My Autobiography: My Karate Sempai!

‘Sempai’ means teacher in Japanese. Before you start thinking that I was some kind of Karate whiz kid or something, let me clarify that I just learned Karate for about a year. Yeah, I was a jack of all trades – Happy? 🙂

There are a very few teachers who have infinite zeal and passion for their jobs. Very few of them communicate that passion to their students effectively. Very few of them are actually made for their jobs. My Karate Sempai was one of them!

I was studying in 7th Standard back then. Since many of my friends joined in Karate classes, I too did. I was quite enthusiastic like the other children of that age, because I now had an opportunity to kick and punch others! Alas, for the first three months, all we learned was exercise & Kattas!

Kattas are like dance steps but they contain a mixture of certain offensive moves and defensive moves and we used to do it as a group. After the initial three months, I graduated from White belt to Orange belt.

This is when we start to spare (fight). Everyone gets to form a big circle and two members fight each other. Generally, these fights are pretty simple and sometimes even fun. Its rare for anyone to get injured. But my very first fight was a nightmare.

I was called in and was asked to fight with a guy who was much senior to me. I had no idea what to do – So, I was just standing. This guy suddenly decides to practice his reverse kick and that kick lands right on my face! I was expected to move away or defend, but that was my first fight!

There was even some blood coming out from my mouth. They gave me some first aid and made me sit. After a couple of minutes, I told my Sempai that I wanted to go home. He said that I could go only when everyone got to leave. That was my first lesson – Don’t run home when you are hit!

After some initial sessions, I got used to sparing. One day, we were asked to fight our Sempai. Since he was a Black belt holder, he was able to easily defend all our offensive moves and he even landed some punches and kicks on us. Of course, they didn’t hurt much but I thought it was unfair for a Black belt holder to fight with Orange belt holders like that.

So I went and asked him why he was hitting us while he clearly had an advantage over us. His reply still lingers on in my mind.

“Karate is not an offensive martial art. The purpose of Karate is to learn to defend yourselves. There is no point of hitting your opponent with the most powerful punch, when you are not able to get up and fight back after they hit you with their most powerful punch. So, getting trained on receiving the most powerful blows is just as important as I want you guys to get up and fight after getting knocked down”

My respect for my Karate Sempai, increased. One day, the people in the school management brought some juice for all of us and an attender kept them on the side. Even though we were in the middle of the training, we all ran towards it and started drinking the juice. If this had happened during our NCC class, our instructor would have hit us with a stick! Our Sempai was quiet all that time.

After we came back, he said – ‘Aren’t you guys being fed properly at home?’ We were stunned. That one line was effective enough for us to remain disciplined for the rest of the course!

Once in three-four months, he used to organize get-together camps. These were held in our school auditorium premises where all of us could come in casual clothing. We were required to present one unique talent that we had outside Karate. People could sing, dance, tell jokes, etc.

We were required to bring food from home, but no one could eat their own food! We had to open it and place it in a common location and anyone could eat anything! He would then ask us questions like what was our rank in the recent examinations, what we thought about the History we studied, etc!

If there was one teacher who was interested in our overall development, it was our Karate Sempai! It seems he was working as a Captain in some Ship and went back to his job after a year. We lost a good teacher, but the ship got a good Captain!

Destination Infinity

These posts, filed under the category ‘My Autobiography’ are written to record certain important events/ incidents in my life, so that I can refer to them while writing my actual Autobiography after many years. My autobiography book will come out in the name, ‘Destination Infinity’. Please buy it when it comes 🙂

20 thoughts on “My Autobiography: My Karate Sempai!

  1. Rakesh Vanamali

    Very touching! I can quite see the passion and the interest with which you describe your life in yesteryears!

    1. Rajesh K

      Yeah, I do get to relive some of those moments through these posts. More importantly, these posts will be useful to me when I write my autobiography after many years.

      Destination Infinity

  2. sujatha sathya

    a bow to your wonderful teacher!
    this post also shows that you were a good student too

    1. Rajesh K

      Yeah, I was a good student. Mostly because of lack of options 🙂

      Destination Infinity

  3. chhavi kapoor

    Your Karate teacher sounds amazing, DI.
    It’s wonderful to have such teachers. They always leave an impression on our minds and subconsciously we always follow the path shown by them.
    When I was in class 7 I had an amazing history teacher. She taught us for only 3 months but I still remember all the lessons that were taught by her. 🙂 🙂

    By the way, you got kicked on your face at such a young age! Sad! 🙁

    1. Rajesh K

      History is such a wonderful subject but the teachers make it boring! I did not like history as long as it was in the curriculum. But once I was in college, I was reading more and more of history based books! If the teacher shows a small amount of passion, students would find the lessons very memorable.

      Actually, that incident was nothing when compared to….. Well, Never mind 🙂

      Destination Infinity

      1. chhavi kapoor

        Ahan…… are you hiding something from us ? ? 😉 😉 😉

        1. Rajesh K

          Everything will come in this autobiography series or in my book. 🙂

          Destination Infinity

  4. kanagu

    wonderful DI.. its really good to see such good masters 🙂 🙂

    1. Rajesh K

      Its rare to see such good teachers… 🙂

      Destination Infinity

  5. A

    Though your Karate teacher is an amazing person, I give you additional credit for recognizing that fact and respecting him. How many people really care about teachers these days?

    1. Rajesh K

      If the teachers are good enough and steer the students in the right direction, people would definitely care.

      Destination Infinity

  6. Sandhya

    Very rarely we come across teachers like your Sempai! Great personality!

    My sons’ orange belt is sleeping in some shelf here! They were taken to a camp in Salem too! They used to enjoy their classes. But they started practising their kicks on each other and their classes were stopped!

    Your memory power is amazing, Rajesh! You seem to remember minute details of your younger days!

    1. Rajesh K

      They were just practicing what they learned. Why did you stop their classes because of that? 😉 🙂 Fighting with a sibling is one of the most enjoyable activities of childhood 😀

      Destination Infinity

      1. Sandhya

        It was scary to watch them hitting each other with their legs!

  7. Prashant Sree

    Wonderful lessons, Rajesh. I wonder how come most of the Karate Senpai’s end up being close to their disciples. I remember the Karate Master in my engg days and all his students respected & admired him a lot. Karate as i recall in a movie ‘is not about fighting but about knowing oneself’.

    PS

    1. Rajesh K

      We do have this impression that Karate is used to attack others. But then, its an art form like any other. And yes, for the more disciplined it can help in self realization too…

      Destination Infinity

  8. Avada Kedavra

    Nice, you remember so much. I hardly remember anything from my school days. Your Sempai was a good teacher. Even I took Karate classes for a yr and then we had to leave the town, so could not continue 🙁 I really liked Karate.

    1. Rajesh K

      I remember only a few incidents. I don’t have a strong memory, but I have a memory that filters out what I need to remember from what I don’t need to remember.

      Destination Infinity

  9. MME

    Wow, so interesting & good post, thanks for sharing your own experience.

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