"Kushti wrestlers throw clay all over themselves to improve their grip before fights.  Since India’s wrestlers took home medals from the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, the spotlight has been turned on the 3,000-year-old martial art that is arguably the antecedent of the Greco-roman style. Bouts take place in a pit lined with red river soil. Each morning Hindu prayers are said in the pit, which wrestlers treat as a temple. Kushti is a demanding sport. Wrestlers cook, eat and sleep together. Many have been away from home for much of their lives and consider fellow fighters family. One wrestler told me, 'We cannot drink, smoke or have sex. We cannot even think of girls. Even in our dreams it’s forbidden. If we want to be good wrestlers we must live a pure life.' "

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