Kerala: Stranded due to COVID, Italian man turns challenge into chance

A European who was on a tour to Kerala just before the COVID-19 pandemic struck turned the challenge posed by COVID into a chance. He started learning Kalaripayattu, practised for many hours in the Kalari and perfected many moves, besides learning some Malayalam and making good friends in Kerala.

Kannur: There have been numerous stories of the miseries and hardships that people all over the world have been suffering due to COVID-19. This story is entirely different.

A European who was on a tour to Kerala just before the COVID pandemic struck turned the challenge posed by COVID into a chance.

Thanks to COVID, he started learning Kalaripayattu, practised for many hours in the Kalari and perfected many moves, besides learning some Malayalam and making good friends in Kerala.

David, a man hailing from Italy, aged 47, had reached Kerala to know about Kadathanadan Kalaripayattu, a traditional martial art form and Padmasree Meenakshi Amma, a Kalaripayattu exponent whose life is inseparable from Kalaripayattu.

As per his plans, David had booked tickets to return in August last year. But he was stranded due to COVID.

David did not lose hope with that. The saying ‘To him that wills, the way is seldom wanted’, was so right about him.

David went straight into the Kalari (a special training ground to teach the martial art) of Meenakshi Amma and team.

Meenakshiamma provided David with a place to stay. Whenever he got time, David was in the Kalari learning and practising the new techniques and the moves and perfecting some of them within 6 months.

David continuously practised with different Kalari students and practitioners who visited the Kalari for their sessions every hour and gradually became a Kalari exponent full time.

As the Italian was very friendly to people whom he mingled with, he quickly made friends with the locals and also learnt some Malayalam.

He has not yet been able to sing in Malayalam.

David, a bachelor at his 47 years, had started travelling around the World when he was just twenty.

With the COVID situation slowly getting better, David, the foreigner in the Kadathanadan Kalari, is all set to return to Italy.

Queried what his plans are, David says he will just take life as it comes.