The curiously shocking case of Sushil Kumar

"Sushil Kumar who?", " I think I have heard his name?", " Is he a politician?", etc. This is the first reaction of a majority of the common man upon hearing this name. For your information, he is an ace Indian freestyle wrestler who won a Bronze medal in 66-kg category at the Beijing Olympic games and formed the trio of individual medalists at the Olympics for the first time in Indian sport history. Of course you know the other two very well, Abhinav Bindra ( Gold, 10 m air rifle) and Vijender Singh ( Bronze, boxing). But it seems as if he has all but been erased from common memory. While Bindra secured numerous awards and sponsors post-Beijing for his historic feat ( Mittal trust scholarship, Samsung endorsement), Vijender is currently a well-featured celebrity on page 3 and television alike. Not only that, he has recently signed a Rs. 7 crore contract with Percept sports. What about Sushil? A Rs. 50 lakh award from the Delhi govt., few monetary awards from other such bodies and recently the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. He has no lucrative sponsors, still travels on SAI money and works as a Chief ticket inspector for the Indian Railways. I remember Prahlad Kakkar saying in a post-Beijing interview that Vijender has the maximum chance of staying in public memory because of his rags-to-riches story and good looks, while Abhinav (son of a wealthy industrialist) is more of a gentleman who lives in recluse and comes out and shines on the big stage. Sushil has a difficult road ahead because he lacks the 'endorsement' looks and plies his trade in Kushti, a mainstay of Indian sport which has been replaced by Cricket mania in the last 100 years. No one wants their son to become a pehelwaan, hell, few kids are tough these days in order to qualify for a training in the legendary akhadas. Everybody sees them in the light of a few bollywood movies like Khosla Ka Ghosla which portray them as goons who can use their muscle to do your job. Wrestling at a time was a highly respected and practised sport in our country and still is in some arts of the country. It accomplishes two important tasks at the same time, physical workout and adrenaline rush which one expects while playing a sport. Sadly though, the sport has been in a terribly neglected state for the last 50 years. Wrestlers in India still wrestle on mud and rely on the Guru Hanuman regime to success, while their counter-parts in Kazakhistan and Greece have the modern technology at their beck and call. No wonder it took 50 odd years for Sushil to replicate the feat of Kashaba Jadhav. The sad part is, Jadhav died as a broken farmer in large debt, and one can only pray that Sushil gets the recognition he deserves which is necessary to carry on the legacy of Kushti.