When Roshni Rai, a 26-year-old legal executive for Colgate, woke up on Sunday morning, her legs were shaking.
When Roshni Rai, a 26-year-old legal executive for Colgate, woke up on Sunday morning, her legs were shaking.
“I should have spent all of Saturday just eating and sleeping. But, I spent four hours running around to sort out all the formalities for the 23 runners from Darjeeling I have got here to run with me,” said Rai, tears in her eyes after running 42 km.
Her tears are not from exhaustion — she has run an ultramarathon of 75km in the past — but because she has qualified having finished the marathon in less than five hours for the 90-km Comrades ultramarathon in South Africa.
“Comrades was set up by a war veteran in the memory of the South Africans who died in World War II. I want to dedicate my run to all the brave Gorkha soldiers who’ve died fighting for India,” said Rai, who migrated to Mumbai from Predong, a small town in Darjeeling.
Her Gorkha identity is a big reason why Rai runs.
“Whenever people hear that our mother tongue is Nepalese, they think we are from Nepal. They look at our eyes and think we are Chinese. In every marathon I have run in India, including today, I have had to deal with people calling me Chinki. I run because I want to tell everyone that we are Indians.”
Rai has launched a project called ‘Run with Roshni’. She believes that if given the proper training and opportunity, the Gorkhas can rival the Kenyans and Ethiopians in long-distance running.
“We live in the hills, sometimes we have to run in that high altitude for four to five km just to get to school.”
The contingent from Darjeeling is definitely talented. Probal Chettri, 21, has just clocked a time of 1 hour 17 minutes for the half marathon. This, after having had to overtake 9,000 participants because he was put in the beginners’ division. Chettri is no beginner though. He has been running marathons in Darjeeling since he was in high school, but those certificates are not valid in Mumbai.
Avinash Chettri, 18, also ran the half-marathon with hardly any time to practise. Avinash, who is employed at a city hotel, had worked the entire night, but completed the run in just over two hours.
Hugging Avinash for his efforts, a proud Rai said: “There’s great potential in the Gorkha people. I just want to give them a platform and show off their talents to the country.”
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