Aikido @ MindSay 
| The Birth of Aikido in India |  |  |  |
| Written by Yulia Pal | |
| Friday, 28 December 2007 | |
| CMA Times. January, 2007 (New Delhi) Sensei Paritos Kar is one of the few martial art instructors in India to have the courage to start teaching aikido professionally. To come to Delhi to open an aikido dojo was undoubtedly a big decision for him to make: aikido is almost unheard of in India and it is considered to be a non-competitive "sport" and so it does not interest schools. Moreover, it requires mats and a dedicated space. However, Sensei Kar's sincerity and dedication helped him to overcome the initial difficulties and attracted like-minded people to help him in his mission. During the two years of the dojo’s existence, the active membership has grown stronger: as of now, there are about 30 adults, Indians and foreigners, men and women, all training cooperatively. Many current dojo members have a martial arts background. However it is often said that once you start practicing aikido, it is practically impossible to go back to other martial arts because aikido is so different in its approach. The uniqueness of aikido lies in its spiritual philosophy which was taught by the founder, O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba and encompasses an attitude of peace and love for all living beings and a oneness with nature and the cosmos. As peace and love have no enemies, an aikido practitioner has no enemies, no opponents to fight. Any aggressive force directed at an aikido practitioner is redirected and effectively neutralized without doing harm to the attacker. The aikidoka's response is fast, the technique is invisible and it utilizes the aggressor's own energy and turns it against him. This normally is enough to stop the aggressor in his tracks and to prevent an escalation of the conflict. Aikido training is not soft or easy by any means. In fact, it is considered one of the most technically difficult and even "esoteric" martial arts. However, the good news is that there are no age limits in aikido. In the Hombu Dojo (The World Aikido Headquarters), Tokyo, I saw many senior people, some in their seventies and even eighties, practicing aikido on a regular basis. There was an elderly man who had knee replacement surgery who was a regular in the early morning class, always with a small foldable stool to help him to do the sitting techniques. The age factor is not a problem in aikido. On the contrary, with many years of practice the techniques become awesomely powerful and imperceptible. The practitioner does not rely on muscle strength but invisibly blends and utilizes the energy of his or her partner/opponent. I have never met a person who claimed that they had perfected their aikido. The aiki spirit is ever elusive and the search for perfection lasts a life time. It becomes a way of life for many practitioners. In our dojo we have regular visitors from abroad. This is another tradition: an aikidoka while traveling prefers to carry his keiko-gi (practice uniform) and a hakama (black traditional samurai pants) with him - just in case there is an opportunity to practice. Aikido practitioners from different counties are welcome to practice in our dojo. Through them we get exposure to different styles and, indirectly, to the teaching of various great aikido masters. In 2006 the dojo was fortunate to hold 3 seminars conducted by distinguished aikido masters: Shihan Gaku Homma Sensei, the founder and chief instructor of the Nippon Kan, Denver, USA, Shihan Terry Ezra Sensei, the founder and chief instructor of Komyokan Aikido, UK, and K. Sakurai Sensei, 6th dan from the Aikikai Hombu Dojo. Not only did these senseis came and stayed in New Delhi at their own expense, they also taught the students for free. Their mastery of the art combined with their goodwill has helped to boost the nascent art of aikido in India and give tremendous encouragement and experience to our pioneering aikido students. It is evident that after the two years of hard work and sacrifice on the part of Sensei Paritos Kar, the New Delhi Aikido Dojo has finally established itself and is poised for new growth. We hope that the year 2007 will be rich in aikido experiences and events and that the dojo will attract more dedicated, talented Indian students capable of becoming aikido instructors. Source:http://aikikaiindia.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 NOTE: Gaku Homma Sensei's Nippon-Kan is where i studyied Aikido when i lived in Denver Colorado from 2005 to 2007. |
The New Delhi Aikido Dojo was opened in November 2004 by Sensei Paritos Kar, a 4th Dan Black Belt from Aikikai Hombu Dojo Tokyo, who returned to India after living for 15 years of in Japan. 
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Last weekend was fun and interesting! But i'm so busy working full time now (and often too tired to write a bunch by the end of the day-- also from getting over a cold)... as well as other activities like Ruhi study circles and Aikido... so i haven't found time to write about it until now!
