Meet these unsung heroes behind CWG medal winners | India News – Times of India

DADA LIFTED RICE BAGS SO THAT ACHINTA COULD LIFT BARBELLS
Alok Sheuli | 28 Brother to Achinta, who won weightlifting gold (73 kg)
In 2020 when Howrah lad Achinta Sheuli was training for his campaign for gold at Birmingham, his older brother Alok was facing a different yet deadly challenge. As a fireman he had responded to a call about a gas cylinder blast and headed in to rescue the family. During the rescue his uniform caught fire. It was only several precious minutes later that the fire was doused. “I was fortunate to escape with minor injuries,” Alok says ruefully. In a life marked with struggle and hardship, the burn injuries are just one of the many incidents that Alok shrugs off. Behind Achinta’s golden moment on July 31, there were many 18-hour-workdays, going to bed hungry and the kindness of the para (neighbourhood).
There were also Alok’s own aborted dream of being a weightlifter. In Bengal’s Deulpur village where they lived, the older brother had joined a neighbourhood gym where coach Astom Das took him under his wing. It had a dirt floor that would flood when it rained hard and bare walls but the barbells lying around gave the boy a dream to pursue. Their father’s death in 2013 dealt a big financial and emotional blow for the family of already modest means. “As the older child I took responsibility along with my mother,” he says. Their mother took up embroidery work that would pay a paltry Rs 500 a week. Instead of books, Alok lifted rice bags at Re 1 a bag to earn Rs 200 as a daily wager. Over time, Alok dropped studies and his ambition to be a weightlifter but pushed his young brother to continue the dream.
Achinta put in many, many hours at Das’s gym and placed fourth in the 2014 national championships in the youth category. He won medals in 2016 Khelo India and eventually got selected for the national team last year. Money was stretched and often Das would help out by feeding him. “Sometimes we slept hungry to save money,” Alok says. He often worked for a promise of chicken or eggs at the end of the day so that his brother would get the protein he needed. “Achinta would call sometimes crying from the training centre that there was not enough money for supplements. It was hard for him and us but we tried to manage,” he says. During thepandemic, Alok worked to sterilise hospital wards and is now a contractual fireman risking life and limb every day. But these tribulations have not tempered his ambition for his younger brother. “His target is the Olympics,” Alok says with pride.
SINGLE MOM TOOK LOANS, SPENT SAVINGS TO HELP DAUGHTER PLAY
Amrita Singh | 55 Mother to Tulika Maan who won silver medal in judo
As a single mother Amrita Singh, an assistant sub-inspector in Delhi police, struggled to raise a young child after her husband’s untimely death. Her job had long hours and she would lock up Ganga, as Tulika is known at home, returning only late at night. “She would be so angry and aggressive that I didn’t know what to do,” Singh recalls. Singh sent her daughter to a judo academy close to her Tagore Garden home in west Delhi, hoping it would help. “I thought she could take out her frustration for a couple of hours, get tired and come home,” she says. Little did she know that judo would become an abiding passion for the youngster.
A tomboy who would use any excuse to play football or cricket with the colony boys rather than study, Tulika soon started winning competitions in the sport. “She was not interested in studies and would run away from tuitions. Even though she was not doing well in academics, the principal wanted to keep her in school because she was winning medals for them,” Singh says. Soon Tulika was travelling for competitions as well. But this meant a steep increase in expenses for kit and travel. “If you ask me now after 31 years of service what are your savings — I will say nothing. I took personal loans, dipped into my pension fund, just managed somehow to keep her going. I felt that I had to do my part for my child,” Singh says.
In 2019, Tulika won the gold medal at the South Asian Games and in the Commonwealth Championships. But the selection for the 2022 CWG was anything but a given. Tulika’s name was only included after some delay. Despite her daughter’s incredible run, Singh couldn’t even watch her matches because of work pressure. She would have even missed the silver medal if it hadn’t been for a neighbour updating her with video clips from their TV. “I would not have even known that she qualified for the final if someone had not called me,” she says. When the bout ended and a sobbing Tulika called her mother at 3:30am to apologise for not winning gold, Singh’s words were reassuring but firm. “I don’t believe in saying ‘shabash’ (good job!) because then the childwill not push herself. Usse abhi aur bahut kuch karna hai (she has to achieve more),” she says.
BROTHER WAS YOUNG WEIGHTLIFTER’S STRENGTH
Pritpal Singh | 32 Brother to Harjinder Kaur who won weightlifting bronze (71 kg)
There were many nights when Harjinder Kaur would come back home in Punjab’s Mehas village ready to throw in the towel. The strength training to transform a kabaddi player to a weightlifter was taking its toll even though she was used to working on the farm. “She wanted to quit. It was very hard on her shoulders and knees initially. But we told her that she couldn’t give up havingcome so far,” recalls Pritpal Singh, her brother. Give up, she didn’t. Harjinder went back to the camp and within a year she was able to cope with the demands of the sport.
There have been several such moments of self-doubt in the 25-yearold’s life but Harjinder has lifted her way out of them with the help of her family and coach. An active child, Harjinder was usually found climbing trees to pluck jamuns and mangoes before they were ready for harvest. “Our parents felt that she would do well in sports because she always wanted to be outdoors whether it was to run the fodder machine or help in the fields,” Singh says. Harjinder played kabaddi in school and college till she was spotted by coach Paramjeet Sharma in Patiala’s Punjabi University. Sharma felt that her arm strength would suit well for a sport like weightlifting. During the pandemic Harjinder even moved into Sharma’s home with some other lifters to continue with her training.
Singh says that over the years as Harjinder became more focused in her training, her visits are few and far between. Often she would feel homesick and despondent. “We miss her too because she can never join us for festivals or special occasions,” he says. But family members travel to Patiala often to visit her. The family took loans to manage expenses. Now with a government job in hand, Singh feels the hard times are behind them.