As Solan girl makes it to national kabaddi team, father says: ‘Turn your daughters into champs’

“Ever since her selection in the kabbadi team has been announced, she is at Patiala busy honing her skills. The phones of all the team members have been taken away, so contacting her is difficult,” Suresh Thakur, father of Jyoti said.

Suresh added that he himself was a kabaddi player and all his three daughters are into this game. “While the other two are national players, Jyoti, with her incredible will power and hard work, managed to reach at this position,” he said, adding that “turn your daughters into champs”.

Jyoti was three when seeing her elder sisters, she too got interested in kabaddi and started playing. At that time, she was studying in Government Primary School. “Her PT teacher Mohan Lal and Rajesh Kumar saw the calibre in the child, and when she was only four years old, she first played at the state level,” Suresh said.

While both elder daughters Archana and Kavita Thakur tried for Sports Authority of India (SAI), Dharamshala, it was Jyoti who finally got selected. It was from there that she further received her professional coaching from her coaches Mehar Singh Verma and Gopal, who provided her with major platforms and sharpened her skills further, the father said.

“After that there was no looking back and it was since then that for the last eight years she has been playing nationals and has many Gold and Silver medals to her credit,” Suresh added.

While father lauds success of her daughter, Jyoti’s mother said that she would make her child’s favourite dish before she leaves for China.

“Jyoti is very fond of Sattu, a local dish of Himachal Pradesh. If possible, I would be going to Chandigarh airport to meet her before she leaves for China and give her her favourite dish. She loves to eat Sattus made by me,” the mother said. She further said that she is visiting various temples and offering prayers so that Jyoti performs well and makes her parents and the entire country proud.

Suresh said that that even though things are yet to be finalised, whether the team will take flight to China through Chandigarh airport or New Delhi directly, the team has plans to leave on September 26. “If they fly from Chandigarh, it is then that we may get an opportunity to meet her before she leaves for China,” the father enthusiastically added.

“All a father’s heart wants now is that all the daughters of team India give their best and get Gold when they return and make the nation proud,” Suresh concluded.