Engineer takes to kalari for courage, confidence

Chennai

After completing her engineering degree, Subhashree Parthasarathy didn’t want to take up a 9 to 5 job. Instead, she decided to become a theatre artiste and entertain people. Her love for theatre landed Subhashree in Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts and Research in Puducherry.Well, her intention was to get exposed to serious theatre and take it up as a profession. But destiny had chalked out other plans for her — she studied kalari at Kalarigram, a holistic kalari gurukulam near Adisakthi and is training youngsters across the city. In a free-wheeling chat, she talks about her love for kalaripayattu and why she took up the mission to train youngsters.

“I was into amateur theatre and the kind of scripts and characters I got to portray weren’t interesting; it was just another exercise. I started looking for courses that would give me an intense understanding of theatre. This led me to Adishakti and I enrolled in a course there. Interestingly, the first module of the class was to learn Kalaripayattu from Kalarigram, a Kalari centre that is close to our institute. By the end of the first day of class, I fell in love with the martial arts and decided to pursue it,” she says.

Training under Lakshman gurukkal for almost a year changed her perception about life. “I never had the intention of becoming a teacher because while I was in college I felt that teachers couldn’t communicate with the students in a proper way. Now, standing on the other side of the spectrum, it feels really special. I should thank my guru Lakshmanji for the constant encouragement,” the engineer-turned-Kalaripayattu trainer says.

The youngster stresses the importance of learning Kalari and says that it’s important for today’s generation to learn this form of martial art. “I spent my college days impressing others and wasting money on trivial things.Looking back, I feel that if I was introduced to Kalaripayattu, I would have enhanced myself a lot more and changed my attitude towards life. But I didn’t have that kind of upbringing. I don’t want the same to happen to youngsters today.I want to train kalari to as many youngsters — kalari helps themdevelop courage, give confidence and achieve a self control,”she shares.