‘Weightlifter Dadi’ Talks in India

In India these days, a 68-year-old woman is known as ‘Weightlifter Dadi’.

Roshni Devi Sangwan, a resident of South Delhi’s Khanpur area, takes weightlifting training from her son. She goes to the gym every day and does a heavy workout.

Roshni’s entire life has been busy with domestic affairs away from traditional exercise, but for the past six months she has been training in weightlifting at the gym and aspires to compete in heavy lifting competitions in the older age category.

Roshni Devi hails from a traditional Jat family in Haryana, where women’s education was not practiced, which is why she never attended school.

She spent her entire life as a housewife, first at her parents’ house and then at her husband’s house, but her life was revolutionized when her son Ajay Sangwan visited her for treatment of her knee and back pain. Advised to do light exercise and now Roshni has turned gym exercise into her hobby.

“A few days ago I slipped and fell in the bathroom and injured my spine and was having trouble bending over,” says the weightlifter grandmother.

‘The doctor advised me not to work and to rest in bed. Meanwhile, my son said that mom should go to the gym with me. I was surprised at this demand of my son. I thought people would make fun of old women going to the gym, but my son was stubborn. In front of his stubbornness, I gave up and started going to the gym and today it is a situation where I am not willing to leave the gym myself.’

Roshni’s training is also going well. She says: ‘Earlier I used to lift less weight, now I lift 50 kg, twice I lifted 60, 60 kg. I enjoy weightlifting.’

She says that even today she has not left the housework. She cleans the house and cooks daily and goes to the gym by 11 am, where she exercises and trains, followed by other activities.

Roshni started going to the gym six months ago for light exercise, but now she has made it the most important thing in her life and wants to participate in international competitions.

He said: ‘My son wants to go abroad and bring home a gold medal in the senior weightlifting competition. I also wish that I could do something about it.’

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