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Bikram Choudhury: Bikram's BallsAt the turn of the millennium, Bikram Choudhury - inventor of Bikram yoga and founder of Bikram's Yoga College of India - began firing off cease-and-desist orders to yoga studios around America, warning that his pose sequence (26 postures taught in a mirrored room heated to precisely 41 degrees Celsius) was protected by intellectual property law. Recipients were threatened with lawsuits unless they paid appropriate franchising and licensing fees, changed their names to Bikram's Yoga College of India, and closely adhered to Choudhury's script. Competitors who found such aggression unbecoming of a "Yogiraj" must have been astonished by an interview with Choudhury in a national magazine. "I have balls like atom bombs, two of them, 100-megtons each," he declared. "Nobody f---s with me!"
["What is yoga?" Choudhury asked during a class one day. "Shit together." "Bullet proof. Sex proof. Fire proof. Wind proof. Everything proof," he said on another occasion. "If you can take my shit, one day you will become a better person."]
[Trivia: Bikram Choudhury began to study yoga at the age of four. At thirteen, he won the National India Yoga competition. He held his title for three years, until he was asked to stop competing in order to give others a chance to win! He went on to pursue an athletic career as a marathon runner and weightlifter, setting world records and competing in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.]
Choudhury, Bikram (1945- ) Indian-born American yogi, inventor of of Bikram yoga, founder of Bikram's Yoga College of India [noted for various books and videos about Bikram yoga]
[Sources: GQ, Sept. 2003, p. 260; The Economist, Jun 17th 2004;]More Bikram Choudhury anecdotesRelated Anecdote Keywords:
Yoga Intellectual Property Copyright Lawsuits Toughness Threats Warnings Testicles Attitude
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