http://ww1.mid-day.com/smd/play/2005/may/110377.htm Big Indian brother
By: Narendra Kaushik
May 29, 2005
At the police colony gate on the outskirts of Jalandhar, when you ask for ‘Big Brother’, they do not tell you to go to the US of A. They lead you to the house of Dalip Singh, an inspector in the Punjab Armed Police (PAP).
The first-floor quarter looks like any other government flat with peeling paint and beaten cement steps. Until you see the 8-foot long wooden bed in the front balcony and giant-sized underwear and pants strung beside it.
Dalip Singh, is India’s first WWF fighter. He is also soon debuting in a Hollywood film, The Longest Yard. At 7.2 feet and 165 kilos, Singh has won over 200 WWF fights in Japan and locked horns with Triple H, Eddie, Ksbingua, Michael Modest and Darwin Morgan.
Born in Nanithar, a small hamlet in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh to normal sized parents, Singh is one of eight siblings. As a child, Singh did it all — farm labour on their small land-holding, breaking stones, guarding a gun house.
His meals were the normal staple. His growth was anything but. At 16, he stood at five feet nine inches. Five years later, he added a foot to it. “I grew tall naturally. I had not even heard of special supplements then,” he recounts.
M S Bhullar, then Inspector General of the PAP, noticed Dalip’s build and athleticism during a mid-’90s karate competition and changed his destiny. Bhullar made him head constable and encouraged him to participate in bodybuilding, shot put, and wrestling. Dalip was Mr India twice, in 1997 and 1998.
In 2000, Dr Randhir, his coach in the police, sponsored a year’s wrestling training in California. There Dalip learnt about proteins and supplements. Since then, he has a daily diet of one gallon of milk, five chickens, two dozen eggs, juice, fruits and chapatis. He goes to the gym for two hours twice a day.
A year later, he cut his wrestling teeth in America. Since then, he has fought only in Japan. “I’ve won 200 and lost 20-25 fights,” he says while supervising the construction work in a plot he has bought in a Jalandhar. His brother Bhagat, a year younger than him and studying for his B.Ed, stands nearby. Bhagat comes up to Dalip’s waist.
His other siblings, six brothers and a sister are all normal. His petite wife of three years, looks tiny in comparison. Asked about their physical disparity, Dalip clams up. “O leave it yaara, I’ve given you enough time.”
His conservative values show up even when he talks about the women on his track team. China, the pretty white wrestler he has a photo with, is one of his ‘many friends’.
He feels at home with them, he says, an obvious reference to their height and weight. When it comes to the ring, however, he knows he’s the best. “Everyone is weaker than me. No one is taller than me. Big Show is 7.2 feet, Kein is 6.11,” he says, clenching his two and half kilo fist.
Films do not figure in his scheme unless it is a good role. In The Longest Yard he saw substance in the role of convict Turley Lobo Sebastian.
Dalip is tough hide and tender heart. He’s founded NGO Lok Sewa Dal to help girls of modest means get married and provide medical help to the needy. All 100 members are from Nanithar.
Wrestling, of course, will always be his first love.
AuthorTopic: (non-cricket) WWE's Newest Entrant (Debuted on Friday): Dalip Singh (Read 403 times)
