Khali Article

SOURCE: www.indianexpress.com


Una, May 3:“Woh Khali nahin, Kaali hai. Kaali Ma ka bhakt hai! (He is not Khaali, but Kaali, a devotee of Ma Kaali),” insists Jwala Ram, clarifying the name of his son, the 7-ft-tall labourer-turned-wrestler for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) who began his India tour on Saturday.

Jwala Ram, wooden logs on his shoulder, says height runs in his family. “My grandfather was three-to-four inches taller than Dalip and more strongly built,” he asserts as Dalip’s mother Tondi Devi tells you the wrestler’s secret of success lies in a simple diet of daal, roti, and eggs—in huge quantities. For Dalip, it wasn’t easy shooting up to such a height in a one-room hut with six siblings.

“Once he turned 15, it was difficult for him to enter the room and at times he used to sleep over at a friend’s place,” says Tondi Devi. Though unlettered, Dalip was naturally enterprising. From a stone-crushing labourer, he found a job as a security guard.

That’s when former Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, M S Bhullar spotted him. “I was fond of recruiting tall boys in the police force. Somebody known to Dalip told me about him. I immediately got in touch with officers in Himachal Pradesh and they tried to locate him. He was working as a guard in Shimla for a couple from Delhi,” recalls Bhullar. Though Bhullar offered a job, Dalip was not willing to leave his home state. “I kept persuading him to come to Punjab, but to no avail. I then offered the job of a constable to his elder brother as well and he agreed,” says Bhullar.

Dalip joined the force in Jalandhar under the sports quota as a constable. Though he joined as a sportsman, he had to struggle to find his sport. First, he tried basketball and was not agile enough for the game. He made a shot at shot put and failed.

Then, he was advised to take up body building. “Dalip’s only problem was that he had a strong upper portion but his thigh muscles were not very strong,” says Bhullar. Dalip was then spotted by Dr Hasthir Sharma, son of a former Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Punjab. “Hasthir advised me to send Dilip to abroad for wrestling competitions, to which I readily agreed,” said Bhullar. There began the journey that would take him to the US and the WWE.

Back home, his family learnt of his US avatar only when they chanced upon his photos in a newspaper. “I was thrilled to learn that he had become so famous and was aiming to become a world-class wrestler,” says Jwala Ram.

Dalip, who married Harminder Kaur, a US-based girl of Indian origin, is funding the education of his siblings’ children and has bought an adjoining plot of land for his parents. Pointing to a house under construction, Jwala Ram says: “It was with Dalip’s money that we purchased the plot.”

As they wait for the son to come home after three years, they are just making one change to the house — having doors eight feet high.