The Master

By Vijay Aravindh V

6:00pm, Thursday

Munuswamy Sports Academy

Rangarajan Indoor Sports Hall

It was a dull class today; only 4 members have turned up for the class of 27 members. After 20 mins of warm-up and 30 mins of kihon, the two yellow-belter kids, probably 6th or 7th graders, were worn out. They were putting in a good effort, but their stances were weak. Master gave them a 5-minute break, the two kids sat down on the mat along with a sturdy Green-belter with a funky hairstyle. The blue belt girl, the oldest one, sat over the mat rack, ogling at her phone. The other side of the vast hall was well crowded. More than 50 children of various age groups were either playing or waiting for their chance at 6 table tennis tables. Master went to the green-belter.

Master: “why the class strength is low?... is it exam time??”

Green-belter: “yes Master…its exam time…but…but…few...”

Master: “few??...what happened…tell me??”

Green-belter: "few students dropped out from Karate class…."

Master: “What…why is that??”

Green-belter: “mainly because…after the last week tournament…many members who were training here for months, were not promoted with higher belts…so many students got dejected…their parents pulled out and put them in other classes…even few have even joined that table tennis classes…."

Master: "If that's the case…then there is nothing to worry…."

Master walked back to the front and faced all 4 of his students.

Master: “Break over…align and stand in a row…belt wise."

The yellow-belters and the green-belter stood up in Yoi position. The blue-belter girl tucked her bag into the iron rack. She bowed down to the Master and walked back into the mat. A gang of 4 table tennis playing boys whistled and laughed at the blue-belter. Master looked at the blue-belter. She was calm but was a bit dull; he turned to the Yellow-belters.

Master: “each belt has a significance; each belt has its own gestation period. yellow represents the first ray of sun, it shows the student’s mind, open to learning, the Orange represents the expansion of the rays, signifying the knowledge expansion, so strive to expand your knowledge.”

The indoor hall was turning noisier. The TT boys gang stood close to the dojo and started making hooting noises, and started to pass sleazy comments. He turned to the Green-belter and the Blue-belter.

Master: “Green represents the stem of a budding plant, signifying the growth and developing of techniques, the blue belt signifies the water and sky, symbolizing your depth in understanding and application of techniques and the fluidity and finesse of your moves."

Master eyed the students. They quickly changed into a Heisoku dachi, the ready stance, the fundamental stance before Katas.

Master: “before starting with Shotokan Karate Katas, you must understand why Katas are required? What they are?”

Master, too joined the ready stance.

Master: "Kata means Form. Each Kata is a specific set of movements that you must follow in a rigid and unchanging way. That rigidity is very significant here, as its very important to say true to original Form of Each Kata."

Master thrust his right arm in the air and pulled it back quickly, only to strike his left arms in the air again.

Master: “This rigidity of Katas will make sense in an original fight, where you could string many of the adjacent moves in a kata together and successfully use in a fight."

The students started the Kata. As the students made every move and gave out intense breathing sounds, the TT boys made fun of the Blue-belter. She grew uncomfortable and started to lose her stance and groove. Master eyed her to focus, but she couldn't get the flow back. The yellow-belters, too, turned sloppy. The Master asked them to just finish the current Kata. The Kata ended.

Blue-belter: “Please do something Master, TT boys are intolerable, I really want to hit them, but you warned us about fighting outside the Dojo, please do something…."

Master: "Ok Let's end today's class now, we shall meet tomorrow, I will handle this situation myself."

The students bowed out, Master bowed down before leaving the dojo, the Yellow-belters rolled in the huge yellow mat. The Brown-belter arranged the belts, guards, shinpads, chest protectors, and gloves into the iron rack. Blue-belter removed her belt, sat on the shoe rack and wore her white sneaker. Master, still in white attire with Roku-Dan Black belt, locked the huge iron rack and hung his Diesel bag in one shoulder. He removed his Black belt, wore his slippers, and walked to the other half of Hall where the Table tennis coaching was going on.

As he took a step, his students approached him and asked if they could join him. The group walked past two tables, few parents were waiting at the audience stand of the hall, to the TT players, who in their t-shirts and nylon shorts with a paddle in their hands and shiny sports shoes, the white attired karate group seemed funny. They were mocking, commenting and laughing at their backs.

