Ageless heroics

Your columnist once found an autographed copy of K V Iyer’s Perfect Physique in his father’s papers. Father had started physical culture as a student in Mysore, where Iyer, a celebrated bodybuilder, served as aphysician to the King, Krishnaraja Wodiyar. Unlike most other muscle-bound “Man-Mountains”, however, Iyer was regarded as something of a mystic and a student of Vedanta. His rippling muscles reminded me of yet another famous bodybuilder, Manohar Aich, who recently turned 101.

Aich, who was called “Pocket Hercules”, became Mr Universe in 1952. He was also a threetime Asian champion. He used to do physique and magic shows with P C Sorcar in Dhaka. Money was scarce but “whatever the situation, I tried to remain happy,” the muscular maestro reminisced in a recent interview. During the freedom movement, he even turned a 12-year prison sentence (for slapping a racist RAF officer) to his advantage: it was in jail that he embarked on serious weight-training.

He used practice on his own, without equipment, sometimes for 12 hours a day. Such was his dedication and disciplined regime — what yoga calls Abhyasahoned by Vairagya— that prison authorities were moved enough to arrange a special diet for him. But he became free only after Independence!

He retained his muscles ever after, disproving the adage that with age, physical decline follows inexorably: newest research shows that one can exercise at any age to reap eye-popping results. But as yoga says and what science now endorses, only those active (Kriya-yukta) defy age successfully.