something (world peace, etc) and to visualize exactly how they want to feel at the end of  the class.

As we are all humans built with integration of delicate joints, sensitive tissues, constantly regenerating new cells and yoga class can be one of the most-intensed workout most people can ever experience, risk of injuring oneself in a yoga class is definitely not impossible especially IF:

• we arrive late to yoga class causing us to have missed the crucial breathing warm-up and sun salutations that are usually conducted first 15 minutes of a yoga class
  • to why, most yoga centres especially BE Yoga are strict on NOT allowing anyone to enter a class if they arrive later than 10 minutes of class’ start time)

• we do not respect our body, our limits and our teachers
  • Cramps and unbearable pain are organic ways of our body telling us something is not right or our alignment is not correct that – if we go on, we will definitely injure ourselves
  • Our limits and maximum tolerance of stretching / holding our own body weight are not the same for everyone. The person in front of us in our yoga class is able to hold it longer / stretch it furthermight be due to they have been practicing yoga longer / more regular than us
  • Our teachers / instructors might have been practicing yoga 10 times longer than us / have taught a 1000 students / have a lifetime experience of yoga so whenever they say “Don’t turn your head around as you hold Matsyasana (Fish Pose)” or “Don’t hyperextend your knees in Uttanasana (Forward Bend)”, listen to them!

• our intention to performing a pose (especially during advanced yoga classes) is not to better ourselves BUT to look like Jessica Alba or Cameron Diaz AND to show-off or to do it better / hold it longer than everyone else in the class
  • that is when, the pose comes with arrogance & hatred  side-effects instead of benefits & humbling effects

As a yoga instructor myself, as much as I can I use these reminders to remind myself whenever I join other yoga classes  or conduct my personal practice everyday. But sometimes especially when I am not centered, thinking of too many things at once or too tired, these reminders often slipped my mind.

That is why I usually get injured during photoshoot and public performances (as the intentions are obviously to show-off )!

And errr, I injured myself again on Friday night while leading an introduction to Ashtanga class at BE Yoga. This thought was running in my head “Everything I do in this class will make me appear stronger on that cover!” as I demo asana by asana.

As a result, I pulled my upper trapezius (shoulder blade) and bracchialis (triceps) on my left while demonstrating Chakrasana Vinyasa (Complete Wheel Flow), I was not even warmed up as the rest of the class as I was showing it (off).

I went to an interesting Chinese chiropractor who performed some Oriental Tit Tar realignment for sports injury and applied some hot herbal medication on my back.

I can’t even turn my head or look up and down (let alone do the pose above) as I type this . Wish me speedy recovery and remind me to take the rest I deserve, please!

Love and light.

If it’s not too late to announce, tonight (Friday, September 4) is my dear friend  Henry Golding (CLEO’s Most Eligible Bachelor 2009)’s very last night hosting 8tv Quickie.

Do catch him (or even bombard him with groupie calls) if you can, 11.30pm on 8tv / Astro CH 708.

Henry has been like a younger brother to me (he is only 22, making me feel like 40!) and I remember him arriving in KL somewhere April 2008 with only a bagpack. It did not take long for his Brit charm and celup looks to take over KL and Malaysian TV.

Beyond the glittering fame and his goofy personality, he really is a wonderful person to have as a friend. I truly am honoured to have known him and to be able to say, I have seen Henry (and his obscene shoes collection) more than anyone else in KL will ever do.

Young one, you will be sorely missed.

Good bye and good luck for ESPN (ok ok, I used to watch ESPN because of Rashid Salleh ) & Singapore.

Just brace yourself Henners, there won’t be housemates as flexible & muscular and Khanna Curry House on Sunday afternoons for sho’!

In anticipation of the 8-pages-spread yoga in haute couture photoshoot next week,

I was informed that I will also be on the cover of my favourite local magazine. And the photoshoot is scheduled next week as well!

What are the odds of someone getting two of her biggest wishes granted, all in the same week?

If the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.

Dream, work hard, be kind to everyone, count our blessings and all is coming.

To a Yoga Journal cover and to more dreams come true in the nearest future.

Love and light.