Some yoga and soul-cleansing for Chelsea at Jaipur

The residence cum ashram of Mother Daya Vyas in a way reflects the city’s preparation to the Presidential entourage — peaceful and low-key. There are not many loud banners screaming `welcome’ and they are certainly not occupied by crude paintings of President Clinton. A day before the arrival, there is no back-breaking schedule of cleaning in the city either. The people of Jaipur seem to send out the message — “accept us the way we are”.

Why Daya Vyas? One look at her, and indeed, you wonder why. The frail woman with her slight stucture, reflects all her 75 years. The only indicator of her fitness would be her erect posture as she sits on the chair. Dressed in a plain white sari with the pallav on her head, she surprises you with her clear phrases of English thrown in here and there. And in her very own words, she holds the answer to why powerful persons like the Clintons may be seeking her out: “When they come to India, they do not want to see sophistication. They want to see the real India with the bazaars and the villages.” So Daya Vyas is certainly not carrying out any preparations for the impending visit.

Quite used to visits by celebrities — she has played host to Oscar-winning director, Jane Campion, Cate Blanchett of Elizabeth fame and, of course, Winslet — she is quite careful about their privacy. So she keeps on emphasising that nothing has been confirmed yet.

“Last month, I got this call from America which inquired about my classes,” she said, “As I get thousands of calls like this from everywhere, I did not bother much.”

The lady apparently did not disclose her identity just as Vyas did not bother to ask her. “She just wanted to know how one could prepare for Yoga, so I said that all one has to do is to keep their mind still and I welcome anybody who is a yoga-lover.

What indicated to the special nature of this request was the fact that the caller inquired: “The hotel where you teach, can one land a helicopter there?”

The Mother answered in the negative and ended the call. After that call, this American lady also came to visit her. “When I inquired whether she was with the Presidential entourage, she gave me a mysterious answer that she would be meeting them. I didn’t know what it meant.”

The hotel which was referred to is the five star Jai Mahal Hotel of Jaipur where Daya Vyas gives classes, outside her home. That was also the place where she came across an Italian delegation of doctors in ’93, who were so thrilled with her asthma-curing potential of Yoga that they invited her to teach in Italy and Switzerland. According to her son, Atul Vyas and daughter, Shiva Vyas (who incidentally gave the music for Kate Winslet’s last film, Holy Smoke) she refused to set up a training centre abroad as she is against commercialisation of her skill.

“My mother is greatly influenced by her 10-minute meeting with Gandhi,”said Atul, pitching in the perfect ingredients to attract the western mystic. But Daya Vyas still goes abroad once a year which has contributed to her international fan following, apart from receiving her star guests at home. Regarding her potential visitor, Daya Vyas is quite sure that she will not be staying with her. “I think they will call me to wherever they are staying,” she said.

She doesn’t know what she will chart out for Chelsea as she hasn’t met her yet. “I need to identify her problem areas, her parents background and other details and then only I shall decide what to advise her,” she said. She is clear though that people come to her “to discover themselves and to keep in touch with their roots”.