without any question he smiles
and even agrees to give me private training
and that too at the park next to estoril court apartment on garden road
my sister agrees to arrange for expensive private lessons
which he himself discounts for me

he said i was going to help him understand about the experiences i had
undergone and how i had arrived at this perfection

i was going to learn the ancient yang 108 long form of tai chi chuan

he was extremely surprised at my ability to grasp and understand
spontaneously each movement that he was teaching
and with his own interest sessions of one hour became two hours or more

he watched each tai chi form of mine with absolute interest
he was very humble and extremely frank with me
and i saw him repeat each move again and again for himself
many times laughing and saying that my form was perfect
that he was correcting his form
always saying…my old bad habit…my old bad habit
you are correct…your are correct there

that my movements drew from the centre of the hara to the periphery
the movements i made were perfect and flowing
the inner wheel was a circle…hence the grace

movement without effort
motion without motion
effortlessly floating and unhindered

i was working on my learning each of the 108 forms
and joining them together with such fervour that i completed the course
in forty days and remembered each move without any break

i was practising the tai chi moves for three hours everyday
and one hour after dinner in the night
i was enjoying the garden road park and its beauty
the cascading waterfalls and empty spaces
the flamingos the exotic birds and the animals

my entire tai chi form from beginning to end lasted forty five minutes
and soon chinese tai chi experts and local chinese were coming
into this isolated park to watch me play tai chi
even residents from the building started watching with interest

soon i was helping him to teach other students of his
taking his classes when he claimed he was tired
and later got to understand that he was just wanting me
to gain confidence in myself by teaching his students saying
that i always ignored my own strengths and should begin to express myself more to people and communicate my understanding more freely

strangely this same year it was announced that tai chi would become
part of the asian games and he wanted me to enter the competition
saying he bet on a medal for me
and i was the best he ever saw in his twenty five years of teaching

we soon became close and friendly and i have great respect for him
and his wisdom and his total simple honesty
i treated him as i would a master with his age and experience ahead of me

we soon started talking about bhagwan
he started to do kundalini and nadabrahma meditations
and began reading bhagwans books on tao

i too began to learn many of the taoist approaches from him
his deep and simple explanations with his experiences
made me open my eyes deeper into lao tzus tao te ching and the i ching