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.
[Comments? Contributions? We would love to hear from you about Chai Time. If you have contributions, please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips and more.]