Dr. Rita Jairath

by Sherif Awad

-My parents were from Punjab, India. My father was an Air Force officer, a very hard worker. My mother was earlier a teacher. But, it was during the months that she conceived me, she fell sick with schizophrenia. She used to get auditory hallucinations and respond to them in a very violent way. It would have been difficult for me to be born normal, but my father did whatever he could including Ayurvedic medicine besides love and affection so that there wouldn’t be any side effects of strong allopathic medicines. Hence my fight began in the womb.

-Although I had been involved in physical activities throughout my life, I hadn’t ever imagined that I would be a bodybuilder.  In 2004, my 16 year old son, who was born with autism, was a huge fan of a Bollywood star, who had an awesome body and abs. Although I knew, it takes extremely sustained and consistent efforts to form a body like that. It is always a positive thing to develop the habit of a healthy lifestyle. That was when I took my son along with me to the gym. As like everything else that I had to learn, to teach him and accompany him and motivate him, I began training myself too. And I took to weight training just like fish takes to water. I started participating in the local gym competitions and started winning in all the fitness contests. Gradually, I began to realize that I was special and different, and that is how my interest got initiated in bodybuilding.

-Being from India, there was hardly any awareness about bodybuilding when I was in my teens in the eighties. However, since my father was in the Air Force, we did have bodybuilders from the Air Force, as well as sportsperson from other sports like basketball, football, squash, and badminton. My father himself had been a football player in his young days. I had once seen a boxing match in Madras where Muhammad Ali had come. The crowds loudly sang, “Catch me if you can.” and it had its impact on me. The Indian Air Force, being a very dynamic organisation, had tremendous role models.

-As I had already begun participating in fitness competitions, I gradually went on to win the Gold’s Gym Miss Fitness title which was a National Level competition. I also won the National Body Lifting Championship three years consecutively in a row. Bodybuilding in India was totally dominated by men in those days. There were no clear cut divisions for women. When I finally made up my mind to compete, I had no one to give me the right kind of guidance. In those days, I met Mr. Sheru Aangrish who got me connected to Shannon Dey from Bombshell fitness in the USA. I travelled to Daytona Beach to Florida to learn from her. Eventually I met several people, who were very elite and taught me how to go about my journey. It was difficult to do this in India, since ours was still very orthodox society. It was nearly blasphemous for women to do bodybuilding, looking muscular and wearing a bikini was not accepted and respected much. However, someone had to just come forth and break barriers.

-Bodybuilding is a very unconventional field. It is not just any other sport too. It is a league of its own. It can be highly stressful and have long term physical, psychological, social and emotional implications. What truly matters is what you can take away from it so that you can carry that forward, for the rest of your life and derive benefit from it whether it is a source of income generation or lifestyle habits.

Although it is alluring and gives immense happiness to attain stardom it can be very temporary. I did get my share of limelight both when I competed and now as I maintain my fitness journey and judge the IFBB international shows. So although, it is highly gratifying to get media attention, we need to maintain a balanced approaching regarding what to expect.

-Being one of the first few women from India who ventured into bodybuilding, it wasn’t easy particularly because India was still an orthodox society, especially at the time. I started. Eyebrows were raised not only because people were not used to seeing women had to actually cover even their face with a veil. People believed that women shouldn’t be weight training. Seeing a woman training with heavy weights made everyone uncomfortable and they would try to stop it. This coupled with restrictions and opposition from the home front. The opposition in everything from taking a special diet, weight training, taking out time for the gym, wearing a bikini travelling for competition, spending money, everything seemed to be made to look as though that isn’t something that I am supposed to do. According to society, a good woman, just stays at home and looks after the family. Whenever I trained with weights, people walked up to me and told me how bad it is for women and that I shouldn’t be training with such heavy weight.

We didn’t have separate divisions for women, there was just one division. The only criteria was the amount of muscularity. The girls wore sports bra and shorts. That was not what was in accordance with international norms and standards. So certainly it was a challenge to compete in my own country.

I travelled to many countries to compete. This was difficult as I travelled alone and ended up spending a lot of money as I had no sponsorship. But this struggle taught me a lot and I got tremendous exposure and opportunities to learn a lot.

-As in many countries across the world, the focus on various sports, in India, is not uniform. Everyone knows the enthusiasm and interest Indians have for the game of cricket. Besides cricket, the popular sports besides the national sport of hockey, is tennis, kabaddi, basketball, boxing, badminton, swimming, wrestling. etc.

Bodybuilding has tremendous potential. But since it is not an Olympic recognised sport, there is always a challenge about it. In India sports is not something any parent would want his/her child to pursue as a primary profession. They would prefer that their child takes up the professions that are considered viable. So sports is side-lined, giving it a secondary place. This had made a large number of the younger population take up a sedentary lifestyle.

-With the exception of cricket players, sportspersons are usually not paid well. In cricket too, only the ones who reach the top, actually make money. Most sportspersons are from lower middle class background, because they are the ones living tough lives and have the required endurance, resilience and toughness. But they do not have the right guidance. Besides that the manipulation and politics by the federation officials for vested interest affects the selection and training process.

