A Wellness Pioneer
Holistic health the Mickey Mehta way
Backdrop: The late Nineties. Time: Mid-morning. Scene: A nondescript low-star hotel in Juhu.
Action: Under a blazing hot sun, a gaggle of 30 or so young women in leotards are being put through what looks like an intense boot camp, by a male instructor who has a striking resemblance to Freddy Mercury. The routine he commands is rigorous by any standard; they are required to jog in place, break into circuit training, followed by calisthenics then isometrics, then aerobics, then dancercises, and then start all over again.
Clad in similar attire, the girls are skinny, uniformly pretty and difficult to distinguish from one another. It is tiring just watching them; and just when I think they will collapse from sheer exhaustion, the instructor announces the day’s last routine — they will have to line up in a single file and run all the way up five floors to the hotel’s terrace through its narrow staircase and all the way down again, with 6 kgs of weight strapped on to their backs! This time I’m sure there will be a mutiny; but no, I watch incredulously as the girls muster up their last vestige of energy and queue up for their arduous hike up and down. “You’ll thank me when you’re wearing the crown,” their instructor calls cheerfully after them.
For these are no ordinary girls — each is a potential beauty queen and international pageant title holder, who is being put through rigorous training as a Miss India contestant. And the instructor is none other than Mickey Mehta who, along with a handful of elite nutritionists, cosmetologists, etiquette tutors orthodontists and even arts and culture gurus, has been tasked with polishing these rough diamonds into celebrated gems. in various disciplines like health and nutrition with Dr Vijaya Venkat, and programmes in Naturecure, drugless therapies, calisthenics, agility drills and functional training, apart from my continued exploration of yoga and martial arts.”
To support this deep dive into holistic health, Mehta served various hotels as a health club manager, and it was on one such stint at a hotel in Oman where the former school swimming champion, who had been named by his father after the Hollywood star Mickey Rooney, found great success with his “Mickey Mehta’s Learn Swimming In 24 Hours” programme, which he later taught along with fitness and nutrition at a Juhu hotel for a few years, gaining much fame. That had led to him being signed on as one of the official instructors of the Miss India pageant, and from there, there was no looking back…
With the unprecedented success and fame of being trainer to Miss India contestants under his belt, Mehta’s rise to pre-eminence in his field was a foregone conclusion. Soon, his fitness empire straddled TV, radio, print and also digital media. Along the way, he pioneered the rise of the star personal trainer when he was signed on by some of the biggest names in India Inc, Bollywood and the corridors of Mantralaya; and professional engagements with the police, Army, Navy, Air Force, municipal corporation, immigration, customs and speaking invitations at leading educational institutions around the world followed, along with engagements across prestigious hospitals like The Tata Memorial and ambassadorships of campaigns like Fit India. Mehta had now become as rich and famous a name as some of the A-list clients who he trained.
And as a crowning achievement, next month along with his friend and celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Mehta will launch a book, his third, on a topic that’s on every one’s lips — immunity, making him, he says, another leading Parsi along with global immunity master Adar Poonawalla to address the subject.