Ninie Ahmad: Off her yoga mat.

PEACE IS..

10 days without mobile phone.

INSULT IS..

the mechanic in my father’s hometown saying, “Haiyaaa, ini Mitsubishi ka? Dari tadi you hantar saya ingat Naza Citra woo!” while changing Batmobile’s brakepad.

GORGEOUS IS..

my best friend’s girls.

ADORABLE IS..

my French Canadian boyfriend’s SMS-es in Malay (e.g “Aku rindu awak”).

LOVE IS..

from Postsecret

giving up LA to not lose your family.

I don’t even know where and how to begin sharing what happened to me for the past seven days.

‘Go down to go up, in to go out, back to go forward’

To another seven days of delicious surprises.

Just so when I thought there’s nothing left for me in Malaysia,

I was offered the lifeline to continue my Hope and Faith I needed to hear to stay here.

From INCEPTION (2010)

‘If we are gonna perform Inception then we need imagination.’

My dream pose shot by Petrovsky

Maybe KL deserves a second chance.

Maybe I am the one I have been waiting for.

Maybe I am going to have two kids in two years.

Maybe baby.

I am surprised sooooo many people searched for ‘Ninie Ahmad’s New Boyfriend’ (search results appear in Wordpress, in case you don’t know) after yesterday’s post.

All these years of dating and blogging, I have (finally!) learnt to not kiss and tell ALL (kesian Supertall, korang masih lagi Search dia). And for those who looked out for ‘moving out sale’, e-mail me at ninie.ahmad@gmail.com for details with ‘The Banned Yoga Instructor’s Moving Out-Of-The-Country Sale‘ as subject title. For those who have my number, SMS might not be entertained!

I am sorry to disappoint you but I don’t think you will ever find any more photos of Ninie Ahmad’s boyfriend online, at least not here! And I will pretzel and hang them upside down those who do post us in their blogs / Facebook, LOL.

But what I can’t help to not share is – why I fell for (let’s just stick to calling him) Mr Petrovsky.

• His ‘platinum’ hair that makes him look errr, wise.. Not Mikhail Baryshnikov 60-years-old old wise, but you get the picture.
• He is NOT on Facebook, dude (don’t get me started with Twitter)! Who else can say as much?
• He took me to watch Sex And The City in New York City (that’s 3 million brownie points!)
• He speaks French, jangan marah. Ok, you can come back to envisioning Aleksandr Petrovsky.
• He loves yoga and is ZOMG good at it! Plus he looks so good on his mat, it tingles my orange chakra
• He makes pancakes! And cooks, yo! Fancy dinner! For me!
• He recycles! And uses organic everything!
• Since he cooks and recycles and DOES YOGA, it’s a no-brainer that he is not our typical Malaysian man (fine, he is French not Malaysian – happy?)

As much as I can’t wait to leave KL, I don’t know how can I leave such a wonderful man here when I am not sure if I want to ever come back, when I don’t know where my next home is..

‘And the wheels just keep on turning,
The drummers begin to drum,
I don’t know which way I’m going,
I don’t know what I’ll become.

For you I’d wait ‘til kingdom come,
Until my days, my days are done,
And say you’ll come and set me free.
Just say you’ll wait, you’ll wait for me.‘

~ COLDPLAY

As a potential practitioner of a long-distance relationship (LDR), from what I’ve read, seen and asked around -

LDR is.. (almost like) doing yoga with a DVD,

• might still deliver promising result
• it will still hurt (whoever says yoga AND relationships are easy?)
• can be boring, if not thoroughly challenging
• and – you might just get used to doing it alone after some time (wait, that doesn’t sound right..)

I can’t wait to leave this city of no-angels but I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to part with the one who’s got my heart.

by Kim Casali, conceived by and drawn by Bill Asprey

So help me God..

While there is no surprise of what’s my favourite TV show in history,

No more Sex.

my favourite TV show character with the most brilliant script / lines ever written for – is no doubt, Ari Gold from Entourage (HBO). Whoever invented Ari Gold is a total genius. Almost as genius as the brainchild of Yogitoes.

(Useful fact: Ari’s character is based on the real-life Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, who broke away from mega-agency ICM to form the Endeavor Talent Agency, which represents such stars as Vin Diesel and Larry David, both of whom are represented on the show by the fictional Ari Gold. Likewise, both Emanuel and Gold represent series producer, Mark Wahlberg, upon whose experiences in Hollywood the series is loosely based. Ari Emanuel also once represented Jeremy Piven himself, and in an interview on the special features of the Season 3 Part 2 DVD, Entourage creator Doug Ellin says that the real life Ari Emanuel demanded the “Ari Gold” part be cast to Piven and wouldn’t accept anyone else to play him.)

