By Akanksha Gupta Last Updated:
Mhaari chhoriyan chhoron se kam hain ke? – Mahavir Singh Phogat and his daughters, Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari Phogat were not new to the ones who follow Indian sports, but they became household names when Aamir Khan starrer, Dangal had hit the theaters. Geeta made the nation proud when she became India’s first female wrestler to compete at the Olympic Games and brought home the gold. With Dangal, we got a glimpse of how Geeta’s professional life was moulded under the supervision of her father, Mahavir Singh Phogat, but little do we know about her love story with husband, Pawan Kumar Saroha. (Also Read: Soha Ali Khan, Kunal Kemmu And Inaaya Look 'One Happy Family' As They Celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi)
Geeta Phogat married her fellow wrestler and Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, Haryana-based, Pawan Kumar Saroha on November 20, 2016. The wedding of Geeta and Pawan had taken place at Balali, a village on the highway to Bhiwani. Superstar, Aamir Khan along with other Dangal stars, Sakshi Tanwar, Sanya Malhotra and Fatima Sana Shaikh had attended Geeta and Pawan's wedding. Aamir had wanted to give the most memorable gift to the bride but wasn’t able to. Regarding the same, Aamir had said, “I wanted to gift her the joda, but tradition doesn't allow that. Only the bride's mama (maternal uncle) can gift the shaadi ka joda. So, I got other gifts for her."
Geeta Phogat and Pawan Kumar Saroha never shy away from showcasing their love for each other, and to announce the ‘best news’ of their lives, they took the help of the social media. A few hours back, Geeta took to her Instagram to announce that she and her hubby, Pawan are expecting their first child. Posting a picture of herself, flaunting her baby bump amidst a picturesque background, Geeta wrote, ““A mother's joy begins when new life is stirring inside… when a tiny heartbeat is heard for the very first time, and a playful kick reminds that liitle one is never alone.” You never understand life until it grows inside of you #pregnancy #babybump #motherhoodrising.”
Soon Geeta Phogat’s pregnancy announcement post got flooded with congratulatory messages and even her hubby, Pawan Kumar Saroha couldn’t stop himself from admiring his ‘girl’. Pawan commented on Geeta’s post, “my girl” followed by a kiss and a pregnant woman’s emoji. On the other hand, Geeta’s Khatron Ke Khiladi 8 co-contestant, Hina Khan wrote, “Congratulations Geet to you and Pawan... God bless you my darling… so so so happy for you... Aum Ganeshaya Namaha!!” and Nia Sharma commented, “Oh man @geetaphogat” followed by heart emoticons. Shibani Dandekar too, wrote, “Ahhhhh this is incredible!! congrats”. Lopamudra Raut commented, “Congrats Geeto!! Lots of love”. Shantanu Maheshwari wrote, “Wow... hearty congratulations to @pawankumar_saroha86 and @geetaphogat di... So happy for you”.
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Pawan Kumar Saroha makes sure his wife, Geeta Phogat always has a smile on her face and for that, he can go to any extent. For an instance, in a video posted by Geeta in 2018, we got a glimpse of Pawan breaking into a jig on the popular Haryanvi song, Bol Tere Mithe Mithe, while we can hear Geeta laughing her heart out in the background. She had captioned the video as "#dancelove @pawankumar_saroha86." Geeta and Pawan have also tattooed each other’s names on their wrists, which continues with the rate of heartbeat indication. While Geeta has ‘Pawan’ written on her wrist, Pawan has ‘Geeta’ written on his! (Also Read: Neil Nitin Mukesh's Daughter, Nurvi Dresses Up In A Pretty Lehenga To Welcome Ganpati Bappa At Home)
In an interview with the Filmfare, Geeta Phogat had revealed the intimate details of her life. Speaking of her fondest childhood memories, Geeta had said, “It’s not possible to forget those initial 5-6 years of my training. Those were the most difficult years. We had to work really hard be it scorching heat or cold winters. My father used to wake us up at 3:30 in the morning and we had to practise in the akhada for three hours. Post which we went to school and on returning in the evening, we had to train again for 2-3 hours. The akhada and our father were the only two things we saw in our lives at that point.”
Geeta Phogat had continued, “Absolutely. After the morning training got over, all that was on our mind was the evening training. At the end of the day, all we could think about was the next day’s gruelling training and how we’d survive it. We spent those years just thinking about survival. Every time we thought about taking a break, our father would reprimand us by shouting out, ‘If a school going kid thinks of bunking school and if a person thinks of resting instead of working hard then that person will never achieve success in his or her life.’ The very thought of taking a rest was ‘hanikarak’ to our being. (Laughs) He demanded we keep working hard and the concept of slowing down just didn’t exist in his dictionary.”
When asked if she was expecting Aamir Khan at her wedding, Geeta Phogat had stated, “I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to make it as around that time as he was busy with the promotion of Dangal. But surprisingly, Aamir sir’s team called up and informed us that he would definitely like to attend the wedding. We were really happy that he could make it.” Revealing her husband, Pawan Kumar Saroha’s reaction after watching Dangal, Geeta had remarked, “After watching the film he realised that we had truly worked hard in our lives to achieve what we have today. Before that he had no idea of our struggle or hard work. After watching the film, he gave me a ‘shabbashi’.” (Also Read: Arpita Khan Sharma Looks Heavily Pregnant As She Celebrates Ganesh Chaturthi With Her Family)
Heartiest congratulations to the soon-to-be parents, Geeta and Pawan!