Champion British paracyclist David Stone was not so much cowed down by cerebral palsy as he was by anger when he discovered the key to calmness on a hillock 200km from Patna.

The Bihar School of Yoga, which 31-year-old Stone credits with helping him slay his demons to strike gold at the London Paralympics last year, is coming to town for a series of camps this February to mark its golden jubilee.

The camps, part of a nationwide tour from January to June, will culminate in the fourth edition of the World Yoga Camp in Munger, Bihar, in October, an event held only once every 20 years.

"Yoga is much more than just a set of physical movements. These camps are primarily meant to raise awareness about the greater potential of yoga," Bharati Majumdar, who is organising the city leg of the tour, told Metro. "The Bihar School of Yoga believes in a holistic approach aimed at nurturing the body, mind and spirit."

The first World Yoga Camp had been organised in 1953 by Swami Sivananda Saraswati in Rishikesh, a decade before his disciple Swami Satyananda founded the Bihar School of Yoga in 1963. The two subsequent camps at an interval of 20 years each were in Munger.

For those in Calcutta who would want to benefit from the techniques of the Bihar School of Yoga like Stone did, there will be a camp open to all at Safari Park on Southern Avenue from February 18 to 20.

The other camps will be invitation-only affairs on the campuses of IIM Joka and the GD Birla group of schools. There will be a camp exclusively for CESC employees and a few in residential complexes across the city.

Yoga teachers in Calcutta associated with the school say that yoga as a discipline cannot be generalised.

"The Munger school has always tried to adapt itself to the changing needs of individuals. That will be our focus at the camps as well," said a teacher associated with school for 17 years.

Stone, who swears by the mental and physical conditioning he received in Munger since he was 21, had told The Telegraph after winning gold in the Mixed T 1-2 Road Race that anger was his biggest enemy until he discovered the Bihar School of Yoga.

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