Off The Roof
© Neville Sukhia
Parkour

Parkour in Rampur

Running free like it's zero gravity.
Written by Abhishek Khan
2 min readPublished on
"I used to climb trees and walls as a child; my brother Tabrez Khan practiced martial art, and I used to imitate whatever he did. We often saw movies of Jackie Chan together, and I wanted to do those moves like he did. He was a great inspiration for me when I started,” says Mujahid Habib, 22, hailing from Rampur. “There was also something about gymnastics that always attracted me, so I started doing it even though I didn’t know what it was all about. I was just doing it to enjoy myself. One day, my friend Aquib Akhtar told me that it is called Parkour and Freerunning, referring to a YouTube video. And then we started filming." Mujahid, along with his close friends, has founded and popularised Parkour in Rampur. The quaint little district in the big state of UP has served as the breeding ground for the sport, so much so that it now boasts of having the best free-running team in the Indian parkour scene. Rampur and its local team – comprising Mujahid and friends – gained recognition last year at the Red Bull Indus Trail where Kuwaiti parkour athlete Mohammed Al Attar (Mo) picked Mujahid as one of the most promising participants from the event. This year, Mohammad Al Attar is back to mentor these young and budding parkour athletes in India and see how they train.