The Acrobatics of Ageing

Shantilal Shanghvi, 80, has suspended himself gracefully across his silver years.

Shantilal Shanghvi was 72 years old and retired from his garment business when he saw a Mallakhamb training session being conducted at Dadar’s Shivaji Park. Mallakhamb is an ancient Indian sport in which a gymnast poses while hanging from a pole or a rope. Because it requires enormous strength, flexibility, grace and agility, it is usually only practised by the young. But that didn’t stop Shanghvi from enrolling in a training session. In the class, all the other students were less than three times his age. Eight years on, despite turning 80, Shanghvi continues to practise Mallakhamb and even performs regularly at private functions.

“I want to show people that someone my age can learn new things,” he says. “I enjoy demonstrating the talent I’ve developed.” Besides the yogic rope routine, Shanghvi also does a ‘candle dance’ performance. In this, he balances lit candles on every finger and on his forehead as he dances and twists his arms in a 360-degree feat. He, however, enjoys rope Mallakhamb the most. Though Shanghvi’s family was initially worried by the risks involved in Mallakhamb, they relaxed after his first two performances. 

The grandfather of five defies all stereotypes of the elderly, and is perpetually active. “Whenever he sees something new, he has to do it,” says his daughter-in-law Meera. He performs regularly at NGOs, old-age homes and orphanages. 

Four years ago, he was diagnosed with five artery blockages. His family, comprising his wife, two sons and a daughter, had wanted him to go for a heart bypass. Shanghvi relented on the condition that he would be allowed to continue his lifestyle. A month ago, he even went paragliding in MP. 

Though he does these gravity-defying acts, Shanghvi has never been injured. He attributes this to him praying 15 to 20 times a day. “God protects. I have no fear because of God,” he says. Recently, he told his family that he wanted to try bungee jumping. “We said no,” says Meera. 

Now, as age creeps up and his performance schedule slows down, he has a new mission: to learn sign language so as to communicate with the hearing and speech impaired. “I want to give joy to other people so that I can receive it,” he says.

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Wei Fen Lee