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BARE NECESSITIES
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Today's pehlwans are wrestling with the problem of lack of support
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Time was when Bangalore used to witness big kustis at venues such as the Kanteerava Stadium, which would be packed to capacity
HOW MANY times have you cheered the Rock, the Undertaker, Triple H, Brock Lesnar and their cohorts slamming and hurling each other on TV? What you are watching is a hyperbolic spectacle modified for TV. Wrestling is an ancient sport linked with bodybuilding. The earliest evidence of organised wrestling is the painting at Beni-Hasan in the Nile Valley, dating back to 3400 B.C.. The Greeks developed the sport and included it in the Olympic Games of 704 B.C.
Closer home, long before trendy gyms existed, the kusti or wrestling scene in the city had a cult following. It was a purely male thing and the kustis, taleems or vyayamashalas, and the pehlwans and ustads were all part of a great subcontinental tradition. Enter any vyayamashala and one is sure to find its walls adorned with faded photographs and pictures of great kusti exponents of the two countries. Today, Bangalore only has around 10 vyayamashalas that see some 150 regulars, some of whom are old-timers.
Mohammad Farookh Pehlwan, 43, is an ace pehlwan who has fought nearly 250 kustis. A consistent winner, he says he used to be the best in South India and is still ready to have go at it. Farookh, who has had bouts against big names like Mysore Basava, Mahadev, Tiger Balaji and beat them all, still maintains a 94-kg. physique. He is probably the last of a glorious parade of famed pehlwans like the late and much-honoured Mehboob Kashmiri (who was wrestling well into his 80s) and his son, the late Goga, besides Shahnawaz, Samiullah, Jamshed, Irshad, Riyaz, and others. Today's youngsters would find it infra dig to go to a kusti. However, it used to be cool for youngsters to visit the taleems twice a day and undergo rigorous training under ustads.
Time was when Bangalore used to witness big kustis at venues like the Kanteerava Stadium, which would be packed to capacity. The Government had actually promised to allocate some space in the stadium for the wrestlers. However, it eventually went to archers for their practice.
The last big wrestling bout was held here more than 14 years ago. So those aspiring to fight either go to Kolhapur or Sholapur in Maharashtra where the tradition is still robust and respected. There are those who remember bouts being staged in BRV grounds, behind Apsara theatre, Doddana Hall, andin Khader Sharief Garden.
Ironically, the sport itself needs only basic infrastructure. The arena is packed with clean, red earth which is tilled daily to loosen the lumps. Once a year the ground is softened by dousing it with an emulsion of oil and curds. This is to ensure that a wrestler flung with great force onto the ground escapes with minimum damage. Maharashtra and Delhi have separate grounds and stadiums for the sport.
Today only Belgaum in Karnataka has a school where the Government runs a hostel and school for pehlwans. Many who pass out land jobs with the CRPF, BSF, and similar units.
Farookh is doing his bit for the sport and runs the Zumre Illah Physical Instruction, a taleem on Slaughterhouse Road that trains some 10 to 20 boys daily. Though there is lack of State sponsorship, he says locals hold pehlwans in high esteem. According to him, the training at a taleem is methodical and strenuous. One must train for two hours each in the morning and evening under a single ustad.
Zahid Hussain (Gulzar), the son of Mehboob Kashmiri, is another exponent trying to revive the taleem. He is aware that tradition has little attraction for Bangalore's youth and so is contemplating setting up a gymnasium in the famous taleem that was run by his illustrious father, who used to train more than 50 students at his Bada Taleem. Gulzar says if he can attract 10 boys to the gym, he can wean away at least two of them to his taleem.
He remembers the days when pehlwans used to consume an entire goat to provide them with the energy for their exercises. There were those who used to do more than 100 push-ups and sit-ups.
His father used to exercise from 3 a.m., and train pehlwans, besides coaching at the ASC Centre.
Farookh recalls the 1988 bout at the Kanteerava Stadium against the formidable Agnivell Negro whom he overpowered in 18 minutes flat in front of a roaring crowd of about 15,000. His father, Ahmed Hussain Sheikh Pehlwan, drew a well-fought bout with the famous Kapal Basava whose patron was the Mysore Maharaja.
Farookh himself beat Basappa Poojari, a Karnataka Kesari, at a marathon bout in Mysore at the Chinniah Akhada that lasted three hours and five minutes. Among the spectators was none other than Deve Gowda.
Today Farookh and Gulzar have only memories to inspire them. It would be sad if yet another tradition dies to make way for modernity.
M.V. CHANDRASHEKAR
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