The 600-Pound Dumbbell
At one of the weightlifting stores there was a big 600-pound dumbbell. I asked the owner, “Why do you keep a 600-pound dumbbell here?”He explained about a contest he was holding. He said it started a few months ago when he declared that whoever could lift up a 300-pound dumbbell would get it free. About three months ago somebody accepted the challenge and lifted it a little with two hands.
Then he put a 400-pound dumbbell on display. He thought the same fellow would come back, but somebody else came. The man struggled and finally lifted it up.
After that he put out a 500-pound dumbbell. Just yesterday somebody from California who had come to enter the weightlifting competition lifted up the 500-pound dumbbell, so now he had put out a 600-pound one.
The people in the store begged me to try to lift the 600-pound dumbbell. “You try,” the owner said.
I said, “I am trying 600 over my head, but I do not want to try lifting this from the ground with two hands.” I didn’t want to be embarrassed.
So Savyasachi tried. When Savyasachi tried it, it didn’t move to this side or that side. The man said, “No way for him!”
— 19 October 1986
