Kung fu master Shifu Kanishka will take part at the Zambhala festival in Goa to teach Qigong technique of meditation. He tells Karan Bhardwaj how it scores over simple yoga
India’s well-known martial art trainer Shifu Kanishka will hold a special workshop of Chinese meditative technique Qigong at the upcoming life spirit festival in Goa. Called Zambhala, the festival will bring together yoga experts, spiritual teachers, practitioners and healers from India and across the world. It will be an amalgamation of live entertainment, spirituality, music and dance. “There is a need of new ways of meditation in atmosphere full of noise. It can be done through Qigong. It is a practice of aligning breath and body movements. It is also known as Baduanjin which means eight pieces of brocade. There are eight set of movements where one can control inner peace even in noise. If you sit and meditate, and somebody comes in speaking, then it distracts your attention. That means your senses were not in control. However, with Qigong, one can easily control meditation regardless of surrounding,” says the master, who is said to be the first Indian to have trained at the famed Shaolin Temple Secular Discipline Union in China.
Kanishka has recently trained Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor for their latest projects. While Dixit will be seen doing some breathtaking action sequences in Gulaab Gang, Anil will rock the screen as ATU chief in tele-series 24. “Madhuri Dixit is a prodigy. She is a student any teacher would love to have. She underwent rigorous training of over three months for this film. I trained her for two techniques, kung fu and pekiti tirsia kali. When she started, she was not confident. She was like ‘I haven’t done action before’. But since she is a perfect dancer, I knew she would absorb it quickly. like dance, martial arts also require perfect footwork, hand work, rhythm and balance,” he says.
However, Anil’s training was less intense due to his restricted role. He plays a chief of a anti-terror unit in 24. “It was about engagement with guns. How to handle, hold, disengage and withdraw guns,” Kanishka tells us.
Master’s journey began when he decided to give up his corporate job in favour of martial arts. Since his training at the Shaolin Temple that began in 2001, he has travelled across the world promoting the Shaolin Culture of Chan, Wu and Yi (chan Buddhism, martial arts and Shaolin medicine). “When I was a kid, my father gifted me DVD of movie The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. I got so crazy that I watched it over 300 times,” he says. Over the years, he has trained army personnel, commandos and also runs programmes for women empowerment.