I believed that, Dara Singh is not a common man like other human beings! I believed that, he had the strength to single-handedly fight an entire army! He was, I believed, the last of men with the power to defeat all evil. I also believed that he would be the winner in every freestyle wrestling match and my faith never wavered. I begged my mother for one rupee and then went to Andheri station, traveled by train to Mahalaxmi without ticket and went to Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, I bought a one rupee ticket and sat in the last rows which had stone seats Everyone was waiting for Dara Singh to enter the ring! I knew that he would not only knock out any wrestler or any number of wrestlers, he would also throw them out of the ring!

I had seen his match last day and was sure that he would win and he did which we saw on the last page of Indian Express. Thrilled to know that he is going to play a hero in a movie called ‘King Kong’. I begged my mother again but this time for two rupees and slept outside Usha Talkies in Andheri so that I could get tickets for the first show! I became a wrestler after watching the first show and for the next ten years, I watched every Dara Singh film. In fact once when my class 10th exams were going on and I was sure that I would fail in all the three subjects of maths, I also looked.

Once I was standing at a bus stop when I saw him traveling in a white Mercedes! He was probably going to Chandivali studio and it is difficult to express in words what I felt in those moments. I remember how at one time and in the course of a week twenty-two films starring Dara Singh were shown all over Bombay, including a film called “Dara Singh”. I believed that he could pull six elephants himself for a scene in a film called ‘Badshah’. There were many movies in which he fought many wrestlers and defeated them all.

I was getting closer to knowing him. I was working in ‘Screen’ and I was sent to cover the shooting of a film called ‘Rustom’ which he was also directing. I was introduced to him by his brother-in-law Ratan Aulakh and I could not believe that I was shaking hands with Rustum-e-Zaman (Champion of the world). He was so kind to me that I used to wonder if he was the same Dara Singh I used to imagine in my younger days. We became very good friends and I felt like shouting in front of the whole world and telling about my friendship with ‘The Dara Singh’.

He invited me to shoot Rustom in Matheran. There was a huge crowd of people of all ages, especially children. It was time for lunch. Mats were spread for us. He ate an apple after eating rotis, vegetables and a piece of chicken. There was silence all around. Me and the whole crowd could not believe that this is Dara Singh’s lunch. We’d heard stories about how they used to cook two whole boiled chickens, twenty eggs, Many used to eat rotis and paste prepared by themselves and used to eat more food in the lunch and even more in the night. But how can this man be Dara Singh if there is only one apple difference between his lunch and mine? Much later he told me that he doesn’t eat as much as people think. He said the only difference was that he used to prepare a paste which took hours to prepare as it was a paste made from the brains of several goats. He said that his only weakness was milk and that he could drink a bucket of milk a day. This was another big blow for me.

He once invited me to Sangli in the interior of Maharashtra and warned me that we would travel by train. We took the train from VT, where the crowd could not believe they were seeing Dara Singh in white pajama and kurta carrying his luggage. We got into the first class compartment (thank goodness for small mercies!) It was nine o’clock and it was time for me to down a couple of stout whiskeys, but I could not imagine that Dara Singh had offered me a drink. Offered, but before I could think anything, he said in a soft voice, “Kya Ali ho jaaye kuch?” I could have called him God when he opened his bag and took out a bottle of Johnnie Walker whiskey. He was so fond of it that he even brought glasses and snacks for our drinking session. I was drinking whiskey with the healthiest and strongest man, but people called whiskey a bad thing, I thought about it till I fell asleep but before sleeping I ate roti, sabzi and chicken which they had brought with them. What a wonderful host I found.

The next morning people from all over Sangli were on the streets. I saw people shedding tears of joy when their own local wrestling hero, called Maruti Pahalwan, touched Dara Singh’s feet himself. We remained friends for the next twenty-five years. I was once in the hospital and he wanted me to attend his daughter’s wedding reception. They personally came to the doctor and asked him to allow me to stay outside for a few hours and how could the doctor say no to Dara Singh? He was considered an incarnation of Lord Hanuman and I took him to a function organized by a Christian school and I also heard the principal and the nun chanting ‘Jai Hanuman’.