Sporting hears beat for Malleswari

The thin film of moisture in her eyes, the palms cupping the chin as if to stop those tears from trickling down, and that lump in the throat were enough indications that she was overwhelmed. This was the ultimate moment, the apogee of ecstasy, one that only the pounding heart of a sports person standing on the mountaintop of success can experience.

And all it needed was the lining up of the entire sporting fraternity of the State, from tiny tots to the oldest of them clad in their brightest sporting attires, and their whole hearted applause for the first ever Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. It only takes a sports person to understand another, the pins and needles of practice, the heart numbing pain of failure, the pleasure of success and the misery of lugging the albatross of oblivion. Isn't it?

Karanam Malleswari was truly touched as her cavalcade headed its way along the Tank Bund, the lukewarm reception when she landed at the Begumpet airport in the morning, all but forgotten. And all along the route were mothers and fathers with their kids in tow trying to show them the woman who made the whole nation proud.

"This is really nice. I didn't expect this at all," the lady clad in a red salwar suit, a matching `bindi' on her forehead shining brightly, drooled. And the slight nudge she gave to her smiling husband, Rajesh Tyagi, standing atop the open jeep was indication enough that she dearly wanted him to see and savour the sight of the red carpet "her people" had rolled out for a prodigal daughter of the land.

"This is a stirring moment. As an athlete, I can understand the kind of struggles she might have undergone to reach this stage," young Abbas Iqbal Lasania, a State-level roller skater, remarked. "In a country where encouragement to athletics is abysmal and many are content representing the nation in field events, here is one lady who rose literally from the scratch and won a medal in the mother of all athletic events," he said, adding, "I hope she wins more medals in the next Olympics too!" Along with him were a group of skaters, some as young as five years old, with their helmets and skating boots on.

Smiles Himeshkumar Dodhia, president of the Jain Social Group who accompanied his nine-year old son, Gaurav, a student of Gitanjali Public School, to the place, "My son has already announced in the school that he's going to meet Malleswari!" The kids were in the vanguard of the procession, the whirring wheels of their skating boots loud and clear in the din of traffic.

Says Divya, a ninth class student of the Andhra Pradesh Sports School and a budding weight-lifter herself, "We heard so much about her and the grueling training sessions she undergoes everyday. The sight of her receiving the Olympic medal was truly inspiring." The eyes shining, she sighed, "Someday, I also hope to become like her."

And a mother eagerly showing her kid, barely a few years of age, clad in a smart track suit and holding the tricolour the country's Olympic medal winner, made an extremely pleasing sight - Malleswari's imposing presence, perhaps, freezed forever in the kid's eyes. Dreams are born young and they last long till they are realised. The mariner sails and - by dead reckoning, by log or compass - reaches the shores. The shores of success.

By K.V.S.Madhav

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Section  : Southern States
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