Gym tale

Before coming here, I was never a gym member. We had gyms at my hometown, but nothing seemed to be suitable to me, mainly because the time slots they had didnt seem to fit into mine. I always wanted to be an active gym person, whose lifestyle involved a gym and the energy followed by it.

When I was studying for M.Ed, I was a hostalite and our hostal had a gym. As I was the only one who used it, I was Queen of the Castle.I knew all the equipments,bcoz there werent that much. I used it almost everyday, as there was no fees or any other liabilities attached to it. I was free to use it whenever I wanted. It seemed to be like a place built for me.

After completing my course, I came home and working out seemed to be an unattainable dream. When my brother came home for the holidays, I asked him to buy me a couple of gym equipments and he did as per my request. But as the 'honeymoon' was over, my relationship with the equipments was set aside and I moved on with my life. I used them, only when my father reminded me about the dusty machines lying around in the master bedroom.

After coming to England for higher studies, I joined our on-campus gym which is on top of a hill called the 'Boiler Hill'. On the day I took the membership they signed me up for an induction to get familarised with the facilities and the equipments used there. I attended the induction with two other girls. This guy who works there took us and showed us the deep interior areas of the gym and explained us about the working of each machine. We nodded our heads positively, whenever he asked us, 'Are you alright?' or 'Are we okay?', in the typical English way - which is understandable as he is an English guy.

I began to visit the gym twice or thrice a week. For the first few days, I felt like a new fish in the deep blue ocean. I woke up really early, did some warming up and amateur yoga, dress up in the gym suits which I brought from home, walked to the gym which is kind of a work out in itself. Now I know, why they named the hill 'Boiler Hill'.

After reaching the gym, I go to the 1st floor, where the treadmills, cycles and the other cardio vascular equipments are kept. Then I hop on to one of the elliptical cycles, which is my favourite workout. I enjoy it more than the other workouts, which is also fun by the way.

I look around and I see all these people, confident and well versed with the switches and buttons in the machine. They change it to low, medium and high as the time passes. I also see people who listens to music from their i-pod while working out, guys watching news or sports highlights on the small TV screen on their machine, girls watching something not news or sports, somebody is reading a magazine - I still wonder how that works out- I even see people trying to solve the crossword puzzles while doing their work out, I dont know, is it because their brain functions well when the blood is circulating, or is it because after the work out there will be one less thing to do or is it both?

I am interested in those people who do not do any of the above, but lost in their own world. They are doing their thing, they are alone, not communicating with anyone around them, but their mind is indulged in something beyond the control of technology.

If you know anybody who is a 'regular gymmer', you must have noticed the kind of energy and zest they have in everything they do. They are alive, I mean really alive. Every bone, every muscle in their body is working or as in my case 'aching'.

Well... now it has been some months, since I have become a gym member, and I am not ashamed, but infact, I am proud to say that I have become a 'regular gymmer'.

Now, I see all these new people coming into the gym, struggling with the buttons and switches, looking around them seeing all these people involved in their work and probably wondering, when will I become one of them...