GANDHINAGAR: The wushu venue at the Mahatma Mandir campus in Gandhinagar gave an impression of a Chinese movie set, made in the 1980s. The over 15,000-sq ft hall is filled with oriental music, with some sharp contrasting images, much to the amusement of the uninitiated.
On the left there was sanda, where two participants were aggressively kicking, punching, and throwing each other off the ring, while on the right, there was taolu, in which a participant, wearing traditional Chinese martial art attire, moved to the music as if his life depended on the smoothness of his moves.
The man on the right was M Gyandash Singh, multiple-time national champion in taolu, doing his routines, which gave him the National Games gold.
There is contrast in Gyandash's life too. He is serving the Army, a place where it is all about masculinity and strength but when on the taolu carpet, he becomes a different person.
And Gyandash is not the only Army man to play the sport which is all about finesse. There is a separate army node for wushu in Shillong, where many train for the sport, which is still not known to many in India. The taolu discipline has also managed to attract boys from Haryana, a state known for wrestling and boxing.
"I was attracted to taolu as I used to watch Chinese movies. I used to get so impressed with the routines performed in the movie The 36th Chamber of Shaolin that I decided to learn the art. Later, my father and grandfather, who used to play wushu, introduced me to the sport," Gyandash said.
The Manipuri athlete said the taolu demands a lot of strength. "The core muscles need to be strong. Only working out in the gym doesn't help as we must ensure that we stay flexible. Any jerk in our movement costs us points. It isn't dance, it is shadow combat, which we need to do with grace and expressions," said Gyandash, who had missed bronze at the 2018 Asiad by a whisker.
Lieutenant Colonel Vincentt Patton, who heads the wushu node in Shillong, said the centre is sought-after by many aspirants.
"The node started in 2002 and now trains many wushu players, both in sanda and taolu disciplines. Despite it not being a part of the Olympic programme, it is popular, and we consider offering job opportunities to talented players," he said.
The national sport of China is growing not just in India, but across the world, and it will debut in the Youth Olympic Games at Dakar in 2026.
