For sport up close and personal, wrestling draws the crowd

At the end of a bumpy two-hour drive from central Delhi lies Mungeshpur village. Normally a sleepy satellite of the national capital, it was...

At the end of a bumpy two-hour drive from central Delhi lies Mungeshpur village. Normally a sleepy satellite of the national capital, it was a hive of activity this morning. More than 300 wrestlers from across the country had gathered at the Mother Khazani Convent School here for the three-day Junior National Wrestling Championships.

The Rural Sports Academy inside the convent has the works — wrestling hall, two sports hostels, gymnasium, swimming pool — but what caught the eye was the energy and vigour buzzing from the wrestlers. And the crowd.

More than 3,000 people from nearby villages, including those accompanying the wrestlers, had gathered; there wasn’t enough space inside the hall for everybody so some stood at the doorway while some even waited on the lawn outside.

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No wonder Chaudhary Sarub Singh had a large smile on his face. The president of the Delhi Amateur Wrestling Association (DAWA), who is also the chief of the Academy, said: ‘‘Today is the first day and still we have such a crowd. Once the news spread we’ll be having a tough time maintaining them.’’

The wrestlers — from the traditional wrestling states in northern India, and also from Manipur, Kerala, Assam and West Bengal — had no such doubts.

As cries of chhodna nahin, patak de, pakar le sounded through the hall, they cheered not only their own men but anyone who effected a spectacular ‘‘by fall’’ — the manoeuvre by which a wrestler picks up his opponent and drops him on his back with a thud to score a full point.

Manipur’s L Tomba Singh was the master of the art today, repeatedly picking up his Delhi opponent to give one by fall after the other to thunderous applause.

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His coach Lukhoimangrung was full of praise: ‘‘He is one of my new trainees. But he is good and you can see that.’’

There are the unusual converts to the sport. Nineteen-year-old Krishna Singh from Haryana was a troublemaker in school and his parents were flooded with complaints from villagers.

Eventually, a village elder took him to a local akhara, from where he made it to his state team.

It’s these stories that bring the sport closer to the people. The spectators today weren’t there to watch a big-time sport but to take part in something more emotional and personal. Yes, they love watching cricket on TV and also playing a bit of football but wrestling is something that is part of their lives.