On Madonna

I once heard myself say: 'My life would have been different if Madonna hadn't been in it.'

I grew up with her. Not literally of course. I grew up with her music, her videos, her clothes, her style. I am from 1975, she was born in 1958, so the age difference is 17 years. In 1984, I was aged 9, I watched with my mouth open to the tv where I saw her sing and dance in Material Girl.
She's always been a feminist pur sang. And of course there a many more feminists who you can look up to, but she entered my world at a young age, where at that point the women around me like my mother, neighbors and aunts, who were married with children, who didn't work as much as their husbands, who took care of the children and did the housework, who didn't look free and independent to me, Madonna opened my eyes, she showed me what a woman can be capable of, how to be free, how to express yourself, and she has never left my life.

In these days, I consider myself no longer as a huge fan. I don't listen to her new music and I never go see her show when she is on tour, but she is in my heart. I am thankful for what she's done for women like me.

She's always been a pioneer in many ways. Of course she already practiced yoga, when yoga was not as popular in my country as it is now. In fact, her song Shanti-Ashtangi of 1998, I didn't like nor understand it. Now I do.

I searched on the web if I could find something about her current yoga practice. I discovered a picture of her and Sharath. I am not sure of which year it is, but Sharath looks very young in the picture. And Madonna does too. Then I saw a piece of an interview Oprah took. She talked about Ashtanga. It gave me goosebumps. I googled some more and read that she no longer practices Ashtanga. It got me a bit sad, but now I know for sure she once was a dedicated Ashtangi, and this makes me think of the practice even better. I am doing the practice she used to do, six days a week.