Ch 07 - Body over Mind

[January 1982]

My journey of accumulating knowledge has been a bumpy ride. With my mind powers the more I use them the more burden they put on my young body as its not fully matured yet.

On top of that having enhanced senses is not a boon as my body is still in the growing phase so my control over my senses also keeps slipping. Having to keep exercising control over my body consciously is a nuisance.

As much as I would like to think that my mind is like a biological computer but that's just the potential I will achieve one day. That day is still far far away.

I can perform mental computation at levels beyond what is achievable by even the brightest of human minds. It is not a System or an AI but I am trying to work out a sort of an operating system to better utilise my gifts.

Any attempts to hoard knowledge that is not useful immediately before that makes no sense to me.

Also, I can only build a strong foundation for my future by focusing first on maximizing my physique. I have decided to focus on my performance in terms of a strong core, flexibility, good stamina and endurance, dexterity of hands, overall agility and robust immune system.

Self-discipline is an important component of a healthy lifestyle which I have in abundance. As it pertains to physical fitness, being disciplined is foundationally important to achieving one's fitness goals. Many people suffer from a lack of steady motivation for fitness which becomes a stumbling block to fitness success.

I have taken a much-needed mental and physical break till Christmas from my quest to be the best.

Spending quality time with my family and friends at school helped me recharge myself physically, mentally and spiritually as well.

Knowing that I have time I realized that childhood only comes once in life. Why am I in a rush to grow up and take on the world? My parents are not getting any younger and once I get busy with Hogwarts and then my adult life I would get to spend even lesser time with them.

With that in mind, I decided to slow down and enjoy whatever time I have with my parents before I start my magical journey at Hogwarts.

After deciding on that, I began looking into any books or material available about fitness and nutrition. This has helped me come up with a perfect workout routine and diet plan to help me achieve the best possible physical growth along with my budding martial arts knowledge.

Since I want to avoid a stunted growth in height due to building hard muscles when young I will be focusing on soft muscles and flexibility.

Going for a lean athletic build I made sure that my body takes the necessary nutrition and proper rest required for the best possible growth.

The athletic build falls somewhere between slender and muscular. The body is lean with a low percentage of body fat, but there are also obvious muscles. The muscles aren't huge and bulging but are well-defined and in proportion to the rest of the body.

My body will be built for power, speed, quickness, endurance, stamina, explosiveness and agility.

The news of the fall of the Dark Lord had liberated me from the burden that I was unconsciously carrying around. Mom who is the closest to me noticed this and was happy to see me smile more often and enjoy myself.

My martial arts instructor at the dojo praised me for my skills in both Wrestling and Boxing. They wanted me to participate in competitions but I declined. With my enhanced senses other than satisfying my ego it wouldn't benefit me much.

I had the techniques down and could use them fairly against even adults. I couldn't create my own combat style for now as I am still growing. Any worthy professional fighter knows that mastery of their own body's limits and capabilities can give you the edge to win the fight when you are equal in skill. I will start working on it after my physical growth becomes stable.

Seeing no scope for a massive improvement in the short future I shifted my focus to mastering other martial arts for a diverse portfolio. Once I am competent enough with the individual disciple I can use the advantageous elements from them to form a combat style that fits me best.

Last year a few months after I joined the martial arts gym, at my request and with my parent's consent, I paid for the special crash course sessions and the gym-provided instructors started instructing me in the Katas beginning with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

I had the forms down along with the technical know-how within two weeks. After which I took a week each for other martial arts like Aikido, Kick-boxing, Taekwando, Jeet Kune Do, Krav Maga, Judo, Karate and Muay Thai.

Just to get down to the basics I spent over 3 months. Because of my mental maturity and familiarity with Wrestling and Boxing, I was able to draw parallels which boosted my understanding of the other martial art styles.

For my martial arts training, I already knew a few things from watching the instructors practising their forms and conversations I picked up with my enhanced senses. Now I also knew the technicalities and instructions for the katas.

I also wanted to learn Kalaripayattu, the oldest martial arts in existence, which literally means practice in the arts of the battlefield. It is better for students to begin learning at a young age (around 8 years of age) when the body is at its most flexible. That is when our organs will be developed and flexible too.

I planned to find instructors for this first but I couldn't find any instructors. So before Hogwarts, I will be focusing on mastering this myself by following the Vaytharis (oral instructions) written in the book for mastering the artform. I was lucky enough to acquire the book through my father's associates this Christmas.

It originated as a fighting system for battlefield and combat. It is very beneficial in combats as it works on the principles of 'Marmas' which are pressure points in the human body. These pressure points are taught in Kalaripayattu which makes it beneficial in close combats and has great practical utility.

There are four different stages to learning Kalaripayattu — Meipayattu, Kolthari, Angathari and Verum kai prayogam. Body movements are first learnt in Meipayattu, allowing the student to develop their flexibility. The next stage is Kolthari, where students begin to grasp fighting techniques, including the use of sticks. In the next level, weapons like Vaal, Paricha Urmi and so on, are used. The last stage is gaining the ability to fight without tools or weapons. The warriors identify the marma of their enemy and fight only using their hands.

Immersed in my happy carefree life I celebrated my 10th birthday.

I furthered my mastery of martial arts skills and learned extensively about architecture, psychology, anatomy, nutrition and physiology.

With a better understanding of the human body and how it works, I ended up developing greater control over my metabolism which I will continue to develop further.

With one more year at occlumency, I was also able to develop a skill which I named Mental Map. My Spatial perception and data analysis skills helped me to create mental maps of all the places I have visited. With practice, I am now able to construct Mental Models for my Mental Map by analysing information even from photographs, design drawings or descriptions of places with rough dimensions.

The situation in the magical realm also seems to have settled down as the oddities have disappeared from the roads. Everything seems to be back to business as usual.

Most of my days are now spent either playing with a coin with my fingers at the same time as reading books while manning the counter at the bakery helping my mum, sparring at the martial arts gym to collect data to run mental simulations or socializing with people.

When I am bored at home I went to my father's study room. It hosted a plethora of law books and case studies. Trying to run mental trial proceedings and using legal loopholes to reverse the verdict in favour of the losing side in wake of available evidence became a good mental exercise for me. Though it was not possible for all cases it did prove to be immensely helpful in consolidating my legal knowledge.

I became a kind of legal expert. Sometimes I shared some insights with my father on his cases of course hypothetically speaking. You know the attorney-client privilege and all that stuff.

I practised my multitasking skill and trained my finger's dexterity by continuously twirling a coin across my fingers. It's my favourite time pass activity now which I carry out whenever my hands are idle. I picked this trick from a magic show we went to this fall. After the show, I realized that for a wizard the dexterity with the wand would be crucial in a duel or while fighting so I started with training my fingers first. My knife handling training took care of the palms and wrists.