MR Hazara

I saw this picture of Mr. Hazara on Flickr and it reminded me of bodybuilding.

Body-building used to be a big thing amongst young men of a certain age when I was growing up. At least in parts of central Punjab it was. It seemed to be specially big in small and medium-size towns and body-builders were like local celebrities.

At least they thought they were.

That is what I seemed to remember. In college, I remember a number of colleagues who were into bodybuilding ‘big time.’ As a sports reporter at The Muslim I remember many stories and pictures about bodybuilding and bodybuilders. Indeed, this was one sport where ‘local’ (city, district, etc.) tournaments were always a big thing, as were the provincial and national meets. Sometimes one even heard of Pakistani bodybuilders winning big in international competitions.

And traveling through Pakistan - especially small town Pakistan - one regularly found many posters and large billboards (like the one in the second photograph) celebrating bodybuilders and advertising gyms where you too could ‘craft’ and ’shape’ your muscles