OUR JOURNEY

"LightHaven is my dream for an immersive martial arts and movement training space, where one can pick up skills not just to defend themselves like a warrior but to also live like a warrior in their everyday lives.

It was a dream of unity, where people from all martial arts are welcome to come and train together, share and grow together as one community, one family.

Ï started dreaming of my own school in the summer of 2016. I had been training in the Martial Arts for 14 years and the time felt right to start giving back to the community that had shaped me for most of my life.
I had started teaching at the age of 14. I felt then as I feel now that I wasn’t ready, I didn’t know enough, I wasnt good enough. All these years later I still feel the same way. It is this feeling that pushes me to train hard, to stay hungry and be the best I can be.
I reached a point when my training schedule wasn’t good enough. I hungered for an environment where id be immersed in my martial studies 24 hours a day. I could have got a job at a martial arts school or a gym but I knew id never be happy there. I had no time for the testosterone filled atmospheres that one finds in 90% of the training spaces in India today. For me contests to prove your manliness and toughness were a distraction from my martial study. I wanted to train and train hard, not compete to see who has the best abs.
The solution I came up with was to set out on my own and open my own school. The issue was I didn’t want to do that in Delhi, which is where I have lived my whole life. I longed for a quiet place with clean air, fresh water and an abundance of trees and natural life. Goa seemed like the perfect choice.
In March 2017 I started my hunt for a house in Goa. After 5 months and viewing over 50 houses I found my dream home in Moira.
The plan was to find an old Indo – Portuguese house and build a temporary structure on the land attached to the house. The house I found seemed perfect. I had thought of calling my school LightHaven, the house was already named Peace Haven.
It took me 3 months to build my training floor. I made a raised platform with a packed earth floor. A couple of months later, the punching bags went up, and a few months after that the roof was completed. All in all it took 8 months to have everything ready.
I treat LightHaven like my school. That means that apart from conducting classes it’s a place where I am constantly learning and growing.
Its also started to attract some amazing people. We have hosted quite a few legendary martial arts masters, held instructor retreats, exchanged knowledge with other movement practitioners etc etc.
Its become a place where people come to find themselves, get fit, learn and share, all while leaving their ego at the door.
My dream is that LightHaven continues to grow and becomes a place where people come to be inspired.

LightHaven is my hope for a different kind of martial artist, a different kind of human being."
Tuhon Aditya Roy (Founder and Head Instructor)