GYM was not my cup of tea. It does not mean that I am not health centric, I am, but despite going to the gym and being muscular, I prefer walking. But this year my ‘gymholic’ colleague cum friend insisted me to join it only for the vacation. I too decided to give it a chance thinking not to become a bodybuilder but to have a new experience to meet new people and learn something new.

As the vacation started, he kept reminding me my promise and eventually we concluded with a date to embark on a healthy journey. On the decided day the Sun rose up with an alarming sound to wake me up to keep my promise and I too got ready. My friend came to pick me up and we reached the health center. For him everything was the same but for me it was like a sacred day. I assumed that the gym was decorated, a pious garland was hung at the entrance and the machines had been set up for me. When we entered the gym, I was showered with a warm welcome from everyone as all the gym attendants had become friends of my friend which was a great consolation to a frightened rabbit like me. Then my friend personally introduced me to everyone present there and thereafter he started his routine workout and I occupying a seat in the middle kept scanning everything.

There the machines were ready to carve the physique. I felt that they were beckoning me to get my body shaped. All the attendants were sweating from top to bottom. It’s like the machines do want the salty water to keep themselves hydrated. Ten, twenty, thirty and fifty kilo weights were drenching them thoroughly. The weight bars were inserting much pressure to testify their devotion. And the treadmill was keeping everyone running. I saw more than five people drenched in an hour but it was still waiting for another one to move on. On that day, I learnt the first lesson that there is no thing like free lunch in the world. The moment we see a muscular personality, we crave for it without realising how much the person had sweated out and how many hours he had toiled hard in the gym. The second thing that delighted me was that our country is in healthy hands and on sturdy shoulders. All the attendants whom I met there were friendly, hard working, devoted and above all addiction free or how could they have such sturdy, shaped and intricate muscles.

But, I corrected myself that even then I had seen the youngsters smoking, drinking and chewing tobacco which would frighten me invariably to dream about our nation, but the fitness of youngsters in the gym assured me about the healthy future of India. It also taught me that one should always be a student and keep on learning. And the last and very supreme fact I learnt was if you want to see your country beautiful, go to the right places and meet the right people. So let’s be ‘gymholic’ and keep India healthy.