Ambi
Photo by Photographer
The name is Ambi. Ambika Prasad Mallik. It is hard not to picture that smiling man, short of stature, the oft worn baniyan, the blue shorts, perhaps a rescued bird perched upon his shoulders. Athlete, innovator, dive master, Ambi has a passion for creating and learning. As if a character come alive, Ambi’s life and his goals are wrapped in a scent of fiction. Here is a man who dreams of ‘landing up on an island and surviving’, a man who discovers bliss in the middle of the decathlon, a man who finds meditative states deep within the ocean. Ambi has a simple philosophy. Don’t be a cabbage with a feeding tube in your mouth. Live. Learn. Explore.
Ambi was born in Pondicherry. In his youthful days in the ashram, he would awake at 5, scurry off to the tennis ground to massage himself with oil and then bathe in the ocean. His days, despite being rigorous, disciplined and repetitive, were filled with discovery. In this interview, we read about three of the many interesting aspects of Ambi’s life. Due to our unfortunate word limit, many of the fascinating things he mentioned have had to be omitted from this issue. However, all those who are fascinated by making projects, by scuba diving, or by the proficiency test, can try and find Ambi, perhaps in the Atelier, perhaps in the Andamans, perhaps on his scooter, perhaps in the band, or perhaps deep in the ocean. Without further an introduction, we present to you, Ambi!
Photo by Photographer
Projects
I have done too many projects to count or remember. Eventually I even stopped writing or documenting my work because I felt it was taking away the time I could spend working on other projects. Initially I would even try to publish my research and work, but finally I decided to let that go. I thought to myself that those who want to know will know, and those who want to understand it will come and ask me. From my side, I didn’t want to go telling people what I was up to. I keep doing my thing and those who want to come and see or be involved are welcome. I'm very happy to help if somebody wants to do a project. I have so many projects, more than 300, just lying and waiting to be completed. Whenever I get some time, I try to do a little bit and then leave it for when I have more free time later.
One of the more complicated projects that I worked on was a dive compressor. Dive compressors compress air into a cylinder which we can then take for scuba diving. The one I made, I had decided I wanted it to be completely automatic and self-diagnostic. I made sensors which I connected onto the compressor. Using an Arduino, I wrote the software which would check temperatures at different points, check pressures, and switch off the compressor if anything goes wrong. The Arduino even had a digital display and it would give you the temperatures of each of the piston cylinders. You could just switch on your compressor and if there was a problem it would be displayed on the screen and the machine would shut down. That was one of the more complex projects that I made.
I am currently working on other things too. Another project I worked on is an underwater scooter. It's a tube with a motor, a propeller and batteries inside. You can hold the thing like a torpedo, and you can move around in the water without having to make an effort to swim. Recently I even made aeroplanes and flew one around Vanur. A while back I had made a drone but the controller was not great. So I got one of the DJI Tello drones, which is known to be stable, and I removed all the motors from it. I made a much bigger drone using its sensor controller and so, keeping the stability of the DJI, I’m trying to use the standard local motors which can pick up even a DSLR.
I think it is my own creativity that inspires me to create. If that creativity in a person is not kept alive, it can stagnate and take you down with it. I believe there is no "marquer-le-pas", one can’t just hang in a spot. You either progress, go up higher, or fall. Anything that I see, I’m essentially looking at what can be made out of it, or how it can be used. Unfortunately, now that we are clearing up the atelier, there are hundreds of things that I’m having to throw away. It keeps bothering me because I see that all of those things can be used, but I know that I might not have the time to use them. It is a consolation however, to think that I'm giving these things away to others who can probably use them. I believe that if more people begin to see different ways of using things instead of rejecting them, wastage in the whole world might reduce. A lot of people say ‘manage waste’. I say ‘don’t even create waste’.
The Proficiency Test
When I heard about the proficiency test, my first impression was: ‘What are these big numbers! What is the point of having big numbers?’ My belief at that point was to make my body as capable as possible to do anything. Doing 30 chin ups didn’t make anyone a better person. The numbers did not enchant me. It was the capacity, the skill that one has in all one’s movements, the beauty of the movement, the efficiency in movement that mattered. That is what I considered to be progress in the physical; not the number of repetitions that you can do. Later, when I talked about it to a few people, I told myself, ‘If it isn’t such a big thing, then I might as well just do it.’
A week later, when I thought I was ready, Dada refused to let me do it. He questioned my ability and asked me to work on it a little more and that put me down. I wasn’t upset with him but I told myself to forget it. For about two years after that, I didn’t do anything about it. Finally, a few friends convinced me to do it just for the heck of it, and on the 25th of April, I remember it being the day after Darshan, I tried the proficiency test for the first time. This time Dada had faith in me.
At the time, I was also busy with other work in the Ashram, and all the video and music editing had probably tired out my forearm. So even though I got through the burpees and the risings, my hands slipped from the bar during my second set of chin-ups. Praveen bhai, who was overseeing me, told me I must come back later when I prepared myself. When he left, I completed the test for myself and everything went smoothly.
A month or two later, I began focusing on how to relax the forearm while doing the exercises. I would practise risings, with both my hands on the bar, but neither would be holding it. I tried reducing my computer work, switching between the left and right hands while working. Soon, I told Praveen bhai I was ready to do it again. This time, I did it without any problems.
I believe that one must develop the body to a certain level where it has the strength, coordination and capacity to tune itself to perform any task just with a few days training. When I was in D group, the maximum number of risings I had ever done was 15, never more. But when I prepared for the proficiency test, within a week I had re-tuned my body and it could then do 75 risings in one go.
Scuba Diving
Scuba diving has taught me a lot of things. Like I mentioned earlier, through scuba diving I have seen again how the physical body is capable of readjusting to different situations. I want to be a plastic person, plastic in the sense that I want my body to be capable of doing what is required of it.
My interest in scuba diving began when I was in Delafon. My brother worked in the aquarium and I would play around the school waiting for him. Eventually I started helping out in the aquarium too. At first I was fetching the guppies from the pond, feeding the lionfish, and before I knew it, Shilpin began taking us sea swimming, surfing, snorkelling and all kinds of other activities. Sea swimming beside Shilpin gave us the confidence that no matter where we were thrown into the ocean, we could survive without any kind of gear, snorkel, mask or tank. He would also make us do a lot of difficult exercises that I now teach others who want to learn Scuba diving. Thanks to those exercises, I am extremely comfortable when I go diving.
Eventually, I did get into mainstream scuba diving. I went to the Andamans, did my basic courses there, even worked for 7 to 8 months there. I became a dive instructor too, mainly so that I can certify others from the Ashram.
What I find most profitable in diving is something I only tell people who I feel might understand. Deep underwater, it has been scientifically noted that the heartbeat slows down. I once checked my pulse underwater and it was 51 whereas my normal is around 73. The body is completely relaxed and free of stress. It feels like a meditative state. That experience, I feel, is the highlight of scuba diving. By teaching the body to take fewer breaths, to calm down, to enjoy that meditative state, one is also making the body capable of adapting to different situations.