From mobile screens to pull-up bars: Two Guwahati youths are transforming lives through free calisthenics at Uzan Bazar Park

As the evening sets in at Uzan Bazar park in Guwahati, a group of children and youngsters gather around parallel bars and open spaces, attempting pull-ups, stretches and balance exercises. Some are school students, some are teenagers, and many come from underprivileged backgrounds. What brings them together every day is not just fitness, but two young men who decided to teach calisthenics for free.

Twenty-year-old Tilak Basfor and Ayush Talukdar have been training around 15 children and youngsters, aged between 10 and 20 years, every evening at the park.
 

For them, it started with a simple interest in fitness.

Tilak says he first learnt calisthenics from Ayush and slowly started practising regularly at the park. Over time, local children began watching them and eventually joined in.

“I learnt from Ayush and after that started practicing here. Local kids here came and started doing with us,” Tilak said.
What made them continue, he says, was seeing children step away from mobile phones and become interested in physical activity.

“We were happy that today’s kids stay indoors busy with mobile phones, but they are showing interest in fitness. So we want to tell everyone whoever is interested can come to us. We are teaching calisthenics for free from 4 to 8.30,” he said.

The classes have now become more than just workouts. For many of the children, especially those from financially weaker families, it is an opportunity they may never have otherwise received.
 

“He said many of them would not have been able to afford this, but we are happy that we can teach them for free,” Tilak added.
Without any fees, gym memberships or professional setup, the two youngsters are slowly creating a small fitness community in the heart of the city, one where discipline, encouragement and accessibility matter more than expensive equipment.

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