However, in spite of all these challenges India has produced world class champions from time to time. These things are universal and common amongst all sports. As one of the pioneering athletes in women bodybuilding, I wish to see Indian bodybuilding reaching the highest levels in the world.

In bodybuilding, winning the medals in Amateur Olympia, a silver medal in Arnold Classic, the first place in New York Championship and the IFBB Pro card were the happiest victories amongst several others. As individuals, we all have goals in different aspects of life. While building financial security and streamlining my business, striving to help my son reach a near normal state, in spite of the challenge of autism, and exploring my potentials in other fields especially classical dance and arts were all some of my life goals. In bodybuilding, one of my major goals was to win my pro-card. Being above 50 years of age, I knew that it wouldn’t be advisable to do competitive bodybuilding for too long. Considering that I have a family who looks up to me and depends upon me. So, I wanted to do as many competitions as I could and win as many medals I could. I won many and lost many. But the greatest victory and learning has come from the journey and the process and what I have become as a person, besides combining the great lifestyle habits and knowledge.

-Just like in every other profession, you need to make a balance, in sports too you need to plan and figure it out. In fact, training and exercise is something that everyone must do, irrespective of whether you are a fitness professional or not. Good nutrition is something that everyone must strive for. And that is what we do. Except that, the training intensity is high and the flexibility in deviating from the diet schedule is not there at all.

-Most of the activities that we perform in our fitness endeavours are such that bring about happiness and giving time to your own self. I have never had the need to segregate my personal and professional life. I have kept my child involved in everything that I do, so that these two aspects are embedded and intertwined into one another making us a team and a well bonded family that is strong and happy. This automatically streamlines everything. We need to condition our minds, have a lot of love for each other, to stay together, but give mental space. 

Unlike other sports, bodybuilding is a 24 hour sport. It needs a full time commitment and is not just limited to the couple of hours that are spent at the gym. Even your sleep is a part of your bodybuilding endeavour, because it is during your sleep that the process of recovery and super compensation occurs. The requisite biochemical secretions that are desirable fall in place.

And everything from your state of mind, to circadian rhythms, besides the diet and nutrition matters. Since this is a long term project, you just can’t fake it. There is absolutely no scope for that. Hence the most important thing is that you should venture into bodybuilding because you truly want to do just that, irrespective of anything else. If you are getting into bodybuilding for fame, glory, money, media attention, glamour or any other aspect of it that lures you, then you will eventually get frustrated with it. It is the process of forming a body and the journey that should actually lure you. You can earn money from any other regular profession. The very reason that this is an unconventional field is, because not everyone will feel comfortable here. In fact it is the epitome and the ultimate example of living outside comfort zone to transform. Living with continuous soreness, calculated amount of macronutrients and compromising on socializing in a sustained way isn’t easy. So get into it only if you know that this is your calling. Secondly like every other sport, everybody building athlete has a shelf life. Once, you have given your prime years of youth to the sport you must know how to monetize it. Otherwise once you are out of the limelight and are older, you will not know how to move further in life. Look at life in totality and not events in isolation.

-Being an IFBB figure Pro, I never deviated much from my natural body shape. From the beginning, I chose a division that was in tune with my natural body shape and genetic disposition. That is in fact the basic idea behind having several divisions for both men and women. That bodybuilding becomes more inclusive and the athletes wouldn’t have to take extreme steps to deviate from who they are to be able to conform to a set pattern. So, as I retired from competitive bodybuilding, all I lost was just the extreme level of conditioning and the much lowered fat levels. However, bodybuilding is something that I truly identify with, not just for competition, but because I love the lifestyle and the strength and abilities that I have derived and developed from it, I still train and follow a healthy diet and lifestyle, I am almost the same as ever.

I have now ventured on to judging international shows as well as Indian classical dance, Bharatnatyam that is extremely feminine, but symbolic of tremendous amount of strength, fitness and flexibility.

It is probably due to bodybuilding that I have been able to pursue it at my age, being above 50 years of age, although it is in contrast to the conventional male dominant bodybuilding field, since muscularity is synonymous with masculinity.

-This is an example that portrays that it is not just your external shape, but how you let it manifest positively and apply what you have, in anything that you want to do.

Continuing my business in supplements and judging bodybuilding shows with this shape is easy and so was writing articles on fitness because having this shape is actually desirable.

So, having the shape of a bodybuilding athlete, didn’t affect me much. In fact, since I am not in that extreme state, I am stronger and comfortable and able to adapt to any field.

-As of now, I am continuing to give consultation, sell supplements, mentor athletes, do classical dance performances and reach a certain stature in that, judge bodybuilding shows that I am so fond of and get promoted further and write articles to spread awareness on various aspects of fitness. I am focussing on that as well as a film that is proposed to be made on my life. I wish to work tirelessly and explore my potentials and enhance my skills as a student forever.

My goal as a mother is to settle down my son, who is an autistic adult so that he can live a happy and productive life, gracefully and with dignity, even after I leave. Every endeavour of mine is directly or indirectly and ultimately focussed on that and that is where I surrender myself to.