The amazing story of a woman boxer from India who defied formidable odds.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: Remember Mary Kom, India’s legacy to the boxing world? The pint sized mother of twins and a five time world champion, a bronze medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, is not just a pugilist but a symbol of hope and success against formidable odds.
She is the symbol of a woman’s war against the overwhelming forces of life. Her victory, one after another, in the ring and outside, is an inspiring story with very few parallels in this world.
Born in Kangathei, an inaccessible village in the north-eastern state of Manipur which has a common border with Myanmar, this Lady Courage stepped into a macho world of boxing defying her clansmen and a biased patriarchal world, to compete with the best that boxing can offer.
In India where the sport is not yet up to the world standard mark as we see in the United States, Cuba or the former Soviet states, the efforts of Kom is stunning. And now all that and much more is encapsulated in a book called ‘Unbreakable’, an autobiography which was released by none other than her icon Amitabh Bachchan in Mumbai, on Monday.
“My struggle has been one that many in our country face, especially women. The reason I decided to write my story was for others to read it and feel that if I could achieve what I have, so can they,” said Kom.
The 30-year old belongs to a tiny tribe of Kom which is currently numbered at a miniscule 30,000. The tribe is at the bottom of the many communities in Manipur today. The boxer recalls the racial profiling she constantly underwent by the dominant tribal communities in her state itself who were not happy to see her box in international arenas. When the winners of medals in Olympics were felicitated with crores of rupees, Kom had to be content with Rs. 50 lakhs. “It is not about the money, I just want total impartial support. I don’t want money,’’ she had said then.
Big B donned golden boxing gloves and showed his boxing skills to Kom but also shared how “humbled and honored” he was to be standing next to the champion sportsperson. He also read out portions from the book, which he thought was inspirational for the youth.
In the book, Kom recalls the days when she used to help her parents in the patch of land they tilled after school and even bring firewood each day to cook food. Being a natural athlete helped. She was good in football, karate and judo but not until she was smitten by the performance of Dingko Singh who had bagged the Asian Games gold medal in 1998, did she take an interest in boxing.
She enrolled with a local coach and began training without the knowledge of her family who only realized that their daughter was a boxer through her photographs in newspapers. She won a silver in her debut World Championships and then went on to bag the global title five times in a row from 2002 onwards – Turkey (2002), Russia (2005), India (2006), China (2008) and Barbados (2010).
Her story has also inspired a biopic to be released in 2014, being played by Priyanka Chopra in the lead.
For Kom, it is time to hit the punching bag from January 2014 onwards to try bag the Olympic Gold at Rio two years hence. For now, she’s cheering on her five year-old twin sons, Rechungvar and Khupneivar. She wants them to be ace shooters as they grow up.
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