“I never played with dolls. My toys were the guns in the house. I was always into sports, but never really knew which one, until one day, when I heard that there was a shooting club set up in my village. I felt like this was my chance and if i took it up, then i would definitely make something unimaginable out of myself. I really did.

I convinced my mother to take me to the shooting club and get me admitted in it. She agreed but we didn’t tell anyone at home, because I come from a small village in Uttar Pradesh where girls aren’t allowed to do anything. They are burdened with a lot of restrictions. The way I felt on the first day at the shooting range is something I’ll never be able to put into words. I scored a 10 on my first shot! My coach, Farooq Pathan was the happiest. After 15 days of practice, the news reached my father and uncle who took me out of the club saying, “You are a grown up girl now. You should not be doing such things”. You know that feeling when you want something with all your heart and you start to get it little by little, but then one day, all of a sudden, it gets taken away? I was broken. Four months went by and I convinced my mother to take me to join the club again. This time, we didn’t tell anyone at home. Not even a single person. My practice started again. The club had only one gun, so each student would get only 15 minutes to practice. Since, most of my practice used to happen at home, where if i would find a stick, i would practice with it, those 15 minutes at the range were more than enough for me. We used to lie at home and go for competitions and I kept winning. I used to compete with air rifles before, but one day I came across shotgun shooting and I was enchanted. I took part in it and wrote my name at the end of the list so that I can observe the other girls before me. As they called my name and I shot, my aim was the bullseye. I won two gold medals in that. Today, I am the only Indian woman who won a Silver Medal in the shotgun event at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup 2010. I still remember, I had watched Chakde India before taking part in the finals. My hands and legs were trembling because this was my first time at a world cup. I missed the first, second and the third target. It was then that I remembered Sharukh khan’s dialogue, “These 70 minutes will never come back in your life.” That changed my game.

It’s been a bumpy ride for me but here I am today, doing what I love. Other girls from my village are being given the freedom to do what they want because I somehow helped change the mindset and I think that makes me the happiest. There is something about being able to make a difference, don’t you think so?”

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