Saturday was the first home-coming for Dipa after a stellar performance at Rio. At the hostel inside the IG Stadium, where Dipa stayed for more than a month to train for Rio, fellow inmates remember her as a shy, quiet girl.
On Saturday, at the gymnastics training arena of the Indira Gandhi Stadium here, 12-year-old Anwesha was pulled up by her coach for fiddling with a phone on a newly-installed floor that was flown from France specially for Dipa Karmakar to train on after she had qualified for the Olympics. She murmured an apology then, but a while later, she confided, "When we got to know that Dipa didi is going to be here while we train, I begged my father to leave his phone. How can we not click a single selfie," said Anwesha.
Saturday was the first home-coming for Dipa after a stellar performance at Rio. At the hostel inside the IG Stadium, where Dipa stayed for more than a month to train for Rio, fellow inmates remember her as a shy, quiet girl.
"We would exchange pleasantries, and she always had a smile on her face," said judo coach Nirmala Jain. Badminton coach Sunita Atwal expressed her surprise at Dipa's simplicity. "I got to know she was training for the Olympics only a week before she left for Rio; she was quite low key," she says.
Simplicity is the most prominent marker of Dipa's personality. Ask her what does she want to do, and come the simply reply, "I want to enjoy a rosogulla. I love sweets so much, and I can gulp three at a go. But, sir (coach Bishweshwar Nandi) asked me to not touch one for a month," said the diminutive 23-year-old. "So, I would refuse my friends who would offer me one on the sly."
When she was first brought to Nandi, Dipa did not hold the promise that usually precedes stories spoken about Olympians. Diagnosed flat-footed by a physician, she was not an ideal candidate, and for the longest time, Nandi informs, she practiced on a vault which was made by a local carpenter. In 2008, when she clinched a gold in the junior nationals, people took notice of her.
In the next six years, she brought home gold five times in the national championships, apart from five each at two consecutive national games. In all these years, Dipa has won 77 titles, including 67 gold.
In a country that does not invest in the invisible sports, especially gymnastics, the odds were stacked against Nandi and Dipa. "I could not win a berth in the Olympics, and I hoped to send one of my wards there. When Dipa was selected, I pushed her hard, and not for a single minute did she complain," says Nandi.
He says that for the week preceding the final went in a blur. "I told her that since she qualified at the eighth, she has nothing to lose. She came fourth, smashing every expectation I had from her. Yet, she wept like a child. She cried so much that I could not hold myself back," says Nandi.
Nandi says that 2020 is going to be a different story. "We will train hard. If in her maiden outing, she could reach so far, I think she will be able to do wonders in Tokyo," says Nandi.
She's headed to Agartala on Sunday, and has barely spoken to her parents since she landed before the crack of dawn. "My first priority are my exams now," says Dipa, a student of masters in political science at the Tripura University. In the second semester now, Dipa will first appear for the exams on 26th.
Olympic dreams will, for now, have to wait.
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