From the March-April 2008 issue of Desi Life:
Gitanjali Kolanad: A Force of Nature
Some scholars estimate that Kalari (also written as Kalari Payatte or Kalarippayattu) dates to 12th-century India. According to one legend, Kalari is the world’s first martial art.
Gita Kolanad is 54, but she looks, and moves as though she were at least a decade younger. Born in Kerala, she moved to Winnipeg at age 6. She used to do yoga, but says she found it boring and took up Kalari in her 30s to keep in shape for dance.
“Kalari is a real holistic system. It’s not just the martial art, but the healing aspect and the focus aspect,” Kolanad says. “When you get into the weapons, it’s a constant lesson in focus. When you lose your focus, you immediately get hit. I know that yoga has this aspect of meditation, but you don’t get any feedback on whether you’re doing your meditation right. Here you’re constantly getting feedback,” Kolanad says. “That’s why I love Kalari and I think it’s poised to be bigger than it is right now.”
At the highest stages of Kalari practice, it is said “the body becomes all eyes.” Masters become totally aware of everything around them. Kolanad doubts she will get to that point, but says that’s not a concern: “I enjoy every aspect of it.”
Kalarippayattu teacher tackled by lion
From Chris Crudelli’s Kick Ass Miracles
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11 responses so far ↓
1 felinesophy // Mar 23, 2008
thx for sharing me this article in my comments section in my blog, I love it:) It gives me such an inspiration, that even big cats when they’re attacking, they do move very soft & swiftly so gentle, just like our cats at home…
my brother -who is very keen & addicted to any martial arts- and I discussed why this lion tackled her down, coz at the time when she was demonstarting this unique martial art, she had “the intention” to attck within herself in her spirit & mind, and this lion is very sensitive and can sense that, so the lion make his first move to ‘counter attack’ her by tackling her down like that….well, just a thought:)
2 wayne // Mar 24, 2008
You are a stupid woman. You try to imitate the moves of a lion but when you do this you interperate the moves into what you want them to symbolize. You try to make them what you want them to be. You want to capture functionality and spirit into systematic movements but the lion lives in the moment and has no pattern to what it does, it does it to suit itself. Biologicaly and chemically you are different from the lion so you cannot understand its motivation for what it does any better than you can truly relate to a sociopath or mass murderer. The lion lives in a state of redieness that you and I cannot duplicate without adding chemicals to our bodies. Unless the lion is sleeping they stand firmly ready to kill and eat ANYTHING they can overpower. It is a level of survival that we cannot duplicate. I don’t know how to explain what the lion feels while being at the end of a leash but if you want to come close try injecting yourself with hundreds of times more testosterone than you make on your own, then add some adrenaline, and have someone who really pisses you off jump around in the room while someone holds you back with dental floss. You will act like the lion that attacked you. I have to say that the lion has no ill will toward you but you are acting wrong. You think you are “safe” with a lion because you are in a studio. Take that same lion to the African wilderness and remove the super safe leash and act a fool. You wouldn’t. because you know your in Africa and lions kill and eat mamals. It’s the same lion dummy. You put a lion in a studio, you didn’t change the lion inside. The lion evolved over thousands of years and many generations. I don’t care where you got that lion from there are thousands of lions inside of him pushing him without thought to chase and attack animals, especially animals with erratic movement (they look weak or injured). I’m glad you know some “forms” but you jump around just like a wounded animal. You made a mistake. I think you should thank whatever god you worship that you are still here and realize that the lion could have killed you by moving the paw that knocked the air out of you up to your throat.
3 Bob // Mar 25, 2008
It is a damn shame the lion didnt eat your stupid ass
4 Kungfuguy // Mar 25, 2008
I agree with bob and wayne the lion is a killing machineno ammount of martial arts training will be able to stop it.
5 Joseph Dunphy // Mar 25, 2008
This comment was obnoxious
“It is a damn shame the lion didnt eat your stupid ass”
but I’m afraid this was very much true:
“I’m glad you know some “forms” but you jump around just like a wounded animal.”
That’s the problem. Pouncing, at that point, is ingrained, instinctive behavior for any cat. You were relating to it and its behavior as if it were a very big, furry, four footed human being. It isn’t.
Think of a game we sometimes play with our de-clawed cats: scatching a finger on the couch until they pounce, or walking one’s fingers toward them, until they pounce, or moving a plastic mouse here and there until they … yeah, pounce. Notice the pattern, and think of the movements one uses to get that response. It’s cute and it’s fun, but here’s the difference - the cat only weighs 5-10 lbs and is dwarfed by you, the human. With a lion, the balance of power is a little different, and what would be a cute response out of a house cat, becomes a life threatening one out of this much larger, but related species. Even if it doesn’t mean to hurt you, it easily can.
And there’s the thing - house cats have been breed in captivity for thousands of years, with lasting effects on their heredity and instincts. That lion is at most a few generations out of the wild, and probably not even that. It is a lot likelier to revert, so please use better sense before you become a snack. That animal could have killed you in about as much time as it takes you to blink. The next animal just might, and if you really want to be as the animals, for whatever reason, please think of the most basic trait of any wild animal.
The instinct for self-preservation.
6 Joseph Dunphy // Mar 25, 2008
And of course here we are, writing to Ms. Kolanad as if she had posted this, which, of course she didn’t. This is a partial repost of an article written about her.
Maybe somebody ought to track down her homepage and try to reason with her. I’m not optimistic about the likelihood of her responding in anything other than a defensive manner. Consider her age and the nature of the mistake she is making; she is probably too set in her ways to really listen. But, at least somebody would have tried.
7 Chris // Mar 25, 2008
Joesph, I see no need to add insult to injury as previous commenters have done. With a few fractured ribs, it seems Gita learned this (basic) lesson the hard way. And yes, she will probably be reading these comments.
Wayne, the lion was clearly playing around, calmly if a bit roughly, and didn’t attack anyone.
8 Think // Apr 11, 2008
I feel that most people who are commenting on this are missing the point. This was to be a typical photo shoot for a magazine. Gita was not (intentionally) challenging the Lion to “mortal kombat” , she was caught of guard by a natural predator. To her credit, I think it is good to note that she only suffered a few broken ribs after being tackled by the beast. Imagine if she had not been practicing any martial arts.
9 Think // Apr 11, 2008
I also think many of you owe her an apology for your rude comments. I don’t feel she is in any way “stupid”. I believe this was a simple accident. Although there were some warning signs (the first few scraps with photographers, etc), who is to say what they would have done in her position.
10 UGK // May 5, 2008
It is ironic what this woman did. She practised the LION FORM and got attacked by a lion.
Not the best way to promote a martial art!
Mister Ian’s Weblog from Kuwait » 2008 » March // Mar 27, 2008
[…] Don’t turn your back on a predator that’s top of the food chain! […]
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