Master, instead of going to the TT gang, he reached a 45ish man in his athleisure shorts and polo shirt. He was bearded and was wearing a sports cap. Master introduced himself to him.

Master: "Hello sir, they are my students, I teach Karate to them."

The coach looked at the Master’s white attire and replied mockingly.

Coach: “Ohh…karate??...difficult to guess from your attire."

Coach chuckled; the TT gang now rushed to the coach.

Coach: “Just kidding…so what’s the matter…how may I help you...”

Master: "Few of your students are not behaving appropriately to my students, please ask them to behave in a proper way. Mutual admiration and respect are important for our peaceful co-existence."

Coach: "ok…who are they??"

Master: “the person is insignificant here, its their actions, so please advise your student to respect one another."

Coach: "you see…kung fu master, just tell me who it is? Then I could take necessary actions…."

Master: “Its karate, not kung-fu”

Coach: "It's all the same…."

Master: “No its not…."

Blue-Belter: “that’s him…that’s the guy and his gang who are mocking us during the practice”

Blue-belter pointed at the gang standing next to the coach.

Coach: "oh!!! This guy…You see…he is my student…my prodigy…he is my state-champion. As long as he is winning it, his behavior doesn't matter. So sorry…I can't do anything about it…sorry Master."

The TT playing crowd slowly started gathering around them.

Master: “It’s the character, that’s what the matters the most."

Coach: "No its not…You see… Master…look at your character, so calm, composed and respectful…you had 40 students once…look at you today…just 4 students left, actually today 3 new students joined, who were previously your students…so in the end its all the talents and skills that's going to take you somewhere…not your fancy principles."

Master thought for a split second and then said.

Master: “Ok…that’s all right…its not the students who needed the behavioral advice, it's the ping-pong coach who needs it the most."

Coach: "It's Table Tennis, not ping-pong."

Master grinned, how elegantly coach walked into the trap.

Master: "It's all the same…."

The karate students laughed, which infuriated the coach

Coach: “You think Table Tennis is below your Karate, don’t you??”

Master: "No it is not, I don't see any of the sports as inferior or superior to martial arts, especially to karate."

TT bully-champ: “Table Tennis requires high end eye-hand co-ordination, quick reflex, sharp focus, strong footwork and heavy skills and techniques.”

Blue-belter: "Karate is much deeper than that…."

Blue-belter replying swiftly.

Coach: "Everyone…please be quiet… Ok Master…Let's say karate is deeper and superior to Table Tennis, I will accept it too…I can't wear those loose white outfit and fight, let alone winning you. As TT is much lower than karate…how about a match of Table Tennis, its much inferior and simpler than karate, how about a friendly match??"

The coach laid the trap this time.

Master: “I can’t let my students to fight your students, I don't want a sense of enmity to develop between them."

Coach: “No its not the match between the students…it’s a match between us…A friendly respectful match of Table tennis between you and me…what do you say??”

Master realized the trap. Master looked around the crowd. It was 7:30pm, the group was at its peak. The hall was filled with more than 60 TT players, kids, parents, teenage girls and boys. He looked at his student's face. They were drooped, dull and out of life.

Master: “You know what…let’s play”

The crowd erupted in joy, the Yellow-belters face brightened, they believed their Master blindly, they thought and regarded their Master as invincible. Blue-belter had her doubts. It was not a Karate Kumite. It was Table Tennis. The TT gang dislocated the other tables and brought the new shiny, glittering 9X5 TT table to the centre. The students placed the tabletop lying down, they attached two T-shaped legs. Now they inverted it, and the net was connected to the metal pins and the TT-bully champ adjusted the net for adequate tension without any sag in the middle. The Coach sent out a GKI Kung-fu DX TT racquet to the Master and grinned at him. The coach flashed his bat at Master.

Coach: “Its Donic Ovtcharov Premium Line Platinum TT bat…but not as cool as your kung fu TT bat though”

The crowd's noise subdued. They were anxiously waiting for the match. They were hoping to see their coach, the veteran to play an actual TT match. He was 3 years continuous national champion and an Asian games medalist in his prime years. It had been 7 years since his retirement from the sport. The crowd was elated to see him open up a Cosco Stiga pack, take out a TT ball, and bounce it over his bat. They started cheering for him.

