Sharmistha Gooptu in Paris
Mona Agarwal did everything that I did and that’s why I could identify with her so much! She was a rebel and left her home in Jaipur at the age of 23 to be independent and pursue a career.
She had been afflicted with polio as a child and managed her life in a wheelchair, away from home, living in hostels or in paying-guest accommodations and earning her own living. When her grandfather had said he would not allow her to ever return to the family home for her independent ways (because in her family, women had never worked outside the home), she had retorted that she didn’t want to anyways!
Yesterday, when I interviewed Mona on a zoom link, she said at one point, “There is so much aggression in me, I need to take it out through sport.” And it left me smiling. The aggression bit rocked!! There is so much of a younger me in Mona, and I’m sure many women out there would say the same, if they’ve stood up and done what their heart told them and not what was expected of them by family or society.
And I’m going to celebrate that very same aggression here as a positive thing, if that leads one to surmounting the challenges brought on by society, and a physical impairment, and leads you to a Paralympic medal!
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Mona Agarwal, now that she’s gotten to a position where people will listen to her, because nothing speaks like success — is a lady to look out for. She is not the demure and less spoken kind. She calls a spade a spade. She’s had a long struggle to get where she is today and she doesn’t mince her words. I have interviewed other women Paralympians, who have had similar journeys of hard struggle and yet they stay silent and choose to only speak through their sport. Mona is different. She is vocal, she has fire in her, and that’s what makes me want to speak to her again and write about her.
Asked about her pregnancy, Mona says she was afraid should she need to have a caesarean but after she had her first child, her positive energies were enough to get her through that demanding time. Mona seems to thrive on challenges. She admits that ‘comfort zones’ in life are not for her!! “I was doing fine and I was financially independent when I was working and got promoted within my organisation for my hard work.”
But she needed a challenge in life so she left her job and returned to her home town. She went on form the women’s sitting volleyball team for India and captained Rajasthan to gold. As a working mother, she started her days at five in the morning cooking for the family, then going for practice sessions before she went to office and returned to practice sessions post office.
Thereafter, she returned to her family to cook dinner and care for her children, a boy and a girl.
She took up shooting after a stint in para athletics and sitting volleyball. She recounts how she would go to the homes of girls like herself and convince their parents to let them play para sport when she was setting up the sitting volleyball team for India.
In shooting, she quickly proved her mettle, starting from a local shooting academy in Jaipur 500m from her home and going onto win gold in the para world championship in Korea and the Paralympic quota for Paris. She speaks vocally about the need for more support for women para athletes during their menstrual days when they have mood swings and might need some support by way of mental conditioning.
Mona means to make her journey count. She’s here to fight it out, and we are all the way with.
Also Read: From beginner to Paralympic medallist in three years – the Mona Agarwal story