Anyway, so last weekend, on Saturday, was many Olympians' annual favorite: The Procession of the Species. Which is a long parade of people and floats dressed as endangered species and coincides with Earth week. For more info and pictures of it you can click here X. Apparently a 27,000 member crowd of tall 'n's and munchkins gathered and watched. (i.e adults and children). And i was one of them. It was a beautiful sunny day the whole day. With the flowers up and trees also in full bloom. :^)
Upon arriving downtown a little after 16:30 i parked near the place where the parade would end where the wonderful Traditions Cafe is. I was surprised and happy to find colored chalk all around and adults and kids drawing all over the road (which was blocked from traffic) and side walks. I first walked a few blocks until i came upon a place where the parade was going by. After watching a while, i went back to were the parade would end and watched the beginning of the parade go by. I then found an area of sidewalk i liked with the Capitol Park to my back and sat down with some colored chalks and started drawing with out a plan other than for it to be on the Baha'i theme of "unity in diversity" it got bigger and bigger until ended up with the final result (see photos included). I didn't have my camera, but my attempt at art was still there on Sunday at noon, when i went back there after almost completing Ruhi Book 2.
I ended up being very happy that i didn't have my camera the day before because otherwise i wouldn't have stumbled upon Olympia's 2008 Dragonboat Festival! I noticed lots of tented booths in the distance, next to Capitol Lake. When i walked up to them i found out from one of them that was handing out event programs that the 2008 Olympia Dragon Boat festival was in progress right then and there! It's sponsored by neighboring town Lacey's Saint Martin's Uni. So i spent the next few hours watching the races and meeting the team from China-- from the Shanghai Maritime University, (i was eager to practice my Chinese a bit) which is also the team which won the First Place for the whole competition! By 14:00 i was getting quite hungry and started strolling into town to find a place to eat. On the way i stopped off at some interesting booths, first was one for the Olympia Area Chinese Fellowship which was doing free calligraphy of Western names transcribed into Chinese characters. I already have a Chinese name (Kuò Lì Yà --阔利亚) so i had him do that (on a bookmark sized piece of paper) and chatted to them about China and found out about local Tai-chi and Chinese language classes that i hope to take once i have money to spend on such things (the Aikido instructor, Will Sensei, is very kind and compassionate in allowing me to participate in his classes already now even though it'll be a couple months before i'll be able to start contributing financially).
Eventually i pulled myself away from that booth only to get stuck at a booth with Japanese students who were doing the same with Japanese Characters (in Japanese my name is Ko Ri Ya or Ko Ya and there's 3 different scripts in which it could be written!). I enjoyed meeting and chatting with them (and getting my name written in Katakana) and so it was around 15:00 by the time i actually got to the restaurant (i chose the Indian restaurant which has an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet for about $8). It's yummy! ... I was wearing a Baha'i pendant and while i paid for the meal the owner enjoyed identifying the religious symbols of the world's major religions that are on it.
After lunch i headed back to the lake and practiced calligraphy (writing Ai Ki Do) with the Japanese students (from St. Martins Uni) under their tent at which time it started raining and then pouring. After getting my coat i then watched the finals of the Dragonboat races. The Shanghai team won the first place (see photo) as they did the last time they were here, in 2006.
On Monday evening and this morning (Saturday) i attended Aikido classes in Olympia for the first time. It's great fun-- but i noticed how out of shape i've gotten in the year since i was an Uchideshi at Nippon-Kan in Denver! I was very sore on Tuesday and Wednesday! But i think i'll be able to stay healthier now that i'm getting regular exercise-- despite being around little kids all the time, hopefully!
I'm going to be hosting Olympia's weekly devotional at the De Colores book store down town tomorrow morning. That should be fun!
The rest of May at Nippon Kan: Friday May 11th through Sun May 13th was the Ikam Yoon Seminar with Ikam Yoon Sensei from Seoul, South Korea. It was a great seminar (Fri eve, all day Sat and Sun morn) and Yoon Sensei’s Aikido is as great as his personality and character are good. Homma Sensei was also very impressed by Yoon Sensei’s character and pioneering spirit (it was difficult to start Aikido in Korea) on an earlier visit to Korea which is why he invited him to Denver.
