I still remember the show we watched during a trip to Kerala last year. It was at Thekkady, while we were out exploring, when we saw a sign saying advertising a Kalari performance in the evening. We decided to venture in. Kalaripayattu is derived from the words Kalari – which means “place, threshing floor, or battlefield”, and payattu – which means to “exercise in arms or practice”. In fact, legend traces the art form to more than 3000 years ago to sage Parasurama. It is also said that Kung-fu, popularized by the monks of the Shaolin Temple traces its ancestry to Bodhi Dharma – an Indian Buddhist monk and a Kalaripayattu master. It was like opening a new door. I watched quite fascinated by what was going on in the “performance” area. With their oiled bodies, they stood in perfect symmetry, executing jumps, leaps and moves that did not seem humanly possible. They could move any way – forward and backward – with extreme agility as if they had elastic in their spine. In fact, …