A bone chilling night time within the winter of 2008. Avenue, darkish. Bus cease, secluded. Exhausted and edgy, Savita Punia waited for a Hisar-bound bus whereas guarding her two jumbo luggage — one, a goalkeeping package and the opposite along with her garments stuffed in it.
Solely 17, Savita was returning to her dwelling in Jodhkan, Sirsa, from Kurukshetra after showing within the choice trials for Haryana’s hockey crew. The clock confirmed 8 – she needed to be in Hisar 4 hours in the past, from the place her father was to select her up. However the bus she took from Kurukshetra that afternoon had damaged down, leaving Savita stranded in the course of the freeway, close to Kaithal, greater than 125 km away from dwelling.
“Earlier than boarding from Kurukshetra, I had referred to as my father from an STD sales space,” Savita says — these had been the times when the cellphone was nonetheless a luxurious. “He was to select me up from the Hisar bus cease round 4.30 pm and from there, we had been to drive right down to Sirsa. We had a second-hand automobile, so it wasn’t dependable for lengthy distances.”
Savita waited on the freeway that night time, with no method of letting her father know of her state of affairs.
A bus lastly confirmed up. Savita noticed no empty seats and there was barely anyplace to face however she thought she would handle. “It was round 8.30 pm. I requested the conductor to assist with my baggage,” she says.
The conductor stared at her and smirked: “Ladki ho. Ek bulao, dus aaenge (You’re a lady, you’ll have many to select you up).”
Alarmed, Savita didn’t step in regardless of not understanding when the subsequent bus can be, if there can be one.
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Fortunately for her, one other bus swung by minutes later. This time, an aged girl who had witnessed Savita’s harrowing expertise, “stood in entrance of the bus with each arms outstretched, requested a gentleman to maintain my baggage on the service and ensured I acquired a seat. Lastly, at 10.30 pm, I reached Hisar,” Savita says.
Her father Mahender Punia says, “She cried quite a bit after reaching dwelling. We cried quite a bit, not understanding what had occurred to her.”
That night time, Mahender purchased his daughter a cellphone and his household a greater second-hand automobile in order that she would by no means should journey alone once more.
Savita is aware of her episode isn’t unusual, particularly through the early years when younger ladies journey alone in trains and buses to far-off venues to play hockey. “We’ve come a good distance in different areas, however security shouldn’t be a motive for a kid to fret about her future within the sport,” she says.
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“If not for the help of my household, I may need give up after that incident.”
As an alternative, the participant who thought-about quitting that night time — or thought she would say goodbye to hockey after only one match — performed her three hundredth worldwide on February 24.
Not unhealthy for somebody who by no means went in search of hockey. Hockey merely occurred to her.
Her story: ‘An athlete’s life’
Savita stands subsequent to an arrow pointing in the direction of ‘Punia Niwas’, a reasonably white bungalow in the course of sprawling inexperienced fields.
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It’s her first go to dwelling in months. She has lower than 48 hours along with her mother and father — “each night time earlier than I sleep, I thank them in a prayer,” she says — earlier than she leaves for Vancouver to be along with her husband Ankit Balhara and her in-laws, Bhal Singh and Mumta, a former athlete. “I’ve reached this far due to my husband and his mother and father,” she says. “I’ve seen too many ladies gamers having to finish their careers after marriage. However my in-laws went out of their strategy to help my profession.”
Savita sits for an interview with an uncommon demand: she doesn’t want to discuss her profession highs. “That folks know or can learn on-line,” she laughs.
This, regardless of seeing extra good days than her predecessors. Savita belongs to a technology — that features the likes of Rani Rampal and Vandana Kataria — that reworked ladies’s hockey in India. Collectively, they ended India’s three-decade-long Olympic exile, led the crew to back-to-back Video games and got here agonisingly near a medal in Tokyo, the place they completed a historic fourth.
However Savita, whose job description as a goalkeeper is kind of actually to take blows for the crew, needs to speak concerning the struggles. Or, as she places it extra eloquently, “an athlete’s life”. As if they’re each the identical.
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“I’m not saying the world ought to know my story or that it’s attention-grabbing. But when a younger, upcoming athlete finally ends up studying it, she ought to really feel that every one of that is regular, whether or not good or unhealthy is a separate dialogue,” she says. “In spite of everything, most athletes face the identical challenges. It’s concerning the selections you make.”
‘I don’t even like hockey!’
Savita had simply entered her teenagers when she needed to make her first good selection: whether or not to remain at dwelling to assist her ailing mom or transfer to an even bigger city to affix an English-medium college that provided an opportunity to play.