A bit on Ikam Yoon Sensei (Yoon Ikam, in Asia), also spelled Yun Ick-ahm , known as Gwangjang-nim in Korean (http://aikido-in-korea.com/#1), according to that web site: He was previously well known as a 6th Dan Hapkido and 5th Dan Taekwondo instructor. He also spent time in Thailand studying Muay-Thai Boxing and played a major role in introducing it to Korea. In his youth he even became the All Korean National Kickboxing Champion. Later, on a trip to Taiwan he came across Aikido, and converted to this art after meeting Kobayashi Sensei. His main contention with the Korean arts is that they are too aggressive. He established his Aikido network in Korea during the early 1990s, has visited Japan many times (Kobayashi Dojo in Tokorozawa), and to date, has attained the rank of 4th Dan. Yun Ick-am Gwangjang-nim is also training a new generation of future instructors, many of whom have switched from Hapkido, Taekwondo, or Taekyon etc., and thus Aikido is slowly spreading throughout the country. Kobayashi Sensei and/or his son visit regularly, and in between times, we see several other high ranking Japanese or other foreign teachers. Accordingly, the Korean Aikido Federation is associated to Aikikai Hombu Dojo through Kobayashi Dojo.
The presence of Aikido in Korea is therefore totally thanks to him. Not only that but he had a very comfortable life being the head of the Muay Thai Ass. of Korea. And yet he had the strength to give that all up, to face a new life, giving up his source of income, and the strain it put on his marriage (but they got over it), when he became an uchideshi at the Kobayashi Dojo in Japan, and then also on his return to Korea; started from scratch to start the first Aikido Dojo in Korea—including having to (peacefully) resolve anti-Japanese sentiment and the anger of Hapkidoists (Hapkido has the same Korean characters as Aikido). Finally doing so. His Korean branch of the International Aikikai Federation is now growing and gaining popularity.
The Seminar was a lot of hard work and I got very little sleep (but my sempai thought I should have done more and gotten even less sleep), on Sat eve, there was a party that I waited on (during parties uchideshi are like the Sensei’s butler but with more speed). Rick Sensei, who was an uchideshi and now has his own Dojo in another town, was kind to give me adv on how to be a good uchideshi at this kind of event and in general.
Homma Sensei, Mike San, Rose San and Yoon Sensei and his wife then went to Mexico to do 2 more seminars in 2 other cities.
The rest of the month was pretty much like the first week, except I started being given one-on-one uchideshi classes on some days before the regular classes began. On other days I would wait (and solo-practice while waiting) for the teacher to arrive at the back door, only to find after an hour that there must not be any class that day, after all. There was 1 week that was quite different, were John San, an uchideshi graduate who spent the last three months pioneer-teaching Aikido in Nepal, was there too, on his way back to Canada. It was great having him there because he’s very nice and he was a big help. While at Nippon Kan John San agreed to go back to Nepal and postpone a trip to Japan because Sensei couldn’t find anyone else (qualified) who was willing to go to Nepal, after he visits his home for a few weeks. While Sensei had the extra hands we fortified the outdoor areas leading into the restaurant (garden doors and front door) with cement and elevation to prevent it getting flooded again, as happened one night during a heavy hail and rain storm before John San arrived. It was a lot of work! (But I was glad to help Sensei in a useful way). Before leaving John San was promoted to 1st degree black belt. I enjoyed picking up and dropping him off at the airport, but I was sad he couldn’t spend more time in Denver. With the extra classes, I was now getting even more pains, sprains and injuries, eventually culminating in my decision to leave the program on June 2nd (I told Emily Sensei on June 1st –having only just gotten the email from NABI that they did need more volunteers on May 31st) after helping with Nippon Kan’s Spring Volunteer project where we helped Denver Parks and Recreation maintain a section of the Platte River Trail. We were done by 11am, I then moved out at noon after confirming my decision with Emily Sensei. In some ways of course I miss Nippon Kan and Aikido, but the daily strain and pain of full-time Aikido as an uchideshi was more than I ended up wanting to take (OK, I’m a wimp!) plus I didn’t feel like I was doing enough for the Bahá’í Faith while I was there, and all in all, I’m definitely happier serving as a volunteer here at the
Native American Bahá’í Institute.
Day 3: Was able to start the day with solo exercise for an hour since no classes taking tours today. The rest of the day until 2pm: cleaned as usual, then helped Sensei trim the trees and bushes in the garden. It was nice to work in such a beautiful space (the dojo, museum, etc are beautiful too but it was nice to work outside in the garden and such a beautiful Asian garden it is too!) The whole garden has been skillfully designed by Sensei. It struck me today that I was living a more real version of the Karate Kid movie! Of course with some major differences: 1) Aikido should never be confused with Karate—they’re totally different martial arts with totally different mentalities, 2) there’ll be no competition at the end because there are no competitions in Aikido (if I graduate I will need to get thrown at least 100 times in a row by my Aikidoka, however, as a right of passage), and 3) my 3 months here won’t follow a Hollywood-melodrama plotline. On the other hand, Homma Sensei talking to me in the garden struck me as being very similar to the Master from that movie, although Homma Sensei’s much younger, but he’s just as kind, yet strict, and speaks in lovely broken English that’s quite charming. Today’s class schedule 17:15 to 21:00 is not so tough. The general class is taught by Brian San who doesn’t do any super exhausting strength training exercises like Mike San, then 2 beginners’ classes. Was nevertheless very tired and went right to bed.
