(Why did Sarita have to spend so
much money? Give reasons
Answers
Explanation:
“My target for the World Championship is simple. It’s about giving a reply to those who keep saying ‘Sarita is too old. Sarita should retire’.”
Three-time Worlds medallist Sarita Devi’s declaration comes during a breather from the training session for the latest edition which begins on Thursday in Ulan-Ude, Russia. The 37-year-old — one of the two Indian remnants, along with Mary Kom, of the first ever women’s World Championships in 2001 — last medalled at the event in 2008.
ADVERTISEMENT
Her best shot since came last year in Delhi, where a 3-2 pre-quarterfinal defeat left Sarita on the brink of tears. Many chalked up the disappointment as being a typical Sarita reaction to losing a close bout. Almost a year later, Sarita reveals that there were far more distressing things on her mind.
“I wanted to win a medal for my mother, who was on her deathbed. I neither won a medal nor could I meet my mother one last time,” Sarita told The Indian Express. “Three days after the event, I got word that her condition had worsened. She was waiting for me that morning, but by the time I reached she had already lost consciousness.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Her eyes welling up, Sarita recalls the TV set up in front of her cancer-stricken mother’s bed, and how nobody in the family had the nerve to switch the channel. “Maybe it was a wrong decision to show her the bouts. I lost the bout which I won. Maybe she felt that too. She stopped eating the night I lost,” says Sarita. “Her condition got bad, and she passed away some days later.”
Sarita Devi With her six-year-old son Tomthil. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)
The conversation veers to happier times, to a more successful Worlds campaign in the Capital. To 2006, when Sarita won the 54kg gold in front of her mother.
ADVERTISEMENT
“She sat there in the stands at Talkatora, hands on her eyes. She couldn’t watch the bouts but had to be there,” says Sarita. “There was also the feeling that our junior boxers, the future was watching. But it was mostly about the vindication, that our childhood struggles were for a reason.”
For Sarita, who spent most of her childhood weaving and helping out in the farm to support her sister and six brothers, physical activities always took precedence over academics. “My father made me strong. The son-daughter partiality isn’t as common in Manipur. I don’t know what my father saw in me. He always kept me above my six brothers. He taught me how to drive. ‘My daughter will make us proud’”, recalls Sarita. “I was 13 when he passed away. After he was gone, I realised that I had to live up to the expectations.”