thestory.md

• I wanted to learn Kalaripayattu - took 1 month leave from office.
• Took flight to Kochi from Chennai.
• It was a small village in rainforest in a place called Athirapally in Kerala.
• This place was full of jungle, waterfalls and small tribal villages.
• A tribal man took me into the jungle where there was Kalari - the school to learn Kalaripayattu
• It was big room - lot of weapons - few people were practising
• Met a woman, Paravathi - tall, strong, brown in color, bold and big eyes. I looked at her biceps. - she was no less than a warrior.
• I was wondering is it really needed in this 21st century ? What about our army ? It looks like they are preparing for war. As usual I had many unanswered questions.
• She took me to her house - a small hut with granny inside. She told me to get sleep and wake up at 3 AM in the morning for practise.
• Granny told me stories about Kalaripayattu - how britishers banned that artform and came to the village in the search of that book. A book? What book? I asked … Paravathi asked me go back to sleep since its late.
• Day 1 was difficult - she started with very basic. I noticed that she has a long stick in the waist, kept like a sword.
• I asked here about that stick - she refused to answer and told me to focus on my practise. I thought it might be her weapon to fight.
• Next morning I woke up late. Reached Kalari 2 hrs late. I saw Pravathi fighting with 2 big dudes without sticks. I noticed she was not using her stick at all. I wondered why she is having that stick if she is not using it to fight.
• I asked other students about that stick but no one knew about it. They told she never let any one use here stick and they have never seen her using the stick in any of those fights.
• Was given punishment for being late at Kalari. Paravathi was always rude to me. I hate her but the granny was awesome.
• 1 month was harsh for me - my vacation got over - started getting calls from office - came back to Chennai - thought would never go back to Athirapally.
• After working for a couple of months - unable to sleep - wanted to know what was that Book? What is the secret of that stick which Paravathi carries all the time and would never let anyone even touch it?
• Came back to Athirapally - asked Paravathi to tell me about the secret of book and the stick - you are not ready to know that, she said as always.
• Training started - Granny was about to die - she told the secret of book.
• She told Kalaripyttu is being treated as a some exercise or a circus these days. People watch it for entertainment. They do not know it was used in wars in ancient India. We should learn Kalaripayattu in the way it was during those days other wise poeple keep making fun of it and the Kalaripayattu fighter would never be able to compete with fighters of modern marshal arts. Its a threat to our ancient indain culture and art form. Not even Paravathi or granny know how to practise Kalaripayattu properly - in its real form.
• I asked where to learn that ? - the recipe is written in that book by the great grandfather of granny, Mahabali - the last practitioner of Kalaripayattu . Britishers knew about it. And wanted to get that book so that they can train their soldiers to fight against Indian tribal groups in South India who were not letting them sleep.
• The book was torn and divided into 4 parts - kept in 4 different places in the country - one in a temple of Hampi, one in a brothel in Kolkata and one in somewhere in Haridwar.
• Where is the 4th one ? I asked - I dont know, this information was given to her before her grandfather died. She was only 13 year old that time. She suspects that we can get the clue of the 4th one, if we find 3 of them and arranged them in proper order. Arranging in proper oder is difficult since there is not page numbers in those book. - she died too.
• Now that I know the secret of book, I asked Paravathi about the stick - she started the story with Nirmala - a big tusker elephant.
• She used to work as a maid in the house of a greedy sarpanch in the nearby village. No one knew that Paravathi is not just a normal woman, she is born to become warrior. Nirmala was sarpanch’s elephants - one of 14 big tuskers left in the world - she had a kid too.
• Everyone knew how expensive her tusks are - waiting for her to die so that they can sell those tusks in the international market - Even sarpanch was thinking the same.
• Few people from Thailand came to see Nirmala - their motive was to buy it and kill it. Sarpanch sold Nirmala to them - but they got greedy when they saw Nirmala had a kid too…. To be continued….