Coming together as a community..

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck the world in 2020. While everyone seemed clueless and unsure of what to do, my wife, Sonali encouraged me to start teaching online. 

Been trained all life for the hands on approach while teaching, the idea of online yoga class seemed impractical. 

But soon we realised that this was the only option and we must do something to share the benefits of yoga and help people cope with the stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic.

We wanted to make yoga accessible to everyone, so we started the classes with a negligible token amount as fees and those who were struggling financially, were encouraged to join with no fees.

Apart from the classes we spent loads of time helping people learn how to use this new environment for practice. Encouraging and helping numerous teachers to setup their classes online. All this kept us driven during the tough phase and with no time to dwell over the horrific updates about the toll caused by the  pandemic. 

To appreciate the contribution of the key workers we invited them to join classes for free and to support the NHS we conducted a day of Yoga classes with the help of senior Iyengar yoga teachers (Sheila Haswell, Kirsten Agar Ward, Julie Brown, Richard Agar Ward, Jayne Orton & Abhijata Iyengar) and Iyengar Yoga (UK). Sheila and Therapy committee also conducted a second day of event showing suggested recovery sequences for COVID-19. The event received an overwhelming response and we could raise over £40,000 ( with gift aid). 

Since then, we have continued to use our platform to support various causes. We've run regular fundraisers by teaching free yoga classes online and raising money for various charities such as the Trussell Trust, Honeypot Charity, Covid India relief, fundraiser for war survivors, earthquake survivors.

One of my students - Russ nominated me for the medal in 2020. It was an honour to receive British Empire Medal (BEM) for our fundraising services to NHS charities and supporting the mental health of yoga practitioners during COVID-19. But, more importantly, it was a testament to the power of coming together as a community, even in the most challenging of times, to make a positive difference in the world.