Battle of the bulge

The other day I saw a friend doing some exercises on the parapet wall at the beach front in  Besant Nagar . He was on his all fours with his protruding belly dangling prominently to the twists and turns that he was attempting. It was a sight to behold. I stopped and asked him the purpose of the exercise. He said that he was trying his best to reduce his tummy and look trim. I know that he has been trying to do this for several years without luck. I wished him good luck and moved on. It brought back memories of my own bulging tummy and my efforts  to reduce it for several decades.

Before I acquired a bulging tummy also known as a `paunch`, I was a thin guy. My waist was so slim that even a baby belt would not hold my pants. I used to wrap a piece of cloth around my waist and then pull up my pants to ensure that it did not slip down.

There is a story behind how I acquired the `paunch`. Throughout my student days and the early part of my career, my mother tried her best to help me put on weight. She forced me to eat vegetables & fruits. She would roast a few  badam kernels  and give it to me every morning with butter.  I was also given extra quantity of milk to consume in the nights. Nothing worked. What she could not achieve for a decade, happened during my stay at Murugan Lodge in Calcutta where I gorged on the delicious meals they served.  I had spent three months in Calcutta undergoing a training in advertising at the second largest advertising agency at that time. During my stay as a trainee I was also introduced to drinking beer. I was told that as an adman I would have to do a lot of entertaining and drinking alcohol was a pre requisite for a successful adman. In three months not only did I learn about the advertising business but also learnt  how to gulp down three bottles of beer without any problems. My tryst with the bulging `Madhya Pradesh` started in Calcutta  which eventually became  an integral part of my body. In the early years, girls in my office used to call me `roly- poly`. My efforts to reduce the tummy over the years were not successful because of my inability to control my eating and drinking habits.

However, I found that my tummy was a great asset when my four grand children through my daughters arrived in this world in quick succession between 1996 to 2003.. My `Thoppai` as they would call my bulging tummy was their play ground. All that I had to do was lay still on my back exposing my  Thoppai. They will go berserk playing with it . One of them would  play drums  on it, another one would  give it a massage and the third one would  give it an imaginary  bath using appropriate sound effects. It was a joy beyond compare. For a change I was happy to possess a Thoppai.

Eventually, my Thoppai` did shrink,  after the  two hospitalization experiences I went through about five years ago and lost about 10kgs in six months. While I am fighting hard to ensure that I maintain my reduced weight, I am happy that the smaller bulge in my `Madhya Pradesh` has allowed me to reuse half a dozen tight fitting pants that I had stopped wearing.

A small victory in my `Battle of the bulge`!

This article has appeared in the Adyar Times issue dated December, 06-14, 2019