Forest dweller hits wrestling mats: remarkable tale of Leena Siddi, African descendant Indian

Before she joined a sports hostel for wrestling, Leena Antho Siddi, one amongst 11 children but her father’s favourite, would be thrilled when she heard someone in the neighbourhood or extended family was getting married. She loved wedding invites because it was a legitimate reason to leave their dwelling in the forests of Haliyal taluk of Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district, and eat to their heart’s content at the feasts.

“My father would take us along so we could have a proper meal, after days. His struggle in my regard ended when I joined a sports hostel where I was fed well. When he watched Sushil Kumar win the Beijing Olympics bronze, he had decided that his next-born would join wrestling, compete at the Olympics, and never go hungry. Now I win village dangals and earn enough to feed my family,” says the happy 68kg freestyle wrestler, who missed out on bronze at the suspended WFI’s senior Nationals in Pune, but remains undaunted in pursuing her career.

The family subsisted on tilling tiny patches of land, and struggled because their forest dwellings were not considered their own. “Whatever we grow on the farm as labour, we have to share with people whose land it is. We don’t own any land. It’s why marriage feasts were looked forward to because income wasn’t steady,” she recalls.

“Earlier people from the Siddi community didn’t leave the jungles, because we felt unwelcome. But after joining sports, I travel everywhere comfortably. I don’t feel like the odd one out because even I’m a wrestler,” says the 22-year-old Leena, possibly the first female from the community to take up wrestling. “Watching me, other girls from Siddi houses have started getting into wrestling too.”

Proud to share.. yet another female sportsperson from #Haliyal has made her mark at the state level competition.
Ms. Leena Siddi competed and won 1st prize in the 68 kg wrestling category in the #MysuruDasara2019 Competitions pic.twitter.com/UhGiiMDOR8

— R V Deshpande (@RV_Deshpande) October 11, 2019

India’s efforts at engaging with the Siddi community – with lineage from north Africa and spread over Kerala, Karnataka, Konkan, Goa and Gujarat – and draw them into sport are age-old. The experiment to tap into their presumed athletic genes is not new either, but sports administrators either never persisted, or simply moved on without giving a thought to how they could make sport enjoyable for the Siddis rather than just mining their abilities for medals. Many Siddi pehelwans from Karnataka trained in Kolhapur in the 1970s and 80s, though it didn’t make life easy for Leena, a rare girl smitten by the sport.

Her father loves kabaddi and kushti, but wasn’t always welcomed by local clubs. “He loves these two sports. And when Sushil came back to win a medal through repechage in 2008, he was very inspired. It became a story of courage and comeback that he told us children, starting from 2008 to the 2012 silver, adding a lot of details like in a fairytale. He decided that even his daughter would compete at the Olympics like Sushil,” she recalls. So Leena was on her way to train in mud pits while only in Class 5.

Long fight to recognition

At first, she hated it. And kept asking herself why she had to be there, fighting dangals in front of 100s of people staring at her, making her conscious of her thick cropped curls.

“We were very reluctant to leave our forests and come out. You have to understand we look different. Hum alag hai. People stare. They say, ‘yeh baal kaise hai (look at their hair).’ It’s not nice when people look at you oddly. That’s why we never came out,” she explains.

Fluent in Hindi, English, Konkani, Marathi and Kannada, Leena says, wrestling had her heart at first sight, but competing drove her to tears. Her neighbourhood kids joined kabaddi teams, but going out there all alone with everyone watching was a matter of dread for her.

“I’d think main kyu aayi idhar (Why did I come here)? People would taunt me saying ‘tere baal dekh,’ so I felt bad. My father and coach would explain that no matter what anyone says, you continue fighting and winning. Just don’t listen. They would tell me stories of how Sushil pehelwan didn’t bother about anyone saying anything, and I’d watch his videos on loop. I love how he stealthily attacks. His technique was amazing,” Leena explains.

As she persisted, she started winning village dangals, and earning money to sustain her family. “With sport, I’ll be able to get a job and make a living. All the awkwardness is in the past. Now I tell myself, people respect me and are glued to watching what I do in a fight, not because I look different.”

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Leena’s love for wrestling went beyond making money at dangals. “I wanted to improve on my weaknesses. I have strength like Sushil pehelwan, but my technique has to get better,” she says. Her foot speed isn’t bad either, but there’s a naivete in her technique that will need smartening.

The Karnataka wrestler would lose to eventual 68kg champion Diksha Malik of Delhi, and run out of ideas in the bronze medal match against Vedantika of Maharashtra. “I have to improve a lot. But now I’m comfortable travelling outside and don’t feel different. Olympics feels far, but we’ll get there one day,” says the spunky Siddi lady.

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