Fence with benefits

In a city like Gurgaon, it probably helps to be familiar with a sword. For self-defence. Shabnam Oberoi isn't very likely to pull out her 100-cm-long sabre when she encounters trouble but her husband would be advised to be en garde if the couple were to have a fight. Fencing, that sport of swashbucklers, is picking up fans in Gurgaon and they're not ivy-leaguers either.
A growing number of adults well past the need for 'sports quotas' are lining up in the basement of DLF Club 5 to have a go at the old thrust-and-parry. "I've always found the sport very appealing, and for several years have been looking up classes in Gurgaon," Oberoi says, "So when I saw an ad for fencing a few months back, I showed up that very day."
Gurgaon's Deuce Fencing Academy, with a centre in east Delhi, is presently the only fencing school in the city, and it finds among its student not only youngsters but increasingly older players (30 and upward). The academy, started by Harpreet Singh, a five-time gold and silver medallist in sabre and foil and joint secretary of the Delhi Fencing Association, has been trying to insinuate the sport into school sports programmes in NCR but has found an enthusiastic following among the older lot as well.
"I was looking for a fitness regimen that wasn't restricted to gyms and running — the typical options for people my age," says 34-year-old Akhil Kakkar, an ex-marketing executive-turned-writer. Fencing, which he has been practising since April, has improved his balance and posture, sharpened his reflexes and agility. He has even convinced a friend to take up the sport.
Oberoi, in the meanwhile, has cajoled her 10-year-old daughter to suit up. "We go to class together; I thought it would be a good way to bond with her, although she cribs about it. She doesn't find it cool to learn a sport with her mother," says Oberoi. "This is a unique sport and I feel empowered learning it. The aches in my knees — which were sharp at the beginning of the classes — have subsided." Oberoi says she hasn't sought her doctor's approval for the sport — she is worried he'll caution her against it.
A doctor, however, does approve of it. Dr Misako Matsumaru, a 52-year-old general practitioner at Fortis Hospital, says fencing holds her interest the way treadmills cannot. "I find gyms boring, but this I love," says the expat from Tokyo, who compares fencing with ballet. "The posture and footwork is similar," she says of the angled arms and knees. "It's a workout for the thighs, the back, wrists and upper arms. However, I'd recommend this for the physically fit; for those with strong knees." She points out that unlike other combative exercises, fencing is an elegant sport. "But what I love most about it is that behind the mask and suit you can't tell a person's colour, race or age."
Rachna Sharma, the 41-year-old instructor at Deuce, believes one is never too old to play. She took up the swords at 38 and went on to win gold thrice at the Delhi state championships in foil. A former marketing consultant and now full-time fencing trainer, she says the classes have been attracting expats and Indians who've encountered the sport abroad. While children here usually start at age 9, in the west, says Sharma they even have toddler fencing classes. It's considered an elitist sport abroad, but in India, cities like Amritsar, Imphal and Nashik are drawing fencers from all socio-economic backgrounds. (When Harpreet Singh started out in Amritsar in 1995, he had to ask a blacksmith to fashion an iron sword for him from a picture as there was no other way to obtain a legitimate fencing weapon.)
It's easier for students in Gurgaon. At Deuce, 12 classes cost Rs 3,500, with the academy providing the kit. Should one choose to buy the swords and kit (jacket, breeches and mask) the outlay would be about Rs 15,000. "Fencing is now where tennis or archery was five years ago," says Sharma. In five years, Sharma predicts, the epee, sabre and foil will perhaps become as commonplace as the racquet.