Little village flexes its muscles

At a tiny village of the metropolis, an army of musclemen is being created. The Asola village of Delhi is being called as the muscle of Delhi. The primary source of income in most of the households in this village is bodybuilding. 

Ninety per cent of the youth of this village hits the gym in the morning and goes for a job of bouncer in various pubs, bars, discotheques and other places in Delhi and neighbouring cities of Gurgaon and Noida. 

The Asola village, one of the typical Jat dominated villages of Delhi, found its way to remain in the mainstream of a metropolitan city through muscles. As the surrounding areas of the village became part of the city, which developed rapidly, the youth of south Delhi’s village felt left out. 

The source of income also became low compared to south Delhi residents. In the past 10-15 years, the youngsters have adapted the thousands of years old Akhara tradition and modern gymnasiums together to stand out in the crowd. And as a result, they not only built powerful muscles but also got some moves to take down any hooligan.

“The bouncer business is in demand. From pubs to personal security officers, boys from our village are being hired everywhere. We neither have enough land to make property nor space to open dairy business. This is the only way we earn money,” says Vijay Singh, a resident of the village who works as a bouncer in a multinational bar in Gurgaon. 

Apart from discotheques and pubs, many people are hiring them for personal security as they believe that the killer looks of these people can avoid any untoward incident.

“We do not have any front office for recruitment. If anyone demands for a bouncer for personal security, the senior bouncers pass the information to aspirants. The recruiters want bouncers with maximum muscles and moves. It is a world known phenomenon: the more muscle you have, the less trouble you get,” says Ranvijay, a 25-year-old muscleman of the village who works as a private security guard of a business tycoon.

But getting such muscles is not an easy job. The gym goers might get inspired with these mighty muscles but they have to sweat a lot to get them. These people hardly smoke or drink. They have made a strict rule – love your body, it will pay you back.

“Bhagwan ne sharir ek he baar diya hai, nasha karke kyu barbaad karna (god has given this body for once, why shall we ruin it with intoxicants)?” says Ranvijay.

When people see us they just say, “Ah he is just a bouncer”, they don’t know how much money we spend on our body, says Vijay. The average salary of a bouncer is Rs 25,000 but he has to shell out some Rs 7,000-Rs 8,000 to maintain the diet, he adds.

Worried about future

This is the first generation of the village that is earning through bodybuilding, so they are still not aware of at what time they will have to give up. Many of them say they will start their own gym, some dream of opening a restaurant but none of them has a concrete plan to earn money after they retire.

“Yes it is true that we are earning only till our body is allowing us. We also have to think about our retirement plans as many of the bouncers are in the last stage of their profession. 

After 40-45 years of age, it’s hard to continue with the muscle business,” says Rambir Singh, a veteran muscleman of the village.