Chak De India in Real Life

A real-life ‘Chak De India’ story unfurled in the 2021 Olympics, in the lives of our Indian Women’s Hockey Team, the Nabhvarna. 16 young women from various backgrounds, languages and locations across the country. Some with hockey in their veins to others from a Naxal-hotbed, some from the forgotten north-eastern states. These women have overcome huge hurdles to take the world stage, from being unable to communicate in Hindi or English to their teammates and resorting to using sign language to dealing with alcoholic, abusive fathers. This team is a mix of dynamic women of all ages from teenagers to women in their thirties. While every player’s contribution to the game is pivotal, I believe it is the leader who carries the entire weight of the team. The pressure on them to win while the whole world is watching is tremendous. Especially when the opposing team knows that you are the underdog and is sure to trounce you.

Rani Rampal, the captain of the team made history as she drove the Women’s Hockey Team to their first semi-finals in the Olympics at Tokyo. A 90s kid from rural Haryana her father is a cart-puller and her mother a housemaid. She overcame her own set of struggles as she could not afford to buy even a hockey stick. In one of her interviews, Rani recalls her struggles and how she started playing hockey to try and “escape” the impoverished condition her family was in. The frequent outages of electricity, her house that kept flooding when it rained and the bare existence of eating just one square meal a day. One incident that she recounts stands out, she recalls how the hockey academy she joined required each player to consume at least half a litre of milk daily, but Rani’s family couldn’t afford it. So, she used to mix water with a measly amount of milk to make it look like half a litre. Through all this, her passion stayed alit – Hockey! She never let her family’s financial conditions or her inability to get healthy food hinder her from pursuing her goals. Eventually, Rani became the youngest player in the National team for the 2010 World Cup, at the age of 15. Credit goes to her coach who stepped in to help her, he took her into his family and provided her with the diet she needed to succeed. After receiving the highest sporting honors in the country, she has now ascended the Olympic stage.

While we can learn persistence in pursuing one’s passion from Rani’s life (and from the lives of the other players, as well), we should also note that, when we want something and keep at it, help comes in some form or another. Paul a writer of many books in the Bible alludes to sports in one of his implorations to persevere, he says “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, (I) press on toward the goal to win the prize…” Rani took her team of underdogs towards what was lying ahead of them, leaving behind all that could have distracted them from going towards it. Societal pressure to marry and settle down, parental pressure to fit the norm and the stereotypical patriarchal mindset that girls are meant only to be in the kitchen. This Indian Hockey women’s team has proved beyond a shadow of doubt that you don’t have to be rich to achieve great things in life. This team and its captain are a formidable force, the dream team that little girls from all over India can be inspired by and as the team hunts for Bronze let us wish them well and may all their hard work and perseverance pay off.

Godspeed, Nabhvarna!

Pictures Courtesy @TheHockeyIndia on Twitter