Day 4: Did all my (cleaning) chores. For example: Dojo, Uchideshi kitchen, Uchideshi bathroom, locker rooms, locker room bathrooms, and hallways, also did my 1 hr of solo exercise—before breakfast. Took the time to make myself toast in a skillet (there’s no toaster), instead of eating a powerbar and granola bars like the last few days. Nippon Kan only has 1 class on Fridays: Weapons class, fun but no less difficult to perfect than open hand techniques. In fact, while trying to perform an open-hand technique (very badly) Homma Sensei jokingly demoted me to a white belt—but I didn’t find out it was a joke until I had untied the knot in my belt, it wasn’t until then that he said, “no: joking”. The partner I was working with at the time likes to throw you down hard, harder than most others and after that he threw me down even harder than usual, but as the saying (from the Hagakure) goes, “fall down 7 times, get up 8”. Otherwise the class was very good!—weapons class is my favorite class of the week.
Friday nights Homma Sensei hangs out in the TV room which is down the hall from the Uchideshi bedrooms, which I found out when he called me over and I found him sitting down with Baina—the young uchideshi chef and another young guy from the restaurant, they were drinking a bit of 10 year old tequila that was a gift, I explained that sorry, I couldn’t join them because I’m a Bahá’í. Sensei wasn’t familiar with the Bahá’í Faith and he wanted to know where it originated from, so I explained it was from Persia (now Iran) but that there are now Bahá’ís all over the world and the world center is now in Haifa, Israel. (The following week I got chastised by the uchideshi coordinator for taking about religion to Sensei—in his opinion I should have just drunk the tequila!)
Day 5: This morning attended the Beginners class 08:30-09:45, then helped with the Children’s class and then the Advanced Youth class. By the way, AIKIDO IS IDEAL FOR CHILDREN! Because it teaches them to cooperate instead of to compete or beat others up. And it teaches self defense in such a way as to avoid serious injury to the other person (thereby avoiding law suits! And simply pain and suffering to others—compassion is a virtue!) It teaches you to think of others as fellow human beings instead of as enemies, or opponents to win against. And it teaches you how to fall down without hurting yourself which is useful throughout life- especially when stepping on ice, which is much more useful than knowing how to fight, which most people can avoid their whole life, unlike falling down.
I think it was Saturday that I saw Emily Sensei (Homma Sensei’s wife and a master Aikidoka (Aikidoist) herself) was back from her ambassadorial trip to the small village in Japan that we have a cultural exchange program with. It’s very interesting how I lived in Inner Mongolia for 4 years, and now have a room next to that of a Mongolian cook, and hopefully in the future can visit our sister-dojo in Ulaanbaatar! Finally was able to find an (unsecured) wireless network to get online by driving all around the neighborhood with my PC on, and on the internet found a competent key copier at Home Depot—from a tip from the Laundromat lady where I did my laundry earlier, that that would be a good place to go (the coordinator gave me a mission to get my room and outside door keys copied), the people at K-mart either didn’t have the right key type in stock or else didn’t know what they were doing—my guess is the latter! Was happy to get some email taken care of (mostly deleting) and read some news. Back at the dojo, looked at a few techniques using my Aikido 3D computer program and read more of Bushido—The Way of the Samurai, then went to bed (also on my bedside table are: the Dao De Jing by Lao Zi, a compilation of quotes from the major world religions called God’s Big Instruction Book (compiled by Juliet Mabey), The Hidden Words and Gems of Divine Mysteries by Baha’u’llah and a Bahá’í prayer book.
Day 6: Today (Sunday) there is only one class—Beginners. The restaurant is closed and I wasn’t entirely sure, but Emily Sensei, who came in later, confirmed that I was free to go out and about on Sundays. I went to the Bahá'í center at 11:00 for morning devotions, then checked my email and read the news, then went back to the Dojo, made myself some blueberry cream cheese sandwiches (since the restaurant’s closed), then cleaned the dojo etc, and then made myself turkey sandwiches for dinner and watched some TV. Then caught up on writing this, took Sensei’s dog, a large Spaniel of some sort, called Genbei for a walk, then finished catching up on this diary and (now) went to bed! (23:30).
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