How Arif Chaudhary's journey put India on the international B-boying ma

Arif Chaudhury aka B-boy Flying Machine defies gravity on a pavement next to JP Road in Andheri West. Pics/Ashish Raje

In the beginning, there was dancing. That's how the wholly American construct of hip-hop first took root in our neck of the woods in the mid-noughties. It wasn't through rapping, graffiti or DJing - the three other integral components that constitute the culture. Instead, break dancers, or B-boys, were the ones who formed the first generation of hip-hop artistes in India, pre-dating rap crews like Dopeadelicz, a recognisable name in the nascent movement much before DIVINE became a household entity. And Arif Chaudhary is one of these early pioneers, his story reflecting how the art form eventually grew into a cultural piggy bank that multiple brands now dip their hands into.

But before we move on, try and put yourself in the shoes of an 11-year-old from Jogeshwari struggling to find a purpose in life back in 2009. Chaudhary was athletic, only moderately good in studies, and had no real interest that could be labelled as a "passion". That changed when surfing the Net in a cybercafé, he came across an international B-boying competition for the first time in his life. The video left the boy so gobsmacked that he immediately started imitating what he'd seen. "A couple of friends and I would get together in my neighbourhood and practise handstands, worms and another move called coffee grinder. That's what I started with, but at that time, I had no idea about these names. I wasn't even familiar with the term 'hip-hop'," Chaudhary, now at the cusp of 22, tells us.

He knew instinctively, however, that he had a gift, and the boy consequently found his passion. Then, when he saw a movie called You Got Served in 2011, the whole gamut of the world he had entered into dawned on Chaudhary. The film, for him, served as a crash course in hip-hop culture. "I realised that if I have a big house called hip-hop, B-boying is just a room in it. So I started researching on the subject because I felt that if I understood the perspective, I would be able to put what I was doing into context," he says, adding that one year later, he felt ready enough to take part in his first solo competition, under the moniker B-Boy Flying Machine.

Chaudhari won that event, aged only 15. And thus started an upward trajectory that has resulted in him being the most prominent international face of B-boying in India. That isn't a tall claim. He is the only person to have represented the country in Singapore, Korea, The Netherlands and, earlier this month, Switzerland, for a global battle organised by Red Bull. But this journey wasn't a bed of roses initially. He had to battle parental opposition, societal ridicule and the tenets of his religion, which he says forbids dancing. "People would make fun of the lifestyle I'd adopted. They'd laugh and say that I am wearing my father's clothes; they'd joke that I was a circus performer," the dancer recalls.
But he adds that the situation has changed over the past decade. His parents are happy that their son can fend for himself when many others his age still depend on pocket money. All the earlier naysayers are eating crow after his success. Chaudhari also says he has figured out that whatever makes you happy is your religion. And whereas a mere 60-odd people had taken part in that first competition he'd entered in 2012, similar events now attract over 500 entrants.

So does that mean that B-boying is finally coming of age in India? Not quite, Chaudhari feels, despite the influx of brands tapping into this growing symbol of youth culture. He says, "I think B-boying should be on television, because in our culture very few people actually come to the battles to see what's happening. But nearly everyone has a TV. And the way people are, they believe in television. So, we need to find a way for it to reach the small screen so that a larger audience can understand that B-boying is different from stunts. It has nothing to do with a circus. And even the people who have made it to Bollywood should understand the worth of their struggle. It's time that all these industry guys, and the big companies, stop taking them for granted."

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