# 36 - Super Brain Yoga

The West has clearly articulated and successfully disseminated many glorious eastern concepts. Super-brain yoga, the sub-continent equivalent of the western "Give me five" (military) penalty instruction for push-ups, is one of them. When I was eight, I watched my father make my brother do 20 squats for not washing his hands before a meal. (Take the right hand and place thumb and forefinger on your left earlobe, then take the left hand and place thumb and forefinger on the right earlobe; now lower your hip into a squat, knees together, exhaling loudly each time). Squats have always been considered a punishment; until it was recently hailed by the western world as a "fast, simple, drug-free method of sharpening the brain". According to guardians of this age-old form of punishment/ repentance (“thopikaranam” in Tamil), besides being an excellent strategy to prevent arthritis of the knees, this simple action revives acupuncture points on the earlobes - pinching the left lobe activates the right side of the brain, and vice versa. Wish I was naughtier when I was young; at least I would be smarter...