Kalaripayyatu.

The most amazing thing happened…

Except, I’m not quite sure what happened

Cos, well, how did he do that?

Kalaripayyat is a Keralan Martial Art. Five hundred years old. Tribal. The moves derived from animals in the jungle.

So we pay 150 each to see a very cursory performance/ exhibition of this unique though karate-esque art. And its good to watch but the thing is just for tourists and lacking depth cos, well, its only an hour.

But the four guys are good, and they are very fast and the swords spark … etc.

And then, at the end… one guy with a metre and a half long bamboo stick is attacked by two guys with knives and short sticks … and about ten seconds later he’s over one side of the stage with all the weapons … while the two attackers are over the other side lying prone on the floor with their arms all locked behind them… with the bamboo stuck through their twisted limbs so that they cannot move… so they are twitching and grunting on the ground, immobilised by a single stick… which is like a lock…

And I’ve never heard of such a thing… and nor I would suspect have many other people… because it would make a marvellous movie image… cos the guys aren’t harmed… but are stuck there, locked, humiliated… it would also be a neat restraint technique for police forces, amongst other…

Wow. I know it was choreographed but… Wow…how did he do that?