Building Communities

After my father passed away I was in a downward spiral. A constant battle between waking up and getting the basics of life done. Shortly after his passing, we moved homes within Gurgaon.

Some days later on a dreary morning when one would not feel like doing much, I got ready and went to work. During my commute, I crossed a small patch where I could see in the distance big words that read "CROSSFIT: FORGING ELITE FITNESS" written in bold, underneath in yellow were the words Meru Crossfit.

Once I reached work, I looked up Meru and called the number that was written down. The voice at the other end, clearly panting and out of breath gave me the details I asked for and requested I come down for a trial class the following morning at a time convenient to me, I asked the person their name and they replied "my name is Arjun" ( Arjun Lal ).

Picture Above Arjun Lal led a small expedition of some Meru Athletes ( Radhika Ranawat , Shashikanth, Aniruddha Shrivastava , myself and some others) to Kheerganga. A true testament to the will of some unfit people and their coaches.

The following morning I showed up at 6 am and what happened next was something I would never forget in my life, I was made to do a workout that involved a portion called Man Makers, which almost made me wish I had never shown up. But, all things considered, I enjoyed the pace of the workout and signed up for a month.

Over the course of 3 years that I kept my membership at Meru, the biggest thing that always stood out was how each member cared about the other's progress. Crossfit as a sport is competitive and during workouts, we all competed with each other, but on days where one would finish before the other, they cheered louder than everyone else for the one person (mostly me) who finished last. Each and everyone contributed to the success of the other, the friendships I fostered at Meru have survived long after Meru itself.

Ironically, Meru was named after the famous Sharkfin mountain that Conrad Anker Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk found themselves climbing in the Himalayas, the reason Meru stands out even now is because of the community they fostered, the friendships they helped cultivate and truly forged elite fitness not in the form of great looking bodies but great people that have each other's backs to this date.

The point of this story is simple, Communities of today lack the intent of creating true impact, of being able to forward a person and their dreams and aspirations. Instead, they're tying into capital ideas, into demand gen strategies and creating influence. One would disagree and I am open to that disagreement so to speak, but we should not sully the word community when it stands for so much more than just a capital agenda. It stands for sustenance and sustainability, of support and nurture.