First anniv of Fit India Movement, Modi’s attempt to make India fit
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday interacted with fitness influencers, sports persons and citizens during a nationwide online Fit India Dialogue organised to celebrate the first anniversary of the Fit India Movement.
The online interaction saw participants, including cricketer Virat Kohli, actor-model and fitness-freak Milind Soman and nutrition expert Rujuta Diwekar, sharing anecdotes and tips of their own fitness journey while drawing out guidance from the Prime Minister on his thoughts about fitness and good health.
Brainchild of the Prime Minister as a people’s movement, the Fit India Dialogue is an attempt to involve citizens of the country to draw out a plan to make India a fit nation.
The Prime Minister said fitness is not something which is very difficult to achieve but requires about thirty minutes “dose” of exercise daily.
The first anniversary of Fit India Movement saw Modi addressing Soman as ‘Made in India Milind’ after the 90’s song that shot the actor to fame. Modi acknowledged how the 54-year-old star had contributed to the fitness movement in his own vocal way by even penning a book titled after the famous track.
On a lighter note, the Prime Minister pointed out about how netizens keep discussing his age and asked, “Whatever you say your age is - are you really that old or is it something else?”
A laughing Milind answered, “A lot of people ask me the same question about my age. They also ask me how am I able to run such long distances (like from Delhi to Mumbai in 2012) in this age. I tell them - my mother at 81 - is capable of doing all this. She is a huge source of inspiration for me and for many others.”
He further said, “If you go the villages, women travel kilometres to fill water and for other activities. The problem in cities with the widespread of technology is that we sit a lot at a place for work and other things. This makes them lazy.”
He detailed on his women-only fitness programme, Pinkathon, where women aged even 60 above, begin with a regular run of 3 kms before moving on to regular exercises and ending up running 100 kms.
Interacting with Indian captain Kohli, the Prime Minister quipped “your name is Virat and kam bhi aisa hi hai” and then asked him as how he keeps himself fit.
Kohli while interacting with the Prime Minister talked about the importance of fitness in daily lives. The cricketer, who is currently in the United Arab Emirates with the Royal Challengers Bangalore, gave insights on his own experience with the transition to importance of fitness over the years in cricket.
In the digital interaction Kohli said he experienced the need for fitness levels to be better in his initial playing days.
“I experienced a transition. In the era when I started playing cricket, the demands of the game were changing very quickly. Our fitness routines weren’t fit for the demands of the game and we needed to change. We were short from fitness point of view, the skills were not an issue,” Kohli told the Prime Minister.
“I experienced a self-realisation on fitness, that it should be a priority. I realised that I needed to improve on my fitness. Now, the priority on fitness is such that I won’t mind losing training sessions but I feel bad when I lose fitness session,” he said.
Modi pointed out that Virat, who hails from Delhi, must be missing the delicious foods of the city, naming “chhole bhatoore” in particular, to which Virat chuckled and said that he had to sacrifice the food to maintain his fitness levels.
“I miss the chhole bhatoore in Delhi so much! But I never experienced health issues with our native diet. My grandmother is so healthy and she always used to eat homemade food. I, on the other hand, had city food because we travel everywhere. We used to eat out and some food items were unhealthy. So that made me realise that fitness is important,” said Kohli.
“If we don’t improve our fitness, we would be far behind in terms of our game too. Our brain and body fitness works together,” he said.
The Indian cricket captain further pointed out that in daily lives, it is important to keep fitness priority, instead of weight loss.
“Important to give time in between food intake. We eat heavy food in our daily lives, and in between, we continue to have other food intakes. We don’t allow our system to process the food. There is no activity in between food intake. These small things are important, you need to give time for body to process food,” said Kohli.
“It is important to keep priority - if you’re doing it for weight loss or fitness,” he said.
Kohli said despite the significant improvement in fitness levels among the Indian team members, the side still lags behind the other international sides on the same. He pointed it out in reply to Modi’s question on the need of Yo Yo Tests in Indian cricket setup.
“It (Yo Yo Test) was very important. Our level in fitness in comparison to other teams is still low. Yo Yo Tests were a basic requirement,” said Kohli.
“The T20Is and ODIs last only one day but the Test match is of five days, so the fitness standard from that point of view is important. Even I won’t be available for selection if I fail the test. It is important to set the fitness culture. It improves overall culture of the side,” he said.