Manohar Aichand known as old Pocket Hercules from Kolkata is no more

Manohar aich was born on 17^th march 1912 in the Tipperah District in remote village named Dhamti. He died on 5 June 2016, in Kolkata at the age of 104.

He was an Indian bodybuilder and second Indian (after Monotosh Roy in 1951) to win any Mr.Universe title.He was just 4 feet 11 inches (1.50 m) tall, so he was given the name “Pocket Hercules”. His chest measure was 1.2 m(47 in).

Since childhood he was interested in sports related to strength, such as wrestling and weight-lifting.At the age of 12 ,due to sudden black fever attack ,his health broke down. But by physical fitness exercises he regained his strength.

He started bodybuilding exercises such as doing push-ups, squats, pull-ups, leg raises and traditional sit-ups. He only did body weight/calisthenics exercises with up to 100 reps per set at that age. He attended the Jubilee School in Dhaka. While at school, he used to go to the Ruplal Byayam Samiti for physical exercises. He began to perform in shows titled Physique and Magic along with P. C. Sorcar in Dhanbad.

He used to perform feats like bending steel with his teeth, bending spears with his neck and resting his belly on swords and biceps measured 46 cm(18 in), when he competed in the 1952 Mr Universe contest in London.He was nicknamed “Bahubali”.

He joined the Royal Air Force in 1942 where he began his pursuit in bodybuilding. He was introduced to weight training by Reub Martin, a British officer in the RAF.Due to his physique, he was highly praised by British RAF officials.

While part of the RAF, he was imprisoned for slapping a British officer in protest at the officer’s remark in favour of colonial oppression.He began his weight training seriously when he was in jail, by spending hours in doing physical exercises. Observing his physical culture, the jail authorities arranged a special diet for him.

He also won the World Championship of Spring Pulling by tearing of 275 pounds tension. He stood 3rd in the Mr. Universe contest in 1955 and 4th in 1960 at the age of 46 years.He did many body building shows since 1960, last show performed by him was in 2003 when he was of 89.

In 1991, he had also contested elections for the BJP and finished third, collecting over 163,000 votes. Also, in 2015, he was given the Banga Bibhushan Award by the West Bengal Government.