Of muscles, marriages & medical bills

Kashmir’s mornings have changed. Our youth don’t just wake up — they march into gyms like warriors, armed with shaker bottles, wireless ear buds, and motivational quotes from people who haven’t had a home-cooked meal since 2015. They lift, run, and sweat with a discipline that would make an army proud.

And yet, behind the mirror selfies and bicep flexes, the story sours. Protein powders flow like holy water, egg whites multiply faster than chickens can lay them, and chicken breasts (preferably of the “growth hormone” variety) imported from Punjab and Delhi, vanish in heaps. Health, unfortunately, hides in a corner while the liver quietly fattens, the heart skips a beat (literally), and the gut waves a white flag.

Then comes marriage season — Kashmir’s true Olympic event. Summer isn’t just about sunshine; it’s about competing in the Great Wazwan World Cup. Here, families measure honour in mutton, not morals. Modest homes empty savings, sell land, or take loans so that guests can eat 10,000 calories in a single sitting and still complain about the missing ‘Kulfi’ at the end. Daughters, meanwhile, sit in quiet queues of delayed weddings, their futures trapped in the cost of a feast. The rich, of course, can afford simple weddings — but why miss the chance to remind everyone how rich they are?

And somewhere between the gym and the wedding tent, our healthcare industry smiles like a kindly shopkeeper. A twisted ankle can earn you a plaster for a fracture you don’t have. A mild headache might introduce you to a machine you didn’t know existed — and a bill you wish you hadn’t. It’s not a hospital anymore; it’s an all-inclusive wellness resort with diagnostics as souvenirs.

The irony is, most of these illnesses aren’t born from laziness. They’re born from excess. Too much protein, too much oil, too much sugar, too much show. We run in the morning, overeat at noon, worry in the evening, and medicate at night.

Yet, the solution doesn’t need another app, another powder, or another test. It’s in the old Kashmiri kitchen: two simple meals, fresh vegetables, homemade curd, ghee, turmeric, and food cooked with care instead of status. Fitness, it turns out, starts not in the gym but in the kitchen — and health isn’t built in hospitals but in quiet daily habits.

So, let the young sweat. Let them post their gym stories. But let someone also quietly tend the garden, cook a simple meal of unprocessed items, and remind us that muscles, marriages, and medicines don’t need to be a race. The real race is against our own excess. And it’s one we can still win — if we slow down.