There is nothing regular about this doctor from Imphal. Take his name, for example. Unlike most people named Amit Kumar, this doctor writes his name as Dr Amitkumar in one word. Then, there is all that he does in a day. He is a neurosurgeon by profession, an army man by training and a celebrated Wushu coach by passion.
Even as Manipur continues to burn, the state has maintained its status as India’s top-performing sporting state, best illustrated with the recent Silver in Wushu in Asian games. Wushu’s history in Manipur, or India for that matter, would be incomplete if we did not mention Dr Amitkumar and his family. An Army-major-turned neurosurgeon, Dr Amitkumar has been practising Wushu since he was a child and when you see his family tree, it all begins to make sense.
Amitkumar learnt the beautiful game from his father, Mayanglambam Biramani Singh, a Wushu exponent. Amitkumar’s younger brother Sachidananda Mayanglambam and sister Mayanglambam Usharani are also renowned Wushu champions of international repute. No wonder, then, that Amitkumar’s family is popularly known as the “Wushu family.”
Notably, Sachidananda is a technical official in the ongoing Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. A retired state government employee, Biramani was a Budokan Karate exponent before switching over to Wushu in 1990 after he learnt the game from Master Chin, the chief Wushu coach of Malaysia at the behest of Grand Master of Budokan Karate Mr. Chew Choo Soot at his Kuala Lumpur residence. Under Biramani’s initiative, the formal Wushu movement started in Manipur.
“I began learning Wushu from my father when I was a young kid. When my father moved out of his office, I learnt the theoretical part of the game at home, and again practised together with him after he returned home,” Amitkumar said.
Amitkumar, who teaches Wushu at a quiet corner in the Imphal East district of Manipur, continues to be passionate about this electrifying Chinese martial arts, which perhaps explains how a neurosurgeon at Manipur’s busiest hospital finds the time to teach Wushu to about 50 children.
The man who set the benchmark
Amitkumar may no longer be an active player, but during his prime, he was among the best in India.
He participated in the 1st, 3rd and 7th World Wushu Championships in Beijing (1991), Baltimore (1995) and Macau (2003) respectively. He bagged three gold medals each and was adjudged best player titles in the 4th and 5th National Wushu Championships held in Hyderabad in 1992 and Lucknow in 1993 respectively. He also won a gold each in the 2nd and 12th National Wushu Championships held in 1991 in Kolkata and in 2003 in Chennai respectively, and two golds in the 6th National Wushu Championships 1995 in Aizawl. He also became the first Indian to score above 9:00 points (9:20) at an International Wushu competition when he competed in the third World Wushu Championships in Baltimore, USA in 1995, a record he maintained till 2011.
A resident of Brahmapur Nahabam Bamon Leikai in Imphal East, Amitkumar is a consultant neurosurgeon at the nearby state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) in Imphal East.
After a day’s work at the hospital, he puts on his tracksuit and then goes to the Wangkhei area, where he trains around the children, including girls, at a community hall before moving to his residence in the evening. Some may find this very tiring, but Amitkumar, who has been doing this since 1991, believes otherwise. “Medical is my profession, and Wushu is my passion and way of life as I have been associated with the game since I was in 3rd standard. I will continue to play and train Wushu till my health permits,” a soft-spoken Amitkumar said on Tuesday.
The ethnic violence in his home state has, of course, impacted his day-to-day activities. Mind you, not much has changed for him professionally. “I continue to treat the patients. In the evening, whenever I am free, I try to share my experience in Wushu with my 30 students. However, sometimes, due to the curfew imposed, we were compelled to cancel the practice. During COVID-19, I used to share information via the internet, but it isn’t possible now due to the internet ban. I recharge/detox from work by teaching my students. I make sure to take out time after work almost every day.”
One could argue that his strict discipline comes from Wushu and his five years as a Major in the Indian Army in the military’s short service commission. During this period, he worked for a few years as the person in charge of the “Army Wushu Node”, giving Wushu training to the army players in Shillong in 2005.
Needless to say, Amitkumar has helped unearth several talents in Wushu, including L Sanatombi Devi, M Gyandash Singh, and M Punshiva Meitei.
Amitkumar did his MBBS from RIMS Imphal in 2001, MS (General Surgery) from AFMC Pune in 2013 and MCh (Neurosurgery) from AIIMS, New Delhi in 2018.
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About the Wushu training unit in Imphal, Amitkumar said there are three/four coaches besides him in it, he said. “For paying their (coaches) monthly remunerations, we charge minimal fees from the students, and on top of that, I also contribute Rs 25,000 from my side in the fund pool for distributing the pay,” he said.
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