KAZE ARASHI RYU, SURGING AHEAD Issue Articles

1 | P a g e This newsletter is the property of Kaze Arashi Ryu, India. No part of this document may be altered without the written consent of the chief instructor, Kaze Arashi Ryu, India.

Kaze Arashi Ryu,

surging ahead

Dec 2012

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, IT GETS THE AIKI FLOWING ANNUAL ISSUE 2012

To do, or to be! When your belt exams are announced, a lot of organs flutter…Page 2-4

The bold new faces of Kaze Arashi Ryu The Kaze Arashi Ryu School Bangalore added five new Black belts and two new Brown belts to its arsenal ….Page 4

Keeping Dreams Alive A twenty five year old tale of keeping a dream alive …Page 5

Words from a Mentor

Sensei Sastri addresses the new breed of Sensei’s..Welcome to “Middle School”.. page 6

Taking a road never taken Celebrating the graduation ceremony off the beaten path….Page 7

The Stars and their Stripes Celebrating new stars on our wall of fame from grading exams conducted in 2012 and then some more… Page 7

Reflections off polished surfaces

The agony and the ecstasy. To some a dream realized, to others a wakeup call …Page 8

Galleria

A picture speaks a thousand words….or so they say …page 8

2013, the year of Steel

Many dreams, many possibilities…planning our way forward…….Page 8

Pondering Thoughts

2012 was a great year. We started the year with a bang…now it’s time to look back at the year that was in retrospect.

We have much to be grateful for. New students, new grade turners and a whole new bunch of Graduates. Lots of pain. Many laughs .Some of our classmates realized their dreams. Some went on to marry their soul mates. Some twisted their body parts in the quest for the perfect Koshi Nage and some discovered many parts that they didn’t know existed before.

A few thousand Masala dosas, IVS‘s (Idly-Vade-Sambar) and gallons of tea later, we are still together, stronger and so much in love with Aiki jujutsu than ever before. Sensei Chandan summed it up for all of us when he so eloquently put it during his post- belt exam interviews,” It’s an addiction” (hic). We know he was also referring to Kaze Arashi Ryu… Read on …..!!!

The Wind –Storm, Unleashed By Inna Mey

To do, or to be!

That was the question.

While practicing Aiki gives me hot flushes, I must confess that belt exams make me itch all over. It must be an allergy or something. I have a 10th century medical certificate to that effect as well. The reaction to certain key words like “belt” or “exam” especially when used together in the same sentence triggers a series of spasms and convulsions that sometimes result in non-spontaneous combustion. My stomach swells with uninvited flatulence and I exhibit a lot of “sighed” effects. I remember asking sensei, if there was a way I could skip belt exams. I could fetch water, paint the fence, build waterproof tea bags, call him Mr. Miyagi and treat all the ladies at the women’s hostel to a demo of the crane stance (Ahem. The interest is purely clinical, for the records).But then, negotiating with Sensei Ramesh is as exciting as watching paint dry.

The D-Day was set for the first week of Oct 2012. Sempai’s Vijay and Sensei Unni were to be graded for their Brown 3 on 2nd Oct and Sensei Dutta, Sempai’s Umesh, Chandan, Jagan, Jose and Chandan for the Oku Iri on 6th and 7th Respectively.

When one accepts the inevitable, stuff happens. Looking back, I think the series of fortunate events that

finally led to the completion of the certification are the stuff dreams are made of. We had regular practice sessions every Saturday and Sunday between July and October taking turns beating each other up. Each week, Sensei Ramesh came up with interesting route maps to help us with

improving our stamina. For those of you who know

Bangalore well, we ran from the Malleswaram to the TV Tower and to Yeshwantpur via IISC and then back to the Dojo via Paris. All in a day’s work and all in an hour and half. If it wasn’t for Umesh, Chandan and Jagan who took turns to defibrillate me on

the cannonball run, I would have been playing a harp and sipping ice tea with Indra himself. Yikes.

At least I now know why Bang-Galore became the name of our city. We have photographs to prove it.

