New Delhi: No marriage and jewellery for these tough women. In a strenous male-dominated profession, they seem to have made the final sacrifice — their feminity. They are the professional women wrestlers.

Twenty-year-old Kamlesh has been doing this for four years now. A national champion, her world revolves around the wrestling mat. Inspired by her male cousin, who is a wrestler, she came to this akhara in Delhi to carry forward the tradition.

At a time when all her friends from her village in Haryana are either married or busy bringing up their kids, Kamlesh knows she’s different.

In the world of women, still often marked by notions of physical beauty and conventional behaviour, Kamlesh is a paradox. She is both a pioneer as well as a misfit.

"I know I am different. When people see me on the streets, they laugh at me, because I am a woman wrestler. No, I don't think about marriage. I can't. Wrestling is all there is, and all there ever will be in my life," she reveals.

Like Kamlesh, all woman wrestlers inhabit a grey area. Society mocks and only grudgingly admires the female Bheem.

Casting off bangles and bindis, they throw themselves on to the mat. They keep their date with a demanding training schedule. Hair cut short, they stride onto a male domain, sometimes at the mercy of coaches, steroids and at other times, that of their own relatives.

But despite all this, as their arms strain and their bodies stretch, they know their destiny is to always remain strong.

Admits Anu, another woman wrestler: "My friends in school all stay away from me. They say I am a wrestler and I will beat them up. Even my family says the same thing."

Yet, the smile on her face is so courageous that it would be unfair to see her as a victim.

It's a life these young women have chosen for themselves. Sometimes, maybe, pushed into it by their families where wrestling is traditional. And once they enter this world, everything becomes secondary. It’s almost as if the doors to the outside world are slammed shut on the face.

The strictly monitored lifestyles they live restrict them from doing anything else. Even on Sundays, they are taken to the village wrestling championships where they fight other women wrestlers.

"Yes, it's a struggle," testifies Chandgi Ram, a former wrestling champion. "Everything in life is a sacrifice. It's what they have to do in this sport."

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