The rags to riches story of few Indian athletes

When it comes to reaching the pinnacle of sporting glory from the abject dregs of poverty, or through a road laced with obstacles, our country’s sportsmen are not an alien tribe. Not known for being spoilt with training facilities or financial freedom, many a sporting hero have made difficulties their friend while striving to achieve success in their chosen field. Trifling with life’s daily struggles, they learn to play trifles with the extreme pressures that associate itself with sports at the highest level.Here’s a look at a few of Indian sports’ Rags to Riches story:

#4 Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan may have featured in Shashi Tharoor’s “India’s Lost Boys” along with Vinod Kambli and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, but it wasn’t that long ago he was regaling the cricket world with his superb swing bowling. It would be hard to forget his debut One-Day series in Pakistan as well as the hat-trick in the first innings of the Karachi Test in 2006, along with the man-of-the-match performance in the World T20 Final in 2007 and many other performances.

The cricketer who can arguably be said to have cemented his niche in the world of glamour (specially with the advent of the IPL) had the humblest of beginnings, having grown up in a mosque along with half-brother Yusuf in an impoverished family in Gujarat. Their parents initially wished them to become Islamic scholars, but the brothers took an interest in cricket and in the early days their games in and around the mosque amply irritated the mosque visitors.

From a boy whose deliveries wouldn’t reach the other end of the cricket pitch in the beginning, to the Player of the match in the World Cup final, the Pathan parents can indeed feel proud of the the brothers, and especially for the younger Irfan with more than 100 Test wickets to his name.

#3 Vijender Singh

It was the quartet of Akhil, Vijender, Jitender and Dinesh from small Bhiwani of Haryana who stirred interest in boxing with their exploits in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Amongst them, it was Vijender’s gold medal that ensured the interest was sustained and encouraged the sports authorities to send the largest ever boxing contingent from India for the 2012 London Olympics. However, the path for the 2010 Asian Games gold-medallist and the winner of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award was not laced with any kind of comfort.

His father was a bus driver with the Haryana roadways, and mother a homemaker. His father drove buses overtime so as to pay for Vijender and his brother’s schooling. He began practicising boxing at the Bhiwani Boxing Club, where national level boxer and coach Jagdish Singh recognized his talent for the first time. Fortunately for him, his elder brother Manoj managed to enter into the Indian Army in 1998 also with boxing credentials and decided to support Vijender’s career financially.

The first recognition for Vijender came when he won a bout in the state-level competition and a silver medal in his first sub-junior nationals in 1997. The rest as they say is history!

#2 Mary Kom

5-time World Boxing champion, Olympic bronze medallist, first woman Asian Games gold-medallist boxer as well as the recipient of the Arjuna Award, Padma Shri and many other awards “Magnificent Mary” Kom’s story is an inspiration to thousands of kids across the country. Born in Manipur - a state torn in poverty and insurgency – Mary was the eldest of four siblings and often had to help in the field in between studying and practising athletics, in order to support her family.

It was Manipuri boxer Dingko Singh’s gold at the 1998 Asian Games which made her interested in boxing. The story of her appearing in ragged and torn clothes in front of her coach Kosana Meitei at the Sports Authority of India in Manipur and asking to be inducted into the training program has been made legendary, albeit a bit theatrical, in the Sanjay Leela Bhansali biopic on her.

Boxing being a taboo discipline for women, Mary initially had to hide the fact of her joining boxing from her conservative Kom family. Hand-in-glove with poverty and hardship, Mary’s willpower and drive propelled her through all her obstacles and out from the gutter into heroic stardom.

#1 Milkha Singh

The Padma Shri winner and India’s finest Olympian Milkha Singh’s folklore is well-documented especially with the recent release of the film “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag”. Born in the part of Punjab that is now Pakistan “the Flying Sikh” would walk 10 km barefoot to reach his school. Having watched his parents, brother and two sisters murdered in front of his eyes in the violence that ensued Partition, Milkha was lucky enough to escape to Delhi with a few other boys.

He stayed with his married sister initially, and later spent time in jail and in a refugee camp. Milkha joined the Indian Army in 1951. It was during this time that he was introduced to athletics and received his training. He was selected by the army for special training in athletics after finishing sixth in a compulsory cross-country run for new recruits.

Singh has acknowledged the contribution the army played in his life in a statement that epitomizes the condition of thousands of boys and girls spread across small towns and villages across the country: “I came from a remote village, I didn’t know what running was, or the Olympics.”