Two weeks ago, Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, AVSM (retired) put out a fitness challenge , hashtag-ed #HumFitTohIndiaFit. He looped in Hrithik Roshan, Virat Kohli and Saina Nehwal, to start a movement that brought together Bollywood and sports stars in India. Soon, people from all walks of life joined in, putting up pictures of everyone from their kids to their grandmothers doing everything from handstands to surya namaskars .
Col Rathore is India’s Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, as well as Information and Broadcasting. In a sense he brought together the mandate of both with that one tweet, subsequently putting out several more, goaded on by the response he received. An ex-army officer, he came into the limelight when he won us our first Olympic silver at Athens, in 2004. He went on to win several other tournaments, and was also awarded the Padma Shri, Arjuna Award, and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna.
In his office, the tall, well-built Col Rathore, is unsurprisingly OG (shorthand for olive green, when the army runs in one’s blood — he’s a fourth generation military man). He’s in his off-duty army ‘uniform’: black trousers, light-blue shirt, grey Nehru jacket, cufflinks.
On his desk is a pointy orange acupressure ball. It gives you a massage when you have aches and pains, he says. “If my glutes are paining all I need to do is put it there, and continue with my meetings,” he says, demo-ing the move. In a closet behind is a Swiss ball that he sits on for a while to “keep my core strong”.
He says he’s “broken in six or seven places” though, with a slipped disc that he got at 21, lifting the wrong weights, and a knee operation later in life, when his meniscus was removed. Here, he speaks about what fitness means to him and what it can translate to for us, as a nation. Edited excerpts:
What led to the challenge you put out on Twitter?
Everyone has their own way of staying fit. The thought was: what can you do for a bit of fitness during the day, so the idea kaam mein vyayaam (exercise during work) came about.
Everybody may not have the time to go to the gym or jog or cycle. Within your day, have you done something to keep yourself fit? Have you climbed up the steps? Like Kiren Rijiju said, I can just do dips on the chair; at least my biceps and shoulders become stronger. It’s about the will and intent to stay fit.
Do you see Bollywood and sportspeople as key influencers?
I do believe sportspeople are icons for society and they must do the right thing; children tend to follow them. It’s true for the film industry people, be it the Mumbai or southern industry. Even some politicians today — the prime minister is very sporting. We never thought someone would challenge him, and someone did, and for him to say ‘I accept’ is very sportsmanlike.
What does fitness mean to you?
There are certain basic things in life, things that we have grown up with, like certain principles, or that you respect age rather than status. They form part of your character. Fitness for us (in the army) is like that — we have grown up with it. It is something that is basic — foundation.
For a lot of people it isn’t the foundation. Do we need to change the mindset?
There’s an amazing amount of learning that happens on a sports field. The ups and downs of life are so far between each other that the lessons are not picked up in childhood. But when you go through a game, you go through the ups and downs in 30 minutes. The lessons are picked up early — that you play for the team. You can dribble the ball from halfline to the goal, and still pass it to someone else to score and his name will go up as the scorer, but your team wins. You are willing to sit outside to let the 11 players play inside and bring water to them, but you’re a part of the team as the 12th man. You also get opportunities to lead and you have people who don’t listen to you. Tell me, which book teaches you to become a leader?
How do we change that mindset?
There has to be a behavioural change — an attitude towards life. At a parent-teacher meeting, parents will meet the Maths and English teachers, but how many parents have gone and met a physical education teacher? But if you ask a child which teacher it is who tells them to get up and run after they’ve fallen, you’ll know it’s the sports teacher. When you’ve lost a game and you come with your head down, the physical education teacher will tell you to come back to the ground and become stronger. She’ll tell you this is not the end of life.
What about adults?
There is a sense of confidence built when the one body you have is capable of doing the work that your mind calls upon to do. The amount of disease in society today — it’s shocking the number of people below 35 getting heart attacks. Then we have obesity, and stress levels are rising.
There’s nothing wrong with having goals and targets in life. But are you enjoying the journey? A part of that journey is being able to travel farther and longer, and the one vehicle you have, you need to keep fit, not just from the outside, but from the inside too.
For regular people who may not have a sports background, is there anything that they should absolutely do?
Let’s start with children: swimming is great, but not everyone can swim, so the next thing is gymnastics. People say gymnastics can only be done in gyms. I don’t agree, because splits and rolling and jumping are all part of gymnastics — that is what gives flexibility to the body.
Kids must be allowed to run around the house, jump and roll — the typical kid thing. That’s part of growing up — it’s very important for muscles, bones, motor skills. Football is another great thing — the legs have the maximum big muscles. All these trigger growth hormones. For older people: You can get away with not staying fit when you’re younger, but all the follies of not remaining fit will catch up with you as you grow older. Karan Johar tweeted ‘I started at 45,’ which is so nice.
So it’s never too late?
There’s a very simple funda: our joints are supposed to give us the ability to move, and the larger the ability to move, the younger we are.
As we grow older, our joints will start restricting us. It depends on our ability to keep the joints open and strengthened to allow the larger mobility in life. When we say: ‘Are you young?’ it’s not by age — it’s by your body’s response to that question. Do you have wider joint movements? If you do, then you’re young. And if you’re young by age and still restricted because of stiffness, then you’re not young.
What do you do for fitness?
I get very little time to work out. Many people like me don’t have the time to work out, but they have a clear intent. If you have that clarity in your mind, you will automatically come up with something. I sneak out 2-3 minutes a couple of times a day. In the morning, I can barely do about 4 or 5 surya namaskars — that’s the only time I get. But that gets my blood circulation going. When I come to office, a lot of times, I run up the steps, or during office hours I pick up a file and walk to another desk. Once in a while, you can do some push-ups — you don’t even sweat.
What do your loved ones do to stay fit?
Life as a politician is completely committed. I remember taking my kids out trekking to Manesar earlier, when I wasn’t in politics. My son’s friends would come together and we’d take them to the RajRif (the Rajputana Rifles) obstacle area. My daughter does kickboxing; she’s in Class XI now. My son (18, in the first year of college) does his own workouts; he’s in the Indian shooting team. My wife does a bit of yoga.
Where do you see the fitness challenge going?
A lot of times, we don’t start because we don’t have a full plan. But I’ve never been like that. If I like something, I start.
Once I start, I keep figuring out, so at least you’ve not been in an inertia, waiting for the perfect plan because the perfect plan never comes. This is a people’s movement.
Take a picture now, keep it on social media, do a video after six months and check to see the development.
