Pelwan

Pelwan brothers 

After spending a year in Pakistan. 

Eating all sorts of unhealthy food we were all feeling fat and flabby.  

With one year left a small group of us decided it was time to 

change our lazy ways and try and get some exercise. 

We asked around and Ghani the Dhobi informed us that we were living next to famous gym. 

So we hopped over the back wall and went to take a look. 

What we found was a Pelwan school. 

PELWANS were to Pakistan what the Sumo are to Japan. 

Very hard core wrestlers. 

Most of them in school/dojo were from a single extended family.

With many generations, training together from the very young age.

It was very strange to meet the old man who manned the office who was clearly the head of the family. Strange because  he was old, yet built like a bull. His manner was friendly, and his eyes alert, with a hint of sharp whit. Over the months that followed we grew quite fond of the old joker. 

The younglings who were sparring in the mud pits,  where really small boys who looked  like most small boys all over, except for the unnatural layers of muscle.

These guys were hard core and we felt a very out of place. And a little disorientated, as if we had taken a wrong turn and ended up in a place that seemed ordinary, but was everything but. 

The old guy soon has us all signed up and ready for our first session.

He asked one of the kids to take us through the gym and all the basic routines. 

And he expressly asked them to take it easy on us newbies. The glint in his eye should have warned us, but we were too eager to get started and barely noticed. 

In hindsight the  "take it easy" part may have been some secret code, or the kids may have taken their assignment more seriously than he intended.  

What happened next was something we will never forget.

And when I meet my friends, even now, none of them will let me forget. 

I wish they would

The place had the usual weights and benches and  stuff. 

But being the legendary place that it was,  there was more, much more. 

Mud wrestling pits, obstacle courses and Lord only knows what the other machines and contraptions did. 

When the kids were done with us, we stumbled out like survivors from a bombing. 

I had this loud ringing in my ears and couldn't walk right.

We had lost all concept of time.  

Nausea hit me in waves. We didn't look at each other, or speak at all. 

Each of us lived on our own private hell. 

It was clear that unspoken pact was that we were never to speak about this.

There was nothing to say.

Ordered tea and biscuits at the local tea shop, but my hands shoot too badly. So we went back to our rooms to rest a bit. 

I fell into my bed and woke up about 24 hours later.

In agony. 

I was sore all over, but that was not the strange part. 

The freaky thing  was that I could not straighten my arms. 

My elbows were locked in a 45 degree angle. 

When I walked out to meet the rest of the gang,  

I found them, all locked in the same tree hugging pose!

Every one of us, bow legged and frozen at the elbow. 

My cousin Faizal came around and offered to take me to his place for supper. 

Problem was that I would have to ride behind him on his bike. 

And as I couldn't extend my arms. 

The only way I could stay in the saddle was to hold him around the waist and sit really close to him.. 

God knows what went through his head during the ride, and thats another thing that we never spoke about. 

Not a word.

Within a week or so we were back at the Pelwan gym.

This time we complained to the old man and he 

got the young "padawans" to really take it easy on us. 

Smacked one of them over the head as if to reprimand him. 

But it these were hardened nut jobs and the kid laughed it off. 

They took it slow and easy and soon we got fit. 

With no supplements or decent meals, the lack of nutrition combined with regular training prevented us from bulking up. 

There was no chance of us becoming Pelwans.  

What we did get was a lean ropy kind of strong. 

And this was good too. 

The Pelwans often laughed at us, as they told and retold the story of our initiation, into their ranks. 

But they were good sports and we really had fun there.

Except  for the parts that we never talk about.