Watch 25-year-old Komal Patil practice mallakhamb - a demanding, traditional martial art, performed with the aid of a stationary pole - and she makes it seem effortless. With 75 per cent visual impairment, she can barely see the outline of the pole before her, and yet her movements are strong and sure. She ascends 8 feet in three swift moves, and perches herself comfortably at the top, in a seated pose. She goes on to fold her legs and completes the pose with a smile. She fools onlookers into believing there is an invisible chair supporting her, but all that aids her is her muscular strength and dexterity.Komal is one among a team of six athletes who were chosen to perform at India House at the Paris Olympics on Saturday evening. Four of the six team members - Ajay Lalwani (age: 27), Venkatesh Mandadi (26), Anjali Tapal (25) and Komal Patil (25) - are athletes with visual impairment. In addition, the team has two minor team members: Riddhi Dalvi (13) and Samarth Patil (12). All six have trained under Padma Shri awardee, Uday Deshpande and his colleague, coach Neeta Tatke for years.71-year-old coach Uday Deshpande - who was first introduced to mallakhamb when he was three years old - has seen mallakhamb rise on the national and global stage. "When I became the secretary of the Mallakhamb Federation of India in 1987, there were only four state-level associations affiliated to the Federation. (These states were Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh). But when I stepped down from the position of secretary, in 2009, 33 state associations were registered and affiliated to this national federation," he said.Mallakhamb, as a sport, is not part of the Olympics. Yet the opportunity to perform at India House is a significant achievement; India House was conceptualised by the Reliance Foundation in association with the Indian Olympic Association.

The India House pavilion essentially serves as a centre to showcase Indian art, culture, tradition and sports at the Paris Olympics.The opportunity to perform at India House gives this traditional Indian sport a boost on the global playground. "The International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, Thomas Bach, had visited India and we had the opportunity to perform before him. On seeing the demonstration, they decided that mallakhamb would be staged at the India House, at the Paris Olympics," Deshpande explained.Catch a performance and it's easy to see why this particular sport was chosen to showcase in Paris. The sport is visually appealing; a perfect blend of art, dance, and gymnastics. As I watch Anjali Tapal, there's fluidity, grace and strength in every move she makes. She has mastered the dwi pada sirsasana (a yogic pose consisting of placing both feet behind the head). Anjali performs the asana mid-air, with only a cotton rope to support the weight of her entire body. Venkatesh Mandadi ascends the rope swiftly and balances himself in an upside-down pose, complete with a namaskaram and a smile on his lips. You can see his calf muscles flex as he uses only his legs to support his pose mid-air, seemingly effortlessly, for several minutes. Ajay Lalwani performs the padmasana mid-air. With one arm extended and wrapped around the rope, to support his entire weight. It appears as though he is levitating several feet above the ground while aiming for the clouds.The students have remained dedicated to the sport, trying to never miss a single day of training. Komal says matter-of-factly, "I take the train from my residence in Boisar to Dadar (where the vyayam mandir is located), every day." Ask her how long it takes and she stated, without a hint of a complaint, "Almost two hours, one way." Venkatesh also commutes from Thane, which is outside the city limits; Ajay holds a job down and yet prioritises his training. Much like her teammates, Anjali also commutes alone, by public transport, to reach the training centre.None of the athletes - save for Ajay who has participated in a sporting event in Tashkent, Uzbekistan - have ever been abroad. "I'm excited but also a bit nervous," Komal said.

Anjali, who comes from a family that encourages and excels at sports, said, "My brother has also competed in various sports. But so far, I'm the first one from my family to go abroad for a sporting event.""I applied for my passport just last year, hoping that I would soon have a chance to perform mallakhamb abroad," said a visibly excited Venkatesh. A week before their departure to Paris, his excitement was matched by the other team members. Each of the performers hopes mallakhamb will someday, soon, be recognised on a global sporting platform, allowing them to compete with other athletes.The two youngest team members (who are sighted) also showcase their fantastic skills as Riddhi Dalvi hangs upside down from the wooden pole, smiling for the camera. Then he swiftly ascends and sits comfortably on the tip of the narrow pole. Samarth Patil wraps his ankles around the pole, without using his hands. Then in the blink of an eye, he contorts his body to form a variety of shapes: a semi-circle, a tear-drop, all while being suspended mid-air. They show off their teamwork and camaraderie, as there are several group performances where one team member must support another. For instance, Samarth Patil lies still, as though he were a wooden plank. But his body is suspended vertically, mid-air. His plank-like posture serves to support Venkatesh who contorts his body into a yogic pose, several feet above the ground, with Samarth's abdomen serving as his base.As I watch them perform, it's clear that this sport is an intense whole-body exercise, with strength, flexibility training, endurance and weight training, all in one sport. "It also requires concentration and this in turn helps the mind," Deshpande said. Coach Tatke was a student of Deshpande's very first mallakhamb batch. Apart from being a mallakhamb trainer, she is also a post-graduate in psychology and a former professor of psychology at a premier college in Mumbai. Unsurprisingly, Tatke's PhD thesis centred around the psychological benefits of mallakhamb. She found that the sport helped in decision-making, focus, concentration, ability to overcome fears, and build confidence, and helped in promoting physical and mental health.Unlike many other sports, mallakhamb also has an added advantage because it requires barely any equipment. The performers only need a teak-wood pole, a cotton rope, and padded landing mats to break their fall. There is no assistive technology or modification in the equipment for the visually impaired. The Shree Samarth Vyayam Mandir, Shivaji Park, where the sportspersons train is a basic training facility that bears the above-mentioned equipment in a small room, with an open area just beyond the walled structure, which is also used for training athletes. "The fees begin at Rs.30 a month," informs coach Tatke and this allows for greater accessibility to this sport. Despite being a humble training ground, the Vyayam mandir has seen many success stories across a variety of different sports, and the walls bear transparent cabinets packed with trophies.Coach Deshpande first began training visually impaired athletes in 1992, based on a chance encounter. "As I was associated with this vyayam shala, the Kamla Mehta Dadar School (For The Blind) approached me to seek my opinion about the repair of some of their physical training equipment. I visited the school and that's when I proposed to train the students," he said. His training at Kamla Mehta School had a cascading effect. Word spread and soon enough, Deshpande was roped in to teach at various other schools for the visually impaired in Mumbai.Deshpande and Tatke unanimously acknowledge that their students have made them better teachers. "It has helped us get better as trainers because with the visually impaired we have learned how to give clearer, more precise instructions," said Tatke. She admits that they had been relying upon hand gestures to fill in the gaps in verbal instructions when dealing with sighted students. "For instance, we used to give instructions such as lift that hand. But now we give more precise instructions such as lift your left leg or wrap your right ankle around the rope," Tatke added. This, in turn, makes the coaches hone their skills while thinking deeper about the precise muscle movements, in every single move.

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