MARY KOM !!!

‘Kisi ko itna bhi na darao ke darr hee khatam ho jaaye.’ ‘Ek aurat maa bann kar bahut strong ho jaata hain, aur tumhara taaqat ab doh gunah badh gaya hain. Hum mehenat bhi doh gunah karenge.’ Manipur has always been a state of terrorism and military curfews every now and then, but, still, this state has produced so many talented sportspersons for India. On 1^st March of 1983, a girl took birth at Kangathei of Manipur State. At her age of 8 years, she got hold of a red coloured left handed boxing glove from a place where riots took place a few minutes back. ‘Arrey yeh ladki kiska hain, yahan se le ke jaao.’ Oho! What a girl! In 2000, while studying in a school of Imphal, she had a fight with a boy. ‘Tera kya karoon mujhe samajh nahi aata. Hamesha gussa hee aata hain?’ The girl’s younger brother revealed a top secret, ‘Pappa isko boxer banna hain.’ For 1 week, the girl had to stay inside her house as per her father’s order. The athletic girl again chased that rowdy boy to beat him up. The chase ended inside the Narjit Singh’s boxing coaching club. The boxing coach scolded the girl, ‘Ei ladki! Boxing glove ka badnaami mat karo. Boxing gloves pehen ke sports hota hain, jhagra nahi.’ The girl requested the boxing coach to teach her boxing. ‘Yeh glove ko kamana padhta hain. Ek mahina kaal se, 7 baaje aa jaana.’

Her boxing training classes started. ‘Dekhe hain aankhon mein kismat ki aankhen daal ke, hawaa ke kaanon mein jaa ke kahein kismat ziddi hain. Dil yeh ziddi hain.’  The boxing coach taught her some basic rules of boxing. ‘Aaj se tumhare liye yeh duniya sirf yeh square hain. Aur ish duniya ka bhi kuch rules hain. Commitment; iske bina koi bhi raasta apna manzil nahi baanta. Manzil bhi kam ziddi nahi hain, tum uske taraf chalega toh woh tumhare taraf chalega. Hamesha full surrender to Boxing. Boxing ko apna sab kuch de do, apna time, apna khushi aur apna pehchan bhi, tab jaake tumhara pehchan banegi. Hamesha full focus; dhyaan gaya toh naak gaya. No pain, no gain. No mercy in boxing. Dayaa naa ring mein miltaa hain aur naa kabhi dikhana. Tum sirf attack karega, attack.’ The girl impressed her coach with her performances in boxing in her training period and earned her first pair of boxing gloves. In Manipur, there is a tradition of Street Fighting and gambling takes place in the backend. For each second, there is money involved in it. The spectators invest money on fighters like it happens in bird fighting in villages. The girl came to fight against a male fighter to earn some money. The deal was to survive for more than 15 seconds in the fight. If the girl survives for more than initial 15 seconds, then the male fighter would give Rs. 300/- for each extra 15 seconds of survival by the girl in the fight. ‘Betting bandh, action start!’ The girl survived for 45 seconds in the fight. Chungneijang and Onler met each other outside the fighting ground and a new chapter started.

The selection list for the State Level Boxing Championship has been published. Marte Chun Chun Kong got a new name! Welcome to Indian Women Boxing. The infrastructure of Boxing Federation was so poor that even the boxers participating in the State Level Boxing Competitions were not getting proper foods to eat. The Boxing players and coaches lived in dormitories whereas the family members of the officials of Boxing Federation lived in Guest Houses under Sports Ministry through Sports quota. These are some of the examples of poor infrastructure of Sports in India and that’s why; so many talented sportspersons are unable to perform well at International level. The Boxing coach of Manipur had to spend some money from his pocket to bring some good foods for the Manipuri Boxers. ‘Tum khaali pet ladh paayega na? Sabbash!’ In the year of 2000, she won the State Open Boxing Championship at Calcutta to become the State Level Champion female boxer from Manipur. Her father became angry on her as she secretly became a boxing champion by breaking her orders. The gloves were burnt by her father. ‘Chungneijang, abba ya boxing?’ The girl selected the latter option. Never mind, after all, ‘Dil yeh ziddi hain.’ In the year of 2001, the girl won the 1^st Women’s National Championship in Chennai, 2^nd Senior Women’s National Championship in New Delhi and National Women’s Sort Meet in New Delhi. Why the Manipuri girl shoved off her long hairs to become bald headed in Senior Women’s National Camp of Bangalore in the year of 2001? Why the girl failed to perform well in the Asian Games Competition?

