HEADSTAND HOO-HA

A very pregnant Anushka Sharma’s shirshasana has attracted a range of responses. Here’s looking at some of them

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

Recently, actor Anushka Sharma, who is now in the third trimester of pregnancy, posted a throwback picture on Instagram, in which she is seen performing shirshasana, or a headstand. Even though the post had all necessary disclaimers in place, it was anything but convincing to see a pregnant Anushka, who has less than a month to go for her due date, pulling offa headstand (albeit with support from her husband, Virat Kohli). This, when most expecting mothers decide to stay away from anything that would involve risk of injuries.

“I was astonished,” said Dr. Ranjana Sharma, a consultant gynecologist in Apollo Hospitals, Delhi, “She is an almost full-term now. Why take such a huge risk, especially at a time when the body’s balance is compromised? One needs to know one’s limitations as an expecting mother.”

It was not the first time Anushka tried the head-stand. As she claimed in her post, shirshasana has been a part of her yoga routine for years, and her doctor recommended that she “do all the asanas she had been doing pre-pregnancy, barring twists and extreme forward bends.” This is why when the couple was having a routine practice session at their home in Dubai, with Sharma’s long time yoga teacher, Eefa Shroff, on a Zoom call, Eefa promptly captured “their moment together”, without giving it a second thought.