I started noticing the actor, Jeremy Piven when he started playing main’s best friend in Serendipity (John Cusack’s) and The Family Man (Nicholas Cage’s) in 2000 & 2001. On my defense, I was only 18!

After glued to watching season after season of Entourage to be blown away by the most insulting yet inspirational lines from the mouth of Ari Gold (and Johnny Drama!), I found myself paying more attention to Jeremy Pixen after I watched Jeremy Piven’s Journey Of A Lifetime (2006) where Piven travelled to Northern and Southern India for a spiritual and yoga journey (as if they are any different – LOL. Auww, come on. Lighten up!)

Discovery Channel

Since then, I have been bending over backwards to find out more about Jeremy Piven and his quest for yoga.

Infamously, Jeremy credits his (fish) mercury poisoning incident to discovering Fish Pose.

From Men’s Fitness:

Since then, he has taken up yoga. “[My preconception was] you have to wear a leotard,” he jokes. “I mean, do you have to wear a bindi and hold incense?” But now, he credits lotus poses and downward facing dogs for giving him the calm to play Ari Gold on the TV show. “Ari’s got some quick-twitch anger,” Piven says.

“To do that repeatedly, you have to come from a place of stillness.”

More yoga photos of Jeremy Piven (images from HBO, Men’s Fitness, Fitsugar, People, Yoga Dork and Google)

Side planking

He claimed that it only took him nine months to master the splits  – here’s for hoping, guys!

With the Porsche of yoga mats

.   .   .   .   .   .

What’s with the sudden craze of Jeremy Piven, Ninie – you may ask?

Well, one – Entourage premiered Season 7 when I was in the US,

and two, someone Direct Message-d me on Twitter just the other day !

While I can’t don’t want to share what he DM-ed me (errr, since my boyfriend might read this?), all I can say is – I can’t wait!

Love and LA light.

From THE YOGA DORK July 13, 2010

With all these world record yoga events and baited sun breaths waiting for the Eat, Pray, Love merchandising avalanche, have we really forgotten about the Fatwa?

The wha? Hey, watch your language! No, really, at the end of 2008 and early ‘09 we had fatwas flying out from every direction. OK, mostly the east. To be specific, the Muslim regions of Indonesia and Malaysia. Just to bring us all up to speed, a Fatwa is otherwise recognized as a religious edict, a kibosh, or ban on things that are deemed ‘haram’ or harmful. The Fatwa Councils of both Indonesia and Malaysia made news by slapping one of these fatwas on our beloved yoga, inciting outrage by practicing yogis who also practice Islam. In short, both cases saw retractions on the ban so that asana was eventually permitted so long as the freaky chanting and “mind body connection” remained absent. Turns out Indonesians didn’t care anyway. (Note the Bali Spirit Fest, formerly Yoga Fest, 2010 went off without a hitch).

We’d all but forgotten about the yoga ban in Malaysia until we heard from Ninie.

Ninie Ahmad is as close to a Malaysian yogi rock star as they come, her image gracing oodles of magazine covers, appearances on numerous TV shows and a role as an official Adidas ambassador. So why was her most recent moment in the spotlight cruelly edited in accordance with the F-word?

Via FreeMalaysia:

“(On Sunday, July 4) I was informed that Astro [Malaysian Satellite TV] will not air my episode of Project Alpha that is scheduled tonight because the Quality Control (QC) department said that under Fatwa law, they could not air a Malay person teaching yoga.”

For your reference, ‘Project Alpha’ is a reality show like ‘Top Chef’, but about bloggers! Sadly Ninie was denied her time to shine, because of yoga.

That’s ridic! some of you say. Is it yoga censorship?? But Malaysia isn’t devoid of yoga naysayers. So, fairly miffed and confused, Ninie has taken to twitter to defend herself from detractors in 140 characters or less:

We’re no scholars, but we are pretty sure yoga can be practiced in tandem with most religions, or with none at all. (though, due to the sensitivity of the matter might we suggest in our best publicist tone that Ms. Ninie reconsider her ‘about’ section where she mentions attending yoga “religiously” and her decision to “join the cult”… just sayin’)

Anyway, the physical practice is supposedly allowed, so why was yoga cut from programming? We think Astro at least owes an explanation! Dang it, anyhow. Besides, if the country of Malaysia is going to ban public displays of yoga,  how’re they going to make bank off this EPL-crazed tourism wave?

Stay strong Ninie. One love.

