The Realization

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 coach told me I wasn’t ready, the endless running and sapate and I would count the first practice with Swapnil. That was senior taluka qualification. The second time I was matched up with Swapnil 3 years ago, that was my first taluka level match. The matches with Ankit, Sahil, Shlok, Aryan Bhosale, the other Sahil (Sahil Waghmare), the snap-down practice with Swapnil, those were pre-taluka practice matches. 

The matches with Swapnil, Omkar Gaikwad and Shubham Narle in my first stint were for the Jai Hanuman Taluka league, a qualifier for both junior and senior level district tournaments depending on the contender's age. The match with Aryan Shedge in the second stint was a taluka requalification match, which is why Aryan sandbagged. And the match's with Dheeraj onwards were taluka level senior matches. Dheeraj and Lucky both competing up in age.    

Indian wrestler diary, or the 'Elite Wrestler' series, or whatever I decide to name it, that series, for one, has gotten too long, and for two, was about a guy that wrestled at the taluka level without understanding what he was doing. 

No, that wasn't what I set out to make my diary about, but I decided, that is what that diary is about, thematically, not exclusively. 


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