Now you can see lot of advertisement on TV of Priyanka Chopra starrer Mary Kom Biopic. The movie yet to come. I have read the autobiography Unbreakable as well as TV commercial of Mary Kom Biopic. The biopic trailers suggest the movie is far beyond from the reality except Mary Kom's struggle for existence, struggle to rise far above from what she was, her family background was and winning her medal.
Anyway, I think I should reserve my comment about biopic later on.
I am very fascinated about north east India. Being a nature lover, a person who love natural resources, natural beauty and the true meaning of life (no doubt, majority of us do struggle for existence and to compete to make life "better"). I am sure one day I will take sabbatical and spend a good time in north east- somewhere is deep rural part. North east is neglected year after year but has talent in abundance and has lot of scope. Unfortunately. due to their distinctive look and ignorance of many people (particularly labelling people with such look as "Nepali") in most of the case, unintentionally, our brethren and sisters from north east are treated as foreigner. I hope one day this all will go.
I purchased Unbreakable- An autobiography from Amazon.in but it took lot of time to start and finish this book. For sometime, I had forgotten about it too.
The book start with prologue. It starts with the line- I live in Imphal. It states the present scenario of M.C. Mary Kom. She states than how policemen are guarding her academy (yes, she has not officially retired yet from her boxing career but she is providing training free of cost to create many more Mary Kom on her own expenses with few scholarship from SAI.
In initial chapter, she tells about her birth. her father and her Kom community's background. It tells about honesty of his father as well as grandparents, how she born and a strong bonding of her with her father and her childhood in difficulty.
The real life story is more about how we grow even in adversity. Actually this is learning for the parents also who think that spending a lot of money in so called "reputed" school make their children better. I feel, it is more about children's own interest. Those who are passionate about something wins over all obstacles.
In the book she explains how she grew interest for boxing how stubborn she was to convince the coach to train her. Her experience during her boxing championship was not good. /somebody stole her whole bag, sometime purse and how she traveled in a general coach train. She has expressed her gratitude to her Kom community, trainers and many people.
Further, she explains her meeting Onler (Onler, her husband was an LLB student at Delhi University and related to to Kom Student's union). How Onler proposed her and how she accepted the proposal for which his father was not ready. However, later due to his persuasion Mary Kom's father agreed.
She explains how she won one after another medal and award and how difficult it was. After winning, she makes her father a farmer with land from a landless labourers and also buy a scooter for her. This all tells that she is a self made woman. As per the Unbreakable, Mary Kom's success is not due to her alone's hard work. She gives credit to Onler too. Till now, we have heard that behind every successful man, there is a woman but the life of Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom or M. C. Mary Kom (yes, her complete name is Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom) has changed it to There are many men behind success of a woman (yes, her father, her coaches and the greatest friend, her husband Onler). Onler left his LLB study and managed family against all the taboos of the society he bear the brunt, possibly, he may hear also that he is a person surviving on wife's earning but we must not forget the sacrifice he has given, the way he supported.
She explains in further chapter how she won the election when people thought that her career ended. She explains her future plan, her tryst with glamour and with success how the whole world of glamour, celebrities became accessible to her. She tells about the academy she is running. She also mentioned about the Olympic Gold Quest where Deepika Padukone is a director and Viren Rasquinha who is a CEO. I got opportunity to see and hear Viren during one of the MTHR event in Mumbai where he was explaining us how Olympic Gold Quest is putting efforts to get Gold medals to India- Kudos to them. You will find about their support to Mary Kom in this book. She explain the dirty politics in sports at state level as well as national level and how her best friend turn her enemy (possibly due to jealousy).
She has bagged total 35 medals (superb). Arjun Award in 2003, Padma Shri Award (government gives PAdmashri Award only sometime to really deserving people, rest of the time it is given to useless people. Mary Kom was one of the most deserving for the same). She got Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2009 (very late) and her revelation about Milkha Singh's treatment to her was surprising to me as I am an admirer of him too. She finally got PAdma Bhushan award in 2013.
When she won Olympic award, she was a mother with caesarian. THis is another example coming out of adversity.
I also must salute Monnet steel to sponsor her. It was sad that so well known company sponsoring cricket did not bother about sponsoring a woman boxer.
Language of the book: Language of the book is very simple. You will find that she is talking to you and telling her own story before you. You will not find that the book is being written in a very professional manner. As you flip through the pages, you will definitely grow interest in the book. The total pages of the book is 155 including prologue, acknowledgment, citation and her awards. One of my colleague after reading this book gave similar feedback.
Her comeback: She tells about her comeback. I was wondering why she is not in 2014 commonwealth game and this book gave the answer. She had second child and again, it was a caesarian. Her career has definitely not ended. She is inspiring for us, we Indian and Indian men and women. She is definitely going to come back and I would love to see that.
In age equal of mine, she has achieved much more than average of us do. She has achieved multiple awards, name, fame and recognition even in the condition when she had nothing - neither money nor support. Today, when women do not want to have child to make "career" even at her age, Mary Kom is an example that its you who can decide your own limit, nobody else.
You may also buy the book from Flipkart
Go and grab a copy.
Govind
Mumbai
August 16, 2014
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