“There was this college in Sirsa that provided admission if we performed one of many three sports activities — judo, badminton or hockey. I had no real interest in sports activities and couldn’t even differentiate between a crew sport and a person sport,” she says. “But, I accepted the provide to seem for the choice trials solely as a result of it will imply going to a greater college. I used to be in a authorities college, and enjoying a sport would give me an opportunity to get enrolled into an English-medium, CBSE college.”
However she confronted a quandary. Shifting out would imply abandoning her mom Lilavati, who suffered from “such extreme arthritis that she couldn’t even comb her hair or eat by herself”.
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“By Class 5, I needed to study to do all of the family work… A to Z, the whole lot. My father was already overburdened. He cooked, fed mummy, took care of me and my brother after which went to work. So, the primary thought I had when it got here to leaving was, ‘Who will carry out the every day chores at dwelling?’”
However Mahender, who labored as a pharmacist on the Sirsa Main Well being Centre, was clear about what wanted to be performed.
Egged on by her father, and nudged by her grandfather Ranjit Singh — he had watched a hockey match throughout a visit to Delhi in his youth — a 13-year-old Savita, “wearing a salwar-suit”, appeared for the trials barefoot.
After a gruelling audition — with shuttle runs, frog jumps and the 800m, the place she got here first — Savita was admitted to the varsity. “And thus started my hockey journey.” A journey so filled with challenges that {the teenager} had virtually made up her thoughts that she would surrender.
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The primary was the sudden shift from Hindi medium to English. “I began fearing books. I used to be afraid I wouldn’t have the ability to compete with my classmates and couldn’t even converse with them. I needed to study however lacked the braveness. Slowly, I acquired right into a shell,” she says.
Within the hostel mess, the sight of dalia, bhindi, and dal with tomato and onion made her homesick. After which, there was the nagging concern concerning the state of affairs at dwelling, along with her mom’s well being.
Each different day, Savita made excuses to bunk college and go dwelling, which her lecturers promptly rejected. Throughout lessons, she would stare exterior the home windows and plot escape plans. “It continued like this from 2003 to 2005. I used to be afraid of books, barely had any curiosity in hockey and had no objective.”
One Friday, she was knowledgeable that her father was coming to select her up the next day. “It was the happiest day of my life. I packed the whole lot and was prepared to depart. The subsequent morning, I skilled very nicely and fortunately, assuming it was my final day there. Daddy got here, picked me up and we left for dwelling.”
Then, a twist. “The second I reached, mummy instructed me that daddy had gone behind my again and made a take care of the coach in class. Apparently, the coach instructed him I had the potential to be an excellent goalkeeper due to my peak (5′ 8″). Daddy even paid him Rs 18,000 as charges!”
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The quantity was twice what Mahender Punia earned in a month. Savita spent the entire night time crying.
“I saved yelling, ‘yeh kya kar diya (what have you ever performed)’. I don’t even like hockey!’ Mummy calmed me down and requested me to simply strive.”
Savita agreed reluctantly, however she resented the game, a sense that will keep for lengthy. “I assumed I’d strive it as soon as — simply as soon as — after which depart hockey for good.”
‘Ab dil se khelna hai’
The farther Savita ran from hockey, the deeper the game got here in search of her. In 2007, when Savita acquired her maiden call-up for the nationwide camp, her father distributed laddoos in your entire neighbourhood. “And in my head, I used to be considering, ‘I’m very near leaving hockey. Bas ek baar India khelna hai (I’ll play a global match as soon as) and that’s it’,” she laughs.
She needed to wait for one more 12 months to get picked within the Indian crew — for a take a look at collection towards the Netherlands and Germany.
It has been 17 years however Savita nonetheless can’t imagine that she was picked. “There have been seven goalkeepers within the trials. I by no means thought I’d be among the many high two who had been to be within the crew,” she says. “On the time, the way in which the choice system labored was very totally different.”
As of late, there’s a technique to a crew choice, although not all the time excellent. There’s a core group that trains collectively all 12 months lengthy and gamers are chosen from that bunch following choice trials. Coaches, too, are extra delicate, and take time to clarify alternatives and exclusions individually to gamers.
Again in 2008, nonetheless, the system was much less empathetic. “After the trials, the selectors used to signal on a sheet. Inside quarter-hour, your entire group needed to assemble and they’d announce the crew,” Savita says.
Dipika Murthy, the first-choice goalkeeper, was injured so it opened the door for others. Savita didn’t suppose it will be her. However they first referred to as the title of Marita Tirkey, adopted by Savita’s. “For a second, I assumed I had misheard. Everybody was stunned — even I used to be. I double-checked to see if my title was on the checklist. I requested them, ‘Can I inform my household?’”
