Achintya Sheuli, who won the gold medal in weightlifting at the Commonwealth Games 2022, did not have the money to afford even a samosa worth ₹10 during his training session, his mother Purnia Sheuli said on Tuesday as her eyes turned bleary out of emotion.
Achintya Sheuli, 20, lives with his brother Alok, 28, and mother Purnima, in a shanty at Deulpur in West Bengal’s Howrah district, around 30 km west of Kolkata.
“I still remember, one day while speaking over phone he told me that he could not buy a samosa as he had no money to afford it. His friends were having samosa. It was a luxury for us. I could not say anything but to hide my tears and change the topic,” said Purnima Sheuli.
Achintya Sheuli lost his father when he was 12 years old. His father Jagat Sheuli, a van-rickshaw puller, died of sunstroke in 2013.
“The entire family was in dire straits. I didn’t know what to do with my two children. I worked as a maid and did zari embroidery work to earn a living. Both my sons also did embroidery work. It was not enough to buy chicken on the weekend. When Achintya used to ask for chicken, I used to stop him saying that we would have chicken some other time and gave him potato curry instead,” she added.
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{{/usCountry}}The family used to earn ₹700 – ₹800 per week. Achintya and his elder brother Alok would work hard to have some good food. It was Alok who introduced Achintya into weightlifting.
“We would carry kilos of paddy of a villager back home from his farm if he promised to buy us a kilo of chicken. We need protein to sustain as both were into weightlifting,” said Alok.
Life, however, took a positive turn when Achintya and his brother went for the National sub-junior weightlifting championship at Guwahati in 2013-end. Though the two brothers couldn’t make it to the first three, Achintya was spotted by the Indian Army and was asked to appear for an all-India test to join the Army Sports Institute in Pune. Later in 2015 he joined the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports at Patiala.
While Alok works as a contractual firefighter for the state fire services where he has to work at his own risk and even bear the cost himself if he sustains any injuries, Achintya joined the army as a havildar and is posted at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.
“During his training days he had to wear torn shirts after stitching them as we could hardly send him money. We used to send small amounts of money at times, sometimes ₹200 and sometimes ₹500 a month. He could not afford protein supplements with that as they cost a few thousand rupees. He had to wait for some benevolent senior who would spare some,” said Alok.
His mother remembers that Achintya used to wait for the money when he wanted to return home. He needed ₹700 to return home which his family had to send by doing some overtime work.
On Sunday, the local villagers hired a television to watch Sheuli win the gold. Since then celebrations have been going on to give him a hero’s welcome. President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted to congratulate Sheuli on Monday.
“He could toil very hard. I am sure he would reach the top. Here in Deulpur, he could not eat a full stomach for twice a day. But now that he has good food and has got some good coaches he would surely reach the top,” said Ashtam Das, his first coach in Howrah.