Here's The Inspirational Story Of 16-YO Manu Bhaker Who Picked Up Gun To Make Country Proud
The noise of children playing outside barely registers in the room as the twang! twang! of pellet guns pierces the air. About 10 students are shooting at targets in silence, their eyes fixed on the small black circle 10 metres away, shoulders squared, one hand in their pockets. Younger children are lifting and dropping bricks with one arm, to work on their alignment.
It is practice time at the shooting range in the Universal Senior Secondary School, Goria village, Jhajjar district in Haryana, 125 km from Delhi. It is in this room that 16-year-old prodigy Manu Bhaker spent many silent hours, sharpening her aim.
In her international debut last week, Manu has already contributed to two gold medals for India in the ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico. "Pathakhe phodne mein mazaa to ayega (It will be fun to make a splash)," Manu told her father, Ramkishan Bhaker on the phone as she discussed her next outing in what has become a trail-blazing performance at the championship.
This urge to hit the big time is infectious, for children in Goria and surrounding villages. The school has become an unlikely cradle of shooting talent with students winning medals at the state and district levels regularly since 2013. Two students, Lucky and his brother Nitin Jhakkar, even made it to international trials last year. But Manu is by far the most successful candidate to come out of the school, winning 15 medals at the national event in Thiruvananthapuram held last year besides the two international golds last week.
Located amidst green fields, in wheat country, in a state known for rampant sex selection, the Universal school is an aberration. Run by Manu's family (her mother is principal and her uncle started the school), it offers shooting as a sports option for all students above class five.
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The facilities are hardly state-of-the-art. Instead of an automatic machine that costs nearly Rs 2.5-Rs 3 lakh, the manual one used at Goria village is for Rs 12,500. "The whole range was set up in Rs 2 lakh in 2013," says Ramkishan Bhaker, Manu's father, a marine engineer with the merchant navy. Consumables like pellets and targets can cost up to Rs 1200-Rs 1400 every month, which has to be borne by the students, but the school provides dummy guns and pistols.
Ketan Pillania, who studies in Class X, has been shooting for two years now. "I want to be like Manu," he says. Ketan bunks Hindi and Sanskrit classes and spends time before and after school to train in the shooting range.
Manu's classmate, 15-year-old Yukta, also started shooting two years ago. Manu's performance, which she watched on YouTube, has been a huge inspiration. ''When I saw her do well, I thought I can do this too,'' she says. Yukta says she spends about five hours training and the rest catching up on her studies. "I am not on Facebook or WhatsApp, nor do I watch much TV." She wakes up at 4:30, to do an hour of yoga, before making breakfast for the family and then heads to school. After a rigorous day at school, it's back to running or stretching before hitting the books.
Some are as young as 11, like baby-faced Rohan Dhakkar, who studies in class five but has pestered his parents to splurge on a Rs 1.6 lakh pistol. "I have set up a wooden box that I use for a target to practice and improve my shot at home," he says. The investment has not been in vain, because he qualified for the state championship last year.
The Manu effect has been such that the coach's phone has been ringing non-stop since news of the gold medals broke. "People from neighbouring villages are calling to seek admission," he says.
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Stories of Manu's hard work are shared among classmates. Says the coach: "She is very determined. If she says she is going to practice till 5 pm, there is nothing that can make her budge, not hunger or tiredness."
But not everyone is as committed, or finds support from their parents. For every child who spends sports period at the shooting range, there are several others who have dropped sports to concentrate on their studies. One of Manu's classmates, who was a top-scorer like her, says she was forced to drop out because her father refused to pay for the pellets and targets. "He said that he didn't have time to take me different cities for competitions or pay for the extras. But I know they think what use is it for a girl to learn shooting. So I don't go to the shooting range anymore. I study in all my free time,'' said Arpita (name changed).
Expenses like entry fees of competitions and travel, lack of awareness or sometimes just conservative attitudes act as barriers to these dreams.
The 'fearless' Manu
In a state where patriarchy is entrenched, Manu Bhaker was lucky to have parents who encouraged her every adventure. "We went to Rishikesh for rafting and she decided to jump into the river for a swim. She finds zip lining and rappeling thrilling,'' says her father Ramkishan Bhaker.
Manu's mother Sumedha says she has brought up her daughter to be fearless. "I was very keen that she learn martial arts and become strong and independent,'' she says. A yoga enthusiast, Sumedha gave Manu and her brother lessons when they were toddlers.
Manu took to sports like fish to water, excelling in everything. She has won competitions in racing, boxing, martial arts like Thang Ta and judo. It was only two years ago that Manu started shooting, a sport she opted for after an eye injury during boxing practice.
Sumedha recalls how till December last year, Manu was busy with the nationals where she won 15 medals. She then hit the books for two months before her class X exams and scored a CGPA of 10. "When she does something, she does it with passion,'' she says.
For now, Sumedha is gearing up to cook kadhi, rajma and ghiya ka raita for her champion daughter who is landing in India just for a day next week, before heading off to Australia and South Korea.