Tamil Nadu woman rocks social media with her wedding-day stunts

TUTICORIN: Minutes after holding her groom’s hand on Monday morning, 22-year-old bride P Nisha, who was still in her grand silk sari, took weapons such as a long and sharp curling blade to perform ‘Surul vaal veechu’ and silambam sticks to perform ‘Rettai kambu’ on the cement road in front of a wedding hall in Thirukolur village in Tuticorin district.She also perfomed the martial art called ‘adimurai.’
It was not to frighten her groom Rajkumar Moses, 29, of neighbouring Themankulam village Srivaikuntam who is none other than her mother’s brother, but to create awareness among girls to learn self-defence. Video of the woman performing that was shot by villagers went viral in social media.
“It was not easy to perform in a sari and with the heavy make up as a bride. I used to practise martial arts in a t-shirt and track pants,” the bride who performed martial arts for nearly 30-minutes in the wedding sari told TOI. She also fought with her fellow students, though there were instances of her long hair and sari hindering her performance.
“But my husband and aasan (coach) Mariappan asked me to focus on my skill and nothing else,” she said. Nisha, who is a B Com graduate, aspires to become a police officer. Her fellow students performed martial arts for an hour, thereby keeping the cheering wedding guests and hundreds of villagers entertained for around 90 minutes.
She started learning traditional martial arts such as silambam, surul vaal, adimurai, kalaripayattu and theepantham (fire ball) three years ago as a final year college student. It was on the insistence of her mother Mani, 45, that a girl should learn self-defence to tackle threats the world poses to them. Her father Perumal, 47, also encouraged her.
Nisha is one of the 80 people across age groups who are coached free of cost by Mariappan, 50, of Nadukutudankadu village. After winning many local silambam competitions, Nisha won the first prize in the district in silambam last year and came third in the State level competition in Tirupur.
Rajkumar, a diploma holder and farmer, was supportive of her martial arts and wanted her to use the wedding a platform to showcase her martial art skills. It was on his insistence Nisha performed at her wedding.
“We wanted to replace cultural events with the martial arts performance to create awareness among girls, so that incidents such as the Pollachi sexual harassment scandal and suicides such as those by medical aspirant Anitha would not take place,” he said.
According to him, girls would not take extreme steps such as suicide if they practise martial arts, as they not only strengthen their body but also their mind and give them the confidence to face challenges in life.
While appreciation is being showered on Nisha, videos of her performance have also earned a meme feast with messages warning Rajkumar to be mindful of the way he handles his wife, as they might have dire consequences. Rajkumar is aware of the memes but is unmindful of them. The couple are happy that the video has served its purpose of reaching the masses.