The Unknowns!

The Story of former Indian womens basketball team captain Divya Singh directly from herself

She comes from a family of basketball players, three of her sisters currently are a member of the Indian women national basketball team

• Sister Priyanka Singh (NIS Basketball Coach) wife of Manish Kumar (also an NIS Basketball Coach)
• Sister Prashanti Singh (Currently member of India women national basketball team)
• Sister Akanksha Singh (Currently member of India women national basketball team)
• Sister Pratima Singh (Currently Captain Junior India women national basketball team)

We live our dreams, no matter how hard the reality is..

Early in the morning at 5.00am, she gets up and try to kit up to go to practice, everyone else is sleeping at home, she tries to find her sneakers but she is not able to find them because all the lights are shut and she is still struggling to see without any light. Some how, she finds the sneakers and slowly walks out of the door to ware them without making any noise. Somewhere in her heart she is scared if she wakes some one up. Now when she started wearing her shoes, she could hear some one is walking out of the door, she drops the shoes and started pretending that she has come out to see news paper. It is her father who came out to see if the news paper has come or not. He is shocked to know that her daughter is awake so early. He asked; “how come you woke up so early in the morning? Go and study!

In the shadows

The poor kid goes back and sleeps because if she still goes to practice she is going to get scolding early in the morning. She gets up again at 9am to get ready for the school.

She had to sit home for two month to study for exams no matter if she still wants to go and play. The neighbors ask them how much they got in English, Math or science; they never ask them how many baskets they have scored in a game. However, she managed to play basketball but the mental and emotional harassments she has faced in very early age can be never paid back.

When she started following the footsteps of her elder sister, she never knew that she is going to reach the maximum level of success in Indian basketball. Her mom was criticized because her girl child was playing but the proud mom of five girls never gave up and she helped her children’s to achieve their dreams.

This is the story of a former Captain of Indian basketball women team and one of the members of the Unknown Basketball Family of India, The family, which has produced four national players. They all played for Indian national basketball team and now stand amongst the best Basketball players India has produced till now

They are still UNKNOWN CAGERS. Only few in the country of billion recognize them by face and few by name. They don’t have fans to call their name if they are out of their basketball circle.

The only motivation for them at that point of time was their mom but the story remains the same for many kids like them who want to play but their parents, Gender, Culture also society doesn’t allow them to explore in the field they want to explore. I wonder after having many problems at early age what motivates them so much that they still want to play the game which is not recognize in India. Millions of unknowns are still struggling to become something in the game they love.

They say there is no future in this game, no money, and few job opportunities. Well, if we think logically the answers is yes! These are some problems but still people play, coaches’ struggle and national tournaments are conducted without having any support. People don’t come to see basketball games; they don’t praise the hard work basketball players have done to reach there. We have basketball court in almost every school and college but impact on people is negligible. We still offer money to show our national championship on television.

Who is answerable? Society, parents, children or our nation! Whatever the question is the passion of the basketball gives strength to children to still try to prove everyone wrong and play the game they love. Only few are lucky enough to get support from parents to chase their dreams through Basketball. However, they are very few but they are living their dreams to see positive change in future.