“Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one”- Bruce Lee. This quote certainly helps me to get going. I am Minerva Jha, a 19-year-old girl with dreams of 90 years in my eyes. I’m strongly motivated by the reading of our great ancestors who were fearless warriors like Shivaji Maharaj, Rani Lakshmibai, Rani Durgavati and many more. I’ve been the youngest girl to finish 10th at the age of 13, 12th at 15 and graduate at 18. I’m a martial artist, singer and studying and space enthusiast. I believe we are all born fighters and fight with something at every point in life. I’ve been motivated by my mother who had pursued her P.hD in Hindi and my father ex-serviceman of IAF to study anything practically with interest. They have a very important role in making me. From a very early age when children were told about prince and princess stories, my father told me about the wars he fought like Kargil and LTT. These indeed built me up mentally as a strong child. I aim to inculcate our traditional martial art like Kalaripayattu in our education system and that’s my long-term goal. My journey into martial arts has been a roller coaster ride, thus developing my new understanding and love towards them. For me, martial arts is not just something that needs to be practised every day, but something that enhances your capability of practising other things in your daily life. I was six years old when I saw people practising Kung Fu in a weekend class. I joined the class and the next day of my joining came a state-levelpionship in which I secured gold. It was the boosting point of my life. My master believed in me and trained me but unfortunately, I had to leave that school and join another boarding school where Kung Fu was only taught to boys. So the 8-year-old me went to the director’s room to fight with him, he was astonished looking at my will to learn martial arts and let me join the class.

After Kung fu, I started training in the Gōjū-ryū style of Karate which was a turning point in my life. This time, I had the most supportive master who taught me without charging any fee. Though I was the only girl in class amongst all boys, he never differentiated me. I trained for 7 long years in Karate in which I participated in national and won the National championship thrice. I was also practising other forms like Wing Chun and Tai Chi by learning them online.Apart from Karate, I also played kickboxing in which I won the National Championship, and was selected for the International championship but couldn’t participate because of no sponsorship. Then came the worst phase of my life where I lost my only support, my sensei and I broke my left leg. I was on bed rest for months and thought I could never get up. I left participating and started teaching karate and kickboxing. But destiny had other goals for me. I went to a state Taekwondo tournament to cheer my friends and students up. I loved the game and thought it was technical and my students forced me to participate. I participated and won a gold. That is when I knew that I can do it there is nothing that can stop me. I started again from the white belt and started to participate in tournaments. I won the nationals and got selected for an International Taekwondo camp of 54 days in which out of 153 countries only 3 best were chosen. I was very proud to represent my country at 2nd position but I was not satisfied there I went on to bag gold at indo Nepal open international after which my injury reappeared and I came back to rest. I had lost all my kicking ability and power until then which I was doing it all alone without coaching. Then came a master in my life like a god Haneef master who accepted me as his disciple. He has been training me in Taekwondo. Without him, getting up again and walking, recovering, and kicking wouldn’t have been possible. I was felicitated by the Sports minister of Telangana and the Chairman of the Sports Authority of Telangana state for my contribution to martial arts.

I have just one dream, it’s to restore the Indian martial arts. I want to get my blackbelt in Taekwondo, keep fighting and then pursue to learn Kalari and teach it for free to all at a humungous so that it can regain its lost value. I believe strength lies in your inner self there is nobody and nothing which can stop you from doing what you believe in. Also, I take the line that I had no support so I couldn’t do it as the worst excuse because if you are sure of loving something you need to get up and do it all by yourself with or without support. The study is never an excuse for not pursuing the sport. I’ve been a topper since my school days but I’m a martial artist too and that’s not because I have to balance. That’s just because I love to study and love martial arts so as I said martial arts enhances your ability just like it does to me for studies. So I would say, just be strong feel strong, decide what you love and pursue it with all your heart.”