Thoppukaranam – The Calisthenics of the Cranium

1. Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth right behind your teeth (as if you were about to say “La”). Leave it there throughout the exercise.
2. Take your left hand and cross your upper body to hold of your right earlobe with thumb and forefinger. Make sure that the thumb is in front.
3. Now take your right hand across your upper body to hold of your left earlobe. Again, make sure that the thumb is in front. At this point you’re pressing both earlobes simultaneously. Make sure your left arm is close to your chest and inside your right arm.
4. Inhale through your nose and slowly squat down to the ground.
5. Hold your breath and do not exhale until you start making your way back up to a standing position.
6. Repeat this squatting action between 15 and 21 times.

Remember to keep holding your earlobes and to keep your tongue touching the roof of your mouth throughout the entire exercise. You may not notice a change immediately, but after a few weeks an improvement in concentration should become apparent.

If the above process rings a bell, then you were well-groomed as a kid and have gone on to make a name for yourself. This puts to rest an intriguing question, why the most punished of backbenchers, are all very successful today.

Would not have known the reason, had it not been for a video forward from a good friend of mine in the UK. Did a bit of research on it and found that the world is all gaga over this.

I knew this as an act of penance among some of my Hindu friends and as a punishment in school, never knew it as an exercise until today. In fact one of my teachers would help us to the extent of sparing us the trouble of holding our ear lobes (Steps 2 & 3 above) and would do it on her own; we just had to follow 1, 4, 5 & 6. Had I known then, this was a great brain enhancement exercise I would have made all efforts to get punished every other day.

We, the world are greatly indebted to the West for having been the seat of industrial revolution pioneering many of the comforts we are enjoying today. At the same time the contribution of the East to the world was always touted as mystic and spiritual. A reversal of roles is in place today. The West is looking up to the East for spiritual and traditional revival and in the process are repackaging good old Eastern rituals and traditions.

That my friend has been the journey of the humble Thoppukaranam, a South Indian tradition of worshipping lord Ganesha holding the earlobes between your thumb and the forefinger and doing the squats which was also a form of corporal punishment in schools in the past. Apparently the earlobes are supposed to be the energy centre of the brain and this coupled with yogic squats and breathing go a long way in augmenting the benefits of the grey matter.

Well the West has rechristened our humble Thoppukaranam as calisthenics of the cranium and are quiet successful in selling it to the world. Brain Yoga and Calisthenics of the Cranium sounds more chic than Thoppukaranam. At least our folks from Pondicherry should have had the vision to rename it La Thoppukaranam to give it a global reach. They came east looking for spices, but unfortunately left centuries later unable to handle the Pyrotechnics of the Rectum as a result of the spices they came looking for.