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Emblems of Empowerment: From obesity to powerlifting, she shoulders Olympic hopes
From an obese woman who contemplated suicide to an international powerlifter representing India, life has been a roller-coaster for 33-year-old Upasana Mahajan
From an obese woman who contemplated suicide to an international powerlifter representing India, life has been a roller-coaster for 33-year-old Upasana Mahajan.
2017 was the turning point. “I was working in Delhi with a multi-national company as a human resource manager. Financially, I was stable but emotionally I was bogged down by the weight I was gaining day by day. I weighed 160kg. I needed a formal dress for an event the office had chosen me for and to my shock I couldn’t even fit into size 8 XL,” says Upasana.
Dejected, she returned home to Jammu. “I shut myself up in my room and cried for days. I just wanted to die. So, one day, I took out my scooty and rode to Hari Niwas Palace to find a suitable place to commit suicide,” she says.
Sitting on the roadside, she decided to delete her social media accounts. “Someone on Facebook had mistakenly added me in the Institute of Nutrition and Fitness Sciences (INFS) page run by fitness expert Jitendra Choksi. That moment changed my life. I called them a scam and Choksi got into a conversation. My journey towards fitness had started,” she says.
She lost 9kg and a few inches in a month but was yet to find her calling. In 2018, she came across a gym goer who used to do powerlifting. Call it destiny for she again chanced upon a powerlifting event at Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu. There was no looking back.
Since 2018, Upasana has won three gold and two silver medals in state powerlifting championships besides two bronze medals at the national level and finished eighth in the 84+kg category at the World Bench Press Championships organised by the International Powerlifting Federation at Narita in Japan in 2019.
Family biggest fan of Dogra icon
Today, Upasana is an official of the J&K Power Lifting Association and has been felicitated by Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha and additional director general of police (ADGP) Mukesh Singh for her achievements. She is considered a Dogra icon and the J&K tourism department besides her alma mater, Lovely Professional University (LPU), Jalandhar, have honoured her. A BTech and MBA degree holder from LPU, she has studied B.Ed, done postgraduation in English and also holds a diploma in advanced exercises.
“I’m enjoying life to the fullest. My family members are my biggest fans,” she says as she doubles up as a teacher on an education app.
Medal for India in powerlifting
Upasana is training hard to improve her ranking in the international circuit. “It’s my dream to win a medal for India at the Olympics. There are challenges as we neither have coaches nor facilities in Jammu for women powerlifters, but I believe it’s now or never.”
She has set up a gym at home and trains for at least three hours a day. “It gives me boost,” says the gritty woman with willpower who has found her purpose.
