Sister Act

Archery was just a waste of time, Dola Banerjee believed. Or so she used to tell her brother Rahul when he showed an interest in the sport. ...

Archery was just a waste of time, Dola Banerjee believed. Or so she used to tell her brother Rahul when he showed an interest in the sport. 8216;8216;Get a corporate job, archery has no future8217;8217;, she would say.

Success changes everything. Having just returned home from London with a silver medal won at the World Junior Championships, Rahul8217;s didi, no less, is guiding him through the complexities of the sport.

Which means that two of the country8217;s top archers are from the same family, the sport8217;s equivalent of Beenamol and Binu.

Actually, there was no way Rahul 18 would not get into the sport. Having regularly accompanied Dola to their hometown Baranagar Archery Club, admiring her keen concentration while aiming at the target, and celebrating her successes, he was a cert in the sport. Despite the objections of sister and parents, Rahul took up bow and arrow, winning an individual silver in the Sub-Junior Nationals in 1997.

Seven years on, the bond between the two is akin to coach and pupil. 8216;8216;My didi is my idol and everything; I owe my success to her,8217;8217; Rahul says. 8216;8216;She taught me walking, as far as archery is concerned. From her, I learnt how to hold a bow, how to adjust the equipment to aim at the target.8217;8217;

Dola8217;s response is immediate. 8216;8216;No! It8217;s true that he8217;s an archer because of me, but he owes his success to his coaches at the Tata Archery Academy, where he8217;s being training since 2003.8217;8217;

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When Rahul returned home from London with a silver medal, father told academics-minded mother: 8216;See, now he Rahul is scoring well8212;but in archery8217;

Back home, too, the resistance has crumbled. Mother Kalpana wanted Rahul to score 80-90 per cent in his school exams, but his father took his side. 8216;8216;When Rahul returned home from their silver-medal winning success in London, his father told me: 8216;See, now he Rahul is scoring well8212;but in archery,8217;8217; Kalpana recollects.

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It8217;s fair to say that Dola looms large in Rahul8217;s legend. 8216;8216;I8217;m a bit careless and, sometimes, I shoot without adjusting properly, which results in mis-hits. She gets very angry and shouts at me in front of others. Even when she is away, she keeps a close eye on me,8217;8217; he says.

About Dola8217;s contribution, Kalpana says: 8216;8216;Dola8217;s stubborn mindset has influenced Rahul. She would never accept defeat. Even in ludo, she would continue playing until she won. Now, Rahul too behaves like his sister.8217;8217;

His performances have a direct effect on hers. At the recent national-ranking tournament in the Army Sports Institute here, Rahul got off to a bad start. So Dola shuttled from one end to the other dispensing advice. 8216;8216;There was some technical problem with his equipment,8217;8217; a visibly disappointed Dola, who too performed below par, said at the time.

What hopes does she have for her brother? 8216;8216;I want him to be a perfectionist, a better archer than me; and who other than a sister to teach him?8217;8217;

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However, she is satisfied with whatever her brother has achieved in this period. 8216;8216;They the junior team along with Jayant Talukdar have been doing quite well, I think, in Beijing, we would be having a strong weight,8217;8217; she says. She, also, reveals her aim: 8216;8216;To see him Rahul receiving an Olympic medal 8212; and the responsibility for that lies with me.8217;8217;