Had they charted out career options in sport based on logic, cricket might have made more sense. But Akash Magre, Rahul Mahajan, Pradeep Patel, Pramod Patel and Mohit fell in love with a sport that involves meddling with a 12-feet-long pole or a rope and doing circus-like balancing acts on countless bottles.

Mallakhamb is a sport whose origins can be traced back to the 12th century, with a mention in Chalukya’s Manas-olhas, written around 1135 AD. But when these teenagers from Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh started their drills, it was under the supervision of a parent, the only mallakhamb expert in the vicinity.

A meagre number of local and national level appearances later, it’s the inaugural edition of the All-India Invitational Mallakhamb Championship in Gwalior that has provided them with a stage to show off their skills.

As the dumbfounded contingent of a few reporters and locals looked on, on the second day of the competition, the gymnast-cum-yogis, if they can be called so, were eager to exhibit their acrobatic skills and some jaw-dropping poses.

As we stood bewildered by the utter ease with which they moved, the real beauty of the demonstration was all too obvious. Snaky swirls, the long-limbed stretches and intermediate gasps of breath that buffer the next formed part of a 90-second long demonstration that had to pass the judges’s keen eye before a team went through to the next round. The quality-quantity factor of judgement applies to the various asanas and poses that a group or an individual can exhibit within that time-frame.

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