The Hindu: From barren fields to hallowed turf

By A.D. Rangarajan

When she chose to wield the hockey stick more than a decade ago, her parents reposed confidence in E. Rajani. Now, they are eager to see her strike gold at Rio as the goalkeeper of the Indian women’s hockey team.

Even after their daughter started making a career in hockey, it’s life as usual for carpenter E. Ramanachari and his wife Tulasi, who grazes cows, in Yanamalavaripalle village of Chittoor district. Ramanachari’s education ended in class five and Tulasi never went to school, but that did not deter them from envisaging a career in sport for their child.

Rajani herself hadn’t any sporting aspirations in primary school, but things changed when she joined class eight at Zilla Parishat High School in Nerabailu.

The tall girl was initially picked for volleyball, but physical education trainer D. Venkat Raju found her agility and endurance suitable for hockey.

He got barren paddy fields levelled. Rajani and her friends walked along the field-bunds for 3km to practice. In fact, this nondescript school has sent 14 students to many national sporting events. And now, Rajani has raised the bar, scaling international heights.

Identifying her potential, Andhra Hockey Association secretary A.P.K. Reddy brought her out of the village to the Hockey Academy sub-centre here and later to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) hostel in Hyderabad, exposing her to international events in New Zealand, Japan, China, Korea, Argentina, Australia, the Netherlands and Malaysia. She also bagged the ‘Best Goalkeeper Award’ at an event in Japan in 2013.

“She last visited us ten months ago and we hope to see her back soon with a gold medal,” says her mother, brimming with confidence.