Name: Sailen Tudu
Age: 26
Number of love handles: None
Calling in life: To help you shed the flab and laugh while you do it!
Contact: tudufitness@gmail.com

It’s not just the gym rats who are occupied with thoughts of flat abs. They are, in fact, outnumbered by the gym slugs — the breed of humans who drag themselves to work out, weeping with every swing of the cross-trainer, hoping those love handles will melt away. No, the gym is not for everyone. 

Enter Tudu. He looks like one of those gym rats but he swears he’s not. He’s grown up racing down the fields of Bankura and swimming in the Ganges. That’s the sort of fitness he knows and advocates. 

In Tudu’s fitness class, the thumb rule is Back to Basics. The other rule is  Laugh while you Lunge. “Fitness should be about fun, yeah?” he grins. 

Yeah. 

Tudu doesn’t have an address. He will work with any space you give him, be it a garden or a parking lot. He also holds classes in the early morning at the Maidan; yes, even in harsh weather conditions. His equipment is fairly basic. Spare tyres, make-shift sacks, some ropes and a mat — that’s all you’ll need to get started. He won’t put you on a diet. “Eat anything and work it off,” he insists. He’ll never give up beef biryani and sweet lassi himself.

Tudu’s father is a policeman in Calcutta, so he migrated to the city in 2000. Five years later, he was discovered by Jungle Crows (a charitable trust focused on the development of young people through the use of sport) when he happened to be kicking his heels up in the Maidan on a sunny morning. (He likes to ride horses bareback.) Soon he was on the rugby team. By the end of 2005, he was playing for India in the under-19 tournament in Pakistan, which, incidentally, we won. In 2008, he went to Hartpury College, England, on a sports scholarship to pursue a B. Tech Sports Diploma. “It was great there but I wanted to come back and help others like me to do something with their lives,” he says with an American twang. 

That’s exactly what he did. He’s set up his own rugby team called Adivasi Rugby. There are 10 members of his tribe (Santhals) on the team; he’s trying to give them the kind of chance that was given to him. “Being a fitness instructor is my way of fuelling my rugby dreams.”

The digits on the weighing scale mean nothing to him as long as there are no health complications. “Most people have lower back problems because we spend all our time sitting — driving, working at the computer, etc. Around 70 per cent people can’t squat like they should,” says Tudu, shaking his head. He promises to make any gym slug a fit slug if they can give him even 10 minutes of their time. 

That leaves us with one last question — Tudu or not Tudu?

Text: Ramona Sen
Pictures: Sayantan Ghosh