“The days felt too long when I couldn’t play hockey,” says 17-year-old Moni Gupta about the time she fell sick and couldn’t play her favourite sport. Moni was intrigued by it even before she began to play – the credit for that goes to her younger sister. “I used to watch her go play and wondered when I could too, I had learned for a month in my previous school but after I shifted to New Sion Secondary, I was selected by the academy,” she explains.
Though 14, Kajal Jhumbade is lean and strong, “I look bigger,” she says, “Which is why the coaches have placed me as a goalie.” Kajal has been playing hockey since two months with the Salaam Bombay Hockey Academy, which she thinks is a huge opportunity for those interested in sports. Kajal always did well in sports, taking part in races all through her school life. She recently came third in one of them.
Every time she goes home, Priya is greeted with cries of “Here comes the hockey champion!” But when she was picked up by the academy last year in October, the 15-year-old couldn’t help but be scared. “I thought they would scream at me, but no one did that,” she says. Priya’s father, a driver, was so happy to see his daughter’s name in the newspaper, that he even showed it to his boss, “I have kept that paper very carefully,” says Priya with a smile.
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