Our practice sessions in the Mathikere Dojo were inspiring. Each weekend we practiced made us more aware of ourselves. We crept towards the deadline. Partly

with dread of what lay ahead. Part with the awareness of the responsibility that lay ahead. Part with a keen sense of where we needed to improve. The respect we had for each other grew. This was no longer a match between combatants. This was more

about one comrade holding a mirror out to the other- to allow for glimpses, of reflections – how far we have come, …what needs polish…can we do this together.

Sensei Ramesh was the Compass and the Lighthouse. I don’t think we would have made it through these grueling sessions if it wasn’t for him. He was the solid beacon of hope, pain, encouragement, threat, confidence and relief …all rolled into one.

Of course, if you listen to the number times you hear the emphatic and guttural word “PUSH” reverberating across the dojo, you might naturally believe it is a maternity

ward with some serious labor underway. Alas, not all labor is labor and we did indeed labor laboriously under Sensei Ramesh’s obstetrics and “whine”cology.

Sensei Dutta and Sensei Unni were role models themselves and never spared any effort, any moment to lead by example how the student –teacher synergy transformed dreams into waking reality.

Wow …those were the days of thunder.

D-Day

Sensei Unni and Sempai Vijay were the first to kick off close encounters of the fourth kind with their test scheduled on 2nd October. Gandhi Jayanthi in some ethereal way paved the possibility for our future

torchbearers to emerge. They went through their demonstrations of the Tai Sabaki in various combinations with tenshin’s , go-no-sen’s ,sen-sen and sen-zen –no –sen’s and the entire

curriculum from Nages, controls, locks to their Muruvi equivalents …the whole nine yards. The curriculum is vast and the scopes of combinations are immense. It needs more than a gallon of red bull to keep one going. In the end, it is about the power of the mind over the body.

Red bull gives you wings. So does a boot in the rear.

Mercifully they were permitted what I call “breathing breaks” to maintain some semblance of organic life in their fatigued bodies. I realize now that Sensei Ramesh drove them to this limit to show them how far and how long they can go, if the source of that motivation is within. To quote him “You need to convince yourself what you can do”.

I was also acutely and painfully aware of what lay in store for us …

For Sensei Unni, “There is a tendency to go blank on the mats. One needs to control

KAZE ARASHI RYU, SURGING AHEAD | Issue ARTICLES 3

one’s breathing and that can be half the battle won. Martial arts are a part of his life. He is passionate about it and it is a learning process .The more you learn about the art, the more you learn about the people...and the more you discover

yourself. A journey within oneself”

For Sempai Vijay who did a good imitation

of Sylvester Stallone in Rocky (including the droop and the drawl “The exam is a test of endurance. No matter how many techniques I know...it is about endurance. It is about how I respond to the opponent. When Sensei asks you to correct a technique, you need to do it right away…and watch the breathing. ” .. Arrrr.

Sensei Unni and Sempai Vijay successfully moved on to their next Grade after an eight hour long ordeal on 2nd Oct.

Exit Stage Left. Now it was our turn to face the music. If I were a cat, the chances are I used all nine of what was left of my ten lives just arriving at the dojo on this day.

Saturday, 6th Oct was dedicated to grading Sensei Dutta, Sempai’s Umesh and Jose while Sunday,7th Oct was for Sempai’s Jagan and Chandan .

Let the mayhem begin. And so it did.

For the next few paragraphs, I will attempt to describe the flavor of common salt. I will tell you that it’s salty and it looks like sodium chloride yadda yadda wakka wakka…humor me please.

To call the Black belt exam an exam, is like calling the Rolls Royce Phantom 2 a car.

Like calling superman a pansy with his undies outside his pants. This is not about the streamlines and aerodynamics the undies bring when worn on the outside…it is about the sheer scale of ignorance and gall it takes to call the belt exam an exam.

It is not.

