Wrestler-turned-actor Dara Singh passes away at 7.30 AM

84-year-old Singh was taken home from hospital by family members last night so that he could be with them in the last moments of his life.

"He passed away at 7.30 AM peacefully," Dr Ram Narain, COO, Kokilaben Hospital, told PTI.

Singh was brought to the hospital on July 7 after he had suffered a cardiac arrest and since then he was in the ICU.

A wrestling hero to some and a much loved cine artist to others, it was a long and eventful life that triumphed many odds. In his over five-decade long acting journey, he featured in over 140 films, including classics such as "Anand" and "Mera Naam Joker".

It was a many splendoured life.

There was Dara Singh the wrestler, Dara Singh, the hero of 'B' category action films such as "Tarzan Comes to Delhi" and "Samson" in the 1950s and 1960s, Dara Singh, the friendly 'pehelwan' in "Anand", and then Dara Singh who played Hanuman with great effect in the TV blockbusters "Ramayan" and "Mahabharat".

He was last seen in the Kareena Kapoor-Shahid Kapoor starrer "Jab We Met" as the stern, lovable 'Daarji' who ruled over a noisy, close-knit Sikh family. Quite like the real life man, who intimidated people with his 6' 2" frame but soon won them over with outgoing nature and warmth.

Born to Balwant Kaur and Surat Singh Randhawa Nov 19, 1928 in a village in Amritsar, Punjab, Dara Singh was encouraged to take up wrestling due to his imposing physique and trained in 'pehelwani', an Indian style of wrestling. He became a star wrestler - and not just on Indian turf.

Dara Singh took on international wrestlers like Lou Thesz and Stanislaus Zbyszko, and had over 500 professional fights to his credit - all undefeated.

He won the Professional Indian Wrestling Championship in 1953, and took away the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship trophy in 1959 by defeating Canadian champion George Godianko.

A recipient of titles like Rustam-E-Punjab (1966) and Rustam-E-Hind (1978), Dara Singh retired from active wrestling in 1983. In 1989, he published his autobiography "Meri Atmakatha" in Punjabi, and seven years later was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.

And while he was wrestling, he was making a name in cinema - both Hindi and Punjabi.

His first release was the 1952 "Sangdil" and then came a succession of films like "King Kong", "Faulad", "Sher-e-Watan" that earned him the name of Bollywood's action king.

During his hey day as a hero, he teamed up with Mumtaz in 16 Hindi films, including "Jawan Mard", "Raaka", "Aandhi Aur Toofan", "Daku Mangal Singh", "Boxer" and "Veer Bhimsen".

Another successful phase in Dara Singh's acting career came when he bagged the role of Hanuman in Ramanand Sagar's epochal TV series "Ramayan" in 1986. People liked him so much that B.R. Chopra roped him in to play the same role in "Mahabharat".

Dara Singh gave viewers a glimpse of his humorous side through shows like "Hadd Kar Di" and "Kya Hoga Nimmo Ka".
He became a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha from August 2003 to August 2009.

Dara Singh also took on the role of a writer, director and producer. In 1978, he launched Dara Studio, a self-contained mini-city with all facilities within the compound, in Punjab's Mohali district.

Dara Singh, who was widowed and got married for the second time, leaves behind his wife, six children - three sons and three daughters. And legions of fans of a man who defined machismo.

I request the Government to hang Ajmal Kasab: Vindu Dara Singh

The Bomb-bay bomb blasts have upset all of us and we keep thinking how we bring an end to this growing menace. We blame the police, state government, Center Government and that is all that we tax paying citizens can actually do.

Any such attack or scam incident in India is followed by lots of news coverage by all the networks, followed by lots of debates and mobile messages, followed by a candle march in various places and eventually forgotten till the next big blast.

I have also thought about this a lot like the rest of us and feel that if we put our mind to it we can overcome this.

The Government keeps finding quick fix solutions to it which will never work because finding a terror suspect in the crowded streets of Mumbai is like finding a needle from a haystack.

We will have to start a huge process of accountability which will be hard but shall get rid of lots of problems in our system and eventually we will come out victorious.

A Passport kind of document has to be developed and given to each and every citizen of the country with a number which will be their Identity number, we can start off by giving it to everyone who attains the age of 18 and above and you cannot get any employment unless you have that document.

It has to be unique and cannot be sold under corruption or duplicated. It has to be online and every employer will have to give a reason as to why he has removed the employee so the people know that it is like a report card and if you rob or cheat it will be hard to get your next job.

The employer has to sign the document and date since the person began the job till the date when they left the job with the reason and how good and effective the person was at work, in case an employer hires a person without asking for the number and details he to will be held responsible and guilty.

Nepali's and Bangladeshi’s will get a different document as they enter because no job is possible without it and any policeman can ask for your ID number and we must all be have it memorized and he can put it in his computer and our record will pop up with date and place of birth, picture etc.

A common domestic servant to will be easy to employ without any police verification cause all records will be online. I know this process is hard but It is necessary so that all documents like a voters card, Ration Card, Pan Card will not be needed then and I think if all the offices in the country can just be giving this one document to each and every citizen and uploading the information on the net it will be easily possible.

Until this happens you can keep trying to find that one person out of 120 crores and fail most of the time.

Also I request the Government to hang Ajmal Kasab so that the other terrorists know that if they get caught they will be hanged publicly before another Kandahar kind of incident makes us set him free.

Please give a private contract to a surveillance company to put all the metros under CCTV entirely with every nook and corner linked and I would not mind if the 2G scam accused are given bail if they pay for the entire process of CCTV covering all the metros and major cities fine them the entire amount and give them bail and I am sure they would be willing and ready with this offer.

Mumbai has just a few entry points so please get huge machines that can X ray the entire vehicles and trucks that enter through these points as it is not possible for a nakabandi to ever stop guns and bombs.