Geeta Phogat
Deepak Ansuia Prasad Bhardwaj, India.com
Deepak Ansuia Prasad Bhardwaj, India.com
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
The essential facts
Torsha Banerjee | All you need to know about Geeta Phogat, December 23, 2016, Femina
Geeta won India’s first-ever Gold medal in wrestling at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
At the CWG, she had competed in the 55 kg freestyle category.
Geeta is the first Indian woman wrestler to have qualified for the Olympics (in 2012).
She hails from Haryana, where her father Mahavir Singh Phogat fought against all odds to bring up his daughters as successful wrestlers.
Geeta’s sister Babita Kumari won a bronze medal at the 2012 World Wrestling Championships, and gold medal in 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Geeta got married to Delhi-based wrestler Pawan Kumar on November 20, 2016, in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri.
The wedding was attended by actor Aamir Khan, who plays the role of Mahavir Phogat in Dangal. Several prominent wrestlers including Olympians Sushil Kumar and Sakhshi Malik attended the wedding too.
Akhada: The Authorized Biography of Mahavir Singh Phogat, a new book on the Phogats says it was Geeta’s mother Daya Kaur who was more upset about a girl child as her firstborn.
In the book, Mahavir Phogat says he introduced his daughters to wrestling with the aim of winning big at the Olympics and now he has his eyes set on 2020.
Dec 2016: A star-studded wedding
Abhimanyu Mathur | TNN | Starry shaadi for wrestlers Geeta Phogat and Pawan Kumar Dec 26, 2016 toi
_(photo_Ajay_Gautam,_BCCL).jpg)
_(photo_Ajay_Gautam,_BCCL).jpg)
On Sunday, the quaint town of Charkhi Dadri in Haryana was witness to Geeta Phogat - oldest of the Phogat sisters famous for wrestling - geting married to Delhi-based wrestler Pawan Kumar.
The wedding was attended by several prominent wrestlers, politicians and over 5,000 residents from Bhiwani. The biggest guest of the day was actor Aamir Khan,who reached the Phogat residence in Balali village a few hours before the wedding, dressed in a white kurta-pyjama with a red turban and black Nehru jacket. Pointing to his pagdi, he quipped, "Pakka Haryanvi lag raha hoon na iske saath?" A sizable crowd had gathered to watch Aamir and there was quite a lot of commotion and pushing around outside the Phogat house.
Over 150 policemen from Bhiwani had been called to provide security, apart from over 50 private security guards and bouncers. "I have never seen such a crowd in my village. Itne dhakke toh kabhi Balali se Delhi ki bus mein nahi khaaye," said Geeta's sister Babita. Actors Sakshi Tanwar and Sanya Malhotra had accompanied Aamir. The actors had lunch with the Phogat family but did not stay back for the wedding in the evening, which was attended by the who-is-who of Haryana's sporting and political worlds.
Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik attended as a friend of the bride, while Sushil Kumar - who was once the groom's roommate at an academy - was a part of the baraat. Both Sakshi and Sushil were mobbed at the wedding with everyone trying to get a selfie with the two wrestlers.
Bouncers for wrestlers
While Sakshi chose to spend her time on the stage with the couple to avoid the selfie-seekers, Sushil had to be escorted around by the bouncers throughout the night. "Arre bhai, yeh bhi nahi pata chal raha hi sajaawat kaisi hai. Yeh log hatein toh kuch dikhe," he was heard saying.
Also in attendance were Commonwealth silver medallist Pooja Dhanda, paralympian Som Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP Ranbir Singh Gangwa, Haryana Assembly's opposition leader Abhay Singh Chautala and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, president of the Wrestling Federation of India. Managing so many high-profile guests was not easy for the hosts. Rahul, Geeta's brother, said, "Sab ko sab se hi milna hai aur photo leni hai. Ab kis kis ko rokein aur kaise, woh samajh nahi aata."
No naachna
The Phogat sisters were all smiles and dressed in traditional outfits. Vinesh, however, had one complaint. The wrestler had injured her right foot during the Olympics and has been in rehabilitation since. She said, "Dance bhi nahi kiya sangeet mein kyunki sab kehte thay pair ka dhyaan rakho. Koi kuch kaam bhi nahi karne de raha. Mujhe kaam karne ke liye assistants de rakhe hain."
Pure white
Mahabir Phogat, Geeta's father, proudly said that the wedding had brought the biggest names in Haryana to Charkhi Dadri. But did demonetisation affect the wedding preparations? "Woh pareshani unko hogi jinka kaala dhan hai. Hum toh pure white hain," he replied with a smile.
No honeymoon plans
The newly-weds said that they would resume practice within two days as they had to prepare for the wrestling league beginning in December. Geeta said, "I just have a two-day break. I'll be back to practicing on the mat from Wednesday. Do din se choodiyan pehni thi toh practice nahi kar payi. Par next month se league start hai toh koi break nahi le sakte."
’My first dangal’
Jan 01 2017 : The Times of India
`I had to wrestle before a crowd of men. I was shy' Geeta Phogat | 28 | Wrestler
I was around 12 when I fought my first dangal. Dangal the movie shows that my first fight was in Rohtak, but it was actually in Dwarka which is near my village (Balali, Bhiwani district) in Haryana. Generally, there are three to six opponents to choose from and it is up to the wrestlers or the referee to choose the op ponents. I think the referee chose my opponent.I was not worried about the outcome of the fight or the fact that my opponent would be a boy. We (Geeta and her sister Babita) had gotten used to training with boys every day . But the fact that I was going to fight in front of such a big crowd full of men for the first time gave me a strange feeling. I was shy, but it took me only two-three dangals to get used to the atmosphere and I soon began to enjoy myself. Babita started a little later.During training, Papa (Mahabir Phogat) would talk about taking us for dangal when he felt we were ready. After training so hard at home, we were keen to get the exposure.
In those days, we never planned how to go about the fight, all we could think of was that no women would be present.We were the ones to start the trend of wrestling with boys in India. They were scared of fighting with us as people would make fun of them if they lost or if we gave them a close fight. Ladkiyon se harna kisko pasand hai. Who likes to lose to girls after all?
People would taunt them saying, “Tu is chori se haar gaya“ (you lost to this girl). And we would enjoy the attention. We would hear people talk about us when we passed by: “Yeh Balali wali ladkiyan hain“ (These are the girls from Balali). Some would say , “Yeh ladkiyan hain ya ladke?“ Are they girls or boys?
As told to Ritu Sejwal
See also
Geeta Phogat
