A traditional school in Fort Kochi

The school

What Santhi is, and what it is not

Santhi is a small school on a quiet street in Chirattapalam, Fort Kochi. It is not a studio chain, not a resort, and not a wellness brand. It is a room with mats, a garden pavilion, and a teacher who has been showing up in the same place for fifteen years.

On any given morning the room holds travellers passing through Kerala, residents of Kochi who have practised here for years, and — four times a year — a batch of people spending twenty-eight days learning to teach. They practise together. That mixture is deliberate: a beginner learns faster beside someone experienced, and an experienced practitioner is reminded what the beginning felt like.

The name matters here, because it is shared. Santhi School of Yoga & Vedanta Studies is in Fort Kochi. There is an unconnected school of a similar name in Vagamon, elsewhere in Kerala. If you are looking for us, look for Chirattapalam and the phone number below.

How we teach

Traditional, which is a word worth explaining

"Traditional" gets used loosely. Here it means four specific things.

Classes are two hours, not one. A traditional Hatha class opens with relaxation and breathing practice, moves through sun salutations and held postures with real rest between them, and ends with deep relaxation. That does not compress into sixty minutes without losing the part that makes it work.

Groups stay small. You cannot correct thirty bodies. Small groups are why the teaching can be hands-on, and they are the single biggest thing separating a good training from a certificate mill.

Philosophy is not an extra. Vedanta sits in the school's name because the teachings behind the practice are taught alongside it, in plain language, without requiring anyone to believe anything.

Nobody is pushed. Flexibility is an outcome of practice, not a requirement for it. Beginners are welcome in every class, and so are stiff bodies, older bodies and injured ones — tell the teacher before you start and the practice adapts around you.

One thing we say plainly

Santhi School of Yoga & Vedanta Studies is not a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga School. Graduates of our 200-hour course receive our own certificate and cannot register as RYT 200.

We would rather you knew that before you enquire than after you arrived. If the Yoga Alliance credential matters for where you intend to teach, choose a registered school — we will say so if you ask. If what you want is a traditional foundation taught in a small group by one teacher, this is a good place to find it. We have written about how to weigh that trade-off, and what trainings actually cost, including our own.