‘Mukul, quickly finished your breakfast. I’ve prepared an omelette and kept it on the dining table,’ Mom called from the kitchen.

‘I’m not hungry; you eat it,’ ten-year-old Mukul said before leaving for school, having only eaten a slice of toast.

‘I don’t know what to say to him. He never feels hungry!’ Mukul’s mom said as she picked up the plate with the omelette on it from the table.

Mukul was a poor eater and needed more energy. His overall health was poor. 

At school, during lunch, all the boys were on the field.

‘Hey, mosquito. Move aside!’ Rohan yelled as he pushed Mukul, causing him to fall. 

The other boys burst into laughter at the sight. Mukul got up quietly and walked away.

‘Why didn’t you say anything to Rohan? Are you afraid of him?’ asked Ravi, Mukul’s friend.

‘If I had said something, he might have punched me. Don’t you see how strong Rohan is?’

‘Focus on building your strength and health. Today, Rohan pushed you, but tomorrow, it could be someone else. You should not be afraid of anyone,’ Ravi said.

As Mukul walked home after school, he thought about Ravi’s words. Along the way, he noticed a house with a name plate that read: ‘Nathu The Wrestler’.

Everyone, including Mukul, knew who Nathu was. He was known for his herculean strength and was a mini-celebrity in their neighbourhood.

‘If I become as strong as wrestler Nathu, no one will be able to trouble me,’ Mukul thought.

Then, he noticed Nathu running around in the open space in front of his house. The wrestler kept running despite sweat dripping from his entire body.

‘So running is the secret to a wrestler’s strength!’ thought Mukul. 

Once he had left the wrestler’s house, he went for a run to the park. After running for just a few minutes, Mukul was breathless and sat down. He gave up on his intention to run and returned home.

While Ravi and Mukul were playing at school the next day, Rohan came and took Mukul’s ball, throwing it out of the field.

‘Why did you do that?’ Mukul asked timidly. 

Before Rohan could answer, Mukul picked up his bat and walked away. He was heartbroken.

‘No matter what happens, I must get stronger,’ Mukul thought. 

Once again, he went to Nathu’s house, where he saw the wrestler practising push-ups. Mukul considered practising push-ups himself, but his first attempt failed as his grip slipped, causing him to fall on his face. He could not do even a single push-up! Defeated, Mukul limped back home, unsure of what to do next. However, he did not lose his courage completely.

The next day, he revisited Nathu’s house to see if there was any other habit of Nathu’s that he could pick up to gain strength. He saw Nathu sitting at a table with a feast laid out on it. Within moments, the wrestler devoured two dozen bananas and drank an entire jug of milk. Mukul gaped, wide-eyed. Nathu then proceeded to munch on a fistful of soaked almonds, some chana, half a dozen boiled eggs and a whole bottle of juice, finishing his meal with a plate of chicken.

Mukul had now discovered a new secret to strength. He promptly returned home and opened the refrigerator, searching for similar food items. 

Driven by his aspiration to become stronger, Mukul sat with the fridge door open and started devouring the items in it one by one, just like he had seen Nathu do. Despite feeling full, he continued to eat anything and everything that he saw in the fridge.

Eventually, Mukul couldn’t even get up. Somehow, with great difficulty, he rose and stood in front of the mirror, hoping to see himself transformed and sporting a brand new wrestler’s body. To Mukul’s disappointment and worry, though, his body appeared to be the same. But his stomach went into somersaults and started aching. Mukul had to rush to the toilet.

‘Mukul, are you back from school? Wash your hands and face. I will prepare something to eat,’ called out Mukul’s mother and headed towards the kitchen.

She opened the fridge and found no milk, bananas, apples or eggs. None of the food that she had kept there that morning remained. On her way out of the kitchen, she slipped on the broken eggs that Mukul had accidentally dropped. 

‘Aah!’ she cried in disgust. ‘Who could have eaten all the food?’ she wondered angrily. ‘It seems like some hungry thief came to our house and raided the fridge.’ Mukul’s mother did not suspect her son, as he barely ate anything.

Meanwhile, Mukul’s stomach continued to ache. He had to visit the toilet repeatedly, yet he didn’t confide in his mother. He feared his mother would scold him if she knew what he had done.

Mukul wanted to find another method of gaining strength. So, after a few days, once he was feeling better and had gathered courage again, he went to the wrestler’s house.

Upon arrival, he found Nathu being massaged with oil. There were several people vigorously rubbing his muscular, glistening oil-drenched body. Mukul thought that instead of worrying daily, he should just approach the wrestler and ask him for the secret recipe to becoming stronger.

‘Can I become like you if I get an oil massage?’ Mukul asked Nathu. ‘I also want to become strong, and eventually, a wrestler.’ 

Nathu guffawed. ‘Well, even a mosquito dreams of becoming a wrestler nowadays! Of course, massaging strengthens the body. What’s there to ask?’

Disheartened by the wrestler’s mocking reply, Mukul turned away and left. Upon returning home, he removed all his clothes and stood on the terrace in his underwear. He had brought along a bottle filled with mustard oil. Pouring the oil all over his body, Mukul began massaging himself. The oil dripped from his body, creating a mess on the roof.

‘Mukul, where are you? Come down quickly,’ Mukul’s mother called out, causing him to panic.

‘I’ll be right there, Mom,’ Mukul replied and hurried towards the terrace door without putting on his clothes. In his rush, he slipped in the pool of oil. He went tumbling down the stairs and landed flat on the floor outside the kitchen.

Mukul started wailing. Hearing his cries, his mother rushed over. She was checking to see if he was hurt badly and noticed that his body was shining. ‘Son, why are you covered in oil?’ she asked, surprised by his condition. But Mukul was in too much pain to reply. So, his mother took him to the hospital.

‘What were you doing on the terrace covered in so much oil?’ his mother asked again when they were at the hospital. Mukul went on to tell her the whole story of how he had seen Nathu and then wanted to become a wrestler.

‘Mukul, no one becomes a wrestler overnight. One needs to start small,’ his mother explained.

‘But Mom, the wrestler became strong by doing these things, so I thought I could copy him and become strong, too,’ Mukul said.

‘Mukul, to strengthen your body, you must first engage in light exercise and maintain a nutritious diet. If you follow a good daily routine and work out regularly, you will become stronger eventually. No one will trouble you then,’ his mother replied.

As Mukul listened to his mother’s secret to good health, he realized his mistake and resolved to get into a routine to become stronger.