This event requires of you, to work in well coordinated task groups to demonstrate, defend and substantiate the rationale behind everything you learnt in

three years at the dojo. It is beyond regurgitation. It started off as a series of muscle memory rehearsed

autonomic movements coordinated to a certain degree with the Tai-sabaki, tenshins and combinations of the Hidari and Migi opening led attack and parry. Letters being penned in the sands of time: blocks, counters,

Individual locks, throws, controls, take downs, reversals. The Kote Giashi making way into the Nikkyo, Sankyo, Yonkyo, the fifth and sixth controls and before we knew it, letters were becoming spellings …combinations

of letters slowly working to frenzy.

Irimi was followed with by Koshi, Kokyu, kaiten and Shiho nages. In relentless

succession followed the Aiki and Sumi Otoshi’s. Before you know it, a spelling bee exam was underway. This is where I began to lose track of time and consciousness and most of my body parts. The day blurred past Sempai Umesh and me as we moved on into disarming knives, sticks, flying legs and arms with the blood pounding in

our heads. Sensei Dutta Joined this maelstrom in the house of flying daggers and soon it was muruvi in full swing. His passion, enthusiasm for the art and ability to defy what we think are the

implications of age came through coherently. For some of us, participating in the Grading event with him was a reason to celebrate.

The event in itself had its moments of Aha. We had

real life scenarios to deal with –a loved one held a knife point...How would you propose to manage the situation? Multiple attacks with little room to maneuver or the significance of Geri take down; selection of

a specific

technique in a specific situation…the list is goes on and on.

If one was expecting to punch away with fists and conserve energy, think again. The usage of the Geri was so intense that it probably took about thirty minutes from an eight hour day to drain all batteries, including any spare one might have conspired to surgically insert into one’s body. So after a point when the physical

exhaustion took over all possible faculties and orifices, it

was time for the mind to find a way through the haze and establish a means to communicate intelligently with such varied stimuli. Pure mind over body stuff for those who get hot flushes thinking about such stuff. It was happening right there.

Again, the breathing breaks were well placed allowing for signs of life to return to fatigued limbs. I can’t be grateful enough to our Uke’s: Sensei’s Sai, Dave, Nagaraj, Rasheed, Vinod

and Krishna Kumar who went about doing their bit to present the right amount of challenge when they joined us on the mats as our Uke’s . Having walked the path before, they knew how, when and where they needed to adapt and do justice to their role as co-examiners facilitating the flow of techniques through us.Participating in our self discovery.

Dear Sensei-Uke’s …here is our twenty gun salute to you for your kindness. Boom...Boom…

If this wasn’t enough, the entire sequence of events we re-done in the suwari –waza mode. Believe me, it was not just the knees that protested after the first few swings on the mats. There were the occasional glimpses and flashes of light at the end of a tunnel. But that was Sempai Chandan taking videos on a mobile. Not the loss of vision from the pounding we had taken. Gulp!

In all that blur, I remember that it rained …but all that water might have been sweat as well. It is incredible how time flies. Especially on a day like this. The grading event finally drew to a close at around 8:35 PM.

At this point I will cut to the next day’s grind before we come back to this very point …in which a circle was complete..

Exit stage right. Scene two : The Grading event for Sempai’s Chandan and Jagan : 7th Oct 2012.

Imagine all that we want through, except in reverse. You think you saw the previous days sessions, have a good idea about the so called “questions to be asked” and gloat over a seeming tactical advantage when all your hopes get trashed in the opening salvo.

So we started with a gentle round of tenshins and before you know it, every possible, conceivable

technique is in the suwari waza mode. Knees buckle before you say jack. I

thought we had seen the worst of it …But here it was, holding a video camera and wincing at every move …in empathy. Sempai’s Jagan and Chandan was one tough bunch to crack. Sensei Ramesh gave them a certain unexpected amount of freedom in selecting and demonstrating all techniques required in a flow. They could choose what, how and when. It is usually in such situations that the need for conformance and structure raises its head. Sensei as usual presented several scenarios that needed careful analysis, understanding of the outcomes desired

before a specific technique needed to be selected and applied. They managed nevertheless and after a never ending eight hours of crawling, gasping and some well managed and executed techniques later, their grading event was declared complete. Phew. Now it’s back to the point we left off …8:35 PM, Saturday, 6th Oct. Part one of the Oku Iri grading event was complete. It was a poignant moment when Sensei Ramesh congratulated us on successfully graduating as Oku Iri’s of the wind storm tradition. I could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed.

