LUSKG Shorinji Kempo

Articles & News

INDIA - by Kavita

I have rules on seeing the world. These have been refined by a lifetime of regular travel.

1. Stay with locals and pretend to be one;
2. go overland, see more and reduce my carbon output;
3. go for a purpose.

So When I found myself working in Delhi without a dojo, I wondered how I could stay true to my rules, find a beach on which to spend Christmas and, most importantly, get some training in. Of course, a dojo trip of India!

The planning started back in November. A number of internet searches found a single link to Sensei Robert Alter based in Mumbai. Although there were clearly some other dojo’s around the country, I couldn’t find any contact details. Call it user error. Thankfully, Sensei Robert is a networking genius . So when he replied, he put me in contact with every practising dojo across India.

All set, my friend and I started our journey to see Kerala's beaches and get to a training session in Mumbai. But this is India and at the first hurdle - getting out of Delhi - we failed. A combination of fog and the chaos that is an Indian airport meant that we got as far as Chennai, but no further. This is probably Karma; after all, I was breaking my second rule and not going by train! We were now stranded without a place to stay until the following morning and my friend who had been in India a day decided that this was the point to discover the lack of toilet paper and panicked.

We decamped to the a largest 5 star hotel I could find and without checking in decided to enjoy the air conditioning. Logging into my mail I found Sensei Max’s phone number and despite having e-mailed him to say I wouldn’t see him on this visit I called. Fresh out of training he fed my non-kenshi friend a wonderful meal, hosted a small party with his wife and kenshi and provided a place to sleep. Hence rule one was maintained even if it was by accident.

Sensei Max merges my understanding of Indian philosophy and Shorinji Kempo in a such a marvellous way that I wish to head back later in the year and actually study at Sensei Max’s dojo.

We made it to the beach and mountains of Kerala and although the elephants were elusive, black monkey’s are my new best friends (but I suppose the competition to be my best friend isn’t very high).

We ended our trip on New Year's eve in Mumbai. I took my first auto-rikshaw in years (my folks won’t let me use them anymore) and headed over to Sensei Robin’s house. From there Sensei drove me over to an orphanage in the foothills north of the city. A surreal experience indeed, having a Western driver for two hours.

Training was incredibly rewarding. The kids were lovely and delighted to see us. The turkeys that keep the snakes at bay ignored us. Although my Hindi is very good, it wasn’t enough to translate from Japanese and then into English and I have a lot more homework to do before I see Sensei Robin again.

http://www.voiceofchildren.org/

Back in Dehli, I also met Sensei Hitomi. I am always looking for inspirational women within WSKO and I believe I found one.
http://www.the-south-asian.com/March2007/Hitomi_Ashta_Shorinji_Kempo.htm

I am so grateful for being shown the country of my heritage in such a completely new way. A huge "thank you" to Sensei Max, Robin and Hitomi for their time and effort extend to this humbled kenshi.

Maintain rule three, make all your travels involve Shorinji Kempo of some kind !

Articles may not be reproduced without agreement of the author

London Universities Shōrinji Kempō Group