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Q: You learned wrestling techniques on the family farm in Richmond, B.C., correct?
A: The family history is that my father wrestled before me. The sport of wrestling, the art of wrestling, is part of tradition in India in our culture. If you look at cave paintings that are thousands of years old, there are depictions of wrestling. So that came over with our family. My dad became my coach, and he taught myself and my brothers and my cousins. There were 10 of us, boys in the family, and we all wrestled, on the family farm here.
Q: There’s a history of family-farm wrestling in Canada, obviously, with the Harts in Calgary. You had 10 boys all training there, it must have been quite the scene.
A: It was a lot of testosterone and blood, sweat and tears, but at the end of the day when you went to go compete everyone was in your corner. It really has been the common denominator for our family as people have grown and started their own family and ventured off, the gym and well-being and the spirit of wrestling is still a common denominator.
Q: Did anyone get hurt?
A: Oh, for sure. We’ve had broken bones and ligaments and all that, but that’s part of the experience that bonded us together.
Q: You had the hospital on speed dial.
A: Exactly. When you were younger, it was just ‘shake it off,’ the old-school method of just wrapping it up and saying ‘you’ll be okay.’ But now you look back and think, what the hell were we thinking? I remember one time, my cousin, he severed his toe. It was hanging by the skin and we had to rush him to hospital. My dad wrapped it up with socks. And that was sort of holding it together.
Q: I hope the socks were clean, at least.
A: No. I don’t remember whose socks we used. It was mostly to keep the blood off the mats, really....'
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I like this guy. I took him in MagWar. Hopefully he gets the KO.
