TEACHERS
My name is Manjunath but everyone calls me Manju. This is a picture of me at home in South India with my Mum.
I trained as a yoga teacher in the foothills of the Indian Himalaya. I also met my Jersey born wife deep in the Indian Himalayas near the border with Tibet. That is a very dramatic story which an Indian astrologer told me about when I was a child (right down to the birthmark on my wife’s right arm) and a Tibetan astrologer told her in much more detail the year before we met. So the Himalayas are very special for me.
I am registered with Yoga Alliance as a 500 E-RTY yoga teacher which is currently the highest level a teacher can register for with this organisation. This means they verified that I completed a minimum of 500-hour yoga teacher training by a school that is registered with them and that I have taught a minimum of 2000 hours over four years. I have in fact taken many hours more trainings (in India and the UK including with Judith Lasater (author of “Restful Yoga for Stressful Times”) and Jo Manuel (author of “The Spiritual Teachings of Yoga”) and taught many, many thousands more hours.
I was not born in the Himalaya but thousands of kilometres away on my family land in Karnataka in South India. When I was growing up we had to walk barefoot (I did not own a pair of shoes until I was 14) for nearly an hour through dense jungle to get to the next house. There was no electricty, no roads and no hospitals in the area only dense jungle full of antelopes, cheetahs, monkeys, brightly coloured birds and lots of snakes! I am so grateful I had the opportunity to live in such a remote place and so close to nature. It was an amazing time in my life and where my deep love for all animals began.
Although it is still a very remote area, now there is electricity, roads connecting the tea and coffee plantations (although not to where my family live!) and a very large and well regarded ayurvedic (herbal) hospital and research centre. Fortunately the area is protected by the Forest Department which means there is no illegal logging or hunting so the jungle trees grow freely and the animals wander without fear. It is a really magical place. If you visit my Facebook page you will see photos of my family and homestead.
I have lived in Jersey for 14 years now but I visit India at least once a year to spend time with my family and to study and practice yoga. This is a picture of me in the Indian Himalaya buying blankets from Tibetan refugees for my yoga classes in Jersey.
