Patrolling the courts - Dabang Delhi's Jasmer Gulia
While the reel Dabang – Salman Khan might be promoting the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) these days through an advert on Star Sports, we have a real life good-cop, who co-incidentally plays for the Dabangs in the tournament. An explosive player blessed with an aggressive, all-round game, Jasmer Gulia is the cohesive force that not only binds his team together, but is also enigmatic enough to attract the masses to throng in, for their matches.
A believer of power game, Jasmer is a fierce fighter, who terrifies the opposition raider and seldom lets him return. A true champion, his sparkling resume boosts of a gold medal in South Asian Games 2006, Asian Games 2010 and more recently a winners medal at both the National and the India Police Games, 2015.
As aforementioned though, this awe-inspiring 32-year-old from Bursham, Panipat dons an altogether different role while he is not playing kabaddi. On a normal day, Jasmer is busy chasing the law breakers as he works as an Inspector in Haryana Police. Just like his opponents on court, a con would be terrified if Jasmer would be chasing him.
A police inspector by day, a kabaddi player by heart
For someone who started his journey as a 9-year-old and became the first player from his district to earn a berth in the Indian national team in 2005, he has come a long way. His dedication for the sport, despite being tied up with life as a police inspector, has been exemplary. He takes time out every morning and post work to practice; kabaddi, as he emphasizes, is more than a sport, it’s a way of living life for him.
A die-hard Sunny Deol fan, Jasmer believes that if he would not have taken kabaddi seriously, he would have ended up as a labour in a factory. But he is glad he did. Today, owing to his popularity, hundreds in his village aspire to play the game professionally. Such is the vigour that almost almost 70 have already landed a government job through the kabaddi quota sports.
This fan-following and popularity will only soar as we approach the 2nd season of the franchisee-based league. As he mentions, he does get irritated by the ever-increasing friend requests on Facebook, but then that’s a sign of people finally sitting up and taking notice of game where we are dominate the world. And Jasmer, of all people wouldn’t want to ‘investigate and follow up’ on that.