Manohar Aich

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Manohar Aich (2012)

Manohar Aich ( Bengali মনোহর আইচ Manohar Āic ; born March 17, 1914 in Dhamti , Kumilla , British India (now in Bangladesh ); † June 5, 2016 in Calcutta ) was an Indian bodybuilder who won the title of Mr. Universe in 1952 the amateurs won.

life and career

Manohar Aich was born in March 1914 in the village of Dhamti in the district of Kumilla in what was then the crown colony of British India; his birthplace is now in the very east of the state of Bangladesh. As a child he showed a keen interest in strength-related sports, especially wrestling and weightlifting . After suddenly falling ill with black fever at the age of twelve and his health collapsing, he regained his strength through physical fitness exercises. He started his bodybuilding exercises very traditionally with push-ups , squats , pull-ups , leg raises and sit-up . At this early age he was already practicing self-weight exercises and calisthenics with up to 100 repetitions per set. He completed his school education at the Jubilee School in Dhaka, among other places, and in his free time was mainly to be found training at Ruplal Byayam Samiti . His public breakthrough came through his collaboration with the then well-known Indian magician Protul Chandra Sorcar . With Sorcar, who was about a year older, he appeared in various shows called Physique and Magic . His tricks included bending steel with his teeth, bending spears on his neck or lying on swords.

At the age of 28, Manohar Aich enrolled in the Royal Air Force in 1942, where he also pursued his career as a bodybuilder. It was only here that the British RAF officer Reub Martin introduced him to strength training with weights and the various machines. Up to this point he had only formed his body through the aforementioned physical exercises. Because of his stature, he was soon lauded by Royal Air Force officials before his slight break-in occurred after Aich was arrested for beating a British officer after he made an insulting remark about colonial oppression. It was not until he was in prison that he began seriously training with weights and machines, often spending hours a day. Manohar Aich even received a special diet from those in charge of the prison in order to be prepared for everyday training. Aich's captivity only ended with India's independence from the United Kingdom on August 15, 1947.

At the age of 36, with little money, married and the father of four children, two daughters and two sons, he took part in a Mr. Hercules competition in 1950, which he also won. Because of this success, he took part in the amateur ranking of the Mr. Universe competition in London the following year , where he finished second. Subsequently, he decided to stay in London and train for the competition the next year. At the Mr. Universum 1952, the Indian was able to prevail against the competition and, meanwhile 38 years old, won the competition in the amateur competition, while in the same year Juan Ferrero was the first professional to receive this title. Following his title, he was invited to countless events and achieved numerous top positions in the Asian bodybuilding championships. During this time he was nicknamed "Pocket Hercules" due to his small height of 150 cm. After his Mr. Universum victory, he also won stranger competitions such as the world championship in pulling feathers ( beach pulling ) . He is said to have stretched a spring with a tension of 275 pounds until it broke. In 1955 he finished the Mr. Universe competition in third place.

Two years later, at the age of 46, he again took part in the Mr. Universum, where he finished fourth behind the younger competition. From the 1960s on, in particular, he appeared in countless bodybuilding competitions and was often seen on television. He had his last public appearance as a bodybuilder in 2003 at the age of 89, before he largely withdrew from public sports, but still trained for himself. Most recently Manohar Aich lived in Baguihati in the northeast of Calcutta , where he still actively supported his two sons - one runs a traditional Akhara , the other a conventional fitness center for holistic medicine - even in old age. In 1991, the Bharatiya Janata Party participated in an election to the Lok Sabha , which received over 163,000 votes, but failed to make it. At the age of 99 he suffered a mild heart attack that made it impossible for him to lift weights again. Manohar Aich is widely regarded as the discoverer and greatest sponsor of Satya Paul , the eight-time national master. He also produced Premchand Dogra , who achieved numerous successes, especially in the 1980s, and was middleweight champion (up to 80 kg) at the World Amateur Bodybuilding Championships in 1988 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manohar Aich, independent India's first Mr Universe, dies at 102
  2. ↑ 'Don't take life too seriously': Advice of 'Pocket Hercules' Mr Universe champion as he celebrates his 100th birthday , accessed on May 11, 2016
  3. ↑ Former Mr Universe Manohar Aich dead (English), accessed on June 6, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Aich, Manohar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES আইচ, মনোহর (Bengali)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian bodybuilder
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Dhamti , Kumilla , British India
DATE OF DEATH 5th June 2016
Place of death Calcutta