Trini pursed her lips and studied the girl in front of her. Sometimes, due to the serious and poised manner that she conducted herself in, it was easy for people around to forget that Katyayani was, after all, a mere fifteen years old girl.
It was at times like these, that her slightly childish nature emerged.
Trini put her hand on Katyayani's thin shoulder and replied in a calm voice. "A good defence is one of the most effective forms of attack. You need to be alive to be able to fight and win. Remember, retreating doesn't always mean defeat! A strategic escape is always better than a foolish death, no?"
Katyayani hung her head low and nodded.
She was ashamed of her impulsive outburst and bent down to touch Trini's feet. "Thank you for the lesson!"
Trini's shoulders relaxed and she said brusquely, "Wasted enough time yet? Let's get to it."
Shaking her head, Katyayani resigned herself to her fate as she looked at the rusted three-blade, flexible weapon. These Urumi had deliberately been corroded to make them blunt for the purpose of training.
Unlike a normal sword, which could cause fatal wounds in one hit, Urumi was capable of inflicting multiple cuts at one go, which pulled out a chunk of the flesh along with the opponent's blood. But it wasn't meant to be a fatal weapon.
It was more of a defense instrument which could help a person fight against several people simultaneously. A skilled Kalari master could fight with seven to ten people at a go, not allowing them to even come close to his or her body with the help of this weapon, which was a combination of sword and whip.
"I am under your tutelage, Teacher!" Katyayani gave a bow to Trini after accepting the Urumi from her.
Normally, she addressed the four women by their names but when she was in the middle of an instruction class, she would automatically change her address towards them, giving them the respect they deserved.
Though all four attendants of Katyayani were older to her by almost ten years, they had never been subservient in their behaviour towards her. The relationship between them was more like a close-knit family, maybe, since none of them had anyone else except for one another. Of course, there was the old nanny in Dima city who qualified to be a part of this 'family'.
Katyayani didn't get any time to even breathe before Trini lashed out at her with the Urumi flying in her hands.
Not ready to concede defeat so early in the game, Katyayani shuffled her feet in quick movements, taing herself out of Trini's attack zone.
Kalari was the art of employing high-flying acrobatics, fluid water like movements and weaponry to defend oneself against the enemy. The two women, dressed in the same-style dresses, one in black and the other in white, sparred with each other, without holding back.
"Ah!" Katyayani couldn't help but moan as soon as the whiplash hit her with the next strike from Trini.
She thanked her stars that the teacher wasn't using two Urumis to deal with her today. Under that situation, even escaping from the arena wasn't possible, forget trying to defend oneself.
Despite the respite, she had a feeling that her poor body would end up with a lot of wounds and marks on it by the end of the session.
"Pay attention and evade," Trini's voice came from somewhere above her head as she saw the older woman leap in the air and attack her.
Immediately raising the wooden handle of her weapon, Katyayani clashed her flexible sword against the incoming strike and spun around, using her nimble footwork once again to put distance between them.
She knew that it was impossible to get one up on Trini when it came to Kalari. But at least, she could try and reduce the number of strikes which landed on her.
"Look at your messy foot movements. You should be thinking about my next few moves instead of trying to escape the current one. Use your brains!!" Trini didn't hold back in berating her.
Not even getting a chance to complain, Katyayani ran next to a tree and used it as a shield to help evade the attacks which were coming at a faster speed now. Dodging behind the tree's thick trunk, she pivoted on her feet and lashed out at Trini, catching her unaware for the first time.
"Don't look so happy," with that warning, Trini managed to stop her from ducking behind the tree again by wrapping the Urumi around Katayani's waist and pulling her towards herself.
"Oh! Dead meat now," Katyayani muttered to herself.
The clanging noises didn't stop till the end of the first prahar (around 7 am).
"You were slightly better than the last Kalari session but still not fast enough. If I was to hand over the sword in your hand, you would immediately be able to perform better. It is the Urumi against which you have the mental block. Just because you think you aren't adept at it yet, you adopt a defeatist attitude and brace yourself for a loss," Trini dissected her performance with no inflection in her voice.
Katyayani lowered her head and muttered softly. "It is not the weapon, but the wielder of the weapon who makes me nervous."
Trini pretended not to hear her attempt at being cute and said with a straight face, "We will change your fitness regime tomorrow onwards. You need to be lighter on your feet."
Katyayani nodded her head. "I still have a long way to go before I can become proficient in using the Urumi. It didn't take me so long when we practised with the wooden shafts. Sigh! Holding two Urumis in my hands still remains a faraway dream. Thank you for your teaching."
Trini looked at her closely and suddenly asked. "Are you preoccupied with something? Is anything bothering you?"
Though Katyayani had performed within her expectations, Trini had found her to be a little distracted at times during the session.
Katyayani looked at her with expressionless eyes and her face held no inflection as she said, "No. Everything is fine. How dare I find an excuse for my ineptness! I am still struggling to grasp the basic learnings. Pardon my slow pace."
Trini smiled at her words. It wasn't that she didn't believe her words but she knew her pupil well. If there was something that she didn't want to talk about, she would smoothly steer the direction of the conversation to a different path.
It was a trait which she picked up from Trini but seemingly, while the 'teacher was still jaggery, the student had already become sugar'*.
It was becoming difficult to guess the young girl's thoughts these days. After a beat, Trini went to the treeside where she had kept the other weapons and sat down there. She was going to meditate for a few minutes to regularise her breathing.
Katyayani picked up the pile of weapons and left quietly.
Standing on the edge of the mountaintop, Katyayani stared down at the misty valley below while waiting for her heart rate to normalise after that rigorous workout. She had been honing her body for the past three hours now.
The sky had bravely fought against the wintry gloom and lightened up considerably by now.
Despite that, the place was silent and desolate. Even the birds seemed to have been afflicted by the glacial wind and didn't want to waste their breath on chirping.
Katyayani's mind state was also the same. A few words which she had read somewhere, surfaced in her mind at this moment.
The moment flows by like molten sapphire
Cold white silence
Sky above
Earth below
No rustling of branches, no fluttering of leaves
Only I am here
Only me
My breath
My heartbeat
Such Depth
Such Loneliness
In the end
Me, only me*
"Ready to go back now?" asked Trini, as she materialised next to her.
Katyayani came out of her stupor and nodded distractedly. Holding the weapons, they started their trek back to the cabin.
Sweat had already solidified into condensed droplets on their skin, even though they had finished with the mock battle just a few minutes ago. Not allowing the bodies to completely cool down, they maintained a steady pace, walking quietly on the uneven and slippery path.
It seemed like it was going to snow anytime now.
Katyayani had weathered many season changes during this decade, after her parents passed away in a mishap, when she was six years old.
Her father had been an unremarkable, salaried official in the royal court and his beautiful but quiet wife had no maternal backing nor much personal wealth.
As the daughter of this deceased pair, Katyayani found her position in the Bali clan to be obscure at best.
Even though she briefly enjoyed the protection of her paternal grandfather, who had taken her under his wings after her parents' death, his wife, Katyayani's grandmother passed away within a year of her parent's death. The old woman had been too grief stricken and left behind a lonely, old man.
*Teacher was still jaggery, the student had already become sugar - Idiom meaning surpassing the teacher
*The poem doesn't belong to me!