Martial Thamizha – The true inspiration to youngsters

Silambattam is a weapon based Indian martial art from Tamil Nadu. One can’t simply learn this art without some passion or interest into it. Abdul Rahman who is from Nagarcoil considers being one of the best silambattam champions in India. He has loved this passion since he was in the age of 3. “I used to see silambattam practices happening in a ground near to my place. No one taught me at first. I have self learned by seeing those practises. Because of my keen interest, silambattam master supported and encouraged me. That was the first plot of my success” says Abdul

Being a champion, he struggles a lot to reach this place. “Due to my family problem, I dropped my martial art interest when I was in 6. After that, sports became my other passion mainly football. I have participated in all the sports and have gained some trophies. Though my father insists me to concentrate on my studies, I left sports too. But I couldn’t manage my studies also. That was the time I was in depression. Then our family shifted to Chennai where I joined GBHSS School in 10^th grade. There I found myself by seeing silambam again after a long time and decided to never give up the passion. My journey towards Bsc Visual Communication in DG Vaishnav College made my passion of this art reaches many people.”

Silambattam is not only his passion. He has loved and earned interest in football, ball badminton and even a championship in chess. The winning moments of his life includes 112 inter college awards, 25 state awards, 21 district awards and 33 best performer awards should be appreciated whole heartedly. “I like to be an all-rounder. I will give my best in whatever I play. People used to dominate me as I am from a village. I really worked hard to come out of it. I have won all these trophies because I failed at first. After my first failure, I have succeeded in all the events which I participated” says Abdul.

Talking more about his life experience in Silambattam, he proudly explains “My silambattam performance in fresher’s day of My DG Vaishnav College has been appreciated by everyone. Being an individual I searched for a master to practise silambattam professionally. Then I found Ekuppam master who is a treasurer in silambattam helped me in all the aspects. Daily I used to practice silambattam. To give some different variety performance for audience, I will design my stage performance by adding some lights to make it innovative”.

 Apart from martial art and sports, he doesn’t leave the art of photography too. He says that it was an accident and it just happened.

“Family support is must in everything. But for me, more than my parents, my sister supported and encouraged me all the time. I left my national championship because of some politics and personal problems. Then, “Hidden Idol” conducted an event for Chennai open talent test on October month 2014 where i won the first prize of Rs. 75,000. After this event, i can able to get more contacts of private and foreign events and have been a judge for those events too”.

Abdul Rahman who has done a lot of achievements in just 20 years struggles a lot to come to this position. “Fractures and winning cups are more than my age” laughs Abdul. His friends are respecting him and his simplicity. “No matter how high he get, he will always act as the same with us” says Abdul’s friend.  Being as a martial artist, he even teaches this art to children freely. ” I want to spread our art to each and every place in the world. I love to teach children who approach me and will do free coaching in beach”. 

Abdul opens up his future plans and aims. He tells,” After completing my studies, I would like to represent events in foreign. There are some people like me who will suppress their talents. So I would like to help those people in this art. I did a small role in a film called Kadal gudhiraigal. Apart from this do have interest in directing, Racing and drawing interest. I often give interview to motivate people. I would like to advice my juniors to chase their dreams and focus on what they want. They will surely achieve their goal if they have self confidence.

Finally, Abdul tells about his aim to add this silambattam art to Olympics and he finishes his talk by expressing his three major ambitions in life. “My first ambition is creating an identity of me and my family. My second one is I should act as a bro for dhanush though I am a diehard fan of him and the third one is I should die when I am performing in the stage” says Abdul proudly.