E-Paper
This ascetic finds talent in budding wrestlers at Haryana’s Nahri village
A day after Indian wrestler Ravi Dahiya secured the silver medal after losing 7-4 to world champion Zaur Uguev of Russia in the 57kg freestyle category at Tokyo Olympics, his home in Sonepat’s Nahri village is abuzz with fans, media, relatives, friends and well wishers to congratulate his family
A day after Indian wrestler Ravi Dahiya secured the silver medal after losing 7-4 to world champion Zaur Uguev of Russia in the 57kg freestyle category at Tokyo Olympics, his home in Sonepat’s Nahri village is abuzz with fans, media, relatives, friends and well wishers to congratulate his family.
A bearded ascetic, Bramhachari Hansraj, who had groomed a teenager Ravi Dahiya for three years before convincing his family to shift him to Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi in 2004-05, is still busy training budding wrestlers along the banks of Yamuna at Nahri village.
Hansraj, who is in his early 50s, is a wrestler and had done wrestling training with Ravi’s father Rakesh Kumar. He found respite in religion after his knees blew out nearly three decades ago. Now, he spends most of his time along the banks of Yamuna devoting his time to prayers besides giving training to budding wrestlers of nearby villages.
He has prepared a mud akhara where he had trained Ravi Dahiya, Amit Dahiya (youngest Indian wrestler to achieve a medal at the World Championship) and hundreds of others over the decades.
Nahri, which has a population of over 15,000, is a nursery of wrestlers. The village has produced international wrestlers including Amit Dahiya (silver medallist in the 2013 World Championship), Arun Kumar (gold medallist in the 2011 Junior Asian Championship), Mahavir Singh (1980, Moscow, 1984 Los Angeles) and Amit Dahiya ( London in 2012).
Ravi Dahiya’s father Rakesh said Hansraj had asked him to bring Ravi and his younger brother Pankaj to the akhara on the banks of Yamuna when the elder one was just 6-year-old.
“He trained Ravi for the next three years. Then, he asked us to shift Ravi to Chhatrasal stadium in Delhi, where he was groomed by coach Satpal Singh. For the last three decades, he has been training young wrestlers and if he finds potential, he asks the wrestler’s family to shift them to Chhatrasal stadium. He had identified the talent in Ravi,” Rakesh added.
Hansraj said he trained many youngsters but Amit was sharper with more natural ability as compared to other players.
“But Amit and others haven’t reached anywhere where Ravi has. Ravi had never complained no matter how hard the training was. Even though Ravi lacked the natural skills as compared to other wrestlers, he loved to train,” he said.
“If you ask him for 2-hour practice, he will do double the time. Our village has lots of talent, the only need is to discover them,” Hansraj added.