And all was lost after that in the rush of relief...and the fact that we somehow survived this inward journey and lived to tell the tale. 6th Oct will continue to be etched in our memories as the day of reckoning.

Sensei Ramesh played the roles of the evaluator, guide and examiner to the hilt. Professional, thorough, balanced and poised, the right amount of Ice and the right amount of Humor. He was democratic and allowed for explanations, arguments, points of view and making total idiots out of ourselves. We had the right to be wrong.

Like throwing a drowning man both ends of the rope. Like an undie without elastic. Branded but useless.

Sensei Ramesh: We are grateful for this opportunity to learn with you. A huge part of this success is because of you – you threatened, guided, swore, cursed,

inspired, trained and pushed us to it. If we somehow made it through this, it is for

you..and because of you. So we thank you in every possible sense of the word. You help us stay grounded, focused and remember that a vast array of possibilities lay ahead for those of us who chose to walk the path.

The bold new faces of Kaze Arashi Ryu Over the last decade alone, the Kaze Arashi School in Malleswaram, has successfully graduated more than Twenty-five Black belts of which seventeen are active even today. The school has fifteen students in various levels of practice and training while a few

hundred have benefitted from specific short courses tailored to their individual needs across the decade.

In October 2012, the school inducted five new black belts into the Kaze Arashi Ryu System. They include software engineers, businessmen, IT experts, architects, engineering college students. They had many reasons or motives to join this specific art .Some joined to manage stress at work or home, some to build self confidence, some joined to overcome the fear of travelling in public without being attacked and some joined to overcome physical barriers imposed by medical conditions.

KAZE ARASHI RYU, SURGING AHEAD | Issue ARTICLES 5

Sensei Umesh BP: A software engineer by profession, he always had the dream of

learning a martial

art. The opportunity came to existence when his manager, Ajay Dave, a Second Degree Black belt in Aiki Jujutsu himself, invite Umesh to class to experience it. 3.5 Years later, Umesh saw his dream come to life when he received his Black Belt. It has dramatically improved his confidence. Sensei Chandankumar: A software Engineer by profession, he stumbled on Aiki Jujutsu through a news paper advertisement. He wanted to learn any martial art t help

him be able defend himself He took the plunge into this art and 3.5 Years later, armed with a black

belt, he calls it an “addiction” and loved every single day he spent learning it. Sensei Jagan Velu: A Senior Software Engineer with a background in embedded technologies, Jagan was always inspired by Bruce lee’s ability to transcend himself and become a legend of sorts. “One must flow like water” …and this dream stayed long with Jagan till his colleague Sunder, a black belt in Aiki Jujutsu took Jagan to his class. Once he witnessed the throws, falls and flips, there was no looking back. 3 years later, Jagan is the proud holder of a Black belt. A dream he saw becoming reality through hard work. Aiki Jujutsu he says “is like my own operating system”

Sensei Jose: A Human Resources Development professional, he was spellbound when he saw a demo of Aiki Jujutsu performed by Sensei Sastri and team in 1999

and the desire to learn the art stayed in his mind. Ten

years later, he had the opportunity to enroll in Aiki Classes. The moment of truth happened four years later when he was awarded his Black belt. “This is a beginning, Aiki is a way of life” he says

Sensei Debabrata Dutta: An inspiring example is the story of Sensei Debabrata Dutta himself. A master of Tae-kwon-Do, he was the first student of Aiki Jujutsu. For a variety of reasons, he was unable to continue learning this art form. Twenty five years later, at an age of 52, he challenges all odds, possible physical and mental barriers and aced it to become an Oku Iri (a first degree black belt) in Aiki Jujutsu. This might come as a surprise to many who believe age to be a limiting factor. “One must learn to relax and be flexible” he says “anyone can learn Kaze Arashi Ryu”

