For Kalavati Thakur, getting through the day had become increasingly difficult. After losing her younger brother during the COVID-19 pandemic, the grief affected her deeply. She developed severe anxiety and began emotionally binge eating, with her weight increasing from 60 to 79 kg. The extra weight soon affected her knees. Even though her home was on the first floor, climbing the stairs became difficult. For years, she relied on the lift and spent nights massaging her painful knees in an attempt to sleep comfortably. Her son, Harish Thakur, watched his mother struggle and began searching for a way to help her.
From grief and health problems to a difficult wake-up call
2 Oct 2026 | 12:02
What is one rule about women you would rewrite?
Harish took his mother to several doctors as her health continued to deteriorate. Then came a diagnosis that frightened the family: she had prediabetes. Worried and frustrated, Harish admitted that he even lost his temper in front of the doctor because he did not know how else to make his mother understand how seriously he was concerned about her health. The doctor, however, encouraged Kalavati to give herself another chance. Her response was simple: “Okay, I’ll try.” The next day, May 4, 2025, Harish took his 60-year-old mother to the gym. She had never lifted weights before. The beginning was anything but easy. For the first four months, she struggled even with a 2 kg dumbbell. Her blood pressure would rise during workouts, while her knees continued to hurt. For the first two months, she wore leg guards and massaged her joints every night. But she kept returning.
A 2 kg dumbbell became the beginning of a new routine
To keep his mother motivated, Harish began sharing videos of her workouts on Instagram. Friends and relatives started encouraging her, and their support helped her regain confidence. Gradually, exercise became a part of her daily life. She also changed her eating habits. She stopped eating outside food, reduced her oil intake and began learning about nutrition. Today, she weighs her food and prepares her own healthy meals. What started as an attempt to improve her health slowly became a complete lifestyle change. According to Harish, his mother has not missed a single day at the gym in the last year and a half. Even when he is travelling, she goes to the gym on her own. Her routine now includes more than an hour of strength training in the morning, an afternoon walk and yoga with her friends in the evening. The woman who once struggled to climb a single flight of stairs was now building strength through consistent training.
More than losing 18 kg, she found her life again
It took Kalavati about a year to lose 18 kg. But for her family, the number on the weighing scale is not the biggest achievement. Her knee pain has gone, she no longer depends on the lift in the same way and she has become much more active. At 61, she has developed a routine that she had never imagined following at 60. For Harish, watching his mother transform has also changed the way he looks at ageing and health. His story is not simply about weight loss. It is about what happened when a woman who had been struggling with grief, anxiety and physical pain decided to try again. Kalavati’s journey also shows that starting something new later in life does not have to mean doing everything perfectly from day one. Her first steps involved a 2 kg dumbbell, painful knees and plenty of difficulty. What made the difference was continuing. As Harish put it, “It’s never too late to change.” And perhaps the most powerful lesson he took from his mother’s journey is this: “Sometimes, the best way to love your parents is to help them save themselves.”
