Enter the date of the first test at the top and the results of each activity beneath the heading: FIRST SURVEY.

Take your second test three months later and enter the date as also the results beneath the heading: SECOND SURVEY.

After your second survey, award yourself with:

extra 5 points for each activity where you have improved(+5).

The first tiny step is to rebuild our body temple. Strengthen those muscles that act as pillars. And we'll find the verses of our scriptures singing through us ­mantras to the god within us. The awakening of an energy that ripples through us. To banish the shadows. Or view them as friendly shaded spots.

Like finishing in the first five, most of us have exercised at least once in our lives. But like education, exercise too shows long-term benefits if one goes about it regularly, diligently. They say genius is 99 per cent perspiration. Fitness demands 100 per cent exercising effort and a complementary, committed lifestyle before you pluck the fruits of fitness.

Incidentally, fat grows more from underdoing than from overeating. Scientific studies at universities all over the world show that it is almost a universal phenomenon - most people, stout or slim, eat about the same quantities: between 2300 and 3000 calories per day. Significantly, the same studies concluded that fat people exercise much less than normal people.

Some time ago, we met a fitness freak.. If the description suggests a woman who exercises all day long, forget it. She is a compulsive reader of fitness. Books, pamphlets, magazines - anything she can lay her hands upon. She never misses a single TV fitness programme. She has long, earnest conversations about calories and cholesterol with every doctor, dietician, and food-shop attendant she chances upon. One of her ambitions in life is to "chart out a programme" - columns giving advice on what she would eat and drink, what kind of exercises she would perform. When we bumped into her again, she said seriously, "I haven't started exercising because i haven't yet drawn up my chart." She, probably, never will.

The most exciting part about the fitness match is that anyone and everybody can participate in it. You can be of any age, belong to any sex, be endowed with any kind of build... Nobody can discriminate against you, nobody can stop you - except yourself - from entering this wonderful, fulfilling lifestyle. And however much or little you do, you stand to gain. Even if you are a cardiac or hypertensive patient, a diabetic or a myopic, you can be given a special entry pass - certified by your doctor. The medical go-ahead is important because if you are or have been unwell, you need to recuperate before putting your body through the mildest of exercises. The fitness lifestyle is matchless because you do not have to compete with anybody. You are and will remain Number one.

Ashik Desai's Odyssey

You will find Ashik Desai's odyssey as remarkable as we do. Ashik was a sunny-natured boy enjoying all the luxuries offered by a well-to-do background. Suddenly, his father - a high-flying executive - was stricken by a progressive brain disease. Overnight, the family finances plummeted. His father resigned from his firm. His mother struggled in an underpaid job. And Ashik had to change schools. The sale of their family car came as another blow to the sensitive boy.

The fact is that even if you are into isometrics, isotonics or anaerobics, you still need to do aerobics for overall health and fitness. That is the reason why even body builders with their sculpted biceps and sharply-defined waists are advised to add aerobics to their fitness programme. That is also why specialised books on weight-lifting or abdominals always include running-on-the-spot or stairway climbing to burn off fat.