Kanika Sharma
In less than 10 days from now, Bilquis Mir will become the first Indian woman on the Paris Olympics jury. Not just Indian but she will also be the first Muslim, the first Kashmiri and the first canoeist from India. In marking all those firsts, Mir will defy the odds of coming from a patriarchal society, a state in perennial turmoil and a cricket-obsessed country that has yet to encourage other sports with the same gusto.
“When I am asked about what I do and I reply that I am a kayaker, pat comes the reply, ‘Oh, you are into karate,’” shares the 38-year-old sports promoter. Mir discovered kayaking at the Dal Lake when she was just seven. Though most girls in her school took up kho-kho, ever the rebel, she decided it would be boxing for her. One day, a friend asked her to keep him company while he walked to boxing practice. When they reached, the stern coach pulled her up and asked her to either bolt or get in a boat.
“Being a Kashmiri girl in a uniform, sitting alone in the park wasn’t okay for me,” Mir recalls. “So, I got in a boat wearing a life jacket but I couldn’t balance the canoe nor did I know how to swim.” During the hour she spent in the boat, she lost count of the times it toppled over. “By the time, I got out, my uniform was drenched. When I returned home, Ma was livid and gave me a beating for not taking her permission.”
Mir was hardly daunted. Rather, she spent the entire night dreaming of the sensation of being in the canoe. It was hard to shake it off. “The next day, I was restless and couldn’t focus in school. When the clock struck 2, I rushed to canoe practice.” This went on for the next three months. “I even bunked my coaching classes to paddle.”
The moment of truth arrived when Mir won her first medal in a local tournament and returned home with the belief that she could compete in the Nationals. “I was beaten up for it and my entire extended family was upset. I was not even sent to school for a week. After 10 days, it was my mother who came around and acknowledged that I would only be happy if they let me canoe.”