Their most abiding concern was to create a protective shell around the physically and medically weak child -- so that he could grow to 
reasonable health. 
Later, as the little boy 
started growing, the parents’ concern changed to giving him a creative and motivating ecosystem -- so that he could use his boundless energy and potential to rise to the top of the world. 

Between these two concerns is woven the story of how Pravin and Archana Deotale nursed first a weak child to reasonable health and then nursed his burning ambition of becoming a global great -- in competitive Compound Archery. This is the story of how they marshalled their anxieties about their little one, how they made the difficult but careful mix of caution and freedom for the boy to get engaged in relentless practice and endless pursuit of excellence in health as well as technique -- eventually to become World Champion in Compound Archery, win the prestigious Arjuna Award and the Chhatrapati Puraskar as an elite archer. This is the story of how a middle class family raised their second son -- Ojas Deotale -- to greatness.

 

Of course, Ojas Deotale is still a great work in progress -- no matter his World Championship Gold, no matter the honours the Government has bestowed upon him, no matter the social adulation now available to him in abundance. And the twosome to ensure that their son’s story is still evolving and will keep evolving is Pravin and Archana Deotale -- ably aided and supported by their elder son Jatin (who also is a cricketer of substance). As they talk about Ojas, both, Pravin and Archana, get sentimental.

 

Their eyes become teary, their faces assume a near-divine paradox of tenderness and firmness, and their voices crack with choked emotion. They are proud parents of a son who rose to global levels of excellence in Compound Archery -- when actually nobody in the familial ecosystem expected him to be of any mentionable worth. But the parents knew. They alone knew that their little one -- afflicted as an infant by recurring convulsions -- has the potential. So, they Contd on page 7