Earlier…

• Fatwa News: Yoga Ban Reversed! Malaysian Muslims Free to Practice Yoga, without Chant
• Malaysian King Not Cool with Ban; Still Hope for Muslim Yogis?
• Indonesian Muslims to Yoga Fatwa: Who Cares?
• Bikram Responds to Fatwa, ‘Yoga has absolutely nothing to do with religion’

.   .   .   .   .   .

Special thanks to Yoga Dork for the mention and online hugs from yogis all across the map.

The universe is working its magic, I can feel it!

Do you ever wonder what your yoga teachers do when your eyes are closed, your body is completely relaxed (if not drained), soothing water drop in the music background when you are in Dead Body Pose (Savasana) ?

Do they enlightened beings really meditate, OR levitate for that matter – when no one’s looking?

Here is an idea (from Bite Size Yoga) -

Come on, we yoga teachers fall asleep are humans too – sometimes!

P.S. I heard that China not only bans Facebook but YouTube too! How does it feel living without Internet freedom? But they say yoga in fancier parts of China of is as big as it is in NY & LA.

Hmm, no Internet but free to do yoga.

I TAKE THAT!

From FREE MALAYSIA TODAY, July 12 2010

By Ken Vin Lek and G Vinod, photo by Ted Adnan

KUALA LUMPUR: Astro had pulled the plug on an episode called Project Alpha which was to feature Yoga instructor Ninie Ahmad.

The episode, which was supposed to be aired on the HITZ.TV channel on July 4, was supposedly scrapped because of the Fatwa Council’s prohibition on Muslims practicing Yoga.

In her blog posting, Ninie said: “(On Sunday, July 4) I was informed that Astro will not air my episode of Project Alpha that is scheduled tonight because the Quality Control (QC) department said that under Fatwa law, they could not air a Malay person teaching yoga.”

This is not the first time that she has faced such problems with regards to Astro.

Back in June 2008, Ninie was invited to be a guest on the talk show called Ek Eleh hosted by comedian Afdlin Shauki, but Astro did not screen the recording.

“To my utmost surprise and biggest horror, they replaced my (almost 20 minutes of full-on) interview with ‘the best footage’ out of all 26 episodes…

“They could have had the courtesy to at least call and inform me in advance. I feel sorry for them for they feel the need to do this and for the Malaysian media which still feel reluctant to feature me and help promote yoga even though it’s not banned in Malaysia,” she said in a blog posting then.

Despite numerous attempts, FMT could not contact Astro’s officials for comments.

In November 2008, the Fatwa Council declared that Muslims are prohibited from practicing Yoga because of its Hindu roots.

The move drew flak from several quarters, including the royalty, with Negeri Sembilan’s Tunku Naquiyuddin Tuanku Jaffar asking, “Where do we draw the line?”

“Islam is a progressive religion and the ulama (scholars) should be confident of the followers’ faith rather than micro-managing their way of life.

“If I go to a church or a Buddhist temple, is there any fear of me converting?” he said.

On Nov 26 that year, former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Muslims could continue practicing Yoga, minus the chanting of mantras.

Fatwas or religious edicts are not legally binding, but they are highly influential in Malaysia, where Malay-Muslims form just over half of the country’s 27 million people.

- or, that’s what I try to keep telling myself everyday

As much as I feel good about my body and loving (almost) everything I see in the mirror – I have insecurities about my body too, trust me!

While I think I look better without clothes (who else will say that about my body, right ?), I can’t help but to feel like giving up TOO whenever I come across this beautiful set of low-key studio photos of LA yoga teacher / arm balancing rockstar  Kathryn Budig by photographer Jasper Johal for Toesox.

Heck I’d pose with nothing but engineered socks too if I looked like THAT!

And so to regain my confidence (you know how it feels like when people say you look so fit but you feel sooooo fat), I checked back my Asana studio photoshoots done with a couple of photographers some time ago posing almost unintendedly similar poses!

1st & 2nd photo by Napie Moksin, top & pants by adidas for Stella McCartney; 3rd photo by Joe Low, top by adiShe & pants by adidas Techfit Powerweb

Ok ok, I take that back.

I forgot that I love my body and what I can do with it but I (like, really) hate my STRETCHMARKS!

If my disadvantage and restriction to continue promoting yoga in Kuala Lumpur have somehow inspired you to start (taking up) yoga seriously – please find this sharing helpful!

( From Spoiled Yogi )

I’m always amazed at the rampant misconceptions about yoga. Even here in the San Francisco Bay Area, where yoga studios are as common as Starbucks, people think yoga is all about stretching and being healthy. I guess it can be that, but it can also be much more. Here are the things I wish everyone understood about yoga.

.   .   .   .   .

