July 14, 2021
We were back on the open field at 7 am, or it could have been 6 am as it was still dark, on Friday. We jogged downhill towards an abandoned dead-end road. It was hard to believe that this was 'couch-potato' me running in shorts at sunrise. We did body conditioning, sit-ups, push-ups, ude-tandren etc. Then jogged back to the school. Sensei H was there with water, and we finished up with a lot of kicks. Hot breakfast and tea followed, then another training in full gi’s at 11am. One set of gi’s hadn’t dried yet and I hoped it would not rain. I need not have worried as the sun shone strongly leaving us groaning for water in the first ten minutes, but the water break only came after an hour.
After lunch we had free time till 3pm. I bathed using a bucket of cold water in the area near the sink. One of our roommates had washed her hair and left the drain clogged. It was gross. Everything was feeling a bit much, so I found a quiet place to journal. Before I knew it, it was time for the afternoon training which was in a large hall on the 4th level. My muscles ached as I climbed the floors. The room had windows on three sides and since the sky was clear I could see for miles around. At tea we ate jam sandwiches in our gi’s. The next training and sometimes the last of the day began at 6pm outdoors. Again, it rained and now we all had two wet gi’s. We strung ropes across our bedroom and hung them on top. The room was muggy and began to feel suffocating.
The next day we put on damp gi’s for the morning outdoor training and the scorching sun dried them off our backs. That afternoon again I sought solitude in a covered spot near the playground, but two of my camp mates found me there. One was A, the white belt who I had met on my first visit to the dojo, and the other a big built young man I had called obnoxious in the theory session the night before. He, O, had squeezed in next to me even though there was no space on the bench, and then chattered away with the person behind. He had looked shocked and shaken my hand. ‘Normally people call me obnoxious behind my back.’
The three of us chatted, sharing surprisingly private details about ourselves, till the next training. I don’t think A and O ever talked much again but both became my good friends.
The camp passed in a trance. It was a new experience to train in a group of about 150 people. The collective kiais reverberated adding to our soaring energy. Besides the people from dojos in Bombay there were men from the army and the special reserve police there. These men looked rough and often sensei Mistry would partner the women with them to give us an experience of what it would be to be like to be confronted with someone so tough.
During the evening training on Saturday, Sensei N approached me and asked if I was up for an uphill hike in the dark. When I said, ‘Sure’, he assigned someone to teach me the complete movements of Sanchin. Those who were grading the next day were called for a special training in the upstairs hall at 9 pm. The rest of us gathered in the open field soon after. We walked for about a half hour and then began climbing a steep path surrounded by trees. It had been raining and the ground was slushy. We were climbing with only the light of a full moon to guide us and had to be careful about not slipping back. The men from the army made up the rear catching those who slipped. After climbing for about forty-five minutes, we reached the top. The moon was high in the purple-black night. Bright stars shone through the clouds crowding the sky. Sensei N lined us up and we did Sanchin three times. I did not know the importance of Sanchin in Goju-ryu at that time, but the experience left an imprint on me. I felt the contemplative silence of the forty or so people there add to the silence of the night, which deepened my own silence. Then we were instructed to sit on the ground. I found a rocky spot which was cold and wet but not muddy. Sensei asked us to close our eyes ‘do’ Sanchin twice in our minds. I found myself in an even deeper space within myself and suddenly I disappeared and all that remained was the mountain, the moon, and the sky. The feeling of this moment was something I was able to touch for long after.
Walking down was harder and a light rain had begun to fall making the track more slippery. The moon was obscured by clouds now, and we had to rely on the feel of the ground beneath our feet rather than our eyes to lead us down. I fell a couple of times and slid a bit before someone stopped my fall. One of the army men told me to walk down with my feet in Sanchin position, it would help me be more rooted. It did help as I didn’t fall again. When we got back to the road, we jogged to the main gate and quietly slipped into our dormitories as everyone was asleep. That night I had the most peaceful sleep in months.
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