Martial arts pick up

vadodara: martial arts are ostensibly staging a comeback in riot-ravaged gujarat. born out of ‘‘riot fear’’ or a renewed awareness of self-defence, the common man in the state is stepping into hitherto alien territory. says c.n. majumdar, chairman of the narayan guru talim (ngt) kendra, one of the oldest gymkhanas in the city: ‘‘post-godhra, the number of students coming to our talimshala has increased.physical stamina and self-defence are now looked upon as a necessity and not as sports alone. moreover, people have started taking interest in wrestling and martial arts literature — something we had never seen in decades.’’ majumdar says the list of new entrants at ngt has increased considerably in the last month. ‘‘people are serious about self-defence tactics. the level of awareness has risen. we are witnessing a serious inclination towards learning traditional martial arts,’’ he says. books like the science of wrestling by g.c. patwardhan and the encyclopaedia of indian physical culture are being used as reference material. ‘‘these are the books that nobody even knew about till recently and now people want to study them,’’ he says.