Savitri Ahuja Hysom, a native of Bombay, initiated me in yoga. After an introductory session, I studied yoga intensively with her. Tough, beautiful, spiritual and strong, I quickly came to respect her resilience. I learned how to breathe, to do sun salutation and shoulder stand and other yoga poses. Savitri shared generously, and we became very close. In 1996, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She said to me, "Of all things, lung cancer…when breathing is my life, my trade." After surgery, she fell into a coma and months later died in September 1997.

For a while I couldn't do yoga without sobbing, though I continued to try. After about 8 months I renewed my search for a teacher. Julianna Fair, trained to junior intermediate level three, studies consistently at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in Pune, India. With her guidance, my practice reached new heights through handstands and headstands and all sorts of inversions. Yoga continued to intrigue and challenge me.

Shortly after my diagnosis, I moved to New Jersey to be close to my doctor’s medical research facility and my family. I continued yoga as a member of Studio Yoga, founded by Theresa Rowland and one of the top Iyengar schools in the New York area.

In 2002, a yoga retreat with Cyndi Lee and David Nichtern of the Om Yoga Center drew me to the British West Indies. The synergy of the dharma talks, meditation and yoga brought about an awesome change in my body. As a result, I applied to Om Yoga Center's teacher certification program which I completed in July 2003.

For a complete survey of all of my yoga mentors - those who simply taught me yoga and those who trained me to teach yoga (in italics)- see the table below.

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