கால் மேல் கால் போட்டு உட்காராதே

3. கால் மேல் கால் போட்டு உட்காராதே

I am sure you would have heard this, if you are a woman. Your mom would have chided you if you sit cross legged. They might have said பெரிய மனுஷி மாதிரி கால் மேல் கால் போட்டு உட்காராதே. Trust me, it has nothing to do with acting like a பெரிய மனுஷி . It is a belief that only successful / head strong women sit cross legged to portray their power and/or ego. Well, just because they used to say that, many women started believing the same and so now women sit cross legged when in command. But guess what, it is not always the same reason with all women. Women sit cross legged because their leg would have got cramped due to sitting for long hours, or they might have been sitting in a chair which doesnt allow their feet to be placed on ground so they balance one leg over the other etc etc.

Coming back to the point, since the elders have said not to sit cross legged (for whatever reasons) there might be some rationale behind it. Actually there is a medical reason. Women, in general, are more susceptible to get varicose veins in legs, mostly in the thigh region. This might be due to the long hours of standing or sitting. Varicose veins are more common in women than in men. Sitting cross legged with restrict the blood flow in that region and hence it can lead to varicose veins much earlier in their life. Some say that it might also have bad impact on the uterus. But medically nothing has been proven on that front. But yes, for varicose veins, doctors do suggest women to not sit cross legged or atleast make it a point to keep shifting the weights between the legs so as to not restrict the blood flow.  In olden days, since women did the house hold work of brooming and mopping, it was sort of an exercise and hence these varicose veins didnt happen that much. But nowadays since most of us work sitting in a place and hardly any exercise is done, these kind of health problems do occur. Have you wondered how the house maids keep themselves trim and hardly fall sick ? it is because of the hard physical work they do. I am not suggesting anything here, but just reiterating the fact about doing physical exercises to get rid of such health related problems.

As long as you take care of your health by doing proper exercises and not straining your legs, you can sit cross legged as much as you want :)