The subsequent second, she was on a name along with her mother and father, breaking the information. “Dad mentioned one thing I’ll always remember. ‘It appears like you’re reborn’.” However even amidst the flood of feelings, the considered leaving the game wasn’t far-off. “I used to be nonetheless in the identical part. Bas ek baar hello khelna hai.”
Then, one thing occurred which ensured a lifelong bond with hockey.
Savita’s brother, Bhavishya, was studying out the newspaper protection of her choice to their grandfather, stressing on the half the place he was credited for pushing her in the direction of the game.
“My grandfather all the time remained aloof. He had seen many tragedies within the household within the type of premature deaths of among the members. Rising up, I by no means noticed him pleased,” Savita says. “However when the article acquired revealed and my brother learn it to him, he broke down and mentioned, ‘Ranjit Singh Punia has an identification due to Savita’.”
He went on to make her a promise: that he would save the newspaper copy, discover ways to learn inside a 12 months so he may learn for himself his title and Savita’s.
“Think about, this one sport modified the mindset and pushed the oldest member of my household in the direction of literacy,” she beams. “I felt that if hockey may make him neglect all of the unhealthy instances and get motivated to do one thing, then I’d by no means depart this sport. I’ll proceed enjoying until it’s bodily potential. Ab dil se khelna hai (Now I’ll play my coronary heart out).”
‘What when you get injured?’
Lastly, Savita began falling in love with hockey. However now, the game was testing her love.
In contrast to the cricketers, India’s hockey gamers have by no means been paid any match price. In the event you had been a girl participant a decade in the past, there would solely be a number of job alternatives exterior the Railways. However unluckily for Savita, even that door was shut.
For 10 years, from 2008 to 2018, as Savita performed — with no match price and no employment — she took India to newer heights.
“I all the time thought I’d fulfil all my needs as soon as I acquired a job, so I by no means requested for something from my father; I didn’t wish to burden him. If he gave me Rs 50, I’d take that; if he gave me give 500, I’d take that,” she says. “However moms can’t disguise their feelings. So mummy would maintain telling me, ‘What when you get injured, what about your future then?’”
It acquired so dire at instances that Savita would even should suppose twice earlier than shopping for a cup of tea, particularly when travelling exterior India.
In 2018, when she was given the Arjuna Award, Lilavati had only one query for her daughter. “She requested, ‘Does this imply you’ll now get a job?’ Mummy didn’t know what the Arjuna Award was. She simply knew a job would safe my future… However at that second, I began crying.”
Weeks later, she utilized for a training function with the Sports activities Authority of India (SAI) when a emptiness got here up. And with that, a decade of wrestle ended. “I want this doesn’t occur to anybody else. It’s a very long time to stay with out a job, not everybody’s mother and father will have the ability to help a profession,” says Savita, who continues to be a SAI coach.
As she handled monetary instability, Savita concurrently discovered herself caught within the sensitive politics of the dressing room.
Savita admits her first massive break got here solely as a result of former India goalkeeper Yogita Bali acquired injured. However within the dressing room, a few of her teammates grudged her place within the crew.
“I received’t take names however through the 2014 Commonwealth Video games, I used to be repeatedly instructed that ‘I didn’t belong to the crew’. I used to be always reminded that Yogita Didi needed to be there. My efficiency acquired affected.”
Two years later, after the Rio Video games, the place India completed final of 12 groups, Savita felt she was singled out for the crew’s dismal present. “I couldn’t have lived my life with that feeling. Harsh phrases and taunts had been directed at me and I used to be certain I wouldn’t be recalled to the crew,” she says.
Nevertheless, Dutchman Sjoerd Marijne — the coach who took cost after Rio and later masterminded the Tokyo Video games efficiency of the ladies’s crew —positioned his religion in Savita, even making her the vice-captain. “After Sjoerd sir got here, my hockey profession was reborn.”
At 34, after a two-decade-long love-hate relationship with hockey and three worldwide goalkeeper of the 12 months awards, Savita finds herself at an analogous crossroad.
India’s ladies didn’t qualify for final 12 months’s Paris Olympics. Because the captain for the qualifiers, Savita acquired a lot flak that she had made up her thoughts to give up. Harendra Singh, who’s the present coach, talked her out of it. And now, she seeks redemption in Los Angeles.
“Once you obtain one thing after struggling quite a bit, the happiness you are feeling after that’s powerful to specific,” she says. “I simply need that sukoon (peace).”
