Another Admirer

I went into another weightlifting store in Hawaii to buy a dumbbell, but the owner said they did not sell single dumbbells. He said that in Hawaii dumbbells have to be bought by the pair. But why did I need two?

I showed him the article about me in Iron Man magazine. When he read about my calf raise lifts, he felt my quadriceps and asked me, “What are they made of?”

He xeroxed the article in Iron Man and read every line very carefully. He didn’t just glance over it. He was so happy to meet me, and we talked for a long time. He told me that two days ago he had tried to lift 250 pounds. He weighs 251 pounds. When I said, “I am 160 pounds,” he just looked at me. He was such a nice boy.

Finally he said, “Now, whatever you want, you can have. You don’t have to buy dumbbells by pairs.” So I got three individual dumbbells: 35, 50 and 60 pounds.

He also wanted a picture of me, and when I went back, he chose the 503-pound lift and immediately put it up on the wall. So both stores have that picture. When I went to the Hawaiian Sports Shoppe, I was trying to buy a 75-pound dumbbell and also a 15-pound dumbbell. The man said, “We always sell by the pair, but I will have to sell you a single one. How can I sell you this if you don’t want two?”

I said, “I don’t need two. I am here only for one week.”

The previous time I was in Hawaii, everything was sold in pairs also.

— 19 October 1986

From:Sri Chinmoy,My weightlifting tears and smiles, part 2, Agni Press, 1986
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/wts_2