Silken Steel

SILKEN STEELA Novel by KrishI wasn't born to be seen. Tamil Brahmin girls like me are raised to lower our eyes, cross our legs, and never lift anything heavier than a textbook or a groom's expectations. But I stopped asking for permission the day I picked up a dumbbell and never put it down. People called me unnatural. Unladylike. Unmarriageable. But when the mirror started showing me someone powerful-shoulders like sculpture, veins like lightning, a body built not to please but to endure-I knew I couldn't go back.
This is my story. Of growing beyond my family's fear. Of losing love-Kavya, who said she'd come back but never could. Of learning to carry heartbreak in my traps and rage in my quads. Of building something holy out of hunger, steel, and sweat. Leela kept me laughing and fucking through the pain. Zubeida showed up with quiet eyes and a camera, and somehow never looked away. Between them, I found two constants: worship and witness.
I hit the stage at a hundred kilos and made the country flinch. They called me a monster. A goddess. A disgrace. A miracle. I let them. I just kept growing. This life-of gear cycles, tan stains, sore glutes, gym chalk, protein burps, naked photo shoots, late-night posing critiques, and interviews where I had to say yes, I'm sexy, yes, I'm huge, yes, I eat seven meals a day-this is the only life that ever felt honest.
Did I lose things along the way? Of course. I lost Amma's soft hands and Appa's voice. I lost temples, saris, family  groups. I lost the right to be invisible. But I gained the right to be me. And maybe that's the only victory that ever mattered. Now I'm training for the World Super Heavyweight Championship, with Leela coaching me and Zubeida filming me like I'm both the storm and the eye of it. This isn't a love story, though there's love.
It isn't a bodybuilding story, though there's more muscle than most men can dream of. This is a story about what happens when a girl like me decides to grow. And never stops..