‘Sincerity, stubbornness and focus made Malvika what she is’
| Date :20-Apr-2020 |
City’s top-ranked woman shuttler Malvika Bansod (extreme left) with mother Dr Trupti (2L), father
Dr Prabodh (C) and grandparents during an awards ceremony.
By Anupam Soni :
STUBBORNNESS is dogged determination that can help in making or breaking an individual. If it is given correct direction it can help in yielding positive results and if not, the virtue has potential to ruin one’s life. Those close to that individual with stubbornness play an important role in shaping one’s destiny. And if there are two and they happen to be doctors and even more one’s parents, then that individual is more likely to succeed in life. City’s top-ranked woman shuttler Malvika Bansod is that lucky girl with Dr Prabodh and Dr Trupti Bansod as her friends, mentors and of course, parents. India Number 2 in women’s singles and world Number 162 in just three months of international exposure, Malvika’s sincerity, stubbornness and focus have paid off.
With chief national junior coach Sanjay Mishra.
“There were some special qualities in her right from the childhood. Malvika was a very sincere and quite understanding child. She was not naughty but was very stubborn, an aspect a mother knows very quickly. I knew that stubbornness had to be given correct direction and it proved to be very helpful in enhancing her badminton potential. We were lucky to have a child with such good qualities from a young age. Both her father and I were never troubled by her. “She was a very focused. She would relax only after finishing a job she started. When she started badminton, we never thought she would go so far. But her hard work, our constant support and by the grace of god, she went on to scale peaks,” informed Dr Trupti about Malvika’s upbringing and her early days in the sport.
“She definitely inherited sports from the family. Her grandfather used to play badminton while her father plays all sorts of sports. So she had those sporting genes. She used to practise Kathak dance but we thought for her overall growth we should add something more to her physical activity. And when Malvika was nine, we sent her to Priya Deshpande mam for her first stint with badminton at Subhedar Hall. She made her enjoy the sport and groomed her very well.
One should enjoy sports to get hooked on to it and Deshpande mam did it very well,” said Dr Trupti. Badminton is a costly sport and travelling for many tournaments was not easy even for the doctor couple. “When real badminton started, it became more challenging. First and foremost was how to manage it economically. If a player has to maintain national ranking, one has to play at least seven tournaments. It is financially not that easy. But with god’s grace we were able to do that. We had no financial support from anywhere from 2011 to 2017-18. We had to reduce expenses on ourselves and we have been doing this till last year. We had to shun personal and social life. The good thing was that we did not have to leave our profession. It was a big positive.
I divided my time between work and bringing up Malvika. I changed my clinic timings to suit her schedule. I am happy that I could be with her during the formative years. I will never say it was a sacrifice. It is the duty and responsibility of parents to take care of the wards in the best possible way,” the mother remained humble. “Also due to her good performances...she used to reach till semi-finals in most of the tourneys, our stays would be longer and thus the costs involved. But since she was doing extremely well we had to support her. As the costs involved were more, that made us put pressure on coach to give her more time since she was winning bronze and we wanted that she should be best prepared for any tournament.” But things gradually improved. “International events were impossible from our earnings. We did take her to Korea for an U-15 event bur realised that it was not our cup of tea...all our savings exhausted in that one tournament. She won places in Indian squads for Asian Badminton Championship and World Junior Championships but we could let per participate in international ranking tournaments. “Presently financial aid is coming form Airports Authority of India and Khelo India and also from (Arun) Lakhaniji’s Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited from last year. International tournaments are must for world rankings. After Lakhani sir’s support, Malvika started playing international tournaments. She started with Maldives International Series and Nepal International Series winning back to back golds and then did well in Bahrain event too. “That support came at an important juncture in Malvika’s career. In three months, she broke into top 200 and that was a huge achievement. Last year she played 15 tournaments and simultaneoulsy she was doing her 12th science studies. Apart from that she trains at Raipur with chief national junior coach Sanjay Mishra sir at his academy. I think the lockdown is god’s gift to Malvika to have some rest...as the last year had been the most hectic one for her,” Dr Trupti added. On her first big achievement and what the parents expect in future, Dr Trupti said, “She won the Under-13 district singles title and finished U-15 runner-up in the same tournament and went on to pick two state titles the same year. We hope and pray to God that the amount of effort she is putting, she may attain greater heights...much more than what we have thought and bring laurels to city and the nation.”