Her father is still angry on her. Onler started falling in love with Chungneijang. ‘Saudebaaji ek haseen ki, ek haseen se kar gaye tum. Beautiful laage saara jahan, beautiful nahi tum sa yahaan, ab tu hain jahan, main hoon wahan.’ In the year of 2002, the final match of Female Boxing Championship was on. The girl’s father finished his dinner. The girl was trailing behind in points in the final match. After all, a father is a father. He didn’t tolerate that his girl is trailing in the competition. Chungneijang’s father shouted at her girl who was getting watched by everyone on the TV Set. ‘Maar usse, Chungneijang. Attack!’ As if the father’s message reached Turkey at that moment. Chungneijang of India came back in the competition to beat the Sri Lankan competitor to become the World Champion Boxer. The anger of Chungneijang’s father got transformed into the tears of joy as his daughter made him feel proud. Chungneijang gifted a nice wrist watch to her father. The Manipuri people celebrated a tribal dance of happiness to give respect to Chungneijang’s victory. Media Channels have to increase their TRP ratings. So, a female journalist visited Chungneijang’s house to take her interview. In an informal conversation, Chungneijang just talked about the poor infrastructure of Indian Sports Ministry and Boxing Federation. The female journalist utilized that conversation to criticize the Boxing Federation. The officials of Indian Boxing Federation became angry on Chungneijang. ‘Aap ka opinion gaya bhaarh mein. Aap boxer hain, boxing mein focus kijiye, nahi toh bahut log khara hain line mein, jisko hum yun world champion banaa sakte hain.’

It was India Vs Germany in the final match of 4^th Women’s Amateur World Boxing Championship at Delhi City of India in the year of 2006. Onler proposed her just one day before the final match. ‘Tujhe propose karne ke liye gol gappe ke thela hee milaa tha?’Chungneijang became world champion for the 3^rd time. The male football player and the female boxer got married to each other. ‘Sukun milaa, sukun milaa.’ In 2007, again some riots took place in Manipur. On a night, when the curfew was on in Manipur, Chungneijang’s pregnancy condition reached its second last stage. The Manipuri policemen helped Onler to take her wife towards a local hospital to admit her. On their way, some Manipuri terrorists attacked the Police jeep and was about to kidnap the passengers inside it. But, the terrorist leader knew Chungneijang very well and let her and her husband to go out from that area. ‘Kyon jaaney diya?’ ‘Maloom hain kaun thi woh? 45 seconds! Aaj bhi dum hain.’ Chungneijang gave birth to twin babies, one is Khupneivar and another one is Rechungvar.

To meet the family expenses, Chungneijang applied for a government job in sports quota. The boxing champion was given the job post of a lady Sub-Inspector. The female boxing champion did not accept the job offer. Corruption and bribes still exist in Government sector. What a shame! ‘Geela geela bash paani palkon mein rahe gaya, dheere dheere woh sapna aankhon se bahein gaya.’ The married woman planned to come back in boxing again to regain back her glory. The Boxing Federation started playing some trick on the female boxer. The boxer protested against the Federation and got banned and later on came back in boxing ring after submitting a written apology letter. Many female boxers gave threats to complain about sexual harassment and some sexually coloured SMS against the officials of Boxing Federation if the Boxing Federation tries to defame or ban Chungneijang again. In 2008, Chungneijang became the World Champion for the 4^th time after beating Sasha, the German boxer. Did Nai Nai also win a medical battle? In 2010, she became world champion for 5 times. She won a bronze medal in the London Olympics of 2012 and was awarded the Padma Bhushan Award in 2013. She gave birth to her 3^rd son, Prince in 2013. She won a Gold Medal in Boxing at Asian Games of 2014 in Incheon of South Korea and is having a dream to win a Gold Medal in Rio Olympics of 2016. Will you still want to know the name of this woman as the Indian female sportspersons are forgotten too often? Well, ladies and gentlemen; the name of this female fighter is “MARY KOM”.