Sorokhaibam Joysini Devi

Imphal, April 27: Like any impressionable teenager, Sorokhaibam Joysini Devi was addicted to movies but not the typical mushy ones her friends loved to watch. Instead, her interest was in movies which portrayed women doing stunts and acts involving physical challenges.

No wonder films like Pumping Iron and Double Impact are still her favourites.

The love soon turned into an obsession and the result was her winning the first All India Women?s Fitness Competition held at Jalandhar in February this year.

Now, the 22-year-old from Thoubal district in Manipur ? who was earlier advised to become a weightlifter ? is eyeing the biggest glory in her field, the World Bodybuilding title.

Though Asian and international women bodybuilding competitions are regular events now, women?s bodybuilding was alien in the country till the All India Bodybuilding Federation decided to hold the first event.

In fact, Joysini?s achievement becomes all the more commendable because she dared to make forays into an entirely male-dominated event.

The country?s bodybuilding federation has already selected Joysini for the Asian meet scheduled to be held in May at Singapore.

?But my dream is to win the world title,? she said.

Joysini is now being trained by Mr Manipur titleholder T. Bisheshor.

The third of four children ? three of them brothers ? of a carpenter?s family of Lumding Cherapur in Thoubal district, Joysini loved games and sport since her childhood.

?One day my elder brother brought the film Pumping Iron which features bodybuilders. This film and another titled Double Impact inspired me. After watching the film I decided that this is the sport I wanted to take up,? she said.

That was in 2000. The young girl approached Imphal?s Janaki Barbell Club?s gym and requested the coach there to teach her how to build her muscles.

But the coach at the gym, Bisheshor, who was crowned Mr Manipur in 1989, advised her to choose weightlifting instead, because women?s bodybuilding as a discipline was non-existent. Not only in Manipur, but the whole of the country.

Taking his advice, Joysini started training in weightlifting and indeed won a silver medal at the East Zone Women?s Weightlifting Championship held in 2001 at Imphal. But weightlifting was not her calling. She tried her luck in kabaddi and won the best player title. She even represented Manipur in the 2004 national meet.

But Joysini never gave up the hope of becoming a woman bodybuilder. The long- awaited chance came in the form of a news item about the women?s meet in Punjab.

Clutching the newspaper clipping, she went back to the Janaki gym and got a short training. The rest, as they say, is history. She won the title in the above 5 feet-2 inch category. Altogether 30 competitors took part in this first-ever event.

?I dreamt of becoming a woman bodybuilder since my childhood and win women?s titles as men do in Mr Manipur and Mr India contests. But I did not have the chance for competition till the Jalandhar meet was announced,? Joysini said.

Her priority now is the forthcoming Asian Women Fitness Competition, for which she is training hard. ?I would love to win that title but the glory lies in the world crown,? she said.

Though the game is more popular with men, her entire family is fully behind her. Even chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh encouraged her and has promised her a government job soon.