Meet Vinesh Phogat, The First Female Indian Wrestler To Win Gold At Asian Games
- 10-Sep-2018
- 0 Comments
Asia is not enough, even if it is the first ever gold won by any Indian woman wrestler. At least, not enough for Mahavir Singh Phogat to get up from his charpoy to go and receive his niece at the international airport in the capital, roughly 120 km from where he is, in the village of Balali in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri district. “I’ll go the day it’s an Olympic gold.” His reaction to Vinesh Phogat bringing home a slice of the yellow metal might seem less than enthusiastic, but Mahavir would have you know that it’s not due to any lack of happiness on his part but because it wasn’t unexpected at all. As if to prove his point, he gestures at a member of the hookah baithak to bring sweets and tea for the visitors even before he has opened his mouth to say a word.
But, if the patriarch of the Phogat wrestling clan comes across as a man of few words, it’s because he doesn’t need to spell things out. When he does, it makes Aamir Khan’s portrayal of him in Nitesh Tiwari’s hit film Dangal (2016) pale in comparison. Like when he rules out a warm welcome at the airport for a victory that he expected. Or when he looks at us and indicates that one of us has hair not short enough. What was that? Did he just gesture to someone to go and fetch the barber, like that scene in the film that bordered on parental abuse? No, it’s all in the mind. Besides, this is a different story, although it shares some of the key characters.
“Main bhi Olympic medal la sakta tha (I could have won an Olympic medal, too),” declares Harvinder, the reluctant jester of another baithak in another courtyard, just 100 yards of cobbled street away from Mahavir’s, but a world apart in every other sense. It’s the world of Premlata Phogat, Mahavir’s sister-in-law, and her three children — Harvinder, Priyanka, and, of course, Vinesh, the youngest at 24, and gold medal-winner at the just-concluded Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. This is a world that has made its peace with tragedy and is now busy dishing out carefree laughter and endless cups of chai. Vinesh has had two cups already, and two laddoos, too; she asks for more and gets scolded.
