Nagoya/Jind: Clutching her BPL card, Sudesh Devi was walking from her one-room house towards the village PDS ration shop in Haryana’s Sangatpura on Tuesday morning when her battered keypad phone buzzed. It was an unknown number.“Neeru gold jeeti hai, Asiad mein (Neeru has won gold, at Asiad),” said the stranger.Asian Games Full Coverage | Schedule | Medal TallyShe stopped in her tracks. Fighting back the urge to jump for joy, she looked around for someone to verify the news.“We don’t have a TV or smartphone. I hadn’t been able to follow the news but knew last night that Neeru was to compete,” she told TOI later.Devi, 48, collected the ration and hurried back home in a daze.“I still couldn’t believe she won gold,” she said.In Nagoya, meanwhile, at a rain-swept, high-altitude shooting range, Neeru Dhanda was making a mother’s dream come true, becoming the first Indian woman, and the first Indian since the late Randhir Singh in 1978, to win gold in individual trap.India had won seven shooting gold medals at the last edition in Hangzhou but has endured a difficult campaign here. Neeru provided the country’s first gold in shooting at these Games, less than two weeks after she lay on a hospital bed, not even sure she would make the trip.Neeru had spent three days in a Bhopal hospital with suspected H1N1 flu while the national camp was under way in the city. On a liquid diet for five days, she could not get to the practice station for three-and-a-half weeks and arrived in Nagoya short of training, but not intent.On the eve of her gold-winning effort, you would not know she had been through all that.On Tuesday, rain landed on her hand and threatened to cause a disturbance. But Neeru stayed locked on to the target.“Aaj agar toofan bhi aa jaye, neeche nahi dekhna (Even if there is a storm, look it in the eye),” she told herself.The storm never came close to derailing her.But it was such a different story just a fortnight ago, when she was riddled with doubt and frail with illness. It was her personal coach Mansher Singh, a three-time silver winner in team trap, who kept her going. On the eve of her event, national coach Peter Wilson gave her a simple message: “Grind it out.”Grinding it out is something Neeru has done since she picked up a shotgun less than a decade ago.
A journey that began by a pond
Her journey started on the banks of a talaab (pond) close to their home.“My uncle took me to a pond and asked me to shoot a small sheet of tin. I also told myself, ‘Let’s see what I can do.’ I passed that test,” Neeru told TOI.Neeru was then inspired by her cousin Lakshay Sheoran, a silver winner in trap at the 2018 Asian Games.By 2019, she had packed her bags and moved to Bhopal because the Madhya Pradesh Shooting Academy offered free guns to its trainees. But before she could get her hands on one, she had to prove she could shoot.Uncle Somveer, Lakshay’s father and a former national wrestling champion, handed her an old country double-barrel gun and took her to the pond. It was almost as if the family was indulging a petulant kid. Today, they would be so happy that they gave in to her demands.“We had neither the money nor the resources for this sport. Lakshay helped arrange everything. My daughter even practised with his rifle. His family is related to us. Today, after seeing what my daughter has achieved, my heart is filled with happiness,” father Suresh said.
A mother’s unwavering faith
Behind her achievement lies a story of extraordinary struggle, sacrifice and a mother’s unwavering faith in her daughter. Poverty was just another battle on the way.Sudesh Devi took to selling buffalo milk to keep the shared dream alive.When TOI reached their one-room home, the proud mother was washing utensils. Eyes wide in wonder, she looked up and said, “You are telling me it is indeed gold? My Neeru has won gold?”And then she threw up her soap-streaked arms and let out a cheer.Soon, the stream of badhaais started. Villagers flocked in to celebrate ‘Jind ki beti’. Neeru’s feat is all the more remarkable considering that Sangatpura lies in the heart of ‘khap-land’.Father Suresh Dhanda, 56, said the family struggled to support her sporting career but never gave up.Sudesh Devi said she never regretted having daughters.“If God had given me another daughter, I would have welcomed her too. Today, daughters are proving that they can be at the forefront of everything. In the toughest of times, Neeru would tell me, ‘Ma, keep faith in me and ignore what the world says’,” she said.Neeru had decided to put marriage on hold because she wanted to first change her family’s circumstances.“She had promised me that she would first build a good house for the family and start her own family only after fulfilling that promise. After today’s victory, it feels as if all our dreams have come true,” she said.
