When Jyoti’s name was called out in Ranchi on Sunday night, she ran towards the stage to pick up the Player of the Tournament award, a glittering trophy and a check for Rs 20 lakh. At the end of the inaugural Women’s Hockey India League, the 25-year-old from Sonepat, who represented JSW Soorma Hockey Club, took home the most significant individual award.
And watching on from the stands at the Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Munda Astro Turf Hockey Stadium was Pritam Rani Siwach, former India captain, now coach also from Sonepat. Pritam had been present in the same room many years ago when Jyoti’s late mother Suraj had been in tears, because she wasn’t able to afford her daughter’s school fees, of Rs 250 a month roughly.
“I used to go to the school in our area to get admissions for poor children who cannot afford fees. I saw Jyoti’s mother, who was crying in front of the teacher,” Siwach, who has been running a hockey academy in Sonepat, told The Indian Express. “And there she was, this small naughty girl doing all sorts of mischief. Some time back her father Narender Singh, had expired in an accident. I asked the mother if she would be willing to send her daughter to my ground. I told her she won’t have to pay any money. I said I’ll pay her school fees, which was around Rs 250 per month. That’s how she got enrolled in my academy,” Siwach recalls.
Siwach then asked if the family had a cow or a buffalo. Jyoti’s mother had replied, indeed they had a cow. “So I asked her to feed Jyoti a glass of milk daily, I will take care of the rest myself, just send her to the ground.”
Jyoti recalled that day that changed her destiny. “We were sitting in the principal’s office. My mother told coach Siwach that she had no money to enroll me for hockey and the coach said, it’s all free,” the 25-year-old told this daily with a chuckle.
“My mother asked again… there would be shoes, sticks and clothes to buy. Coach said again, ‘it’s all free!’ Then she asked me if I wanted to play, I looked at my mother and said no. She told me to just come and try out once. Then on the first day, I got a T-shirt, shorts, shoes and socks. I saw so many girls playing, and I started enjoying the sport,” she recalls.
Jyoti lost her father, who was a truck driver, in a road accident in 2009. Mother Suraj used to do household work and then got a job in the school as a caretaker of kids in smaller classes. “We were three children, and she gave us everything we needed. Her toughest job was to take care of me, because an athlete has different needs,” Jyoti said.
Now a promising defender, Jyoti actually started out as a forward with coach Siwach. Then she moved into the junior camp, she played as a midfielder and forward.
When Harendra Singh took over last year as India’s head coach, he saw qualities in Jyoti that made him play her as a defender. She was initially skeptical, a little afraid, but has grown to like it. “I get to have the ball much more,” is her explanation. “And I also enjoy stealing the ball from forwards. I can see the full game in front of me.” She started watching videos of Belgian legend Arthur van Doren. “I learned a lot watching him play through videos on our iPads. It was so good to meet during the HIL. I don’t know if he even knows me but all I wanted to do was to click a photo with him.”
Jyoti with Belgium’s Arthur van Doren. (Credit: Jyoti)
Jyoti, has played 75 times for the senior Indian side now and is grateful for the learnings she got from WHIL, foreign players as well as coach Jude Menezes. “Jyoti impressed me with her ability to play both as a central and outside defender,” former India goalkeeper Menezes told The Indian Express. “She has really taken on responsibility in those roles and has grown from strength to strength as the tournament progressed. I see huge potential in Jyoti and I think she’s got all the qualities and is headed in the right direction to becoming a world-class defender.”
The dream for Jyoti is to represent India at the Olympics and win a medal. It was a double tragedy this time last year when after the qualifiers for Paris where Jyoti and India fell short of earning that all-important ticket, her mother passed away, leaving her shattered. “I try not to let her feel their absence and treat her as my child,” Siwach said. “She came for a couple of days and we convinced her to go back to the team, and she still played really well.”
Jyoti said that she is now driven by that desire to make her mother proud. “Coach Siwach told me that it’s OK to be sad but turn this into positivity. You have to play for her, become an Olympian for her. I will continue to fight for that medal. I am sure she is watching over me. I think of her every day, and how far I have come because of her.”
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