Wrestler

 I was real late today, way too sleepy, lunch finished way too slow. I boarded the 6:25 train, got there when the jog was already done.  I got back out for the sprints, I wasn't tired, so I could outrun everyone. ended with this shoot where you hold your knees every step.  At the end of the outdoor PT, I saw this kid about Small Kartik's size, with a sharp chin, full lips and serious expression.  Then inside and I watched wrestling. Small Kartik was to wrestle the new kid. And there were two new women.  He started. This new kid was fierce, aggressive, and serious, and Kartik, it was like the fire in him was extinguised, getting repeatedly pinned as onlooker's laughed. Kartik was cued to wrestle properly after grabbing Swami by the neck and trying to swing him down, which, is actually an effective move on toddlers.  "No, do real kushti", warned Kishore, but Swami, who turned out was his slightly younger cousin, was too aggressive.  Kishore asked me if I...

 So, I got there on time. I noticed in a mat room, Pranay Raskar was there. This time he was wrestling at Aditya Birya. It's pretty clear, it's part of his rehab. He's gonna wrestle all the lightweight guys first, Siddhant, Aditya, why not me? "You're wrestling all the lightweight guys right now", I told him. "I'm lightweight, too let's wrestle". Pranay agreed. I was doing this to get a feel for him, but the feeling was so powerful. He was so strong that anything resembling an attack would set me pretty much flying. And his arms... Even when not going all out, felt like he was three times stronger. His wrists were like logs, The thickest wrists that I had ever felt on an 18- or 19-year-old, ever. I ended up repeatedly in turtle just by being thrown there with his hands. I noticed Mayuresh was there, I showed him the first two books, which he looked through, and Shubham Shinde looked through as well, proud that he could find himself so easily....

I went to the club today, got there pretty much on time. Pranay Raskar was back, and there was also Yash Patil, Siddhant, Vaishwajeet, and others.  Vaishwajeet cornered me immediately, he asked me if I could teach him english, and I told him that would be 100 rupees per class.  I put on my langot. Then watched what was going on in the mat room.  Pranay Raskar had started live wrestling again. He was wrestling Siddhant, who was half his weight. but actually wrestling, and actually doing full hindu squats.  I watched them wrestle for a bit, and noticed Mayuresh in the exercise room.  "I wrote a book about this talim", I told him. "About my diary of wrestling here" I clarified, "Would you like to read it?" "Yeah I would like to read that", he replied.  Then Omkar Shinde called me outside. Outside, were the little kids, and the girls. They were already lined up for shoot PT, and I was asked to stand next to this new girl, a lean red shirted girl with...

 I realised something, not just now, in fact, I don't know exactly when I realized it, but, I've been a competitive level, albeit at the lowest level, all along.  This was why Jai Hanuman skips district qualifier competitions, it's internal competition IS the taluka level. 'Elite Wrestling', was about a guy attending a wrestling club while not really knowing what he was doing, now I know. And for that reason, plus the reason that the book has gotten too long, even if I cut out portions, the rest of this will be a blog, I decided for now, on Blogspot. I don't know for how long, but that is what I decided.  Today's practice, standard. Did the jog right from the beggining with Urvi for first 10ish laps. Then, the older wrestlers joined.  Several laps later the jog was led by Shubham Narle and Lucky. They pushed the pace, Urvi started to fall behind. The kids that were already behind with mine and Urvi's pace, don't even ask.  Coach asked for a final fas...

Okay, I realized something, I have been a competitive wrestler the entire time. I don’t know when I realized this fully, but it could not have been that long ago. Probably sometime after the Belapur Kesari Dangal. I thought of the levels that Chirag, the MMA wrestling coach, had told me about. Taluka, district, divisional. And our club went straight to district, no taluka. I have heard from other places about being a district qualifier. As if that had some sort of requirement. When I lined it up with what coach told me shortly before the Holi Dangal I competed in, that he didn’t believe I was ready for senior district competition, that was the district qualifier. I am a taluka level senior wrestler. I was a college taluka champion. The selection for my college team 3 years ago, that was a taluka level competition all along, the sign up show up, ie entry level, that I wrote about. Just one with no other contenders. I was my college champion wrestler. The first 2 weeks years ago when c...