Do dreams come true?
He used to cross the children everyday, thirty of them kicking out in the air, learning a Korean martial art in the middle of Alambagh.
She wasn’t the only one who wasn’t too sure, the neighbors and relatives made it a point to tell her that sports won’t take her too far. An eight year old girl couldn’t care less, especially when she won her first gold medal. Her mother Suraiyya carefully brings out stacks of certificates, school, state and national level. There are sixteen gold medals, two silvers and 3 bronzes, but Safeena holds one bronze out- “I won this last year, national championship 2005, they gave me a scholarship worth fifty thousand.” 5 feet 2 inches tall, tanned and could easily pass as a thirteen year old boy but Safeena is twenty and is Uttar Pradesh’s number one taekwondo player in the pin weight category. In the twelve years she’s practiced taekwondo, it’s been the dream of a gold at the nationals that’s kept her going. All of old sardari kheda knows her as “Gudiya”, the girl who can “fight back and kick”.
The fifth house opposite the choti masjid is a four room structure for a family of seven. This where she grew up, with her three sisters and two brothers. A typical day in Safeena’s life begins with waking up at 4:30 a.m., reaching the academy as 5 and training children till 7:30. She leaves for college at 11 and is back at 5 to take the 5:30 p.m. class. In between all this, Safeena does housework and runs errands for the family. Working as a coach at the academy earns her fifteen hundred rupees a month. This is what she uses to pay for a BA degree from
Waseema, a nine year old girl from the same locality is learning taekwondo from Safeena, “I want to go to different championships across India, Gudiya appa has been everywhere!” and its true, Gudiya has represented Uttar Pradesh every year since she started practicing taekwondo. The competitions have taken her to
But will these medals and certificates amount to something? So far no, “Whenever I go to an office to apply for a post they keep my certificates aside, Taekwondo isn’t recognized in Uttar Pradesh. They have a quota for kho kho and kabaddi but not taekwondo.” But challenges are not new to Safeena, bearing the taunts of the neighbors was never easy. People quizzed her father and mother, how could they let a young daughter practice a martial art with boys? How could they allow her to travel to unknown cities? Was it right to allow a girl so much freedom?
Gudiya dreams of the day when she’ll be able to make them all eat their words and show the community why she spent so much time learning taekwondo, why she did her BA and why she dared to dream. Will talent and the desire to achieve get her a job? “Do they have a reservation for me?” questions this girl of steel, she might as well have asked, “Do dreams come true”.
Shinjini Singh
The story in Newsline, The Indian Express--
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