Mitti ka Sher: Tracing wrestler Jassa Patti’s struggle to move from mud to mat

Over the course of the last four years that Jaskanwar Singh Gill alias ‘Jassa Patti’, the heavyweight from Punjab’s Tarn Taran district, has become India’s unofficial No. 1 dangal wrestler, all manners of sobriquets have been used to describe him — from ‘Modern day Dara Singh’ to ‘Virat Kohli of Mud Wrestling’. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

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The mat and mud, he further explains, are very different. According to him, it’s like T20 and Test cricket — you need explosiveness in one to expend all energy in six minutes (the mat), and patience and endurance to last 20-30 minutes in the other (the mud). (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

READ | Mitti ka Sher: Jassa Patti or Jaskanwar Singh Gill?

Patti tying his trademark parna. “People say wrestlers are strong men, they don’t cry. They have no idea. I think it’s good to cry,” he says. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

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Jaskanwar was born in 1993, when insurgency was ebbing. But his teenage years were spent in a Punjab in the grip of a drug problem. The boy and the menace also crossed each other’s path. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

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For the last four years, Jaskanwar has been participating in the senior nationals without really being in contention for the podium. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

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When he approaches a dangal, he first stands out in the crowd with his yellow parna, tied in the manner of a farmer. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

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Courtesy Patti, the headgear is cool, especially in Punjab. His followers can only aspire to have those patts and patkhani, but they can always tie a parna like him. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

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International wrestling rules allow players to wear headgear that doesn’t harm opponents during bouts. But the referee’s insistence that Jaskanwar tie his hair like women competitors, and the Sikh wrestler’s refusal citing religious beliefs, resulted in a walkover for his first-round rival. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

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Unlike mat wrestling where you mostly see sculpted upper bodies, in dangal wrestling it’s the patts that the crowds swoon over. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

READ | Mitti ka Sher: Jassa Patti or Jaskanwar Singh Gill?

On the very first day of his return to the mud, from Istanbul, he has two back-to-back bouts, one each in Amritsar and Gurdaspur. Jassa Patti is back. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

READ | Mitti ka Sher: Jassa Patti or Jaskanwar Singh Gill?