My first Yoga teacher
My first Yoga teacher was Colonel D.I.M. Robbins, OBE, MC.
I met DIM (as he was affectionally known) in Oman in the 1970’s. I was 22 years old, on my first job after university and living in a beach house between Mutrah and Seeb, west of Muscat. In those days, the road out to Seeb had only recently been tarmac’d and there was virtually no traffic on it. The coastal strip had not been built up, with only the odd fishing village.
DIM was 60 years old and seconded to the Sultan’s Armed Forces.
He held yoga classes in the Iyengar style at the Ruwi hotel twice a week. DIM had trained under Iyengar in India and had been the president of the British Wheel of Yoga. There is a short chapter by DIM on Iyengar in “Iyengar, His Life and Work”, a collection compiled by Iyengar in celebration of his own 60th birthday.
I remember DIM as being quite strict during classes but very light-hearted outside of class. The yoga was quite tough, poses being held for long (for me) periods of time and sessions being 2 hours long.
I practised yoga every evening on the beach outside my house.
It was a very private place with feral dogs living nearby and a few under my house in a dug out sand chamber. I became close to one particular desert dog, who was the pack leader. I called him Ben. Some of the dogs were unapproachable and sometimes quite aggressive, but Ben kept them in check and he liked to be petted and de-flea’d. I think his relationship with me helped his status in the pack. The occasional feeding of Ben became my way of controlling the pack, but one day I found myself a mile or so away from home on the beach when the pack approached me, with no Ben in sight. I had to swim out into the ocean and swim back to home. The dogs got bored and just left. Thinking about this now, I’m reminded of another time in Brazil when I was chased up a tree by two big dogs. I was about 7 years old. Again I waited up a tree until the dogs got bored and walked away.
I recount this story to give a flavour of the environment where I practised. Somehow, asana and pranayama practise in a remote outdoors location gives the practise a special quality. So much so, that I have always sought such places. Later, a memorable location for me was the Asola Bhatti park near New Delhi.
Back in Oman, after a private yoga practise I would often go for an ocean swim, or sometimes a jog.
DIM’s early upbringing was very similar to mine. My family on my father’s side were privileged in India and some from a military background. I was sent to boarding school in England at the age of 8, like DIM, and not seeing my mother or father very often. Initially, once a year for a couple of weeks, being farmed out to more distant relatives during school holidays. My saving grace was outdoor sports. It kept me on the ‘straight and narrow’. Very similar to DIM as you can hear from this interview with him.
For the rest of the long interview, visit here.
As an aside, DIM had the fortune to have met Wilfred Thesiger, the desert explorer and a boyhood hero of mine. I have several of Thesiger’s books in my library. These books made a mark on my early years, although later I came to doubt Thesiger due to his political stance/values.
I remember DIM with affection. He died in 2007, RIP. What he gave me that is so precious, now that I am in my late years, was an appetite for inquiry through experience.
