“Tathaastu-Bless you a healthy life”- is the logo as well the motive of a small yet enthusiastic youth club of Chandigarh.
The core members of this club are- Rajiv Kumar (a Martial Arts teacher) and his 3 students i.e. Nitin Kumar Punia, Yogesh Bidla and Sumit Rana who are with him for the last more than 8 years.
How did the club start:
Rajiv Kumar is a regular blood donor in PGI for 15 years and has donated 46 times apx. Watching their Teacher as regular volunteer blood donor, all 3 students also wanted to do it but yogesh and nitin had not completed 18 years until last year. But in Oct-2011 the group organised a blood donation camp with PGI and free health check-up camp for kidney and urostone patients in association with Rajiv Gandhi kidney and urostone centre-Delhi. And ever since nitin and yogesh have completed 18 years, both have also donated blood 4 times each, Nitin has even donated platelets 2 times. Once with his teacher- Rajiv Kumar in Alchemist, sec-20 pkl and 2nd time just weeks back to a patient in pgi. Yogesh on his last B’day requested everyone to donate eyes as his B’day gift, therefore all 3 of them and Rajiv’s friends Sujata and Seema klair went to pgi and filled the forms for eye donation. While doing such work, considering as a duty of a good citizen, Rajiv thought that we should form a group and start doing different things for the society under a name. Hence, Tathaastu-youth club came into existence.
Tathaastu- youth club has been working in the field of health and fitness in Chandigarh and adjoining cities for the last more than 3 years now. So far, organized blood donation camps, free health check up camps, seminars on Women’s safety in schools and colleges of Chandigarh/Mohali/Panchkula, Martial Arts competitions, outdoor activities like Trekking, and Morning weekend workouts- all on regular basis.
As its next project, Tathaastu has organized Physical fitness competitions for children of 6 years and above under 2 categories i.e. juniors and seniors in Tricity and Pinjore. While, for Pinjore and its nearby schools, the competition will be organised in ABC Montessori School on 03rd May; Sat (for Juniors), the competitions for CHD will be held on 10th and 11th May; Sat-Sun at First Steps Play School, Sector-26-D (for Juniors) and on 17th and 18th at Mount Carmel School, Sector-47-D (for Seniors) respectively.
The club has decided that such fitness competitions will now be organised on regular basis in different locations so that maximum numbers of children are able to participate and develop healthy lifestyle.
Here is an overview about the competition: The participants are divided into 7 groups for 2 categories i.e. juniors and seniors (for girls and boys). The participants need to complete the set of exercises in a given sequence in the shortest possible time. The stopwatch is started and paused by participants only in order to avoid any kind of involvement by the referees during performance. The sequels of exercises are designed in such a way that almost every body part of a participant is used and hence developed. The set of exercises for each groups are picked only after keeping in mind their age. For example: children below 12 years are exempted from doing exercises like heavy weight lifts which is not recommended. Following are some exercises: shuttle-run, back running, somersault, sit-ups, push-ups, crawling, monkey crawl, sack-jumps, leg raisers, mat shifting, zigzag tyres run, and various types of skipping.
The group is also organizing free training sessions for all the children before the competitions even if one is not able to participate on the day of competition due to any reason.
Interested Parents can get their child enrolled by either contacting ABC Montessori School, Pinjore; First Steps School, Sec-26,Chd; Mt. Carmel School, Sec-47-B, Chd or contact these numbers: Rajiv Kumar- 092161-58005; Yogesh Kumar-076960-61005; Nitin Kumar Punia-097802-32929. You can also visit club’s facebook page: “Tathaastu Chandigarh” to get the overview and training session’s pictures and videos.