Keeping Dreams Alive This is a twenty five year old tale of

keeping a dream alive. This is the stuff that legends are made of. In 1994 Sensei Sastri visited Bangalore and met Sensei Dutta where a mutual fascination grew for the ancient art of Aiki Jujutsu. Sensei Dutta a bold learner, constantly challenging his own notions and knowledge decided to become the first student of Aiki Jujutsu in India. Sensei Dutta was then an accomplished master of the Korean Martial Art Taekwondo. For a variety of reasons, he was unable to take the journey forward and invited Sensei Ramesh to challenge

Himsel

f and accept Aiki Jujutsu as the way

forward. This was 1994. Through all his training and accomplishments to this day as a Menkyo, it has always been Sensei Ramesh’s ambition and dream to close this open circle and bring circumstances to a point when Sensei Dutta would finally graduate as a teacher of the wind –storm tradition.

This dream started taking shape in the Mathikere dojo in 2010. You can imagine what a relief it was when twenty five years later and defying a lot of obstacles Sensei Dutta finally was awarded the Oku Iri in Kaze Arashi Ryu. The circle of life was finally complete …for Sensei Sastri, Sensei Ramesh and now

Sensei Dutta.

WHEN EFFORTS PRODUCE RESULTS

The Kaze Arashi Ryu Team Congratulates all members who cleared their grading exams successfully and wish them the very best for years to come…may you lead the light forward...

Words from a Mentor One of the pleasant surprises that was in store for us on the evening of 6th Oct after our Grading event , was a Skype Video meeting with Sensei Sastri, who brought the Kaze Arashi Ryu Tradition to India in the 1990’s .

From his home in Phoenix, Arizona, Sensei Sastri addressed the new breed of Sensei’s...Welcome to “High School” he said. The black belt was but a beginning to a larger path of learning and in that sense it represented the equivalent of a High school certification…True Graduation was years of practice away. Kaze Arashi Ryu is special …the defense against kicks is unique to our school. Remember your Tai Sabaki and remember the technique and no one will be able to touch you. He expressed how proud he was of the new sensei’s, for the time spent, pain endured and for seeing it through completion. He acknowledged Sensei Dutta for his significant achievement and for being the reason why Sensei Ramesh taught Kaze Arashi Ryu which made this day possible. He thanked Sensei Ramesh for having stood by this school for so many years providing his unrelentless support in training new students , his dedication, building a dojo from nothing and keeping the flame of the wind –storm tradition burning bright.“Do not be satisfied with your black belt...It is like a middle school certificate.” Sensei Sastri Said “There is so much more knowledge to gain. Use every opportunity to train other students..as this is the way you will learn to be an instructor. Sensei Dutta is a Role model …in terms of his sheer achievements”. Sensei Sastri spoke of the need t be agile “ move on to something else” …keep changing your style , flow and avoid using strength when the flow will help you succeed. More knowledge is the key to help you adapt to your opponent …be able to move from one technique to another in a continuous motion and quickly without giving your opponent time to adjust.

“Our school and its style is no less than any other international style and has proven techniques”

“It is important to get over the fear of the Physical – the fear of getting hurt or dying .It stops us from making progress, especially at this stage of our learning”. He shared with us how at each stage , we have a tendency to believe we have learned so much that we learned it all …only to discover that the next level has so much more …making it never ending.” Martial art is not fighting …but a sort of knowledge that you gain, like from college making you more aware of yourself and agile. It is important to build confidence in oneself to be able to be successful in this art”

We left for home that evening at 9:30 PM. The exhilaration from the grading event and the joy of

speaking with Sensei Sastri made us leave with a smile on our faces. The pain from twisted limbs and bruised ribs felt were but a blur.

Taking a Road never taken

It was now time for us to share our happy moments with our loved

ones. Many choices lay ahead of us...except we wanted to do something unique, something never attempted before and the result was an interesting Graduation ceremony that brought together the ancient tradition of the ceremony itself, the honor of having some of our most treasured loved ones join us in a moment where technology truly became an enabler to help us relieve these moments of glory to make our celebrations memorable and worth cherishing for the days to come. It was truly off the beaten path.