Coach: “so master, are you ready??”

Master: “Yeah…sure…so what are the rules, how to play??”

The TT crowd burst into laughter; Coach raised his hands to silence the crowd.

Coach: “Unlike your Kungfu…here the game is pretty simple, if I am serving….at least 16cm high from the table… it should bounce at my court once and then on your court again before you hit, obviously it shouldn’t touch the nets, if the ball touches anything before reaching you, except the net obviously, I win. If you fail to return my service, I win, if you obstruct the ball…again I win…lot more are there…but I think this is enough for this match…game point is 11…shall we start”

Master: “yeah surrr..…."

Before Master could complete his sentence, Coach had served him the ball. Master was quick enough to move and push back the ball. The ball slowly bounced to the coach's side. When Coach realized that the ball would not bounce beyond the table edge, he compressed the backswing to a short wrist swing, flicking the ball nicely, the Master reached the quick-moving ball but misplaced the hit, and the ball hit the nets. The TT crowd cheered for their coach; the Bully gang hooted. Blue-belter face drooped. She was feeling embarrassed, but the yellow-belters were still cool and cheered for their Master.

The coach served the ball and started speaking. He said that he was going to demonstrate the different types of offensive strokes. He gave a nice push to the ball. When the Master returned the ball, the Coach smashed the ball. He had hit with at most accuracy and lightning speed that the ball zoomed past the Master, even before he could reach anywhere near it.

Coach: “…and that's my dear children…it is a smash hit."

The coach continued his dominance, taking points within the second or third serve. He showed off his skills. He demonstrated the Loop hit, counter hit, flick, block, chops and various types of spins like topspin, backspin and cork spin. Finally, when the ball returned by Master flew close to the net, the coach smashed the ball with a vigour that the ball flew straight to the Master, Master tried to chop the ball but missed it entirely, and the ball ended up entering his loose-fitting Karategi uniform hand. The crowd burst into laughter, realizing that the missing ball had entered the Master's outfit.

The score was 8-0 in favour of the coach.

Master: “I feel that…I have understood the game now…its quite nice game”.

The Master kept his bat on the table.

Coach: “Do you want to quit now??”

Master: “No…No…of course not…we will play the game…give a proper conclusion.”

He removed the knot of his shirt in the abdomen, he opened and flipped the side to open another knot from inside. The ball fell out of the Kartegi shirt and bounced away. The crowd laughed even harder.

Master: “Really Karategi uniform is not suitable for TT."

Saying so, he removed his Karategi shirt. He had a ripped and hardened muscularly chiselled body. His body shined in the sweat. He left his slippers on the side, folded his shirt, kept it inside his back, took out his Roku-Dan Blackbelt, and tied it around his hips tightly. Instead of standing upright, Master changed his stance to Han Zenkutsu Dachi, the fighting stance which offers a right mix of stability and mobility.

Master stood there in his court, closed his eyes for a few seconds and opened it. The coach had already served the ball, and it was racing towards him. He inched a little closer and chopped it perfectly. It went back to the coach swiftly, who again served it around with a hit. The crowd's noise slowly subdued as they noticed something unusual. Now the Master was counter hitting each and every service of the coach. The TT crowd went completely silent. Only the sound of a ball bouncing could be heard in the entire Rangarajan Hall. Lots of passes have been returned. The Master matched and synced with the coach perfectly and seemed to have a solution for all of his moves. Suddenly for a split second, the coach slipped his accuracy; the ball had hit the nets.

The score was 8-1. The Karate kids and TT kids both were equally stunned.

Coach: "ok…that kind of slipped my hand."

Master: "that's fine…."

Master looked himself in those white karategi pants and his bare body. A sudden spark struck him.

Master: "shall change my bat, I prefer something comfortable for me…if that's ok for you…."

The coach played it cool and accepted. Master gave the bat back to one of the TT kids. He eyed Blue-belter to come to him, she came closer, Master murmured something into her ears, her face changed, a chilled shock pulsed through her spine. She got excited, took the Master's key from his bag, and ran towards her dojo rack. Master turned to the crowd,

Master: “whoever wins or loses this game, you got to respect one another."