1. It doesn’t matter how flexible or inflexible you are.

Really. Being flexible won’t make you happier. There’s no prize.  Stop suffering and learn to love the body you have!

I can only do the split at my fourth year of yoga, don’t kid yourself.

2. Don’t get hung up on how you look in a pose.

Everyone else in class is focusing on their own pose. They don’t care how you look (unless you’re wearing a thong). Let this be your first lesson in ego management.

Take it from Madonna, don’t get ‘HUNG UP’!

3. It’s OK if you don’t know what the Sanskrit words mean.

The only people in the room who do are teachers or big yoga dorks.

The name of this Ashtanga Primary Series pose is Kukkutasana, go figure what it’s called in English

4. It’s not religious!

—unless you want it to be. Your practice should be unique to you. You’re allowed to make it as spiritual, religious, fitness oriented (or not) as you want. (If someone tells you otherwise, please have them call me.)

Assalamualaikum AND Namaste mean the very same (Peace Be Upon You)!

5. Yoga is an art form, a science, a lifestyle, and a philosophy.

But more than anything, it’s a way to get to know yourself better. And that’s something that benefits us all.

.   .   .   .   .

JUST get on the mat and soon enough you’ll be standing on your head (and look 10 years younger. And weigh 10 pounds lighter. And feel 10 inches taller, I can keep going on and on and on..), before you know it!

Love and have fun going crazy watching World Cup final!

From THE SUN, Thursday July 8, 2010

Yoga instructor Ninie Ahmad offers eating tips to stay healthy and trim

by Anansa Jacob

Have you ever given a thought to what it means to have a balanced breakfast? That is, if at all you take time out to have breakfast. Quite a number of people skip breakfast entirely, either because of time constraints, or because they do not think it is important.

For celebrity yoga instructor Ninie Ahmad, the idea of skipping breakfast is a cardinal sin. Although not a trained nutritionist, the vegetarian has read up a lot about nutrition and healthy living, and firmly believes that we are what we eat.

“I read this saying once: ‘Eat breakfast like a king, eat lunch like a prince and eat dinner like a pauper’,” she said. “It means that we should eat the most at the start of the day, (so) we’ll have the energy to work or be active. At night, we should eat less as our bodies will soon be resting.”

Ninie met us for breakfast at the Pappa Rich restaurant at The Gardens, Kuala Lumpur. On the menu was a selection of Pappa Rich favourites, all traditional Malaysian breakfast dishes.

We had Pappa curry laksa special with foo chok, Pappa char kuey teow, Ipoh kuey teow soup with steamed chicken, chicken porridge, otak-otak, roti bakar and roti stim with butter and kaya, half-boiled eggs and Pappa nasi lemak.

“Someone once asked me if it was healthy to eat nasi lemak, because I was seen having it every morning for breakfast,” she said. “To me, it depends on what you have with the nasi lemak. A simple one, with just boiled egg and sambal is actually okay.

“Nasi lemak is okay for me because I know I’m going to be using up all those calories throughout the day.”

She also thinks people should choose their breakfast meals carefully. “For instance, nasi lemak is a healthier choice than roti canai, because of all the bad oil in roti canai. But I sometimes crave for roti canai, so I do eat it occasionally.”

She explained that a craving is a sign that our bodies lack certain nutrients, “but if you have roti canai every morning, then that’s not a craving!”

She also pointed out the various positive aspects of the other dishes in the restaurant’s breakfast menu.

Half-boiled eggs are a good protein boost, as is otak-otak. The little bit of santan in the laksa is balanced out by the vegetables. As for the only ‘risky’ dish, char kuey teow, Ninie emphasised that moderation is the way to go.

“I’m not saying you should cut it out altogether, just that you need to have it rarely, or in small portions.”

Eating moderately spicy food for breakfast is also a good thing. “Spicy food helps raise our metabolic rate, which also contributes to weight loss,” Ninie said.

She also pointed out that Pappa Rich, which is one of her favourite places to have breakfast, also carries a range of vegetarian pau, ideal for vegetarians like her. “It’s also a healthier option for those who want to watch their diets.”

As much as possible, she tries to prepare her meals at home. She usually has organic cereals or pancakes for breakfast as they are easy to prepare.

“I normally make nasi lemak if I have a long Sunday ahead of me,” she added.

At the very least, she makes sure to have a blended fruit juice to get a burst of vitamins and fibre in the morning.

Ninie also stressed that the best breakfast is a simple, homecooked meal with a balanced list of ingredients.

“Everyone should make the effort to not only make sure to have breakfast, but to make it a healthy one.

“After all, it’s better to take care of our health now than later when we get ill from eating unhealthy food.”