Being an audience at the K D Singh Babu And Mohd Shahid Memorial Hockey Tournament, and the followed Smt. Kamla Devi Memorial Girls Kho Kho Tournament, we felt that Hockey and Kho Kho are still alive in India.
The organizing College, Shri JNPG College, is fond of hockey. It has given 6 Olympic players to the nation, which includes hockey players, K D Singh Babu and Mohd Shahid. These two have represented India in Olympic hockey even before independence.
There was a splendid display of our national sport, Hockey, which is not as popular as Cricket in India. The semi-finalists in Hockey Tournament were Sashakt Sena Bal (SSB), Sports Authority Of India, Lucknow (SAI), Sports College, Lucknow (SC) and Sports Hostel, Lucknow (SH).
The fixtures were - SSB vs SAI and SC vs SH. As the game began, the spirit of sportsmanship was flowing in the air. Both the matches saw a tough fight. But as somebody has to win and somebody has to lose, SAI and SC reached the finals.
After the power-packed hockey, it was time for girls Kho Kho. The 4 teams - JNPG, AGDC, LU and Netaji Subhash College, were ready to battle. They had one motto on their neves - Hum Kisi Se Kam Nahi. Much to our surprise, there were married girls playing the game with full energy.
Seems like India is changing! The finalists were JNPG and LU, who won the matches played against Netaji Subhash College and AGDC respectively.
After the match, we got a chance to communicate with the girls team of JNPG. All the girls - Shipra Bharti, Pooja Yadav, Arti Kumari, Saraswati Sahu, Preeti Singh, Anjali Singh Shah, Varsha Singh, Priyanka Singh, Ratna Kashyap, Suman Singh, Kavita Singh, Anita Kumari and Sushma - were excited about the finals. Their coach, Rohit Sharma was also joined.
You won’t believe they had been playing sports since they were in class 5. And not just one sport, they have been playing multiple sports. They do practice from 5 in the morning till 7 in the evening, enjoying what they do at the same time.
On asking about the support that they get from their family, they proudly said that nobody stops them. Pursuing their interest - Sports, academics or cultural - should a priority for all girls. Amazing spirit!
The final matches of both the tournaments are due on 19th February 2017. May the best team win! May the sports stay high!
Chak de India!