This was the talk of the class for the next couple of days. I heard a lot of things about that guy, that his name was Dheeraj (I hadn't heard of him before). That he was some sort of competitive bodybuilder, that he would walk around challenging the 9th and 10th bullies until they all knelt to him, that he took steroids, that he lifted 40kg dumbbells in each hand and did pull-ups by the score.
Rewind to the thing about challenging the 9th and 10th grade bullies. And note 2 things, one is that I am pretty sure Harsh had already heard of this guy before he humiliated him as said above, another is that he didn't pay heed anyway as he is a complete idiot that is only worried about things when its already too late.
The whole incident reminded me of something I had always wanted, I had always wanted to be buff and strong ever since I grew up reading superhero comics. I told this to my one friend Sanjeev.
"Are you sure of this?", he said.
"Yeah, what do I have to lose, I just need to get to some expensive gym".
"You don't need to go to an expensive gym!", Sanjeev responded, my father has big muscles from doing push-ups and pullups at home.
"Really, are you serious", I answered. "In my old school, they made us do push-ups and pullups right from 3rd standard, you see how much muscle that got me, all the real muscles they get from gyms, and not cheap ones, I would like to meet your dad then, he might have been lying to you".
Sanjeev just turned is head away, making me think I had won the argument.
I was gonna ask Neeraj and his friends what kind of gym they went to I wanted those muscles
The next day I went over to the 12th grade to find Neeraj. I needed to know what the heck kind of gym he went to, it took some courage, I had no self-confidence back then, and though none of the 12th grade wanted any piece of me, they all looked big and mostly intimidating. Dheeraj was not the one to stay in the shadows, I saw him talking with a group of 5 people, even among the larger 12th graders he stood out with his big guns and shoulders. Even his legs bulged.
I waited for him to stop talking. Then "hi there".
Dheeraj turned toward me, and smiled.
"hey everyone, this is that kid I rescued from that bully yesterday", he told everyone in a very positive tone. Everyone turned to me. "Yes little brother, what do you want to know?", he asked me.
"What kind of gym do you go to?", I asked him.
"The Fitness Room, that's the name", he answered
"How much does it cost?", I asked him.
"What you want to go to the gym", he answered.
"Yes", I replied, "how do I get as strong as you"?
"Eat a lot and work out hard, you'll get a lot stronger", he answered
"Yeah, but I mean, how expensive is your gym?", I asked him.
"My new gym is 800 rupees a month, but I only joined there 2 weeks ago", he answered.
"Before that I was in a smaller gym that is only 500 rupees a month, you can go there if you want", he continued. "Does anyone have a piece of paper", he asked his friends.
He soon remembered he had a piece himself, took it out, and hastily wrote down an address and the name of what probably was the trainer.
"Its near the train station, on the west side", he finished.
I thought I heard someone tell him I was too small to go to the gym, but I heard him loudly dismiss that answer as foolish as I walked away. That went a lot better than I thought it would, and I would check if he was serious about that place being so inexpensive, and if you could actually build muscle there.