What comes to mind when you think of bodybuilding? Chiselled pecs, washboard abs and hours of training in the place of that endless cycle of Netflix-and-Chill that us lesser mortals get ourselves trapped in? In the case of Soumen Halder, it’s all that and more—packaged into one big story of courage and ridiculous amounts of perseverance.33-year-old Halder from the Indian city of Kolkata in West Bengal has had paralytic polio since he was a toddler, leaving him with no motor function below the waist. “I was given expired polio drops,” he tells VICE. India accounted for nearly half of all cases of polio in the world till as recently as 2009, and was considered one of the most difficult places in the world to eradicate the highly infectious viral disease. “I was just a year old at the time. I remember my mom telling me when I was young that I ran the risk of losing all my limbs. Luckily, I survived but lost my legs.”
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Halder trains his students in traditional gyms called akharas. Over 20 students train with him for hours for almost all days of the week. “I try to give my students the kind of support I missed out on during training. I'd never want anyone to go through that.” To make ends meet, Halder works as a labour contractor for the state government too. “There’s a lack of support in India when it comes to sports, especially bodybuilding. Everybody seems to respect only cricketers,” he adds with a sigh, adding how his ultimate dream is to open his own gym someday. “I’d love to pass down all I’ve learnt over the years and help the next generation in this profession.”
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To get a glimpse into his life, check out the works of Kolkata-based photographer and former sports player, Avijit Ghosh, who’s captured him as he goes about his day. “I have seen the struggle of sportsmen in India due to lack of resources up close,” Ghosh tells VICE. “I wanted to capture human resilience and then I found Soumen on Facebook. I knew right away that this was a project I wanted to cover. The months I spent with him taught me so much. His optimistic attitude possibly comes from seeing a lot of hardship early in his life. I hope I can show the world what he's been through and how he's changing the bodybuilding scene.”