There is so much more to sport than winning or losing. Sport is also about memories. About fulfilment, joy and satisfaction. Ask Rajeshwari Kumari and she will tell you that sport is the best thing to happen to her, and the Asian Games opening ceremony was a dream she actually lived.
Rajeshwari, who won a quota for India in shooting at the Baku World Championship, marched under the tricolour in Hangzhou as Raja Randhir Singh, her father and acting President of the Olympic Council of Asia, looked on. Both tried to film the other and immortalise the moment for posterity.
“I don’t know that to say,” said Rajeshwari, also known as Ria, soon after the opening ceremony. “People say you live your dreams. I can say I just did. If I don’t do much more in life, I don’t really mind. Some are asking me what am I doing now. I am jumping, screaming, crying and asking myself: did it actually happen?”
For days, she had readied herself for the moment. That she would have the Indian tricolour in front of her and march out in front of 80,000 people with her father standing a few metres away, the man in charge of the games. And yet, when the moment came, everything seemed to happen in a flash. Memories came flooding by, from wanting to be a shooter, to the hours and hours of practice, to finally making it to Hangzhou.
Ask Randhir Singh, and he too couldn’t control his emotions. “It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life,” he said.
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In China, in the presence of their Premier, for an Indian to be in control of the Games was a fascinating example of India’s soft power. And Randhir, who has seen it all, is aware of it. “I am a proud Indian, and I hope this will be the best-ever Asian Games,” he said.
For Ria, the dream isn’t fully done yet. Now, she will live the other dream of winning a medal. “I will do my absolute best, I can tell you that,” she said. “To see the tricolour go up is something every athlete lives for, and I am no different.”
A member of India’s shooting contingent in Hangzhou offered some perspective on Ria’s progress. “She has improved a lot as an athlete,” said the shooter. “She is able to keep calm under pressure and not get worked up. And that’s the hallmark of a good shooter.”
Ria herself credited an Indian sporting treasure for the composure. “I always tell myself to follow what Abhinav [Bindra] has said to me,” she said. “To stay in the moment. Not think too far ahead. If I think of the result, things will not go my way. I just need to think of the next shot.”
Walking behind Harmanpreet Singh and Lovlina Borgohain, the flag-bearers for India, she did stay in the moment. Her moment. And her father was proudly looking at her, a sense of fulfilment in his eyes. That’s what sport does to you. It leaves you with unique memories. And that’s why sport is what it is. Real-life drama that no film can ever match. Ask Ria, and she will laugh and tell you yet one more time, “I don’t know how it happened, but it just did.”
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