Arambam Bobby is a five-time Mr. World Body Building Champion, yet conventional media has hardly been able to do justice with his achievements. This is an extra-ordinary story of a man from a humble background, who lost his father at a young age, who couldn’t afford proper diet because of monetary constraints, to whom education beyond class 10th was a luxury he couldn’t afford, who followed his conviction that he can be a good sportsman and because of his dedication and sports went on to conquer the sporting arena.
Meet Mr. Arambam Bobby Singh, India’s not-at-all celebrated sporting superstar. Reason: He represents his country in a sport which has to compete with numerous other sports to get a 3-4 lines coverage in a remote corner of the last few pages of the newspaper- Bodybuilding. Had Mr. Bobby been half as successful a cricketer perhaps he would have been a household name by now.
Arambam Bobby is a five-time Mr. World Body Building Champion, yet conventional media has hardly been able to do justice with his achievements. This is an extra-ordinary story of a man from a humble background, who lost his father at a young age, who couldn’t afford proper diet because of monetary constraints, to whom education beyond class 10th was a luxury he couldn’t afford, who followed his conviction that he can be a good sportsman and because of his dedication and sports went on to conquer the sporting arena.
Arambam took to bodybuilding in 1995 and subsequently won the Jr. Mr. Manipur and Sr. Mr. Manipur in 1996. Soon he was winning national level championships, having more than 20 All India Railway Body Building Championships alongside his name and more than 20 Sr. National Body Building Championships, all those accomplished with great amount of hard work, no doubt, but more importantly with enormous amount of humility.
It is true that Bodybuilder Anoop Singh did manage to grab the headlines for winning the Gold medal at the recently-concluded WBPF World Bodybuilding and Physique Championships in Bangkok but not to forget that most of the media outlets took this story because of Anoop Singh’s (Mahabharat fame) popularity as a TV star rather than a sportsperson. In fact, it wouldn’t be an understatement to say that had Anoop Singh not won the Gold, the entire WBPF Championship would have gone unnoticed by the Indian Media.
Prior to Anoop Singh, Nitin Mhatre won the gold in 55 Kg category and went unnoticed. In fact, Mhatre works at a gym so that he could sustain his bodybuilding career, enough to tell the plight of the sport in the country.
Arambam’s success is because of his rigorous training session, complemented by a strict diet. Arambam’s daily diet would include a kilogram of boiled chicken and lots of other boiled stuff and proteins. This isn’t Arambam’s success alone. A lot of credit goes to his mother who raised him up despite all the hardships. Of course his coaches including his first coach Khoirom Yaskul Singh who taught him the basics of bodybuilding and his present coach who would train him for almost nothing.
It is strange that India’s National Anthem vibrates at an international championship because of Arambam Bobby Singh, while the local government is busy with its caste and vote bank politics and Indian media busy trying to anticipate which player would be sold for how much in the IPL auctions.
Indian sports is full of stories like these, of Arambam’s struggle, of Mhatre’s persistence, of extraordinary sportsmen struggling to get recognition in their own country.
Take a bow Arambam!
