Kannagi Nagar Kabaddi champ eyes national berth
Residents of Kannagi Nagar had to fight for basic amenities, transport facilities to their workplaces and none of the fights was easy.
R Karthika
CHENNAI: All of 16, R Karthika of Chennai's Kannagi Nagar has been selected for the senior women’s National Kabaddi Camp to be held at Sonepat in Haryana from May 10.
A student of Kannagi Nagar Government Higher Secondary School, Karthika recently took her class 11 examinations. Karthika took to Kabbai inspired by watching her seniors being congratulated for their victories on the mat. The whole school applauding them during the school prayer meet left her in awe.
In an interaction with DT Next last year, Karthika spoke of the negative perceptions about her neighbourhood and how she and her teammates wanted to change that through their winning ways in Kabaddi. "Our ultimate aim is to make Kannagi Nagar a brand," Karthika had said.
Karthika's is among the 20,000 low income group families residing in Kannagi Nagar and Ezhil Nagar tenements, hidden along Chennai's bustling IT Corridor. Karthika's father Ramesh is a construction worker and her mother Saranya works as a domestic help and also drives an autorickshaw.
Residents of Kannagi Nagar had to fight for basic amenities, transport facilities to their workplaces and none of the fights was easy.
The all-girls Kannagi Nagar Kabaddi team’s fight is to change the perceptions about their neighbourhood. Inspired by their coach K Raji, Karthika is already walking the talk.
While Karthika still has to make the final squad for the national team for the upcoming Kabaddi World Cup to be held at Bihar next month, coach Raji told DT Next it was rare for a player of Karthika's age to be selected for the senior national camp, and that rubbing shoulders with the best of the best will help Karthika.
Observers said that Karthika's performance in the 4th senior federation cup Kabaddi championship in Maharashtra recently helped her selection for the camp. Karthika was the top scorer for the Tamil Nadu team in the semi-final loss against the star studded Indian Railways, in which she scored 16 of the 30 points put on board by the bronze medal winning Tamil Nadu team.
"Several players from the Railways team appreciated me after the match. It felt really good," an ecstatic Karthika said of her selection to the National camp.
Apart from Karthika, I Pavitra of Thanjavur and C Snekha of Erode, too, have been selected for the Indian national camp from Tamil Nadu.
It is double the joy for Karthika's family this week as her younger sister, R Kaviya, who followed in her elder sister's footsteps, too, was part of the Tamil Nadu team that won the bronze in Khelo India youth games.
Karthika's mother R Saranya (33) said she used to work as a sanitation worker with the civic body, but then bought an autorickshaw after her daughters started playing Kabaddi, to drive them around.
"My husband and I did not complete schooling and all I wanted was for my daughters to complete education and get a government job. When Karthika expressed her desire to play Kabaddi, I agreed despite opposition from family members and I am happy that my faith in my daughter was not misplaced," Saranya said.
"Whatever she achieved on the Kabaddi mat is her talent and her coach's guidance. The only thing I taught my daughter was to not cry for anything," she added.
The Kannagi Nagar girls practice in the corner of a corporation park and have already won accolades in national-level competitions. A long-pending request of the team has been for an indoor Kabaddi facility in Kannagi Nagar.
