Today, we have Hyderabadi arm wrestler, Ahmed Faizan, who is making it big in the sport with his skills. He speaks about his journey, wrestling scene in India and more.
Tejal Sinha
Looking at the sports scenario around the world, India has been on the verge of becoming a champion nation. Well, recently, India emerged as a double winner in cricket and hockey. In fact, even in football at the SAFF championship.
As we talk of sports, another sport that’s making it big is arm wrestling, and so yes, we can just not forget to thank championships like the Pro Panja League for bringing the sport to notice. Today, we have Hyderabadi arm wrestler, Ahmed Faizan, who is making it big in the sport with his skills. Talking of table arm wrestling, a ‘Pucca Hyderabadi’ that he is, he recalls properly starting doing it towards the end of 2018. “My brother has a school, IAS International School, and I had gone to a printing shop to get a banner printed for the school. On the adjacent computer, the Telangana Arm Wrestling Championship poster was being edited. I saw it and thought, “Oh, is this a thing? There are arm wrestling championships?” But then I forgot about it. I was busy with my work. In the morning, I was jogging near a function hall when I saw the same poster again. I simply went inside and registered my name. I was like, “Anyways, I arm wrestle here and there.” I also used to be number 1 at arm wrestling in school.”
So there he was, registered his name, and was playing in the 80kg category. He then won the bronze medal, which not only gave him confidence but also gave him the thought that if this is an actual sport, then he can make something of himself here, and he joined an Arm Busters Club in Ramkoti, King Kothi. He began practising there, playing local tournaments and club matches. The second big match he played was the 2022 National in Hyderabad.
Fizan had also dreamt of becoming a football player but faced a setback due to an unfortunate accident during a club game in 2017. Battling depression, he decided to take control of his life by focusing on his fitness and embarking on an extensive workout programme at the gym. To date, football isn’t just a game for him; it’s his life. “Back then, it was like if I didn’t touch football, I could neither eat nor digest food. I was very involved, but I never got the right guidance to go ahead. We had normal practise and improvisation in the game, but I never got a platform for it. Plus, there was also the matter of injuries. I mean, injuries are a part of normal practise. It was like every field had its own name and its own team. I used to play for the Nizam College side. Nizam College versus LB Stadium or Lal Bahadur Stadium versus Darulshifa This is how the matches would take place. One time, there was a Nizam versus LB Stadium match. I was playing for the Nizam College team, and on the other side of the field, they were conducting practise for long jump. Parkour is a type of game where participants perform front flips, back flips, jumps on buildings, etc. I had that craziness in me. I was seventy kilogrammes at the time. In that game, I scored a goal and, in my excitement, did a front flip. My body was on the left side, and I landed straight on my legs, which led to a ligament injury. It was actually a severe injury, but I didn’t take it seriously. I took a break for a day, and the next day I went to play. Which is why the injury kept getting severe.”
Back then, he wasn’t very aware of the injuries. Well, he was just 19 years old back then. He had no in-depth knowledge about sports, and this injury took up a lot of his time.
Initially, there were Sheru classes that started in Mumbai in 2019. At that point in time, Faizan hadn’t learned much from arm wrestling. The local associations used to take people to Sheru classes for the Pro Panja league. However, he skipped it because he neither had the support of his family nor was financially stable. Seeing the videos where people had performed on stage made him feel pretty dejected. However, he started appreciating the Pro Panja League since he had never seen this level of arm wrestling before. The stage, the audience, the round table, the appreciation, and the entries made him feel like, “Can a palm be such a thing?”
He then goes on, “I became serious about the game. I also write and rap, and I had written four raps at the time for my YouTube channel. I was just sitting one day when it occurred to me that I should write a song on the ‘Panja’. As I was sitting there, I caught a rhythm, got a book and a pen, and made a song. I wrote the anthem for the ‘Pro Panja League’. It was only in the writing; it hadn’t even been composed yet when I directly messaged Parvin sir on Instagram. He saw the message and asked me to send the song; he said he’d listen to it. I had sent the same message to three people. Another person also asked me to send it. It was like he was waiting. Then I properly started working on it. It took nearly four months for the song to be ready. But before that happened, the 2022 nationals had arrived in Hyderabad. There I met Parvin Dabas sir on the second or third day. I was sitting in the front; I was managing everything back then. I met him, spoke about the song, and reminded him that we’d spoken before. He was like, “Oh, is that you?” So actually, I had rapped there, on the national stage. Everybody enjoyed it a lot.” Impressive, isn’t it?
“Then I went to Gwalior. Before I went, I had sent my song to Parvin Dabas, sir. As the date approached, I received tickets from Pro Panja, and I went to Gwalior. This Gwalior event was the first Pro Panja event I attended, and it was an incredible experience. The refereeship and the game were very clean. There, I achieved the eighth rank in the hundred-plus category. Before I went there, the song was ready. It was a promo song, and I got a call from Parvin sir saying, “Don’t release the song. We’ll launch it there, in Gwalior.” And when I went there the first day, they opened it with the song. So I feel very grateful about this thing. I’m very thankful to Parvin, sir. I’m thankful to Allah, and I’m thankful for my hard work. Then the matches took place, and I came eighth in the 100+ category. After the final match, I got a chance to sing, and the federation enjoyed it. And this is my journey — how I started in Pro Panja. And you know, the first experience is the best experience. If you have a bad first experience, it leaves an impression in your mind. It makes you feel like this thing is bad and nothing worthwhile will come out of it. But when I came to Pro Panja, I felt like, Here, I can do something. I realised there that Pro Panja could rightly give back to the hard work that goes into arm wrestling.”
He began his journey in arm wrestling at a time when there was not much awareness about it. In this regard, he considers himself special because he says, “Ever since I’ve started arm wrestling, I’ve never even once thought that this sport would take me nowhere. All the events I have attended so far have given me positive returns. You could say I’ve gotten fame, a name, an audience, and everything else. For instance, Parvin Dabas sir was paying me for the song, but I was like, No, this is for Pro Panja. I like making music. Parvin Dabas, sir, gave me such a big stage. I’ve gotten recognition here; no return could be bigger than that. So the whole thing with money, at least for now, I’m keeping aside. I am more inclined towards recognition. I want my name to be known so people can recognise me. Currently, money is not my intention.”
Faizan feels grateful to be a part of Kiraak Hyderabad and shared that, though the members of the team are more experienced compared to him, they’ve always been a huge support to him.
“Hyderabad has many players, many good players,” he shares, adding, “If they come to the forefront, all the popular names will go down. I want people to come ahead. I will bring them ahead. There is some division because of federation disputes, but I want everyone to get a good, big platform. I was lucky. I got on such a big stage with relatively little hard work. And I’m very grateful for this. I am grateful to my parents and my elder brother, who supports me a lot. Hyderabad has a lot of good players, but they’ve left arm wrestling because they don’t get any returns. They go to state tournaments, national tournaments, and open tournaments, but everywhere they have to spend their own money for accommodation, food, etc., and all they come back with is a medal. No footage at all. No recognition, no platform, nothing for the player’s game, his passion. But now with Pro Panja, people, and even kids, are getting to know about it. The craze is increasing. You could say a new generation is getting involved in the game. The people who used to go for wrestling, the people who wanted to go for proper body building, have started shifting towards arm wrestling.”