Sempai’s Umesh, Chandan, Jagan, Vijay and Jose pooled in efforts to care for the planning and execution of the celebration. From Audio and Video equipment to the breakfast to be served …everything was planned to the last detail. Sempai Vijay put together a slick invitation to all our sensei’s, students and their loved ones. Sensei’s Umesh, Chandan and Jagan cared for the venue and comforts of the invitees while Jose put together a short Video that took the audience through the journey. Kohai Glen made sure we had the best audio equipment and brought us his home theater system .It made all the difference.

We had a common goal- to create a never before experience for the audience which took them through our saga...from the training days at Mathikere, to the sense of fear and failure that gripped one throughout the phase and then to the actual footage from the exams wrapping it with interview clips with all students who were graded recently

and the lighter side of Kaze Arashi Ryu with funny moments and laughable shots from the saga of our success. Sensei Ramesh helped oversee all aspects to ensure we hadn’t missed anything. The Graduation day was scheduled for 28

Oct 2012. The occasion was graced by Ma’am’s Padma and Bramara (Sensei Sastri’s sisters) as the chief guests , Master Murthy ( well wisher and ardent supporter of the Kaze Arashi Ryu family) his students, Sensei’s Madhu, Shashidar, and Aravindar, our classmates, our beloved fellow sensei’s ,family members and loved ones. The event started off with a short welcome by Sensei Ramesh to our dignitaries and invitees. This was followed by a belt ceremony honoring our new Sempai’s Unni and Vijay and granting them their Brown 3 grades.

KAZE ARASHI RYU, SURGING AHEAD | Issue ARTICLES 7

At each stage, we had a short presentation sharing with the audience their background and accomplishments. Padma Maam took to the stage to share a few words and acknowledged Sensei Ramesh who sacrificed almost everything like a modern day “Ekalavya” to keep the Wind-Storm tradition alive in India. In the tradition of the ancient times, Sensei Honored the New Oku Iri’s (black belts) with the tying of a belt. Padma Ma’am honored them by giving our license Certificates acknowledging their accomplishments. She congratulated them on their new found success and wished them the best in keeping the spirit alive. It is delightful to note that it was Padma Maam who set off the chain of incredible events that led to Kaze Arashi Ryu being established in India. She was a national Award winning teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya where Sensei Dutta taught Taek-won-do .When her brother Sensei Sastri visited India in 1994 , she invited them to meet and exchange notes. It was this meeting that would lead to Sensei Dutta becoming the first student of the wind –storm tradition in India and Sensei Ramesh taking on the torch to scale it to unseen heights. Fate is not without its sense of humor. Master Murthy, considered to be an encyclopedia of sorts in the martial arts world shared a few words of

encouragement, appreciation and advice to students as we took our first few steps into this new journey. The day went on to

the video show put together by students taking all invitees through their experiences leading up to the occasion. The movie was made in nine chapters starting with the growth of Kaze Arashi Ryu in India, training days for the belt exams, the fear before the main event, footage from the actual grading event, the relief that followed the success , a few poignant moments after the announcements, introducing our new torch bearers Sensei Unni and Sempai Vijay wrapping it off with some funny clips from

the experiences. The audience appreciated the effort put together by the students. Sensei’s Dave, Sai, Rasheed, Krishna, Vinod and Nagaraj were if incredible support throughout the occasion. We did manage to include a short Skype call with Sensei Sastri who shared his well wishes for the audience, felicitation for the newly graded students and love for Masala Dosas in general. India has its culinary charms huh … Mid pleasures and palaces though you may roam, be it ever so humble there is no place like home next to a Davanagere Benne Masala Dosa factory. Slurp.

The memorable occasion was brought to a close with a short thank you note from Sensei Jose and Sensei Ramesh thanking the dignitaries by making this day special for all of us. We then went on to enjoy a light and delicious

breakfast arranged by the students. It was a befitting way to bring the proceedings to an end ….a long

journey for the newly graded Sensei’s indeed.

