E-Paper
‘Getting a lot of time to paint; learning dancing, cooking’
Top athletes talk to HT about their experience of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. This is Anjum Moudgil, the Chandigarh-based shooter who is currently world No 4 in 10m air rifle. The 26-year-old was among the first set of Indian shooters to have secured a Tokyo Olympics quota place, with a silver medal in 10m air rifle at the 2018 ISSF World Championships in Changwon, South Korea.
It feels good to be home. It is like meditation, so relaxing for shooters like me who hardly get to spend time at home. I am always either travelling for competitions or training in Delhi, because in Chandigarh there is no shooting range. That’s why this break will help, for I am home.
I am enjoying this period at home, because we don’t get to spend a lot of time with family. I live in a joint family—my brother and five cousins are all here at the moment. So we are learning various things from each other like dancing, juggling and playing games. Everyone knows something or the other. I am also cooking.
I am passionate about painting. I am getting a lot of time to paint, which has really helped me stay positive. I have completed a couple of paintings; I do it every day as I have enough time in hand. I am also gathering some of my other paintings. I might just have a stock to put up an exhibition or sell them for donations.
My cousin is a dance teacher, so she teaches us a few moves after the daily workout. It is quite fun. I am also preparing some recipes—whatever I feel like eating since we can’t step out. It is turning out fine, thanks to the skills I pick up from the internet. I made honey chilli potato the other day, baked a cake and both came out really well. I didn’t waste anything! We are also making sure that we take all the precautions, like not going out, washing fruits and vegetables, among other things.
I began dry training from April 1, before which I had taken the time off. I will start live shooting in a few days. I can only train for 10m air rifle and will have to make do with just dry shooting for 50m rifle 3 positions. My coach Deepali ma’am (Deepali Deshpande) will be drawing up the training plan.
It is better that the Tokyo Olympics was postponed by a year and not cancelled. The situation worldwide was only getting worse and athletes would not have been able to participate under the circumstances.
Yes, it is challenging to cope with the postponement (Moudgil had secured the Tokyo Games quota place in September 2018). However, at the end of the day, it is all about keeping yourself physically, mentally and technically tuned in and not letting anything bother you. So, we have to focus more on physical workouts nowadays and ensure that we maintain our mental and physical level. We have to keep doing it repeatedly since we qualified quite early but that’s part of the game. We don’t know when the competition will re-start but we have to prepare for it and be ready.
(As told to Avishek Roy)
