Women’s Kabaddi Challenge final is yet another fight for Mamtha Poojari and Tejaswini Bai

By Krishnaraj Singh Jasana
This Sunday, there is a Women’s Kabaddi Challenge final scheduled in Hyderabad between Storm Queens and Fire Birds. But for the captains of both sides it’s like the 1000th final. They’ve fought through life to fight on Sunday.

Meet Mamtha Poojari and Tejaswini Bai – skippers of Birds and Queens respectively. Both have seen tough times while playing kabaddi, a sport which does not bring much cheer to even the men who play the sport in this country. For women, it is that much difficult.

"I started playing kabaddi only in college. In school also I got a chance but we weren’t allowed to wear shorts in our village, it wasn’t considered right", recalls Mamtha.

Tejaswini’s problem was something that the youngsters of today, can relate to a little more.

"Though I always got support from my family, but my parents initially used to tell me to study. They would ask me ‘why do I play sports?'. All my cousins were good at studies, some are engineers and are well settled. But all of us (I have a younger brother and a sister) did not like studies," says Tejaswini. And here the story changes. While both of them faced problems, Mamtha did get the support she needed.

"I got married in 2013. Then, my parents said that till now whatever you’ve done is done, now you will have to listen to what your in-laws say. I was ready for that. But, then my husband and in-laws told me that you have put in so much of effort till now and we don’t have the right to stop you. Just go and play. My husband encourages me a lot," the Arjuna awardee Mamtha adds.

Tejaswini had to fight another battle. "There was a financial crunch in the family. We belong to a poor family, my father had a ration shop and I was in need of a job. In 2004, whole training under coach Nagraj, I, like 150 others, got a job in the Railways in the sports quota which helped. My father passed away in 2006 and the whole responsibility came on me. I had to take care of the house. I thought that I will settle everything and then think of settling down. My sister Sangitha, who is also a kabaddi player got married and stopped playing the game," Tejaswini, also an Arjuna awardee, adds.