Visuals of 74-year-old Anna Hazare sprinting across Rajghat in New Delhi shown on television on Friday took the nation by surprise, except his family and friends in Ralegan Siddhi village, Ahmednagar district.
Visuals of 74-year-old Anna Hazare sprinting across Rajghat in New Delhi shown on television on Friday took the nation by surprise, except his family and friends in Ralegan Siddhi village, Ahmednagar district.
As the rest of India wondered how the septuagenarian, who has been fasting for the last four days, had the energy to sprint his way from Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial, his family revealed Hazare’s fetish for physical fitness.
“Anna has always been a fitness freak. Even after he retired from the army and returned to the village, he never stopped walking or jogging every morning. Of course, ever since he developed a cervical problem five years ago, he has been doing more yoga,” said Hazare’s younger brother Maruti, 65, who is a farmer in Ralegan Siddhi.
Since 1980, Hazare, who was then recently retired from the army, would reach the Nilobarai Vidyalaya ground in Ralegan Siddhi village to participate in the physical training (PT) class with the schoolchildren every day at 5.30am, recalled Takharam Raut, former principal of the school and a trustee of Hazare’s Hind Swaraj Trust.
“Anna is a very fit man. He would exercise with the children every morning for nearly 10 years before he got busy,” said Raut, who has worked closely with Hazare for the last three decades.
Later, he took to yogasana.
“After Anna got busy with his anti-corruption crusades and touring out of the village, he did yoga for an hour every morning. Recently, he even started doing pranayama,” Raut said.
Raut believes that Hazare’s spartan lifestyle coupled with his controlled vegetarian diet and complete abstinence from tobacco and alcohol are responsible for his abundant energy and strength.
“Anna’s controlled diet keeps him light on his feet,” he added.
Explaining Hazare’s unexpected sprint at Rajghat, Raut said: “Nothing pumps up Anna more than youthful energy. Seeing so many young people egging him on would have inspired him to sprint at Rajghat.”
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