The Stars and their Stripes

A lot of great things happened in 2012.Most of our classmates moved on higher in their grades …Like Jason, Siddharth, Aditya, Praneeth, Glenn, Amit, Sadanand, Arjun, Indrajit, Vinayak, Sensei Dutta, Sensei Unni, Vijay, Sempai’s now Sensei Umesh, Chandan, Jagan and Jose . Our website went live. (www.windstormindia.org) thanks to Amit and fellow students who helped with the content and structure. A new dojo was setup in Indiranagar Sensei Sridhar’s son Prithvi won a gold medal in the world economic forum and got a special mention during our graduation ceremony as well. So we also

have a budding world champion now. After you spend sufficient time with Sensei Sridhar you will eventually recognize that Prithvi’s special talent could have come only from Mrs. Sridhar … Sensei Ramesh, the last Samurai met his match and got married in a traditional ceremony in June 2012.

Sensei Umesh decided to add on to his black belt and followed suit in November 2012. We do have a picture of his initial reactions when he asked him if had met his match …

2012 was indeed a year of reckoning

Reflections off polished surfaces

The agony and the ecstasy. To some the black belt is a dream realized, to a few others a wakeup call. It came as quite a shocker when Sensei Ramesh asked us new Oku Iri’s to stay away from regular class. Have you had those dreams when you are suddenly falling off a cliff and you

wake up with a jolt? Like being kicked in the gonads? The fact of the matter is that life does change at some stage. We have the option now of sharing the responsibility as instructors …guiding the new “Kohais” of the flock. Instruction is now restricted

to 24 hours a year. If the intention is to test the resolve, it sure does its bit. Like Sensei Sastri told us, the Oki Iri is like arriving at middle school. Graduation is a long way ahead .The road to success is still under construction but paved with good intentions. Our team at Malleswaram is a close knit team. I have discovered that my greatest joy is in the time I spend with them -in class, on the mats, in the throes of pain from misguided tenkens and hyper excited Koshi Nages ,in muted curses from techniques that don’t seem to work and post- class animated conversations in Ganesh Darshini eating Masala Dosa. The fact that I will miss some of this hurts. A part me accepts that change is inevitable. Class will never be the same again.

A part of me rebels. Like when I was told that bitter gourd juice mixed with drumstic leaf and radish is good for me.

Like I asked for this advice.

These are the days I feel like doing Pooja. Except she is in australia on vacation.

Darn !

Aiki clases havealways held a mirror in front of us - We discover aspects of ourselves here. ..including character. Or the lack of it .

It never ceases to amaze me.I know that one lifetime is not sufficient to lear this art . The escape has a counter and that counter has an escape and that escape has a counter ….. Inflated hope doesn’t take much to get deflated. But that’s the point …there is no room for complacency.

Aiki is everywhere !!!

Galleria

A picture speaks a thousand

words….or so they say … Why don’t you judge that yourself?

2013, the year of Steel

Many dreams, many possibilities lay ahead in 2103. Some of want to unleash the wind storm within. Some have the practical challenges of balancing work, family and whats left of life between these two realms. Some have to deal with their Uke’s at home (the infamous better half) to be able to make it back to class. Some of us like me don’t care …several parts of our body gets hard thinking about coming back to Aiki class (no hard feelings there please..and we are hardly hardened criminals).It’s fun to discuss the art of doing without thinking or fighting without fighting. It is strange and yet appealing in an inexplicable manner. There are times when we get beaten up and have that subtle “I know, but don’t ask me” smile

that reveals

everything while communicating nothing. Who said telepathy doesn’t exist?

And finally ….Some parting shots ….

There are no short cuts. You do it, or you don’t – you need to walk the whole nine yards. Practice establishes a continuum .

Tests are a means to evaluate ourselves,its meant to establish our ability to perform to a certain extent. ( I don buy this though …exams still cause allergic reacions )

We have the ability to determine our progress

If you don’t do it today, you wont do it tomorrow ( so much for procrastinating right now)

You discover your destiny on the road you take to avoid It.

There is more to Aiki jujitsu than meets the eye.

Seasons greetings and wishes for a harmonious new year in 2013 to all !!