Sharmistha Gooptu in Paris
Some names are like a child’s introduction to sport. One such name for me was PT Usha. People would speak with hushed reverence when it came to Usha because she was the first Indian female athlete to have broken onto the international stage, and she stood for speed and power, something people did not easily equate with women at the time. Usha became a household name.
Come yesterday, and we waited for the anticipated interview with the first female President of the Indian Olympian Association (IOA) in a quiet seating area near the lobby of the Hyatt in Paris, where the Indian officials are staying. The tall lady that strode in through the glass door nodded hello to us, and in my head, I heard my father’s voice from years ago – ‘that’s PT Usha’ – as he pointed out the visuals of a sprinting figure on our first colour television. And I heard myself saying, ‘Ma’am, I’m so delighted to be meeting you, you’re The PT Usha we’ve heard about since we were children.’ Her face broke into a smile.
In my interview with her, I asked her about what it was like when she was a competing athlete, and Indian food was not easily available at international locations. And out came a fun story about how she would carry her own bottle of mango pickle with her and eat it with rice, if nothing else was available. Classic Indian jugaad, because for an athlete, mental well-being comes from familiarly – of taste and texture before they are set to compete.
As an athlete, Usha needed carbs for energy and rice was her preferred staple, which of course was easy to obtain because Asian cuisines were popular.
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In those days when Usha was competing, she told us, the Indian contingent would carry their own cook to make the standard dal-chawal and roti-sabji, but athletes from other countries would also apparently come in to try the Indian food, so tasty was it. A young Usha would often land up when all the food was over!
Come the Paris Olympics and the IOA under Usha have arranged for Indian cuisine to be available in the Games village, to be served to the athletes, partnering with the Sodexo Group. Competing athletes – while ‘potato is the same as rice’ for carbs, says Usha – are mentally in a better space if they can eat the food of their choice.
For athletes of Usha’s generation, such things were, of course, luxuries that they were not used to. Once, when an international athlete asked Usha the secret of her success, she pointed to her bottle of mango achar which she carried everywhere. ‘That’s my secret,’ she had joked, and the other athlete had tried a piece and started to jump around. “So hot was it,” laughed the IOA President.
As we finished the interview, it seemed to me that this was someone who, while she has an entire aura around her, is truly approachable and warm. We parted wishing for India as many medals as we dared to hope. May this be India’s best-ever Olympics, under Usha, India’s one-time golden girl.
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