My inter IIT journey - Part 1 (2008)

It all started on my 2^nd day in insti, when I was “interacting” with some seniors in Tambi. I told them I was interested in bodybuilding. As part of the “interaction”, they asked me take my shirt off and pose like a bodybuilder. Then there was the usual stuff like dancing and all, but in the end they told me there was this thing called Weightlifting in insti and that I should try to get into that NSO. And so I told our sports sec that I wanted to get into Weightlifting NSO. He introduced me to one guy in the hostel and this guy asked me to turn up in the gym the next day. The following day, I was very lucky to be introduced to the then insti captain Jumper (Ashith Paulson). There were “Workout 101” sessions for me for a while and then some proper Weightlifting fundaes. I put a lot of enthu and eventually I was selected for NSO Weightlifting.

I attended every insti practice session right from my first sem. In the beginning, I was also attending the 'hapkido' classes, but Jumper asked me to pack that and do only Weightlifting. I packed hapkido and spent almost all my evenings either in insti Weightlifting practice or working out in gym (including quiz weeks). Sandeep Gautam (Moot) and Balaji were also selected in NSO. We got a lot of encouragement from our seniors in my first year- especially from Jumper, Koted (Om Prakash Meena), Madhu and Rohit. I put gold in my first Schroeter, beating the closest competitor, a 3^rd year guy, by 15kg. From that point, there was no turning back. And by “no turning back”, I mean this: Golds in Weightlifting Schroeter 09, 10, 11. 'Best Lifter' in Weightlifting Schroeter 09, 10. Golds in Powerlifting 09, 10, 11. 'Strong Man' in Powerlifting 10, 11, 12. Golds in Weightlifting in Inter-IIT 10, 11. 'Best Lifter' in Inter IIT 2011. And to add to all that, Gold to the team in inter-IIT 2011 when I was the captain.

What began like “I'm good at this, I'll do this” turned into love for the sport, a sort of addiction. In my first sem, every small improvement in my lifts would make me very happy and every time I screwed up a lift I'd get very frustrated. Whatever effect this had on my acads, I did well in my first sem (and pretty much every sem since). Till now, Weightlifting serves me as a great equalizer. Even if I had a totally crappy day, I'd go to the gym and start lifting. While working out, I'd have to focus so much that I'd totally forget about all the painful stuff and in the end I'd be too exhausted to be sad or frustrated about anything. Some go to a temple, some peace out with friends, I hit the gym. Every day was a new challenge, a new adventure. I don't have to go trekking or sky-diving, my challenge is right there in the gym, in attempting to lift a weight I might not be able to lift, in fighting it out. My circle of friends changed. My basic values in life changed too, but I prefer not to write about it here. Sometime in first sem, I stopped eating rice totally and ate only rotis. Playing other sports got packed. People started identifying me as a Weightlifter.

Inter IIT 2008 was hosted by IITM. Each inter IIT had a different characteristic theme for me. 2008 was when I was a beginner, a little kid in the team among all the big guys. I was no way near the inter IIT standards at that time and consequently there were no expectations on me at all.

Right from the day after end sems till inter IIT starts, we have what is called the “Main Camp”. All we do is eat and practice. Other sports have practice through out the day. That is pretty much impossible for amateur Weightlifters with the crappy diet that we are on. We practiced only on alternate mornings and all evenings, for about 2 hours per session. The rest of the time we'd be totally jobless. The best part of Main Camp, other then the joblessness, 'was' the Inter-IIT mess food, which is really good . Moot wasn't in the insti team since he had to attend his grandfather's funeral. I decided not to control my diet and went up to the next weight category, to under 62kg from under 56kg (In retrospect, I think that was a bad decision- I had a good chance of getting a bronze in under 56kg class ). I guess I came 8^th in 10 competitors in the under 62kg class. Then there were Jumper and Koted who put Gold and Silver in their categories and the team won Silver (thanks to Bombay for thulping in all other categories and denying medals to our other competitors). Though there was little I contributed to the team in that inter IIT, the performances by my seniors inspired me. I knew I wanted to put gold the next year. And I also knew that all of my seniors, especially Jumper, were expecting me to, quoting Jumper, “break inter IIT records”.