Kung Fu Fighting

ON the sets on a television programme on martial arts that Kung Fu expert Kanishka Sharma is anchoring, Kalaripayattu Kalari artist P Muru...

ON the sets on a television programme on martial arts that Kung Fu expert Kanishka Sharma is anchoring, Kalaripayattu Kalari artist P Murugan is about to demonstrate a throw. Suddenly, a sickening crack rents the air 8212; the arm of the Kalari artist at the receiving end of Murugan8217;s skills has slipped out of the socket. But Sharma continues to smile unperturbed. You are wondering whether you should label him psychotic when you hear a click. The arm has neatly been put back in its place. 8216;8216;The greatness of Kalari, the mother of all martial arts, is that one is taught how to fix each and every part one breaks,8217;8217; the 24-year-old tells an imaginary audience.

Post-shooting, Sharma is clearly wired 8216;8216;he has been at it for nine hours straight,8217;8217; his mother whispers sympathetically and wants to talk about everything at one go 8212; the seven martial arts he has studied Thai boxing, Jeet Kunedo, Kalari, Kung Fu, etc, etc, the self-defence school he wants to start for girls, his full-time job with Reliance, why he thinks Bruce Lee is the greatest.

So it is a while before he gets down to talking about his latest claim to fame 8212; being the first Indian or, as the Chinese used to call him, 8216;Indoo8217; to spend two-and-a-half months in the 5th century Shaolin temple in the Deng Feng city of the Hanal district, learning Shaolin Kung Fu. 8216;8216;It all began when I watched 36th Chamber of Shaolin as a 10-year-old,8217;8217; laughs the Delhi boy. Last year, his dream came true when he applied to Master Shi Hen8217;s Secular Disciple Union and was picked for admission after a vigorous test.

8216;8216;Shaolin is the only place that teaches martial arts in the completely traditional way. We have to run on stones, practice punches against six-foot high pillars. Till now they never taught it to foreigners, but ever since the Chinese government started promoting Wu Shu, a more performance-oriented martial art, over Shaolin, they have begun to teach it to everyone,8217;8217; says Sharma. In fact, the school he studied at, like most Shaolin Kung Fu schools in that area, was banned a month after he finished the course. 8216;8216;The government wants to convert the area into a tourist spot and get rid of all the schools from there,8217;8217; he sighs.

He remembers his first visit inside the Temple. 8216;8216;It is an awesome sight 8212; there is a giant tree that bears thousands of punch marks, a huge, almost surreal alarm clock, pagoda structures that serve as meditation halls and hundreds of people silently practising.8217;8217;

Sharma plans to go back next year to study further. But he knows that he being Indian comes in the way of him from being privy to the final stages of Shaolin Kung Fu called Chi Gong, because one needs to know Chinese for it. But he is not bothered. 8216;8216;The final stage of Kalari, which is called Prana, is the same as Chi Gong. They teach you about the two points in the body to which you can send energy without touching. I have seen a Kalari artist knocking down people from a distance of 10 feet just by pointing a finger at them,8217;8217; he says, sure that it is only a matter of time before he learns the secret. For now it is back to following the instructions of his Shaolin teacher and setting up a branch of the school here in Delhi.