July 30, 2006

Who needs drugs?: Follow this regime and any four year old will soon be running 65k: His formula is precise and detailed. Wake the child at 5am, he begins. Send him to school at 6am. At 8am, on alternate days, make him go on a long distance run - some days 5km, some days 20. Provide breakfast of milk and cereal at 9am. Give him 30 minutes' of oil massage on his legs daily. Lunch: two bananas, two eggs, dates and other dried fruits, 250g of liver (boiled or fried), green vegetables, curd cheese, fruit, fruit juice. After lunch, swimming for one hour. Snack of rice and dal, chicken or mutton curry. Let him sleep until 6pm. Administer Prontex glucose powder with milk. Serve pineapple juice, two glasses. Make child study for two hours. At 8pm, supper of chapatis, rice, dal, mutton or chicken, curd cheese, green vegetables. Send him to bed between 9 and 10pm. Goat leg soup comes particularly highly recommended.

posted by Fat Buddha to culture at 03:12 PM - 13 comments

Better to run in the shoes, than to make them, I guess. I still find this disturbing... I hope that the government officials do what is best for the little fellow.

posted by mjkredliner at 04:44 PM on July 30, 2006

Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!

posted by squealy at 05:26 PM on July 30, 2006

Considering the circumstances of his life, his running might not seem too bad, but it's very unhealthy. He shouldn't be running a 5K, not to mention 65!

posted by dusted at 05:38 PM on July 30, 2006

This is pretty sickening to read. I hope the boy is taken away from his trainer/owner. He was basically sold into athletic slavery and once he's not able to compete from damaged joints, he'll be discarded like garbage. Disgusting.

posted by fenriq at 06:24 PM on July 30, 2006

I would prefer the drugs thankyou very much.

posted by kidrayter2005 at 07:22 PM on July 30, 2006

I gotta say, I'm with fenriq. This is somewhere between not-quite-right-for-his-age and full-on abuse. But that said, if he somehow makes it to adulthood in one piece, this kid could rock this race.

posted by chicobangs at 07:54 PM on July 30, 2006

Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean with our tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.

posted by grum@work at 08:57 PM on July 30, 2006

You had gravel? And you're complaining? On topic: one of the most depressing stories I've ever read. Nice to know that as India stands on the threshold of becoming a true economic force in the world, their human rights aren't suffering. /sarcasm

posted by The_Black_Hand at 06:02 AM on July 31, 2006

Goat leg soup? Isn't that the album where the Stones began their long, tortured slide into middle-aged mediocrity?

posted by ajaffe at 07:36 AM on July 31, 2006

Heartbreaker.

posted by yerfatma at 08:38 AM on July 31, 2006

But, a nice rebound with Some Girls.

posted by mjkredliner at 09:58 AM on July 31, 2006

Because this plan worked so well for Todd Marinovich.

posted by Bonkers at 01:12 PM on July 31, 2006

How would you feel if the government stopped you from running? 'I would be sad. I'd catch them by the neck and throttle them.' He twists one hand above the other sharply, to make an unexpectedly violent strangling gesture. Holy Crap- they have the kid completely brainwashed.... sad really

posted by redsoxrgay at 09:15 PM on July 31, 2006

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