The Second Milestone in Life - Hitting the Gym

When I joined medical college in 1985, I weighed 37 kgs. My arms were like toothpicks! My waist was thinner than a hockey stick and my legs…. can’t talk about them…they didn’t even exist!

Inevitably, I was teased and bullied about it. I was nicknamed “stick insect” by my courteous and ever- creative classmates. Though I played sports and had a healthy teenage appetite, I just couldn’t put on weight. I guess my metabolism was faster than a speeding bullet.

The turning point came one fine day when I was challenged to an arm wrestling contest by the next skinniest person in the hostel. Compared to my fighting weight of 37 kgs, he weighed in at a humongous 40 kgs. This epic arm wrestling encounter was marketed by the hostelites as the “Clash of the Tiny Titans” and attended by virtually the entire hostel. To cut a very short story even shorter, I was defeated within 2 seconds…both hands…so 1 second for each hand. I couldn’t even win with my dominant left hand! My humiliation was witnessed by all my hostel mates and my teenage angst was ramped up to infinity.

That was the trigger. I joined the gym that very evening. Five years later, by the time I completed my MBBS and left the hostel, I weighed 58 kgs. I know you are expecting me to conclude this anecdote by telling you how I rechallenged my conqueror and vanquished him but no, that did not happen. If there is one thing that gym and physical fitness teaches you it is that one can be comfortable in their own skin. You don’t need to prove anything to anybody at any time.