He turned to the Coach and spoke…

Master: "May be this day was destined for me coach and I feel sorry for you."

Coach: “what??”

The Blue-belted girl came back running to the Master, with a satin cloth covering tubular structure. She gave it to the Master, bowed out and stood with her karate mates. The karate kids and TT kids were confused about what the Master would do next. Master rolled out and pulled the satin cloth, and took out the shiny 4-foot Iron rod. The karate kids understood it and shouted in a frenzy. The TT kids, the coach, and a few parents who came now to pick up their kids had no clue what was happening.

Coach: “ shall we begin…."

Master: “sure”

Master took his Han Zenkutsu Dachi stance again, the coach gave a slight push to the ball, it came slowly bouncing to Master, he gave a gentle flick to the ball using his shiny iron rod, to capitalize the incoming slowball coach took a hard swing at the ball with his maximum accuracy, he knew that Master wouldn't be able to handle it, as the ball approached the Master with a god-speed, the Master swung and swirled the rod with his wrist causing the rod to break into two halves, with the outer half making a sharp cut on the ball, the ball just disappeared to the coach's side. It took a moment for the coach and crowd to assess what had happened. They turned to look at the Master. There he was, standing calmly with his eyes closed and an Iron Nunchucks in his hand. The crowd was stunned, speechless. The karate kids roaring and crying out in pride.

Master changed his stance to a usual upright standing position. He lifted the nunchucks in his left hand and let the one side and connecting steel chain hang perpendicularly to the other half. He moved his right-hand fingers under the flat holding side to find the point of balance, he marked it and gripped it with his hands, he gave a slight spin, he swirled it again and did a basic Figure Eight-spin. The flow was good. He increased the pace and swung an inverted Figure Eight move. The crowd felt that it was witnessing a miracle. The coach served a quick hit to the Master. He simply did a figure Eight wrist roll, the ball disappears again into the coach's courtside. No one could see the ball after it made contact with the Master's nunchucks. The Master got into the groove, he didn't stop swinging the nunchucks, he simply gestured the coach to play with him, the Master simply kept swirling the nunchucks, the Coach increased the pitch height, causing the ball to rise higher to the left of Master, he did an arm switch and made a helicopter spin, hitting the ball real hard, the coach had no clue of the incoming ball. The Master simply folded his one of the back and just rolled the nunchucks in the left hand. When the coach made another attempt to send in a quickie, Master made an L-strike, making the ball move like a screw spin shot that the coach taught earlier. The coach made multiple service attempts, and he could never break the contact with the nunchucks. It was like a wall. He couldn't get past it. The Master was now evolving very quickly with nunchucks, with his thrust attack, it traces the coach's smash hit, his spin attack made the ball move like topspin of the coach's, The coach quickly realized that he could never break a point with the Master, he could either lose now or postpone the defeat, but it was inevitable, he stood no chance against him. The Master started moving around, he paid no heed to the match, he began to turn around and threw in a few sleeky moves like a hip switch, one-hand catch and one of the most challenging and coolest badass moves like a hand roll. The crowd sensed the divine Godliness and kept looking at the Master thunderstruck. The score skyrocketed a long ago. No one kept count. It didn't matter anymore. The TT-bully-champ couldn't believe his eyes, he ran to his coach and both took a quick double serve at the Master, the Master simply kept on spinning, swinging, rolling the nunchucks, hitting both balls elegantly, the service continued, both of them varied the angle of release, paces and placement, but nothing could penetrate the Master's nunchucks. Both gave a final hard thrust at their balls, they approached the Master like thunder, Master caught the nunchucks in his underarms, then he spun and rose in the air and gave a tight slap at both the balls, the hit from nunchucks shattered the balls into pieces.

The entire hall was eerily silent. Everyone looked at Master, with sweat dripping body, chiselled chest, his white karategi pant with Roku-dan Black belt and of course, the steel nunchucks. He looked back at the crowd and the coach, the Master bowed down, the coach, the TT crowd and the karate kids. Everyone bowed back. He put the nunchucks around his neck, removed the belt, put on his slippers and strolled with his four students, following his footsteps.

# IN LOVING MEMORY OF BRUCE LEE

By Vijay Aravindh V