Guru Hanuman no more

News of the death of the guru spread rapidly and many people visited the hospital to pay their last respects. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and several other leaders, sports personalities and wrestlers condoled the guru8217;s death. Guru Hanuman was born in 1901 in Chidawa, an obscure village in Rajasthan. He took to wrestling at a tender age and founded his own akhara in 1925 in North Delhi on a piece of land donated by the Birlas.The akhara soon became the centre point ofIndian wrestling as year after year, Guru Hanuman produced the finest talent the country had seen.

He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1983 and was bestowed the prestigious Dronacharya Award in 1991.

Among the most well-known products of his akhara were Sat Pal, who won gold in the 1982 Asiad, and Kartar Singh, who captured gold in the Seoul Asiad in 1986.

The akhara also trained many Arjuna Awardees like Sudesh Kumar, Prem Nath, Mahavir, Jagvinder and Sudesh Verma. Guru Hanuman was a bachelor. His akhara was, he said, his family.