THE STRONGEST VILLAGE IN INDIA
The strongest village in India—that’s what a CNN article calls Asola-Fatehpur Beri near southern Delhi. Many of the men in the village are quite muscular, some possessing the type of physiques you’d find in a fitness magazine.
Hundreds of men from the village work as bouncers in New Delhi’s clubs and bars. If you cause trouble at their places of employment, they’ll bounce you out. Actually, they’ll toss you out onto the street. Whether you bounce or not depends on how round you are and how firm the ground is.
Bouncers need to be big and muscular, not just to evict unruly patrons, but also to intimidate others into behaving themselves. Better to not cause trouble than to have to deal with Vijay Tanwar. The former competitive wrestler has lots of experience bouncing people out of bars and clubs. He claims to be the first man from the village to get a job as a bouncer in Delhi.
Tanwar is also the head trainer at Akhada, an outdoor area where about 40 men train. They do all sorts of strength-training exercises, including rope-climbing, wrestling, push-ups and motorcycle-lifting. If you can’t lift an Enfield Bullet, you should probably stick to bouncing balls, not humans.
“As they say, health is wealth,” Tanwar told CNN. “We are healthy but we’re also earning good money, able to send kids to good schools, eat well—what else does one need in life?”
Whatever your age, it’s not too late to follow the example of Tanwar and other men in Asola-Fatehpur Beri. Do some push-ups or look around your home for objects you can lift. If you fail at first, don’t get discouraged. Just think of yourself as a bouncer—and keep bouncing back.
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
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