They call it ‘old school’ and old it is. You step into the near-century old Ustad Pehlwan Kale Bhai ‘garadi’ and you have scenes of a bunch of wrestling enthusiasts warming up with push ups and other ground exercises, some digging mud piled on the ringside and some others wielding the heavy ‘mudgars’.
The warm-ups are warmer than you think; too hot to handle by average standards in fact. “Our boys can perform 400-500 push ups in one go. Some even touch 1,000,” says Syed Arif, a veteran wrestler himself and chief trainer at the ‘garadi’. Standing at another corner is Renold Wasnik, a techie working at ITPL and the latest of Arif’s pupils, undressing and slathering his body with mud. “There is plenty of history associated with the soil you see here. It has been here ever since the ‘garadi’ began decades ago when our elders would sweat it out. We revere it greatly and it is a cardinal sin to enter the ring with impurity. We nourish it with oil and geru powder,” he says. Underlying its benefits, the utad says: “Soil is a natural energy booster for the body. It gives you strength and heals several body and skin problems. Wrestling can also help cure joint and nerve aliments. A good pehelwan can identify one’s body problems.”
“People spend hundreds of rupees at spas these days for body massages and spend more money in gyms. A kushti ‘akhada’ is a one-stop destination where all your body needs are taken care of,” Wasnik adds.
The young man from Chattisgarh knows a thing or two about traditional wrestling and has taken the trouble to find this old ‘garadi’ at Shivajinagar. “Traditional kusthi is a great way to keep fit. If you are looking to build stamina, this is where you should be. That is precisely why soldiers in the Army are trained in ‘akhadas’ and not in gyms,” he reveals. Wasnik, however, is one of those very few kusthi aficionados frequenting ‘garadis’ such as these. The traditional sport hardly has any takers these days. Getting Gen Y that loves executing WWE moves like the ‘Sweet Chin Music’, the ‘RKO’ and the ‘Tombstone Piledriver’ on PlayStations in the comfort of their homes to learn ‘daavus’ like ‘Eklaang’, ‘Kalaarjing’, ‘Dhaaku’ and ‘Dhobi’ takes some doing. The treatment meted out to the sport in Karnataka is not helping the cause, says Arif. “You’ll find that there is plenty of encouragement for kusthi in Delhi and Punjab. ‘Akhadas’ function in several parts of these regions. They have a huge pool of talent from where they find wrestlers to represent the country. Pehelwans and ustads are treated with respect there. We don’t get the same treatment here. Youngsters opting for kusthi are not even considered for sports quota in jobs and seats in colleges. If there is no encouragement, how will pehelwans come forward? No wonder we do not produce wrestlers who advance to national and international levels,” he laments.
This sad state of affairs exists in spite of the prestigious ‘Dasara Naada Kushti’ tradition that continues to date in Mysore. “There was a time when we would participate in the ‘Dasara Naada Kusthi’ competition with gusto. It is a matter of immense pride for any wrestler to register a win there. Bangaloren pehelwans of the past had an enviable reputation. A pehelwan by name ‘Jabbu’ was the talk of the town when he trounced the Mysore Maharaja’s pehelwan at the event in the days of yore. But it takes a lot to be able to participate in events like these as it is an expensive prospect these days,” says Arif.
“A proper preparation for a wrestler for such events begins two to three months in advance. A pehelwan’s diet will change accordingly and so will his practice schedule. It costs about Rs. 25-30,000 to prepare for events like the Mysore Dasara,” adds Jaffer B, a senior wrestler at the garadi.
And pehelwans do have heavy food intakes to take care of. “On an average, a wrestler consumes a minimum of two litres of milk and plenty of cheese, mutton and ‘rotis’ everyday. The brain has an equally important role to play. In the ring, your mind is constantly at work trying to gauge the moves being made by your opponent. A pehelwan has to make that split-second decision to counter a ‘daavu’ made by his opponent. In a battle of equals, they will take longer than usual to advance with a ‘daavu’ as the counterpart will also generally be a good judge of your moves,” he adds.
Indifference notwithstanding, Arif and his bunch of pupils continue to set the traditional ‘garadi’ ring on fire. “We are only pursuing our passion. It’s true that our sport doesn’t enjoy the glory it did before. But it feels good to pass on the knowledge and skills we learnt from our elders to these budding wrestlers. You know you are doing something when kids like these (Renold) look up the internet and come searching for you. There was this group of foreigners that spent hours at our ‘garadi’ just to and watch us perform,” he adds.
