[Our senior dojo member Kenneth Dekleva, a 3rd Dan Black Belt trained under Sensei Bill Sosa, Texas, USA, left New Delhi on 17.05.2006. Below is his letter to us.]

I wanted to share with you and your fellow students how much I have enjoyed training with you in Sensei Kar’s dojo. I felt welcome and I appreciated the strong spirit therein and the good ki extended to me and to each other.

It made for a wonderful learning environment in which to further our knowledge in this beautiful martial art of aikido.

My Sensei – the late Bill Sosa – always told me that we all have an obligation to develop the art of aikido, and to build upon it and make it real and alive. Aikido is a brotherhood and it is also budo. We have an obligation to each other as well as to the martial traditions that O-Sensei left us.

In this light I was also honored to be able to share with you and your dojo training partners some of the practical, ‘street’ aikido techniques bequeathed to me by Sensei Bill Sosa and his son Sensei Ricardo Sosa.

I depart India with wistful feelings, but with joy at having had the opportunity to get to train with you, Sensei Kar, and the other students.

Ken