In one breath
There are two ways to attend, and one teacher teaches both. In person is in a hall in north Bangalore, corrected by hand, from ₹3,000/month. Live online is the same class over video, corrected by name, from ₹3,500/month. Your first class is free.
Most schools sell one of these and treat the other as a consolation prize. Both columns below lose rows. Read the row that matters most to your week, not the one that sounds best.
Which column is which
In person, Bangalore
Live online
In person, Bangalore
Mornings in the hall at 06:30-08:30 IST, plus an evening batch on some days at 18:00-19:00 IST. You come at the time the hall is open, and that is the whole choice.
Live online
The same class live on the same IST clock, plus slots timed for a Gulf and UK evening and an early-IST slot that lands in the American evening. More options, and one of them will suit you.
In person, Bangalore
A hall at a residents association in MSR Nagar, north Bangalore. Fine if you live nearby, an hour of traffic each way if you do not.
Live online
Wherever you can clear two metres of floor. A bedroom with a bed pushed back works. A hotel room mostly does not.
In person, Bangalore
A small room, so the group is capped by the floor space rather than by policy. You will recognise everybody within a fortnight.
Live online
Batch capped at 15, so every person stays on screen at a size the teacher can actually read.
In person, Bangalore
By hand. A shoulder pressed down, a foot turned out, a hip squared, usually without a word. This is the thing video cannot do and it is why the hall still exists.
Live online
By name, out loud, from what the camera shows. Better than any recorded video, which cannot see you at all. Not the same as a hand on your back, and nobody here will pretend it is.
In person, Bangalore
Yourself and loose clothes. Mats and props are in the hall. Nothing to buy before the first class.
Live online
Your own mat, a device you can prop side-on about two metres away, a steady connection and a wall you can put a hand on. That is a real setup cost the hall does not ask of you.
In person, Bangalore
₹3,000/month. The cheaper of the two, because the room costs nothing to run.
Live online
₹3,500/month, wherever in the world you join from. Dearer than the hall, and the honest reason is that the teaching hour is the same while the class is smaller.
In person, Bangalore
Anyone within reach of MSR Nagar, Mathikere, Malleshwaram, Yeshwanthpur and the surrounding streets, anyone with an injury that needs hands on it, and anyone who knows they will not practise alone in a room.
Live online
People outside Bangalore or outside India, parents who cannot leave the house at 6 am, anyone whose week is unpredictable, and people who would find a room full of strangers a reason not to start.
In person, Bangalore
The commute is real and the timing is fixed. Miss the morning and the class is gone. Bangalore traffic has ended more yoga habits than stiffness ever has.
Live online
Nobody is standing over you, so it is easier to switch the camera off, easier to skip, and easier to hold a pose slightly wrong for months. The screen also flattens depth, so some corrections take three attempts.
In the association hall in MSR Nagar, in a group small enough that the teacher can watch and correct every person in the room. Mats and props are there. Bring yourself.
From ₹3,000/month
The same class, taught live over video. Not a recording and not an app: the teacher can see you and will say your name when your shoulder creeps up towards your ear.
From ₹3,500/month
For a specific injury or diagnosis, a pregnancy, a return after surgery, or a schedule that no batch fits. It is the most expensive option and it is not the one most beginners need: a group class costs less and works better for the majority of people starting out. Read the page before you book one.
₹2,000/session
The sequence is the same, the teacher is the same, and the shape of the hour does not change with the medium. Settling and breath, then loosening the joints, then standing poses and floor poses held rather than flowed through, then pranayama, then a full relaxation that is not cut short when the clock runs on. It is traditional yoga, taught slowly, in the order it is taught in the hall.
Nobody is put into a pose their body has not agreed to. Before your first class, in either format, you are asked your age, whether anything hurts and what a doctor has told you. A disc problem, a knee replacement, high blood pressure, glaucoma or a pregnancy changes what you are given, and it changes it quietly, without a discussion in front of the room.
You will also never be handed to a substitute. There is one teacher and no rota, which is a limit as much as a promise: it is why the timetable is what it is, and why batches are capped at a number one person can actually watch. If you want to read what is taught before you attend, the pose pages and the pranayama pages cover the same ground the classes do.
If you came here with a problem rather than an ambition, start with the page written for it: yoga for back pain, yoga for anxiety and stress, yoga for weight loss, yoga for PCOS, yoga for thyroid, or starting yoga after forty. Each one says what helps, what to leave alone, and what the evidence actually shows. If you would rather practise first and read later, begin with Surya Namaskar, all twelve steps, the ten minute morning routine, or the guide to how to start yoga at home.
In person, if you can get to north Bangalore at the hour the hall is open and if you have an injury or a habit that needs a hand on it. Online, if the commute is the thing that will end your practice, because a class you attend beats a better class you skip. The teaching, the sequence and the teacher are the same in both; what differs is correction by hand against correction by name, and a fixed morning against a choice of slots.
Yes, and people do it constantly. Students who normally come to the hall join the online batch during the monsoon or when work travel starts, and online students come to the hall when they are in Bangalore. Tell the teacher on WhatsApp before the class rather than after it, so he knows whether to expect you on the floor or on the screen. There is no transfer charge and no paperwork.
Nothing is deducted and nothing is forfeited. A missed online class is recorded and sent to you, and a missed in-person class can be made up in that week's online batch. If you are away for a longer stretch, say so before the month starts rather than after it and the fee is handled sensibly. There is no attendance rule to fall foul of.
No, and flexibility is a result of the practice rather than an entry requirement for it. Every pose is offered at two or three depths and you take the one your body agrees to that morning. In 40 years of teaching, most people arriving in their forties and fifties could not reach their toes on the first day, which is an ordinary starting point and not a problem to fix beforehand.
Your first class is free, in any batch, any day of the week, and it is the trial. No card is taken, there is nothing to cancel, and attending signs you up to nothing. Message on WhatsApp and you are sent a link, or directions to the hall if you want to come in person. Judging a yoga teacher from a website is not really possible, which is the whole reason the free class exists.
Batch capped at 15 for the live online class, so that every person is on screen large enough to be corrected by name. The in-person group is capped by the floor of the hall rather than by a number, and in practice it is small enough that the teacher knows every person's knees. Confirm the current numbers when you message, because both vary a little by slot.
Your first class is free, in any batch, on any day. No card, nothing to cancel. Come once and see whether the teaching suits you before you pay for anything. You will be asked your age and whether anything hurts, and the sequence will be adapted for you on the spot.
You message on WhatsApp, we send the link. No card, and nothing to cancel afterwards.