For the longest time, journalists and physical fitness could never be used in the same sentence except in jest.
Long and irregular working hours, fat and oily samosas, slouching at the desk, smoking, drinking and other vices took their toll on the aspirations of the newsroom Adonis.
The self-obsessed millennial lot which frequented gyms rather than more established places of worship like the press club have helped restore some shape to the body journalistic.
But the older generation is not sitting back, lighting up, taking a swig and laughing at George Clooney bhakts.
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Prabhu Chawla, 75, walks on average 20 km a day in his farmhouse shaded by 269 teak trees. On the first day of the new year, he clocked an awesome 51,547 (right) steps.
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Raj Chengappa, the group editorial director of India Today, did 108 surya namaskars on his birthday (October 15) and pinned it on his Twitter handle.
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At 44, Sachin Kalbag, executive editor of Hindustan Times in Bombay, is younger than Chawla and Chengappa but he has lost 26 kg in the last 18 months.
There’s no IT Cell promoted hashtag which reads #HumFitThoIndianJournalismFit but here’s looking at you, zumba kids.
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Let the record state that Rajat Sharma once did more pushups than Salman Khan in front of a “judge” whose maximum heart beat in 2020 was 205.
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Also read: Six lessons Sachin Kalbag learnt when he collapsed in The Hindu newsroom