 |
| Shri Uday Deshpande receiving the 'Padma Shree' from the President of India, Smt. Murmu |
My story today is one that cannot be contained in a single article. It's about a centuries-old traditional Indian physical practice, a 100-year old organisation that nurtures and promotes Indian traditional sports and an amazing 73 year old man, who has spent most of his life working towards bringing this practice out of obscurity and bringing it to the notice of the world. The practice is called Mallakhamb, the organisation is the Shree Samartha Vyayam Mandir, Dadar and the man is Shri Uday Deshpande, who in 2024, was awarded the country's fourth highest civilian award, the ‘Padma Shree’ by the President of India.
One day, many years ago, my sister invited me to go with her to Dadar, to see and maybe try a special kind of sport. She was going to write an article about it. I was only 21 and I already was passionate about everything in sports. Secondly, being with my sister was fun at any given time and through her I learnt several new things. She's 11 years older than me, and anything she introduced me to, was out-of-the-box and something that made me think.
We reached the Shree Samartha Vyayam Mandir and met a gentle, smiling and welcoming man who showed us around the premises. This was my first meeting with Shri Uday Deshpande, a Mallakhamb coach with several achievements to his name. We were impressed as we saw some young kids perform on the Pole Mallakhamb and the Rope Mallakhamb. It was the most amazing experience of my young life. I was amazed to see these young kids, hardly 7 - 8 years old, climb up several metres high on a Rope and do all sorts of yoga style positions. Every position that I'd tried as a young girl in my first yoga class was being displayed to me, whether the Lotus pose, the Sleeping Vishnu pose, the Nataraja pose, all in the air with this thick rope wound around the child's body. I think my mouth was wide open and my jaws hit the ground during the whole demonstration; such was the surprise and amazement I felt!
 |
| Rope Mallakhamb |
 |
| Pole Mallakhamb |
The boys who performed Pole Mallakhamb made it look so easy. A twist here, a jerk there and there he was on the tip of the pole, posed gracefully. A small jump and an arm reaching out and there was a perfect sleeping pose parallel to the ground, holding the body up with just shoulder and arm strength.
For someone who had followed the Olympics on TV and who grew up with each neighbourhood brimming to its fill with young cricket players, I was left wondering how such a sport which was at once athletic, agile and traditional was unknown to us. I was sure that no one in my entire colony would have ever seen such a performance or knew of this sport.
 |
| Sir guiding me |
 |
| using all my strength |
My sister and I decided to go back to the Shree Samartha Vyayam Mandir every day for a few weeks. I'm sure it was Shri. Uday Deshpande, who we affectionately and respectfully addressed as Sir, convinced us that it was a good idea to do so. He took on the responsibility of teaching us Rope Mallakhamb. The next few weeks that I spent going there have remained memorable to me. I think eventually I spent some weeks more than my sister there as she had to go back to work. I was really happy to learn all those new moves and have a super coach to guide me. Sir would come and get me to do all sorts of different warm-ups and movements. Then we would try and climb the rope where he would support me on each climb with his fingers under my feet. I managed to do the Lotus Pose and a cross-like pose as far as I remember. He then taught me how to improve my flexibility on the ground by teaching me how to do Chakrasana in flow where I could fluidly move from back to the ceiling, to tummy facing up. This improved my shoulder strength and flexibility immensely. I also remember enjoying an exercise where one stands next to the Pole Mallakhamb and facing the pole, holds it and then without loosening the hand hold, one turns one's entire body to face the opposite side. I particularly enjoyed this exercise. I also remember waiting for Sir to be around to stand on two low standing parallel bars and be guided to bend my body backwards to touch the two bars with my hands and create an arch and then transition to a handstand and then back to the standing position on the bars. I also remember learning a tough sequence of supine poses that twisted the body and usually a Mallakhamb practitioner does with an actual lamp with a burning flame on his or her forehead. They of course don't drop the lamp while doing this. Those movements still remain etched in my head even though I wouldn't probably be able to do most of them anymore. Within a few weeks my body was toned and I looked and felt really fit.
Now when I hear that Sir and anyone who works at the Mandir does this on a purely voluntary basis, I'm quite stumped. Usually, this passion would last at the most a couple of years but there are several who have spent their entire productive lives doing just that. Just learning, practicing, teaching and trying to make this sport more and more known. Shri. Uday Deshpande for one has dedicated his entire life to the sport of Mallakhamb and the Shree Samartha Vyayam Mandir, both institutions that have their own histories and very interesting stories. Sir has quite literally moved many mountains to get this sport known and recognised and to the place it is today. Over the next few articles, my intention is to bring to you interesting stories of the sport of Mallakhamb and of the man who helped take the dying, traditional Indian physical practice to millions of people around the world.
Here is the video Shri. Uday Deshpande getting the 'Padma Shree'. Time stamp around 19.08min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY2uRimYYMQ
#mallakhamb #mallakhambindia #polemallakhamb #shreesamarthavyayammandir
#ancientmartialarts #performingarts #competitivesports
